£200 to spend on an MP3 player - but which one?

[autopilot]

Ok, my mate has asked for an iPod for his birthday. All our mates are going to chip in and we should be able to raise around £200, so we are thinking about the 20 gig ipod. However, I can't keep up with the MP3 player market. What else is worth looking at for £200ish? Can go a bit higher if it's worth it. It need's native MP3 suport if posible and easy to use. He does not have a PC, so will use his mates until he does. This means that the player must have good onboard playlist editing etc. Style is fair important but not the must important factor.

[LWA]

I have heard the iRiver mp3 players are very good (both from reading reviews and from a friend who has one). Although they are a similar price to ipods, link.

[PanzerKnight]

got an iriver and really luv it. Couple of my mates have now bought irivers to

[Howard]

Not an Ipod.

An iRiver or Creative Zen Micro/Zen Touch/ or something

[monkeyville]

Iriver H120 although it is now discontinued in favour of the H320 which is about 30 quid more expensive but has a colour screen/movie playback etc.

[Aaron]

If he asked for an iPod, why not buy him an iPod?

[Marcos]

To be honest, if hes a bit of a simpleton, the ipod is a good buy. Its only those who know products and use products enough to realise their flaws that will say bad about the ipod.

I mean, i'll be the first to say something negative about the ipod, but i can admit its a good player for an average user who just wants a ton of music on the go. Good looks, great GUI etc. And i think he'd feel a bit disappointed if you got him anything else since the competition just doesnt look as good by a long shot. Menus dont look as good, etc.

Again...this is all coming from an Apple hater, but im not going to lie to myself or you, the iPod deserves most of its street cred, its just the competitors that are either slacking or really incompetent. The iPod really has it covered except for....no real EQ, not great sound quality particularly lacking bass in certain genres, and very meh batery life. But i dont think that would matter to the person.

[DsW]

Funnily enough, me and some of my mates are all chipping in for an iPod for another mate.

We're going for the iPod because the guy we're buying it for puts style before practicality / features etc. and isn't really bothered about the fact that its battery life is crap and it doesn't have an FM tuner and all the rest of it. He's also not the most tech-savvy so I reckon iPod interface is better for that.

If I was buying one myself then it would be the iRiver every time. Got an iRiver flash player and it's the dogs.

cheers,
dave

[SilentDeath]

Rio karma.

Ipods are for chavs.

[Marcos]

Rio karma.

Ipods are for chavs.

Really? Chavs? Thats a new one on me, i see the ipod as a classy device. Guess theres no one better out there to ruin it than chavs.

Although im impressed with everything about the karma except its design/shape

[LeeumH]

How can chavs afford iPods Tbh, filling an iPod with chava beets is plain wrong. Tell him to get an iRiver or a Creative Zen.

[DsW]

Its only a matter of time before they do a Burberry iPod

[scottyman]

i love my ipod - but think the iriver option is still very good... most important thing for me is battery life, and the iriver does perform slightly better - but bolting on a belkin battery pack does the business too. i just hate itunes - I don't like the interface.

[RHYSMODDER]

hey i have a creative nomrad thats the mp3 player u wanna get. 40gb off ebay £81!! Nice post leeum how can chavs afford ipods!
They got the ipodic disease! lol
RhysModder

[cm_uk]

zen touch

[dangel]

I'd go with an iRiver myself..