so i'm going to buy an mp3 player

[SEAL]

I'd advice against getting a smart phone unless you know for sure that you will use the features that makes it a smart phone. If you don't use it that much you just end up paying more for something more complicated.

Well. That phone you adviced is 250 euros.

A quick 30 sec search gave me the zune and ipod for 250 euros. Didn't search the rest, but it more or less (exacly actually) levels out.

And you have a new phone, plus extra's.

It's a personall thing i guess.

[Mr. Peanuts]

If you really want SD card compatibility, I'd advise buying a Sony Walkman phone, as Noah stated.

Otherwise, go for a flash memory player similar to an iPod Nano or Zen V.

[Pummel]

You mentioned that you don't want an ipod..but the new ipod nano with video capabilities is really good for its price..in canada it was $149 for a 4 gb at bestbuy and 189 for an 8gb..

[geekbot]

Flash drives are the way to go. Long term reliability is not even close. Hard drives have moving parts and WILL break after time. Carrying it around means it's even more likely to break.

Flash memory does have a limited number of write-erase cycles. But this is very likely to last longer that the electrical parts of your mp3 player. A hard drive will likely NOT last longer than the electrical parts of your mp3 player.

If you think you'll be bored with it in a year or two and need the extra storage space, or don't mind paying for a new one in 1-3 years then consider HD players.

Don't listen to anyone who says /company/ is evil. Shop, get what you want, and stick to your guns. Too many people hate too many things for too little reason these days.

[Pressure Drop]

cheers for the input guys

i'm still mulling it all over, plenty of time - i'm not that rich so if i'm going to spend llike €150 or so i'd like it to last and be a good player

i couldn't get a combined phone thing

1) i don't trust it
2) i loose phones too often


as for the evil thing, i don't like proprietary file types with digital rights managment etc so thats itunes, sony used to install bad software and their cd spyware bs pissed me off and microsoft spit spit !!!

not saying they make bad players, there products seem good enough - evil though

i see what your saying geek but if more people took that attiude then perhaps formats like .ogg .flac would be more widely supported and better as perhaps companies would help out

[duel pasta]

I have the vision M from creative the 30 GB one and altho' the screen is nice I dont like it very much, because it crashes alot when you fill it up with like 25gig of music.. and it takes some time to load aswell so...

[FarScape]

Only COWON Iaudio.

enjoy.

[winipcfg]

I've had a 60GB iPod for almost two years now and put it through more abuse than it should have dealt with, and I haven't had any problems with it. With the new 80GB at $250, I don't think you can really argue the price. Unless you're a freak I think it'd be difficult to fill up a 80GB drive with music.

iPods FTW.

[Kolar]

Don't listen to anyone who says /company/ is evil. Shop, get what you want, and stick to your guns. Too many people hate too many things for too little reason these days.

I agree that's just fan boy crap that doesn't really help the decision making process. But when a company (Apple for example) locks people into using only their player to interface with the product and attempts to limit transport (MS's Zune) I think it's legitimate to say these companies don't understand the business they're in or their customers very well. Neither deserve my business.

[Fit of Rage]

For what it's worth, I've had my 30GB iPod video for two years now and it still works great. I've heard people complaining about iPods having batteries fail and hard drives break and screens cracking but hey, just don't abuse it. No complaints with mine.

[Zerzera]

i'm not that rich

i loose phones too often

^ funny.


Well I see what you mean, I bought three generations of ipods and I didn't have a mobile phone for the first years. But now I am converted :P

I don't see how you can lose a mobile phone faster than an mp3-player, if you've lost your phone you can always call it, you can't do that with your mp3-player.

[Cyrus]

I've got a sandisk sansa with 4gb memory, theyre quite cheap and they have a microSD slot, which is the main reason why I bought it, since i can use the microSD card for my cellphone and to expand the memory of my MP3 player. i havent looked up the microSD card prices lately, but they can't be that expensive anymore (probably a lot cheaper than the 30 euros i payed for a card on 1 gb)

[Burzum]

Here's what I considered when I decided to buy the 4GB Meizu M6:

1. Build quality: your standard modern Chinese manufacturer, not something you would go throw at the wall daily for the fun of it, but with the free silicon sleeve (in a gay pink color, but meh) that came with it it's pretty safe in my pocket.
2. Storage: 4 GB is not that much. But when you consider that I'm not on week-long vacations and can easily update the files with the usb 2.0 link, it's good enough. Having any more stuff than 4 gigs seems overwhelming and a bitch to navigate through now, at any rate.
3. Price: If I lived in the US, I could have gotten it at walgreens for 99 bucks, though the price of 150 Euros here in Slovenia seemed fair to me, compared to 220 Euros for the then-current iPod Nano 4GB, which was way worse in pretty much aspects anyway.
4. sound quality: ton of options, a respectable DAC, low hiss, coupled with a strong 10-band EQ.
5. features: video playback (avi, has to be converted though to the exact format, easily done with the Batman batch converter you can get over at meizume.com), FM tuner, flac support, excellent display, plus the player's smaller than a credit card.
I reckon I saved quite a lot of money on this piece, though I went and blew it all on a pair of etymotic er4p for 250 Euros a week later :P

[Da1andonly]

I got a creative zen 1gb and I don't need more space... I seem to be the only one left in the world who doesn't need at least 5gb...I'm a dying species!

[Cops]

I got the Zen Vision W about 4 months ago for 320 Canadian on sale. I haven't had a single problem with it but it's probably not what you're looking for because it's more bulky with a large screen for video so it's not something you drag around on the go. If you've got 1-2 hours of travel time a day like I do it's a good solution for a video/mp3 player(Xvid/Divx/wmv playback, FM radio, mp3-No FLAC I tried, microphone, photo viewer and compact flash bay). It also has an organizer and calendar. Now only if it had Wifi, bluethooth, GPS and was a phone .

My brother bought one of the first Creative Muvos (MuVo NX) which would still work today if not for losing the battery package. The flash module still works perfectly without problems and I think it had to be 6 years ago at least. The Best part is you don't have to put up with ITunes' bullshit, you can access your media through windows explorer or through their software (Yahoo and Winamp also). Playlist setup is sometimes a bitch so that's the only down side to it on the Zen Vision W, you have to use their software to set those up but not to actually upload your music to the player. I don't know about their newer products and how their playlist creation works.

ipod = convert/forced to use products you don't want to use (wastes lots and lots of time)

zen = drag and drop and a lot better sound quality in my opinion.

andrew I want my zen back....