Spot the Difference

Forget that one of them is silver; that one also comes in black. Look the same? I thought so too.

The one on the right is my first MP3/WMA player. I bought it at a university bazaar in February last year for the princely sum of SGD $220. It has a capacity of 256MB and has inbuilt voice recording (8 kpbs ACT format) and flash disk functions. Within 8 months, the flash disk function was the only feature that still worked.

Since then, I've been meaning to get a new MP3 player, the music junkie that I am. For the longest time I considered going back to the dealer and getting an identical one since I *thought* $220 was a reasonable price.

For once, my procrastination powers saved the day.

On Monday, I noticed a new bazaar stall in my university selling the player on the left. It also has a capacity of 256MB, flash disk and voice recording (WAV and ACT) functions. But on top of that it boasts an inbuilt FM tuner with excellent reception, the capability to record direct from the said tuner and a much louder volume. Not to mention weird extras like the ability to vary the tempo of your MP3s without altering their pitch, and multicoloured backlighting. Oh, and it's much lighter, too.

This baby cost me all of $89.

The only thing that could make it a worse deal is if all its non-flash disk functions ceased after a month. But that's not going to happen, is it?