Here's what I found, starting with the very best MP3 player of them all. To help you separate the wheat from the chaff, I reviewed a range of the top music players, testing them for sound quality, ease of use, durability and more.

Still, given that MP3 players have suddenly become quite an archaic piece of tech, a lot of the noteworthy producers have dropped out of the game altogether (even Apple, who popularised the form with their iPod range, have discontinued all but the iPod Touch.) In their place, knock-offs and cheap, poor-quality options have sprung up all over the place. For those who are traveling and don’t have access to a plug socket, that could be a major boon. The other major benefit of most decent MP3 players is that the battery will far outlast a smartphone on even the lowest power settings. It's cheaper than your average smartphone, so ideal for those who don’t want to risk dropping their phone when they’re out for a run straight-forward to use and free from all those attention-distracting aspects of connected life, like text alerts and social media notifactions.

They're still out there – and it's probably because the humble MP3 player has some very real benefits. However, that's not to say the single-function MP3 player has disappeared into thin air completely. Finding the best MP3 player these days is a bit like looking for a needle in a 4G haystack. Dedicated MP3 players have been squeezed out of the market by more connected digital devices – smartphones and tablets – that offer music-on-the-go plus so much more.

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