ipod or Creative Zen

amanda40 · 22 September 2005 at 11:58PM

I am buying hubby mp3 player for his b'day 2 weeks time - what is the best to go for and are there any bargains that any one out there know's of???

Thank you :beer:

rogerramjet · 23 September 2005 at 12:18AM

iPod Nano appears to the dogs dodas at the mo. if bought from the apple store they will engrave a message for free, you maybe able to find it cheaper elsewhere but it won't be engraved.

The zen I know nothing about but I expect others will post details on that and the ipod

The apple store has recenlty been selling refurbished (3rd Gen, possibly new) Ipods cheap but no offers at the mo..but it maybe worth checking these forums regualarly incase they start the offers again

wolfman · 23 September 2005 at 1:01AM

Yep, like roger I'd recommend the iPod Nano too. Go to a shop and hold one, you'll be amazed. It's definitely the way forward. I'm ok with my Shuffle (not my player of choice) for now (sold both my iPod months back), but the new Nano is definitely on the shopping list. There's nothing close to it at the moment.

gk172 · 23 September 2005 at 9:32AM

Pm sent;) What about the creative nano plus 1gb from amazon £78.99 not in you timescale but it shows reviews for the player which might help.

A quick look pixmania have them too.

payless · 23 September 2005 at 9:40AM

son's ipod nano came today - loooks good, very small

other idea might be - could you go as high as an Archos AV400 ( from £285ish )

smcicr · 23 September 2005 at 1:43PM

a lot of the time it will come down to the intended purpose:

1. how many songs? entire collections worth for a person who is into their music or is it just for favourite albums etc?
2. why? is it for killing time on the commute or a more all round music solution? (plugging into car, into home stereo, into speakers to be used as a stereo itself etc)
3. is device physical size / aesthetics relevant?
4. cost

i imagine the ipod nano would do a great job for most of these (maybe not the cost but it's label time to a certain extent) - it will slip easily into a suit pocket for commuters and easily hold enough tunes for commuting purposes. it will also win the best looking and best user interface competitions.

however, if you have someone who has masses of music that they want with them at all times then you need to be looking at the hard disk players (the actual ipod, creative, iriver etc all do these) and then it's a case of looks, function and cost in the end. the ipods look great, USB2 should have ironed out connectivity worries that earlier models had (specific firewire card requirements) and the clickwheel is without a doubt the best user interface out there. the down side is that unless you're technically savvy and happy to void the warranty then you have to send the unit away to get the battery replaced when it dies. at cost. other players might not look as good but you will often get more drive space for less money, replaceable batteries and so on with them.

loobs40 · 23 September 2005 at 3:56PM

My partner and my son both have the Creative Zen 30gb (?) which was much much cheaper than the ipod at the time they bought it (a deal from ebuyer , i think). They both love the Creative and seemingly spend most of their life plugged into them, listening to music or audio books

My son occasionally says he wished the zen was a bit smaller, but other than that they are more than happy with their choice.

My partner can also plug his Zen into the aux input on his car stereo unit which he finds very useful, though maybe you can do that with all mp3 players

Bernie · 23 September 2005 at 5:43PM

...I went through this process some time back and, being an engineer, went for the Zen 60 GB. As well as holding every bit of music I've accumulated over the years, it has a very useful amount of space left over to use as a computer data store.

Music quality - I could not tell the difference. I bought a pair of sound cancelling headphone on offer from Maplins - the combination on a train or plane is excellent.

One of the main factors in my decision was the battery mounting method. Ask yourself if you would be happy with a mobile phone in which the battery was sealed in and would cost £50 to change!

There was even a spot on TV the other night about Ipod batteries failing to hold an effective charge shortly after the warranty runs out. The programme also highlighted that Apple will refuse to carry out any work under warranty if there is any, repeat, any sign of damage to the unit.

I bought 3 spare batteries at £3 ea (the daughter collared one) for my Zen via eBay. Each battery give me about 10 hours of use - vital if you are travelling and cannot get to a power point for long enough to fully recharge your battery.

In short, don't be a fashion victim... if it's posing you want, Ipod it is, mp3 music in a neat, MSE economical form... Zen the choice.

steady__eddie · 23 September 2005 at 5:49PM

Saw Watchdog this week and was really alarmed by the item which they did on Ipod batteries. Got a Zen myself but does anyone know if it is the same battery supplier for both Zen and Ipod ?
Ipod's stance on batteries would lead me to avoid them.

arealhighlander · 24 September 2005 at 12:39AM

I have a Creative Labs Zen Extra 60GB Jukebox. As far as I am aware all the Creatives have an easily replacable battery, unlike the IPods.

IPods are fashion items, Creatives are better value for money.

Rex_Mundi · 24 September 2005 at 1:16AM

If you are considering the Ipod Nano. You might want to see THIS article first. It looks like the first (BIG) problem has been spotted with this player.

QUOTED FROM THE ARTICLE

People slavering to get Apple's "impossibly small" iPod Nano into their sticky hands may want to pause a moment: those ahead of them in the queue have discovered that it's also unbelievably easy to scratch the screen, nixing its photo-displaying abilities.

Apple's discussion forums are already host to a 188-post thread on the topic, where people have spotted that the plastic used for the screen and front of the product is as sensitive as a Kate Moss sponsor.

Trouble is that a few scratches will quickly make the colour screen all but useless for viewing album art and photos stored on the machine. In which case you might as well have bought the cheaper, screenless iPod shuffle, hmm?

ipod or Creative Zen

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