Ipod touch alternative

Li0nhead

First of all Was unsure to put this thread here in 'techie stuff' due to its technical nature or 'I wanna buy-it or do-it'. Mods feel free to move if you dont agree with my placing here.

Ok story....best part of a year ago got myself an 8gb ipod touch. Perfectly happy with it. As i work 10 hour nights i use the MP3 player a lot and when at home i use the wi-fi on my home network a lot and love it, so thats the 2 big pluses for me.

A couple of months back it lost all wifi of any kind. Read around a few forums, a number of people been having this problem and basically its gone. Been given the run around by Apple despite their 1 year warranty so had it with apple for life.

<Rant over>
So i am looking for something that does all the things the ipod touch does, is reliable and pretty decent, not made by Apple (also i did not like apples strangle hold via itunes, even though i knew about jailbreak i did not do it).

Don't want an i-pad copy as i need it to be mobile phone sized to fit in pocket at work. Had a quick look as Archos and am leaning towards them.

Any recommendations/ideas?

Edit: Budget looking at around the £150-£225 mark, would be able to push it to £400 if i wait another month (i have a £200 per month self imposed 'me' limit in my wage)

Li0nhead

Anyone any recommendations?

Dreamnine

As far as I'm concerned just about any player is better than Apple because they have better EQ and don't need iTunes or any other music software.

You will struggle to find one that does wi-fi as well as a touch, though. I have a Sony X and, while it is a great player with a nice OLED screen the browser is fairly basic.

One other option is Archos, but their audio quality is sub-par - around the same as an iPod - and their user interface leaves a lot to be desired.

Just for music a Rockboxed Clip+ or Fuze, or anything by Sony, Samsung or Cowon.

Bowling_4_Gold

The Philips GoGear Connect 16GB looks pretty good. £199.99 in Argos and Woolworths. Apparently it has access to the Android market place to download games and apps.

Edit: Looks like the release date is November anyway

Dreamnine

Avoid Philips - they don't make good players.

Have a look here: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/

Bowling_4_Gold

Dreamnine wrote: »

Avoid Philips - they don't make good players.

What makes you say that? Looks a reasonable product to me.

Dreamnine

They've got a reputation for shoddy, cheap players with inferior DACs - very similar to Creative who used to be good but no more.

I would only buy a player from the big 4, Sony, Sansa, Samsung or Cowon.