I have renounced Apple - I need a new MP3 Player

[Behemoth]

My iPod touch decided it no longer wanted to function on its battery. Infact since the IOS 4 update it got worse and worse. I'm not sure if it was a fault with the battery or just a co-incidence.

I returned it to the store it came from today to be told if I wanted to replace it with the current gen iPod touch I'd have to stump up the difference between the two as they couldn't throw down that much discount on doing a like for like swap.

They at first wanted to action a repair, but it would have been out of warranty by the time it came back and I wasn't having it. Reminding them of the sales of goods act seemed to get them into gear. I pushed for an exchange because I know how long they take to repair these, in the best of cases when I was working for Curry's they'd take 8 - 10 weeks ! Mine came from Comet as when I worked @ Curry's last year we'd sold out.

So I opted for a 2 TB external hard drive, which at the moment will be more use to me than an iPod.

Anyway once I start my new job I'll be looking for a new MP3 player as I'm really out of touch at moment on whats current tech some advice from my mates here would go down a treat.

Must have a colour screen, minimum of 8gb and must have good sound quality, I always felt the ipod's that I've had have always lacked that a bit. No proprietry software thanks, I've had my fill of iTunes while it had some good features it was one hell of a memory hog when running. Drag and drop is fine by me

[Hicks12]

For videos or just plan mp3/flac etc etc?

If for the latter then the Sandisk Sansa Clip+ wins hands down, doesnt have a huge screen and is only 2 colours but the audio quality is top notch along with price and expandability (32gb currently via microsd). Battery lasts pretty long and so far no faults for it .

If you just want something a bit bigger with a screen just to view info and stuff then try the Sansa Fuze, the original fuze looks better than the new Fuz+ IMO so have a look and decide. Basically the same as the clip but a bit bigger/thinner and better battery life. (also has microsd slot)

Ive had both (original fuze/clip and clip+), all of them are great for sound/drag and drop and reliability. They also look really nice! Fuze if you can afford it but if you want something cheap and easy to use and not have to worry about it i.e dropping it on the floor dumping in a bag and stuff then the clips great .

If for videos then i guess the Cowon S9 is quite a good player, much more expensive though....

[Behemoth]

I'd have to say the Fuze over the clip, I hate looking at small screens, which is a pitty as I've heard the clip is a good little player.

Video playback isn't a great priority anyway, I just find watching videos on a small screen a pain in the rear end.

I was looking at Sony MP3 players, have they moved to drag and drop yet ?

[TheAnimus]

yeh, the X series has great sound quality too.

You might want to wait a little thou, the zune is now over here, and they are pretty solid bits of kit, with any luck the win phone 7 might have a trickle down effect bringing better games or at the least cheaper price point?

[jim]

I've got a Creative Zen, which I really like. SD card slot can't be used to expand the library, but it can be used to add extra storage. So you can get 16GB of music onto the player (or 32GB if you go for the X-Fi version), then add a 16GB SD card for television, or audiobooks, or even music if you don't care about the library issue.

Good enough screen to watch TV on, much easier to sync than an iPod (anything works), good range of cases and so on available. No reason to complain thus far

[Behemoth]

The Zune isn't something that I've even considered to be fair. I'll have to do a bit more digging into that and see what I think when its released.

I did see the Creative Zen, and I do like the look of the Xfi

I'm not in any rush, most of the time I listen to music on the move in the car and the CD Player in that is MP3 capable, its just nice to have an MP3 player for when I want more choice than whats on the CD/Radio and when I'm working on a PC in the garage for someone.

[Pob255]

If you want good sound quality and just want to lissen to music not watch video or anything like that (ie no colour screen) then Sansa Clip mine's only a 4gb but I love it to death.

Only thing to be careful of is not to drop it onto hard surfaces, the reason is that while it may look fine outwardly sharp knocks can cause the wire to the battery to snap/become disslodged.
I found this out to my cost, out of warranty so I've had to open it up (easy if you don't mind slight damage to the caseing, very hard to do without causeing some damage) and solder the wire back on, a bit tricky as it's small and fiddly but I managed it even with my ropey soldering skills.
Please note that was after I droped it while on a set of concrete stairs, the outter case was undamage by the fall.

http://anythingbutipod.com/2008/02/s...-ipod-shuffle/

The Sony Walkman's are said to be very good for sound quaility too.

