Ipod video - in my opinion

I really love the ipod, but if you think it will take a bit of bashing, they can scratch and look a little shabby quite quickly. Definitely the ipod but invest in a nice case for it. I've had mine for 2 years and battery is still going fine, not as good as it used to be but there has been no serious decline.

It's been asked time and again on these boards. Personally I reckon the fancy branded hard disk based MP3 players like the iPod, iRiver, etc. are not neccesarily the best option for everybody. They're expensive, relatively delicate and unless you're handy with screwdriver you can't actually swap out the storage medium yourself. Flash/SD memory cards are getting bigger in size (up to 2 GB at the moment) and cheaper all the time, don't have any moving parts to go wrong like a hard disk should you drop it on the pavement, are easily interchangeable and can be reused in other devices such as PDAs, PCs, Digital Cameras, etc. You can pick up an MP3 player that accepts memory cards and works very well extremely cheaply these days. It'll be made by some anonymous south east asian semiconductor/electronics company you'e never heard of, but hey it works, who want's to be suckered out of their cash by an iBrand anyway? If you do go for a hard disk based device, the iRiver seems good, though no-one seems to make a hard disk device that can store my entire MP3 collection, which for me kinda defeats the point of hard disk based players. If I have to take tunes on/off my player, I'll just stick with smaller and more robust solid state storage.

Ive been looking around for a new MP3 player and the one that has caught my fancy is the iAudio X5 60gb version which can be sourced in the UK for about 400 euros. In terms of audio it is one of the best out there. When looking for an mp3 player there are a number of things you need to look for 1) What formats will it play. MP3, Ogg, WMA, etc 2) Will I need software for it to work with a computer. You dont want to head of on a years travel across the world and then find out that you cant connect your mp3 player to a computer in an internet shop 3) How long will the battery last 4) Is the battery/harddrive replaceable 5) Does it have playlists 6) Does it have DRM support 7) Will it work with iTunes and other online stores 8) Does the company release regular updates to the software which runs on the player 9) Can it be used as a portable harddrive. The video and picture stuff is largely just a gimmick and you shouldnt choose a player based on those features Thats my 2c Check out www.mp3players.co.uk. They have some very good personal reviews beside the products they sell

Well spotted mully..changed now to 400 euros :)

I just got a Nokia 6230i for work recently and that has an MP3 player on it. Have to buy a memory upgrade cause you only get 32mb but I like the fact that I don't have to worry about batteries. Don't know about ipods. I just don't trust h/disks especially as I know how delicate the ones in Laptops can be.

"All ipods only have a battery life of about 12months" possibly the biggest load of BS i have seen on this site I have mine nearly 2 years and the battery is fine. Ive used it everyday. I charged it last friday and still was lisntening to it last night

I chose my iRiver solely on the basis of not having to use any c**ty program/itunes to just to stick anything on to it. It's all about the drag and drop.

There is one absolutely key thing when buying an MP3 player that I would add to klootfan's list above: --> Ensure you get a guarantee of at least one year. Other than that, I remain a big fan of the iRiver H300 series, of which I own the 40GB model. Although I have to admit that if huge disk capacity is not a major factor, then I think the 2GB or 4GB iPod Nano is - I believe - the one to go for. Gorgeous piece of kit, even if it has a price premium and the screen allegedly scratches easily. I agree with Damien that the ability to drag 'n'drop provided by the iRiver is vital, for me at least it being something I could not imagine living without. Or something like that. Klootfan is on the money as well when he says video and picture stuff is largely just a gimmick and you shouldn’t choose a player based on those features. eoghan

iRiver gave me a 2 year warranty on my one, the iH140 which was about 2 years ago.

I have an ipod 20gb. The battery is rubbish, anc I wish it had a radio. But it's pretty, and was a gift, so I can't complain. If I was to buy another, it would be an iriver

I have had both iriver and an ipod, and the shear orginazition of the ipod is the only thing that it has going against the iriver. The iriver is cheaper, easier to use, you dont have to deal with apple software, you get a radio, but once the songs are on the ipod life is really good. I would never buy an ipod like una i got it as a gift but i love the thing but for value of money and quality of product iriver is the way to go

On the subject of iPods, myself and two friends bought 20g versions in the states 2 years, batteries are just fine. I haven't bought any mp3s from the iTunes store so I find using iTunes to organise etc reasonably ok. The one real problem is in terms of maintaining two iPod libraries (home PC/work) where the iPod wants one home base as it were. The IRiver has a major advantage here as it just looks like the big old hard disk it is to the PC. As mentioned earlier in this thread, I too am waiting for the flash MP3 players to get up to a decent number of gigabytes. If a 5Gig version becomes an option, the Pod is for the bin.