I have ?s regarding the newest crop of mp3 capable cellphones for those experienced users out there:

1. How is the sound quality compared to dedicated mp3 players?

2. How is the battery life compared to dedicated mp3 players?

3. I intend to use existing mp3 collection, NOT purchase media thru cellular provider download service - do most of these phones have this capabilty? (i assume i'll need a usb cable and some software from phone mfg).

3.5. Any specific phone mfgs mp3 software particularly difficult/limiting to use?

4. Some of the more reasonably priced models from verizon and alltel are LGs with dedicated external mp3 player controls (model xxxx 8600 i think). Anyone using these models?

Thanks in advance for any useful advice.

I use the Slvr from Motorola.. it holds 100 songs per chip. You can carry multi chips with ya very easily. It sounds ok but no way near the quality of an I-pod. I also use a 80 g I-pod.

I have a Sprint Motorola Razr V3M
1.How is the sound quality? I download songs from my Mac to my cellphone via bluetooth. I found most of the songs transferred with excellent quality... however my Green Day "Dookie" album ended up sounding very "tinny". Then again, I think most of the quality is from the headphones and not the player. An added benefit is that my cellphone's built-in speaker is quite loud and is audible while I am biking (although I just use the headphones).

2. Battery life. The battery that came with my cellphone sucked. It couldn't even last 12 hours on standby. I think I got a defective battery, but the Sprint store wouldn't exchange it, da *******s. I bought an extended battery from Verizon and the battery life is perfect for my needs. I have used my cellphone for GPS, conversations, and MP3 on a 4 hour bike trip without even losing one battery bar. HOWEVER, battery life on my iPod is still quite a bit longer than my cellphone no matter how you compare it.

3. Downloads. I use the bluetooth feature on my Razr and on my Mac laptop. I can sync music, videos, photos/screensavers, contacts, and calendar without any additional software or fuss. Sprint allows this, but Verizon hobbles their Razrs so they can't. I love all the features on my Sprint Razr, but there is still tons of room for improvement. My calendar and alarm clock functions are worse than ****ty. 90% of the time, they won't go off on time (if at all). To listen to music, the software has to boot ALL the songs into memory, which can take up to a minute or two. Once that's done, it works fine... but it's still a hassle to have to wait. Also, I like audiobooks and my cellphone's software can't save your place. If you exit out of the song/audiobook/podcast, you gotta start over from the beginning later.

3.5 Verizon has the best customer service I've seen and also sells a lot of the various paraphenalia I've needed, but they hobble their phones so you can't download stuff from your computer easily. Sprint makes it very easy to download your own material... but their customer service is an exercise in futility and frustration.

4. When I was looking for cellphones, I looked for Mac compatibility. The LGs were not compatible in the slightest with Macs when I examined them (it might have improved since then).