Why do so many mp3 players use rubbish built-in rechargable batteries?

Was thinking of getting a new mp3 player, but changed my mind, 'cos all the new ones seem to use a dumb-arse built in Lithim ion battery - so 40% loss of batt life after a year of use, no way to carry spare AAA batteries with you (or buy one if all else fails), and the thing will basically become useless when the rechargable dies entirely, as it will inevitably do. A hundred quid for something that is basically intended to be thrown away, no thanks.

I like my sony 1G model with 50 hours life on an AAA -despite the utterly crap software Sony makes you use, with their tiresome paranoia about copyright when I'm only ripping my own cds (why don't all those companies with their crappy copy protection systems accept that horse has long since bolted and all they are doing is pissing off legitimate consumers??). But Sony seem to have shifted to this crap LiIon batt concept, and the cheapo players that do use normal batts have shite 12 hour batt life.

But someone must be buying the ones with the stupid built-in batts. Curse you for rewarding bad design!

Got a Zen Creative at xmas time. Battery power is absolute pants

the "use 'em for a year or so then throw them away and buy another plan" has worked very well for Apple's bottom line

my iPod mini didn't work so great battery wise but my Nano is fine... i think it is great not having to worry about switching batteries in and out, certainly much better than a Walkman cassette or one of those painintheass portable CD players. of course you don't have the versatility of switching in new batteries, its a trade off

Got one of those Sony Like.No.Other 6gb players,fully charge is meant to be 15/20 hours playback-more like 4. Though i do have it fucking blaring!

i grabbed a generic MP4 player, which handily enough uses the same battery as my nokia mobile phone.

There is an accessory for the ipod that plugs into it and allows you to run it off of aaa batteries. Never used it, so no idea on the life of the batteries, but you wouldn't be totally up shit creak.:D

you can also replace the batteries in an ipod yourself.

Snoopy wrote: Got a Zen Creative at xmas time. Battery power is absolute pants

I got the creative zen nano - 19 days battery life quoted - so far I havent changed the battery at all! (probably use it about 3-4 hours per week)

CuanaD - D-plus wrote:

Snoopy wrote: Got a Zen Creative at xmas time. Battery power is absolute pants

I got the creative zen nano - 19 days battery life quoted - so far I havent changed the battery at all! (probably use it about 3-4 hours per week)

Personally I'm not willing to settle for less than 40-50 hours! There's a Panasonic model out there somewhere that claims 80 hours from a AAA - unfortunately nowhere seems to sell the 2Gb version. I'm reduced to using atrac3+ @64kb - so I can almost cram NO's entire catalog into 1Gb. Not counting live boots. Goddam, ripping cds is a f***ing tedious process though. Doesn't help that I just lost all my previous rips 'cos of a glitch with Sony's crappy DRM nonsense.

Had me Sony 1 Gb for a year now. No issues.