MP3 players with the best battery life

Donald Bell, Senior Editor July 16, 2009

Has the daily ritual of recharging all your portable devices become so loathsome that adding one more gadget to the list might just make you snap? Or maybe your extreme, jet-setting lifestyle requires a portable music player that can run for over 40 hours without a recharge? Well, you've come to the right place. We've assembled this list of our favorite long-haul MP3 players, all of which are capable of a week's worth of casual usage without a recharge.

Leading the pack is the Sony S-Series Walkman, which received our Editors' Choice award and pulled off 38 hours of music playback and 8.7 hours of video during CNET Labs testing. If you can live without the integrated noise-canceling of the Sony S-Series, the E-Series Walkman also offers great battery life.

For an MP3 player with tons of features and music format support, check out the beautiful and versatile Cowon D2 and its 50 hours of continuous music playback.

The MobiBlu B153 (also known as the C153) may not be much to look at, but it offers the utterly unbeatable battery time of 153 hours of music playback. The B153 is tough to track down in stores, however, so you'll probably need to order it direct.

Last, but certainly not least, are two MP3 players that need no introduction. The iPod Touch, despite its remarkable thinness, boasts an impressive 36 hours of audio playback and 6 hours for video. For those of you willing to sacrifice a little sexiness in favor of storage capacity, the 120GB iPod Classic also offers 36 hours of audio and 6 hours for video.

More Resources

Editors' Top MP3 players,

Best MP3 players using AAA batteries,

MP3 Insider podcast,

Best workout-worthy MP3 players,

How we test MP3 players