Are flash-based players better than hard drive players?
In some ways, yes. Flash players will survive drops and bumps better than hard drive-based players simply because there aren’t any moving parts. In my experience, flash players outlast hard drive players, but that’s more a function of use and abuse. Flash memory is getting cheaper, but it’s still more expensive than hard drives. At the time of this writing, 4GB of flash costs roughly the same amount as 15GB to 20GB of hard drive space. Another big difference is form factor. Flash players can be very small and thin, and they’re continuing in that direction, though hard drive players aren’t exactly huge anymore, either.