[Behemoth]

I've had nothing but iPod for the last 6 years which I don't think helps. But I refuse to buy another one this time round.

Leaning more and more towards the Sansa range at the moment.

[Hicks12]

yeah i will admit that video is useable but i wouldnt recommend it on the fuze, however they might have improved that on the fuze+ but not a clue really . Other than that you wont be disappointed, if you've had normal ipods then you will be used to the wheel right? The Fuze is just like that but with a very nice mechanical version, works very well and my apple fanatic friend actually agreed with me when i had one!(it didnt break but I wasnt using it and so sold it, kinda wish i kept it now as it was lovely to have).

Another bonus is that the player (both clip/fuze) will integrate the micro sd into the main library so for example if you buy a 4GB fuze and add a 4gb micro sd it will be as if you bought an 8gb version. Works flawlessly and if you plug it into the computer it is detected as a separate device so you could use it as a micro sd card reader haha.

But again the screen is good on the fuze for looking at (not videos mind), can be bright if you want it and good in sunlight (at a good brightness though!) and the UI is very very easy to use. Also the clip/fuze support pretty much everything like uncompressed formats (flac etc) and obviously MP3, has gapless support iirc and sound gain or what ever it is .

If you do decide to get the fuze original let me know because i think i found an old skin for it (the see through things for phones etc), no use to me as i dont have one now but they are great at protecting it and dont affect useability(improve grip to!).

[edingal]

I wouldn't know where to start, I've never had any probs with my ipod, my first gen touch still works perfect. Hope you find a good alternative.

[Cheapy]

Its just a odd ball of an idea but what about a mobile and music player like nokias express music phones etc? The battery wont be as good but you dont then have to carry around two seperate things then.

[Behemoth]

I really don't mind carrying two devices around with me. As I said the MP3 player would be used more in the car than anywhere else and if I don't need to take into where I'm going then it stays in the car.

In theory I could I suppose buy an 8 Gig MicroSD card and stick it in my Nokia E71, but to be honest for playing music on the E71 isn't the fastest phone in the world.

[kurosagi01]

I have good experienced with Sony Walkman MP3 player,my ipod nano 2g died on me and i bought this cheap 2GB sony walkman player for £25-30 and it had a little "bass" button press it and music just sounds so much better,and i got ipod touch 2g 8gb now but i have to say when the bass mode is enabled on walkman player i think it sounds a lot better than the ipod.
Thats my opinion anyway if i was to not get another apple music player i would go for sony walkman.

[Pob255]

Yes I don't mind 2 devices esp with something as small as the sansa clip, I regularly clip it to the collar of a t-shirt or slip it into the pocket of my shirt, tuck the head phone lead inside, so I can lissen while doing things like the washing up or case modding, and not getting tangled in the wire.
Nothing worse than kneeing down to do something, then standing up only to find the headphone lead got caught under your foot, I've broken a couple of pairs of headphones doing that in the past.

I currently have, on my 4gb sansa clip, 1.37gb consisting of 290 music tracks (about 20 albums) and 1.7gb of podcasts, audio books and radio shows (I love radio downloader) which is about 25 hours of spoken word material at 128kbs, more if it's only 64kbs (which you can just about get away with for spoken word)
And I don't have to use Iplayer which is a factor I love.

[aidanjt]

I returned it to the store it came from today to be told if I wanted to replace it with the current gen iPod touch I'd have to stump up the difference between the two as they couldn't throw down that much discount on doing a like for like swap.

Did you not remind them that they're legally required to do so?

Ridiculous that you have to, it means they're scamming gullible customers out of their hard earned, more than they already do, that is.

[Terbinator]

yeh, the X series has great sound quality too.

You might want to wait a little thou, the zune is now over here, and they are pretty solid bits of kit, with any luck the win phone 7 might have a trickle down effect bringing better games or at the least cheaper price point?

Only the marketplace is available over here and the WP7 phones being the only Zune hardware you can get here as well from what i can tell. If thats not the case then it looks like my 30GB 1st gen could be retired soon