My girlfriend wants a mini Ipod for Christmas. Personally I cant get my head paying over a £150 for a player that holds 4GB when you can buy a player like the Creative Labs Zen Touch that holds 16GB more and has better battery life for less money. Whats everyone think?


On a seperate matter are there any players on the market that combine a MP3 player and DAB radio? I have seen ones with FM radio but would prefer a DAB. I know that Perstel have one but I cant get used 2 that ariel

ipod minis selling factors are size, brand, user experience, design

You might think a zen touch is better but it is bigger, not perceived to be as cool and some would say the design isn't as nice, ipod users would also say that the cool wheel interface on the ipod is superior to other mp3 players (ipod users are mugs)

Many people find they have no need of many gigabytes of storage on an mp3 player.

The MINI mp3 players should be considered a separate breed from the larger harddrive relatives. they use smaller harddrives which enable the player to be smaller and lighter. there is an avalanche of similar mp3 players coming out in the run up to christmas.

Creative themselves are releasing the "Zen Micro" as a rival to the ipod mini. this has a better specification as it is 5gb instead of 4 and has a radio and a replacable battery with longer life. I think this is the same price or slightly more money than an ipod mini. oh and it comes in different colours.

I am in the reverse situation where my girlfriend wants to buy me an ipod mini for christmas! I considered it as it would be a fun gadget to have, but have decided to go for an mp3 player of my choosing instead

Well they're not good value versus the bigger 20-40MB players. And they're iPods (fine if you just want a jukebox, problematic if you want it to be a music player as well, due to lack of gapless support). And you could always investigate the tiny load-a-few-hours-at-a-time stick players if you really want something small. But they do look really really nice...

I bought a Zen Xtra - 60Gb which was, and still is a lot cheaper than my mates 40Gb Ipod. It sounds better, and I now have only 600Mb free on it even though my friends said 60Gb was too much space. Like all things you may want to think size doesn't matter, but in the end..... The Ipods look pretty, but you pay a LOT for that.

Irrespective of the size of it's hard drive, the iPod Mini is tiny! A neighbour had both for a while, and I couldn't believe how small it is compared to an iPod.

iPod's are the height of quality and style.

Non-technical advice: If the woman wants it and you can afford it, within reason, then don't question it. Buy her a mini iPod and make her happy.

That is just about the most objective, constructive and downright honest advice that I've ever seen on any technical/audio/hifi forum!

Nice one, Abit

Creative make gizmos for techies who get aroused by specifications and enjoy navigating file trees to find their music; Apple make things for people.

My husband bought himself a 2nd generation iPod a couple of years back, at the same time as a friend bought the Zen version. The iPod is still going strong (and has now been joined by a 2nd hand 1st gen which is sitting next to me happily playing as I type), the friend with the Zen has had to replace it a number of times as they can't withstand being dropped even once. Both iPods have been bounced a number of times (we're a clumsy pair) with no ill effects at all. I may need to replace my iPod in the next year or so - it's beginning to show its age, the screen is quite scratched etc., but it is still in perfect working order.

I wouldn't leave home without it!

iPod every day of the week, its apple, its style, its popular. The design looks fantastic and the iPod mini's are superb.

The operation of the iPod is brilliant, they have managed to make perfectly logical menus which are easy to use, smart and can do multiple things. I don't know if the new zen has it anymore but they used to have a physical scrollwheel, i didn't get it because if i have got over 300 artists on my list, to scroll would take ages and is no were near as comfortable and quick as the iPod scrollwheel, sorry if some people think im a bit of a moaner going on about this but the practicality of the design of the iPod is superb.

Just get the iPod man...

I have an IPod the 20GB version not the mini version. I would say buy the IPod Mini for your girlfriend. I was trying out the Creative Zen in the shop were I bought the Ipod and I thought as I like a lot of heavy metal and other artists that the Crative Zen wouldn't do me as it scrolls down a lot slower than the Ipod. So ended up buying an Ipod.

