Confused mum -advise needed - Apple ipod nano 4gb or Creative Zen Nano Plus 1GB

bluenose1

Hi,
can't decide what to buy my 12 year old son for christnmas. He has currently got a Phillips 128mb Go Gear which is easy to use as it is just click and drag to load music. Unfortunately only holds 30 songs.
Have done some research and have narrowed it down to
Creative Zen Nano Plus 1GB http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000A3P3WM/qid=1129064636/sr=8-8/ref=pd_ka_8/026-2727425-8993256

or Apple iPod nano - 4GB
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000A322NU/026-2727425-8993256

I reckon he won't be storing in excess of 200 songs.
All advise and opinions gratefully received.
Regards
Anne

JamesUK_3

The iPOD nano has had a LOT of bad press over scratching and scraping of the screens. You also have to use (i beleive) their own software to transfer the songs across and cant use the drag and drop that your son is used to.

The Creative is 'less branded' than the iPOD is known to be, but it does come with a built in radio, microphone and it IS as simple as 'click song...drag to device'

HOWEVER at the end of the day it is purely personal preference. But knowing 12 year olds i can see the conversations "Woo look i got an IPOD!" "Well.. i got.. a.. creative mp3 player..." taking place.

coolagarry

My 13 yrs old grandson has just got one of these
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007V9IOQ/qid=1129109032/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/026-1525331-6841260
for his birthday and is well pleased. It's got loads of street cred and you get so much more for your money. It comes with it's own charger and loading music on it is no problem. (incidentally he paid £195 for it about two weeks ago) If you get Amazons credit card at the same time it the points are worth about £15

apang

I'd choose the ipod based on the following:
1) It'll impress his mates more, and is "cooler".
2) More storage. As he gets older, and gets more and more into music, that extra space will go VERY quickly

Personally, I'd choose the zen because i think it's technically better and I hate apple. So with that in mind, my recommendation of the ipod above is honest!

EvilMonkey

I'm with James and apang in that there are better machines than the ipod nano for the same money, but nothing will touch it for 12 year old street cred (or 30 year old street cred).

One thing I would mention, the ipod insists on using only its own format (AAC) or MP3's. A lot of my music has been encoded using the windows format (WMV) which wouldn't work on the ipod. Might be an issue, might not...

E.M.

gk172

What about the creative zen micro? 5gb of storage and a better price tag too, and if bought from boots with some codes or triple points or even a shopping evening £12 back on every £50 spent the price looks even better and im sure im not the only zen micro fan.

Boots

Amazon

No battery issues with the zen micro and accepts both mps and wma files too.

smcicr

my concerns would be that if very precious thirty something techies aren't able to stop the ipod nano from getting scratched to whatsit then even the most careful 12 year old is surely going to have some issues there - unless having a scratched up ipod is ok and won't detract from his enjoyment of it.

also - if it's cooler and more hip then it's ultimately more nickable - sad but true.

and the standard concerns over ipod batteries, software requirements etc apply.

bluenose1

Hi,
thanks for all your useful comments.
I am still undecided which one to go with.
One more question.

At the moment my son downloads music onto the pc via a free download site.
If I buy him the ipod does that mean I have to pay for the music?

Regards
Anne

Aiadi

No all you need is to use the software iTunes (apple's music software) to convert all his music to AAC and the swiftly move them to the iPOD which is way easier to use than anything else on this planet and that is why it is the best seller by far. :beer:

P.S. most downloaded files are in MP3 format which can also be used directly on the little gem.

wolfman

Eww, not iTunes. There are other alternatives to getting music onto the iPod. Not sure if they're compatible with the Nano yet, but I'm sure it's being worked on. With my iPod I've always used an app called EphPod.

I'd also steer clear of using the AAC format. It's a lot more restrictive in comparison to mp3. At lower bitrates (128) it's good but as storage space is getting bigger and cheaper, you're better off using a higher bitrate (256) and an mp3 encoder like LAME.

Look up CDex or dBPowerAmp for ripping mp3's.

jampton

Aiadi wrote:

No all you need is to use the software iTunes (apple's music software) to convert all his music to AAC and the swiftly move them to the iPOD which is way easier to use than anything else on this planet and that is why it is the best seller by far. :beer:

P.S. most downloaded files are in MP3 format which can also be used directly on the little gem.

Oh no itunes sucks big time and also conversion from one compressed format to another is a dreadful idea.

For windows XP/2000/ME any mp3 player that allows you to 'drag and drop' music on to it has to be favourite - it will therefore work on any of his mates computers as well without the need to install any software - proper plug and play.

My wife (not 12 I'll grant you) is delighted with a Rio Carbon 5GB Mp3 player currently £99 from PCWorld.