Portable MP3 players are all the craze these days. It is rare to find somebody that either owns one or knows somebody that owns one. They come in many flavors from players that have built in memory to players with hard drives. Many have very portability factors and some don't. They also have lots of different price ranges which I will also cover. I'm going to go over what you should look for when trying to purchase a cheap portable MP3 player.

What type of mp3 player should you pick? Do you want one that is portable with a little bit of memory or one that is a little more bulky with tons of mp3 space? This really depends on your needs because most memory based mp3 players can only hold up to 250 songs. What do you do if you have more songs than that?

You can go for a player that has the hard drive built in. Most that are on the market today have at least 2 GB of storage which will allow you at least 500 songs. And they also go way up from their.

Do you need portability? If so I would recommend a memory based player. Just because the fact that they are slim and compact and allow you to attach them to you clothing and come with accessories for other attachments. Heck I've even seen some that have the player built into the headphones. Now that is portable.

If you can but the mp3 player in your pocket then the hard drive based player is the best way to go. This is simply because you can store tons more songs and there are models out today that have a very slim profile such as the Microsoft Zune player and IPod Touch. You can also find either used models on eBay or older last years models at highly discounted rates.

Keep in mind when you are looking for the cheapest portable mp3 player is going to have to be the weight. If you have some big 4 pound player hanging off the side of you pants you will literally run out of you pants.

Next you should look at the size of the player. Almost all memory based player are made to be compact in size and are light in weight. You can fit them almost anywhere on you clothing without losing you pants. If you have the room though hard drive players could be an excellent choice for you. Make sure you check the size of the player before purchasing so you know exactly how big it is.

In closing to find the cheapest portable mp3 player available is up to you because of all the different options that are available today. If you want a small very cheap mp3 player I would go with a memory based player such as the iPod nano. If you are looking for a hard drive based player then the IPOD touch or Microsoft Zune are very good options and have tons of space for that music collection of yours.