Main reasons I use a separate device for music: 1) Battery life. I'm a rather heavy user and my phone tends to only barely last the entire workday and commute

Main reasons I use a separate device for music: 1) Battery life. I'm a rather heavy user and my phone tends to only barely last the entire workday and commute before running out (if it lasts at all). Having a separate device for music means I don't need to feel guilty about wasting phone battery when listening to music. 2) Storage. I tend to use very little storage on my phone, mostly due to the fact that I keep my 40+ GB music collection on a separate device. This means I can usually go for the model with the lowest storage for any phone I'm interested in, and not have to limit myself to phones with expandable storage (that seems to be on the way out as a trend). 3) Sound quality. I'm not talking about the placebo-heavy issues that audiophiles concern themselves with. Rather, I use very sensitive IEMs and when listening to music on my phone I can always hear intermittent background noise (I believe this could be interference from the cell radios). I've never had this issue with dedicated players.