ProductWindows Mobile: PocketMusic 5.01Resco Audio Recorder 4.01ViTO SoundExplorer 1.8ViTO AudioPlayer 1.6Nero Mobile Pro 1.4.0.9CorePlayer 1.1.1Built-in Pocket WMP in WM5+Pocket Player 3.51 beta 6GSPlayer V2.28 with the WMA (1.01) and the AAC (1.03) plug-insMortPlayer 3.31 b63 TCPMP 0.72rc1Palm OS: Pocket Tunes 4.0.5Symbian S60: Music Player in the Nokia N95 v20CP 1.1.2 b2LCG Jukebox 2.17 (current WM version: 2.10)
Formats - 1: Audio: OGG; CPU usage (WM: at 208 MHz on the x51v; sometimes on the 520 MHz HTC Universal when I needed a PPC PE model)+; 25%+; 28 + 3%+; 39 + 4%+; 24+3%+; 41% + device 3%+; 21% + device: 3%-+; 25 + 4%+; 21 + 3%+; 28 + 3%+; 23% + 4%+-+; 0.45W (not taking the huge power usage increase bug into account in any of the cases)+; Symbian (N95): 0.47W; WM: 23.5+3%
WMA 9 (incl., therefore, Pro / Losless);+; 26% + device: 4%-- (only with Windows Media Control for PIE)--About 50% more than WMP: ~25% + device: 7%. It also stutters from time to time and is, therefore, not recommended.+; 15% + device: 4%+ (incl. protection); 17% with, sometimes, 27% peaks+; 15 + 4% - by default; however, if you copy gspwma.dll from the GSPlayer home to the Plugin directory of MortPlayer, it’ll work. Then, 16+4%+; 19 (with some additional peaks) + 4%++; 0.43W+ (as with the WinMobile version, pretty bad playback – skippig in every 30…90 second)-
MP3; +; 27…28%+; ~10 + 3%; at 104 MHz some of the time+; 28 + 3%+; 22 +3%+; 36% + 3% device+; 10.5% (with sometimes huge peaks) + device: 3%; at 104 MHz most of the time+; 24% + device: 3%+; 26%+; 14…17%; at 104 MHz half of the time+; 22%+; 16 + 3%++; 0.39W+; 0.45W+; Symbian: 0.47W; WM: 20 + 3%
AAC: LC (Low Complexity)+, 35% (MP4 files will need to be renamed to m4A to be recognized!); 15+3%--+; 26% + device: 3%+; 10% + device: 3%; at 104 MHz most of the timeOn PPC PE / SP devices ONLY, +; 8% at 520 Hz (20% at 208 MHz)Non-phone PPC devices: - (!) (see THIS for other user opinions on this); PPC PE: 8.7% at 520 MHz (21% at 208 MHz)+; 27+ 3%- by default; the GSPlayer DLL copy works in this case too (see gspmp4.dll); then, 29 + 5%+; 18 + 3% (with an additional AAC codec pack)++; 0.45W+; 0.45W-
(High Efficiency) HE-AAC, a.k.a. aacPlus, AAC+ and EAAC+.+, 84.5% +; 55+3%--+; 44% + device: 3%+; 12% + device: 3%; at 104 MHz most of the time+; 6% at 520 MHz (15% at 208 MHz)Non-phone PPC devices: -; PPC PE: 6.6% at 520 MHz (16% at 208 MHz)+; 53 + 5%-; see above for hack; 55 + 5%+; 46 + 4% (with the AAC codec pack)++; 0.45W+; 0.45W-
HE-AAC v2 - the most advanced and best codec out there. Is it TRUE support, not just an AAC LC / HE decoder decoding the lower half of the spectrum? - (crashes and immediately exits)- (only LQ mono)--+; 52% + device: 3%- : only in LQ mono; 7% + device: 3%; also see THIS- : only in LQ mono; 3%Non-phone PPC devices: -; PPC PE: 4 + 20% (the latter seems to be a common problem on the Universal with other types of media files too) LQ mono playback+; 55 + 4%-; see above for hack; 57 + 5%+; 55 + 4% (with the AAC codec pack; note that it won’t parse the tags (also see THIS)++; 0.46W- (mono only; 0.45W)-
EQ CPU usage? (slight bass and strong treble increase)+ 6%+ 30% (!)+ 35% (!) (with three EQ points)n/an/a+ ~9% n/a+ 4%No effect on AAC(+) / OGG / WMA decoding – only on MP3. With the latter, ~0% (unmeasurable)As with GSPlayer, only has effect on MP3 playback; +~1%+ 5%n/tNot measurable, not even in real battery rundown tests!n/tSymbian: +0.02W; WM: +6%
Superbass CPU usage?+ 4%n/an/aNot measurablen/a+ ~5% n/an/t+~6% (MP3 playback: 23%), independent of the gain; unlike with the EQ, works with everything+6%; works with everythingn/an/tSee aboven/tSymbian: +0.03W; WM: +8%
Gapless playback (and related areas): (one-file workaround; also see THIS, where some standard examples are also mentioned: Dark Side of the Moon, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or Thick as a Brick? Does it REALLY work?+; works pretty OK (almost unnoticeable pause). Note that the, by default, enabled “Remove silence at the beginning/end of each track” removes not only silence but also content, even with MP3’s having the necessary silence info. Unfortunately, in gapless playback mode, disabling this checkbox doesn’t help at all – you MUST disable gapless playback to fix this problem. There’s no pause in sound in either cases.-- (albeit is pretty close)-+ (default and can’t be switched off); works great (only slight pause)--+, must be set together with the crossfading slider; works great (almost unnoticeable pause)-; enabling Tool / Options / Decoder / Suppress zero samples doesn’t help- (albeit the pause is short)-+---
Hardware equalizers (HTC Equalizer) keep their settings when switching songs? Tested on HTC Universal+, even without gapless playback enabled-+-+--+ in crossfade (gapless) mode; - without+; enable Tool / Options / Decoder / Always open output device (noiseless) +-n/an/an/aWM: +
Crossfading?+; enabled by default (Menu / Player Options / Effects / Use crossfading effect), along with gapless playback and, as has been pointed out, removing the silence (which doesn’t work as intended). It’s not REAL crossfade, unlike with Conduits’ Pocket Player or Pocket Tunes on the Palm OS.------+; can be set between gapless and 10s; REAL crossfade (unlike with, say, Pocket Music)-; Tool / Options / Decoder / Fade in doesn’t help--+ (excellent – as nicely configurable as Conduits Pocket Player on WM)---