<p>Creative M:Vision. Period. Beats iPod.</p>
<p>iRiver Clix - for those who want a smaller mp3. Beats Ipod Nano by far.</p>
<p>Forget the mainsteam, go for the alternatives.</p>
<p>Go with Creative Zen series. My friend got one and I'm jealous. Big screen, awesome movie qualities, good music quality.</p>
<p>I dunno, I'm not a huge apple advocate and I really don't like ipods all that much.. they seem overrated ALTHOUGH they definitely have one of the best designs around</p>
<p>I got a Cowon Iaudio X5L a year or two back because it was pretty much the first mp3 player to play movies (came out a year(?) before Ipod video, i think) and Cowon in Korea (korean company btw) is famous for awesome sound quality... which i agree. They have newer stuff out so i probably wouldn't get this again, i would replace it with some of their newer stuff. Iaudio U3 is a flash drive mp3 player that is really tiny (like your thumb) that also plays movies... it's really tiny, but i guess it'll be a nice feature to brag to your friends about, haha</p>
<p>Samsungs are popular but in korean market (samsung is korean too if you didn't know) i think iriver is beating it... Iriver has really good flash memory mp3s so you might wanna check them out.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm another huge fan of my Creative Vision: M. The sound quality is amazing, and I absolutely love that it's got voice recorder and FM Radio.</p>
<p>The only thing that I don't like is that the charger it comes with is a USB charger (although the iPod is the same way). I bought an AC adapter separately.</p>
<p>The alternatives are honestly way more convenient. I hate how iPods are limited to playing mp3s. They take up more space, and about half my songs are wmv, anyway. Plus, I've found alternatives (especially Sandisk) to be a lot cheaper. </p>
<p>Personally I also prefer the ones that don't play videos. I have a laptop for that...The small SanDisk players without video capabilities are GREAT for running and car rides, which is basically what I use portable music devices for. They're also incredibly cheap, 2 gigs for 60 bucks.</p>
<p>The only thing I'd say iPods are best for is if you want a huge amount of capacity, like over 4 gigs. I guess if you are into having movies on your mp3 player than iPod is the way to go.</p>
<p>i completely agree with groovinhard. im gonna go for the zen micro =)</p>
<p>I'd suggest Iriver because it's durable, small and has good sound quality (one of the best earphone I've ever heard). </p>
<p>I bought my I river 3 years ago and it worked until couple of months ago when the battery latch suddently fell apart. Maybe it's because I always threw it around.</p>
<p>Any smaller than my ipod nano and I'd lose it. I like my ipod lol</p>
<p>The problem with iRiver is that it's annoyingly expensive. Like $150 for the cheapest 2 gig model. You can definitely get double the space for that price...so yeah...</p>
<p>They're pretty, though :).</p>
<p>Well if you are going to go video, there's no way that I would suggest an iPod. A zune or a zen vision:w would be much better choices as they let you go into widescreen mode. When you watch on widescreen vs normal size screen, it does make a difference.</p>
<p>The iPod is poorly manufactured, lacks many functions, has a poor battery life, and is highly overrated.</p>
<p>Get a Zune or Zen.</p>
<p>Check out the 30gig Zune. All the accessories of a 30gig Ipod plus more for the same price.</p>
<p>For flash-based DAPs - audiophiles like the iRiver Clix, the Samsung YP-K5 and the Samsung YP-T9.</p>
<p>Personally, I would wait until the Samsung YP-K3 is released in the US this March (the YP-K3 is similar to the YP-K5, but w/o the built-in speaker).</p>
<p>iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiipod rules, until it breaks.</p>
<p>go with a cheap one</p>
<p>I agree with the Sandisk recommendations. I've got a little 2gig that's working out great. It hooks up to the computer with a usb cord and acts as a drive, just as if it were a jump drive; you can transfer music on without any special software. I can't find the specific one I have (an older c250,) but my friend has (and loves) one like this: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-e260-4GB-Player/dp/B000IGRVRQ/sr=8-2/qid=1172102294/ref=sr_1_2/104-6743087-0515967?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods%5B/url%5D">http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-e260-4GB-Player/dp/B000IGRVRQ/sr=8-2/qid=1172102294/ref=sr_1_2/104-6743087-0515967?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods</a></p>
<p>Plus, to some above poster: I had no idea my sansa could handle other file types than mp3's! I just transfered my jillions of wma's that I <em>rollseyes</em> ripped from cd with media player.</p>
<p>i would recommend the creative zen microphoto...my brother got me one for my birthday and i love it.</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>Both are 4 GB and under 180</p>
<p>At first glance Sansa products look great feature-wise and cheap...but I've learned you get what you pay for. For some reason the newer models won't synchronize with our comp...they freeze...permenantly. </p>
<p>My brother has bought two Sansa players and both broke within a month of purchase (one froze when synching, the other froze randomly). He got a warranty on one, shipped it back...called multiple times...always got "it's on it's way". Well, eventually somebody told him that oh, they never entered it into the system and let them do that right away.</p>
<p><em>rolls eyes</em></p>
<p>So basically although I have an older Sansa and have been pimping it, I'm not impressed with the quality of their product recently and less impressed with customer service. Blech.</p>