The problem I had with my Ipod is the headphones. You'll end up buying somemore as the headphones supplied by Apple are way to tinny and basically have no bass ssound in them or it's very little. I replaced them with cheap pair of Sony headphones and are bassy enough that I don't have to use the EQ on the Ipod.

Apart from the above I have been pver the moon with my Ipod on it.

the wheel interface on the iPod is superior to other mp3 players.

whether or not it is "cool" is less important.

Iain

Look into iRiver IHP120 and 140. Direct encoding on them unlike the iPod which is the MAJOR plus for me. Also, you don't need to install any software - you can if you wish to upload a database of your tracks onto the player to make searching easier. It's a lot cheaper too. 40GB version is aroung the same price as the 20GB iPod. The two reasons to go for the iPod is the 'cool' factor and the click-wheel (easy navigation).

There's optional auto-sync of all the Mp3's on your PC's Hard Drive and iPod just by connecting it. This would have been good for me but I intend to delete the Mp3's off my PC's Hard Drive to free up space. If I then tried the auto-sync, all my tracks would be deleted since there's no Mp3's on my PC's Hard Drive. I'd have to upload tracks the normal way, which makes the optional auto-sync function useless to me.

Is it true that the the iTunes software can be buggy?

I cant see myself ever paying around £180 for a "portable music player". Its a lot of money which could be used for other stuff. I even saw a mini hifi at the weekend with built in DAB for less than that.

Another issue I have with ipods and mini ipods is the size. The very small models like those from creative labs may only hold 128Mb, but they are tiny (like a small remote control). I would more likely get one of those. And dont forget, after spending all that money, the sound quality is worse than normal CD. Now, if Apple could make a SACD quality ipod, for around £200, that would be more like it - at least you could see (or rather hear) where the money was being spent.

But none of this takes into effect the "X" factor. The "must have" factor. Image, etc, etc. I guess most people buy it on the plastic, pay it off £5 a month.

I dont think things like ipods are for people of my age!

Dave

There was another thread about this here recently and it seems that this is not true. If you delete the file but leave its entry in the iTunes library then it stays on the iPod.

All software is buggy in some way or another - whether you ever notice the bugs is another matter. The only one I've seen in iTunes 4.7 so far is that sometimes when I tell it to eject a CD, it does so but then doesn't recognise a different one when it's inserted and continues to show the track listing for the old one.

I paid £250 for a minidisc player about 6 years ago and have recently replaced it with an iPod. I spend 2 hours a day on a train and music helps to pass the time. The iPod sounds just as good as, if not better than, the minidisc player. It also has the major advantage of being about the same size and weight as the old player and I don't have to fill my pockets up with discs nor do I have to choose which discs I want to take with me today.

Speak for yourself! Of course, you don't say how old that is...

ipod and other mp3 players should sound similar to MD - the quality is similar. But CD is better.

There is also an issue of software/hardware always (or not) working together. What hapens when in a few years time you get a new ipod and it will not work with your existing computer (or the otherway around)? And what happens if you download loads of music from the net (legally) and your computer breaks down with total loss of the hard disc contents? - would you have to re-download all that music again, and pay again?

Dave

I don't buy music online, only on CD. The iPod is for listening to my CD collection while on the move. I'm also gradually converting all my vinyl to MP3 format. I back up the contents of the directory that holds all my mp3 collection onto DVD+RW on a regular but infrequent basis!

So it should be. But the iPod can hold CD quality music too as WAV files. A 40GB iPod could hold about 60 CDs in WAV format and be the same quality. It can also use another lossless compression format that reduces the size to about half that of WAV. For me, I'm listening on the train and even with noise insulating headphones, the external noise is enough to make the difference between CD and MP3 inaudible.

Thanks for that, it'll come in handy when making a decision. Are you sure about it though? Have you got a link to that thread?


I'd disagree in that, I don't think all software is buggy.

I think most of the ones where you have a link between hardware and software have some problems.