You wouldn’t get any prizes for guessing the best MP3 player in the market. It is literally a class apart, to the extent that there are those who mistake an iPod to be a category separate from an MP3 player.

But even with unmatched performance, the iPod has lately found quite a few worthy contenders who could easily offer it some stiff competition. Here’s a rundown of the various iPods and their worthy alternatives.

Apple-iPod Shuffle (2 GB)
This tiny tot from the Apple kitty has impressed all with its cute form and vibrant colours- silver, blue, green, red and purple. This MP3 player comes with a storage capacity of 2GB, which saves upto 500 songs. It has an in-built lithium polymer rechargeable battery with a playback time of 12 hours. The player comes with earphones, USB cable and docking station.

MRP: Rs 3,800

Its counterparts
Creative-Zen Stone Plus (4 GB)
The Zen Stone Plus from Creative is one player that can easily give the Shuffle a run for its money. Its pebble-look, coupled with a curvy body and vibrant colours easily attract the eye. Also, it offers an extremely user-friendly interface. This MP3 player comes with a storage capacity of 4GB, which saves upto 1000 songs. It has a blue-coloured OLED display with a resolution of 64 x 64 pixels, voice recorder and an FM Radio. It offers a playback time of 9.5 hours, and comes with earphones and USB cable. Stopwatch, countdown timer, volume restriction control and inbuilt speakers are the additional features of the player.

MRP: Rs 5,499

SanDisk Sansa Shaker (1 GB)
This salt-and-pepper look alike player will beat all others hands down on the cuteness quotient. With 1 GB capacity, 10 hours playback time, a super-cool shake to change (motion-sensor) function and in-built speakers, this one is a complete steal.

MRP: Rs 2,399