[Fineus]

Well it's coming up to Christmas and with my MP3 player on its way out, I figure a replacement would be a sensible thing to see if I could get hold of.

The question of course, is which?

I would originally have loved massive storage - 20GB plus. But it seems that the massive trade off here is battery life and my Sony Walkman now dies after only about 4 hours play time which is simply unacceptable. Having researched it seems the 8GB iPod Nano can run for 24 hours (according to the sales stuff) but even 15 hours+ would be good enough for me. Unfortunately it's only 8GB.

I'm inclined to think it's the hard drive technology that saps quite a lot of that power and also means there's more to break. So another "plus" for the Nano is that it's solid state.

Are there alternatives out there, or should I just got with the iPod Nano and have done with it? Oh, and before I forget - I'm trying to keep the budget below £150 on this.

[Col. Fishguts]

I recently got me one of these: http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(1166)-SanDisk_Sansa_e200_Series_MP3_Players.aspx

Up to 8GB solid state memory, plus it has a microSD slot if you want more capacity. Plays a wide range of different formats and comes with a nice tool to convert video files to a player-friendly format.

I haven't regretted the purchase so far.

[Unknown Target]

I really have to recommend the Sansa e200 series, I had one and it broke, but that was only because I literally landed all 145 lbs of my weight on top of it. Even then, only the screen cracked, the Mp3 player was still usable until I updated it and couldn't see the screen enough to navigate through the menu. It's survived a lot of falls, spills, etc etc, it was just my fall that was the straw on the camel's back. Excellent players all around IMO, I will be getting another when I have the money.

[Colonol Dekker]

Creative Zen 4GB for £70, shows pics as well, does everything i need........ plays WMA MP3, lets me use pr0n as background.




  Squeee

[Scuddie]

I agree with the whole of this thread, the e200 series is a very nice player, and they are dirt cheap too.  Durable, long battery life, SD/MMC slot, non-proprietary interface.  I've had mine for over a year, hasn't failed me yet...

[karajorma]

Creative Zen 4GB for £70, shows pics as well, does everything i need........ plays WMA MP3, lets me use pr0n as background.

I seem to remember the Zen requires XP (or maybe Vista now) and it's own proprietary software in order to work. Which is a significant drawback if you want to use it with other OSs.

[Jeff Vader]

I've read on some Ubuntu forums that some people have managed to get the Zen V working with some (possibly Kubuntu's) media player, but still it required quite a lot of fiddling and messing around. I have a Zen V, and since I'm a persistent Microsoft *****, it doesn't bother me that much. Well, apart from the fact that you indeed have to install Creative's own software to get the damn thing working.

[Nuke]

my 60 gig ipod video, which is at least a year and a half old by now, is still chugging along great. i havent used the original firmware in almost a year, thanks to rockbox. i still get a good 9 hours of battery to the charge.

none of the new ipods impress me at all, and most cant run rockbox. i have no idea what i will get when this ipod breaks. many other mp3 players can run rockbox as seen here. and so thats key in my book for picking one.

[spartan_0214]

Creative Zen 4GB for £70, shows pics as well, does everything i need........ plays WMA MP3...

I second, minus the pr0n.

[IceFire]

Probably worth checking out the iRiver stuff too...just to compare.

Personally I think 8 GB is more than enough for the size/use and the flash memory is a huge boon to both having a longer battery life and a generally more durable player.  I know some people have larger collections so it doesn't work for everyone.  Flash players are hella smaller on most occasions too...although my old Zen 5GB HDD based version is pretty small.

[Colonol Dekker]

Definately, 120GB for tracks staggers my mind, obviously not the mechanics of storage per volume, just the concept of how people would fill it up and expect to listen to it all on a single charge.

[Nuke]

when they come out with a flash player which can store my entire database (and can run rockbox) il gladly buy one.

[perihelion]

For me, the cool thing about the HDD players is that you have enough storage capacity to tote around pretty much anything.  Music and video, sure, but also utilities, your latest research project, a program you aren't allowed to install on your work computer but you could run from your player using it as an external hard drive...  Comes in much handy when your work computer is encumbered by a highly restrictive access-and-usage policy. 

That, and I just like having my entire music collection in one place.  8 GB won't cut it. 

[Fineus]

Well that's the thing, I'm not bothered by the ability to play movies or listen to radio or use it as an external hard drive. I really just want something to play music on.

It's for these reasons that I'm willing to give up some of that storage space and functionality so that I can focus on what I'm really interested in - battery life, the ability to play music and a decent functional software package (that is to say - the menu system must work, work well, and not take forever to load everything).

The Creative Zen range seem quite nice but I'm still not convinced by them - they're HDD players arent they?

That said the Sansa E200 looks very attractive as - although 6GB is a bit on the small size - the upgrade slot helps out there. The battery life and user-changeable battery is also a massive bonus and it even seems to come with some decent additional stuff. I'm going to investigate that one more.

[Jeff Vader]

The Creative Zen range seem quite nice but I'm still not convinced by them - they're HDD players arent they?

Vs and Stones are at least flash memory players (is that even the correct term?), but the old Zen Micros and Nomad Jukeboxes were hard drive players.

[lenard27]

I have a 20 GB Creative ZEN that I got for $170 and I haven't regretted it at all.  It is a HDD player, but the battery life is excellent, I probably still get about 14 hours per charge after having it for over a year.  And it has a radio tuner.

My sister got an 8GB Sansa for Christmas last year and she loves it.  I used it for a bit to see how it worked and I'd recommend it too, plus it has Flash memory.  Either Creative or Sansa would be a good choice based on my experience.

[Jeff Vader]

One thing I'd check before buying: the change to charge the battery without a computer. Zen V can only be charged by connecting it to a computer or with the official Creative charger, that costs an extra 30€, or roughly $50. I was extremely disappointed when I noticed that my Hama mp3 player charger didn't work with my Zen V. And with the battery life being 10 hours at max, I'd appreciate some other means for charging it on longer trips.

[spartan_0214]

Definately, 120GB for tracks staggers my mind, obviously not the mechanics of storage per volume, just the concept of how people would fill it up and expect to listen to it all on a single charge.

Dragonball Z entire series...

[übermetroid]

ugg.  I just recently sat down and tried to show DBZ to my kid.  He got so bored of all the talking he just walked away.  Wanted to do something else.

[spartan_0214]

Those of us born in the late eighties and early nineties actually have attention spans.