which is the better mp3 player? ipod nano, creative zen micro, or mpio hd400? min. 4GB.?

Question

i like the look and feel of the nano. however, i feel that ipod is overrated. but i can get it for pretty much the same price as the zen or mpio hd400. i would most likely prefer one with an fm tuner (can you get an fm tuner on an ipod?). a long battery life. easy to use and organize - something that you can search by artist / title / playlist or play all. maybe something that is durable (as i will be using it at the gym). unless there are other products out there that are comparable, or better than these? i'm open to suggestions. i'm also not sure about the mpio brand (reliability, etc). also, would you suggest one that is battery operated, or charged through the usb port on a computer? how much heavier might a battery operated one be? i know they're only 110g or less, but the lighter the better. i want something that's small and light weight, but versatile to use. one that looks nice most definitely :) i'm sorry, i'm just really picky (and confused). thanks so much for your input.

Answer 1

I have a Creative Zen Microphoto (8GB) which is my wife's and a Creative Zen Vision M (30GB) which is mine. I really like both players.

Both contain an FM tuner.
Both work with subscription music services such as Yahoo Music Unlimited To Go, Rhapsody To Go, and Napster To Go.
Both are really easy to use. The Creative Zen Vision M (ZVM) has improvements over the Microphoto.
Both have the artist, title, playlist, play all capabilities you ask fore.
Both have long battery life (8-12 hours) if you just put the player on random song play. If you fiddle with the song lists constantly, playtime on the battery significantly drops off to a few hours.
I don't mind that they are rechargable battery operated. They'd eat through regular batteries which is expensive and bad for the environment.
The Zen Microphoto is nice and lightweight and compact. The Zen Vision M is bigger, heavier, but it also has more features like video, album art, better color display.

Both of these devices are hard drive based so don't go jumping around while at the gym.

You might want to hold out a little longer. Creative is announcing a new player in about two weeks. Once you know more about the features of this new player, then you might make your purchase decision. Note that it can take 2-3 months before Creative players are widely available after their announcement dates.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/16/creative-lets-us-know-theres-a-new-player-coming/

---

This just in ... Creative announced their Zen V and V plus flash based players with line-in jack recording, video playback, and 15 hours of playback time.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/20/creative-reveals-zen-v-and-v-plus-flash-based-daps/

Answer 2

Following on from "Knowledge Seeker"'s answer, the ipods don't have a built-in FM tuner but you can buy an special attachment that plugs into your ipod that gives you FM radio. It's a bit expensive though at $49. If radio is important to you, you might get better value elsewhere.

As for which MP3 player to choose, I have a Creative Zen Micro 6GB. I find it very good - user-friendly, built-in radio, removable rechargeable battery and reasonable battery life.

However, the Zen Micro is a bit out-of-date now. There are better Creative MP3 players out there. Have a good look at the Creative website (as well as Apple's and other brands like Sony, Samsung and iRiver) before deciding.

The advantage of the ipod nano is that is very small (about the size of a credit card). However, you can only put 4GB at most on it.

Answer 3

The Creative Zen Micro is better, beuase of the overall quality, and the features, the Creative has more features built in than the Ipod does.

Answer 4

I like Creative Zen Vision:M better. It may not have itunes but if you have Rhapsody you can transfer songs on it for free. It has a higher resolution so the color is very clear and rich.