4gb Ipod Nano for £69, equivalent Mp3 player for £45.

MSE_Martin

What's the deal?

Amazon is offering 4GB, silver iPod Nano's at a rock bottom £69; up until now it's been around £113. Though do check out the non-iPod equivalents below that are much cheaper.

• iPod Nano, 4GB (roughly 1000 songs), silver, £69 inc. delivery. This is available from Amazon at this price, only in the silver colour. It's slim and quite sexy, with a 1.8" colour screen, up to 24hrs battery life, and the ability to store and view photos using its click wheel.

WARNING!! This is likely to sell out very quickly so grab it quick if you want one. Plus heavy demand from the email means Amazon sometimes, naughtily, ups the price, so ensure you check it hasn't increased before you buy.

UPDATE 12 SEPT 13.40am As predicted the price listed on Amazon has gone up. This is because the Amazon stock has sold out and it now defaults to some of the third party suppliers it lists. The price now is £75.60 plus postage (as third party suppilers aren't usually eligible for super saver delivery). There is a chance, though no guarantees it will restock at the cheaper £69 so do keep checking.

Why is it so cheap?

Last week, Apple released a new generation of its ever-popular iPod Nano MP3 players (amongst others), meaning prices of the older models have plummeted. The new version, which sports video playback, is £99.

Do you really need an iPod?

Whilst Apple's MP3 players have developed a cult following, you can get non-Apple MP3 players much cheaper. If you're unfussed about branding, and you don't want to buy music from the iTunes store (most of which is encrypted so that it'll only play on Apple devices) you can get a basic 4GB player for £30.

Alternatives:

• Sumvision 4GB MP3 player £30.56 inc. delivery. Ebuyer's offering this budget USB stick style player in white for less than half the price of the Nano. It's smaller than the nano and manages to pack in an FM radio tuner for the cash. On the downside, it only has a tiny monochrome screen, so no photo viewing, and battery life is rated at a miserly 8 hours (expect about 6).

• Sumvision 4GB MP3/MP4 player £43.38 inc. delivery. Another budget player, but this one has more features than the Nano. Again from Ebuyer, it's roughly the same size (and style!) as Apple's offering, yet can play videos on its full-colour 1.8" screen, as well as most other music files, has a built-in speaker and microphone for voice recording, FM tuner, and a rechargeable lithium battery (charging cable included). On the downside, it curiously only has a 2.5mm headphone socket, so you'll need an adaptor to plug in your own (3.5mm) headphones. This player is also available in black for £1 more.

• Sandisk Sansa e270 6GB MP3/Video Player. £56.19 inc. delivery. Again similar in looks to the Nano (though slightly chunkier), this one, also available from Amazon, tops it with an extra 2GB of storage space, plus an expansion slot for yet more flash memory if necessary. The internal rechargeable battery's life is rated at around 20hrs, and the player also includes a voice recording facility. Most importantly, it competes with the Nano in ease-of-use and sound/build quality.

Anything else I should know?

If you choose to buy a player from Ebuyer, it may be worth ordering in combination with something else, or clubbing together with a friend, as postage is free on orders over £49.99.

If you've spotted these, or an equivalent player cheaper, please post details below and I'll add it in to the top post.

aytch

Thanks Martin
got your email and had one purchased within 5 mins - ace for daughters Christmas present .... bargain:j

conspirator

Very good post.

Have to wait till Thursday to see if still available.

HolisticHarmony

Fantastic! Thanks for the tip-off ;-)

Janipops

Excellent! thats another christmas prezzie sorted.Thanks Martin.

co_co_2

Thanks Martin, great offer. Corrie

ema750

:j Just grabbed this amazing bargain for my daughters birthday. She will be thrilled :A as I'd previously told her they were far too expensive to purchase! Many thanks & keep up the excellent site. Em :T

Cactus_Jack

Well I wanted something bigger than my Zen Nano 1GB and preferably mains charged so I went for this. Even cheaper when signing up to the DVD rental at the same time (£15 discount). I ended up paying £51.37 but I understand I'll pay at least £3.99 for the DVD rental, assuming I can cancel after one month and not two. I'll just have to remember to cancel. I hope the songs don't HAVE to be added with itunes - can I just drag them into the folder? Finally given into the Apple hype!

Lütz_Pangaloo

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Sumvision 4GB MP3/MP4 player £43.38 inc. delivery. Another budget player, but this one has more features than the Nano. Again from Ebuyer, it's roughly the same size (and style!) as Apple's offering, yet can play videos on its full-colour 1.8" screen, as well as most other music files, has a built-in speaker and microphone for voice recording, FM tuner, and a rechargeable lithium battery (charging cable included). On the downside, it curiously only has a 2.5mm headphone socket, so you'll need an adaptor to plug in your own (3.5mm) headphones. This player is also available in black for £1 more.

While the genuine iPod offer is a cracker, I'd steer clear of these 'clones' - I've bought two for my wife which have died in quick succession. The USB socket broke in the first and the headphone socket died on one channel in the second.

It also took ages to track down a decent set of earbuds with a 2.5mm jack - the ones that come with the player will be awful. If you use a 'noncable' style adaptor it will knacker the headphone socket in no time at all. I gave up on 'nano clones' and got my wife this Philips from Argos;

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5135183.htm

I admit £50 for 2GB is a bit steep, but it is in a different league sound and build quality wise. That said I'm sure I could have justified spending another £20 for a genuine Nano with twice the memory - good spot.

langtoft_lad

Great heads up - thank you.
I've already got a 2gb version which fills up too quickly so the 4gb version will be just the job.
The video function of the new one is just a gimmick imho - I've had an Archos (bigger screen too) for many years and the times for watching video was limited.

I did extra well with that Amazon offer - I also got £15 off the pre-vat price by signing up to their DVD rental service... which I've now cancelled before any charges were applied - so far (but they may just charge me one month subscription £3.99)

So paid £51.37 for iPod
(but total might be £55.36 if I have to pay for DVD Rental subs - still well worth it)

redders_:)

To be honest I was a bit upset when I saw the new iPods, why? I bought my 8GB Nano 3 weeks ago for £130! Now the new 8GB video version is the same price direct from apple!

As for cheaper MP3 players, to be honest I'd say they're a false economy, when you're dealing with 8, 4 or even 2GB of music, that's quite a lot of tracks! Moving through them all on a regular MP3 player is a real pain, but on a iPod with its click wheel it's so easy! You can also make playlists and stuff on the actual iPod, which few alternatives offer! If easy navigation on the player isn't too important then a cheaper player is a possiblity, as Lütz Pangaloo said I'd stear clear of those that mimic the iPod closely and go for something a little more basic looking (the Creative Stone is about £30 for 1GB if you want something you know will last) would last longer and probably give better sound quality! I know my Tevion MP3 player which only has 128MB is superb, it takes an SD card so I now use it with a 2GB SD card and it's great! Just a little difficult navigating your music!