does anyone know much about mp3 players? looking to get one for teenage son for xmas present but it's all too confusing.

think i want one that can get music off hi fi as well as pc, has room for at least 4hrs or 1,000 tracks. would be good if it could hold photos or documents as well.

what about a sony mz nh900s mini disc? seems to do all that he would want to do.

don't know which of the options is best - hard disc, built in memory or mini disc. don't want a personal cd player though. haven't got broadband so will downloading music be a problem?

as you can tell, i don't know much - i am surrounded by vinyl lp's and cd's - that's how much i know about mp3.

any help much appreciated :confused:

Apple Ipod seems to be the "in-thing" at the moment... Might be getting myself one cheap soon

i pods rubbish honestly.creative labs are the best

i pods rubbish honestly.creative labs are the best

What's wrong with the iPod :confused: I'm about to buy one and need to know!!!

Cheers,

I bought SWMBO a mini iPod a few months ago, and can honestly say that they're great, especially the latest version of the menu/click/wheel thing. Decent sound quality too.

Last month I got the creative zen micro - 5gb hard drive and 12hr (claimed) battery life. Sounds just as good as the iPod, although creative's version of the touchpad isn't as easy to use.

Tough choice really - iPods are harder to get hold of right now, whereas zen micros should be available from the likes of dabs.com. Zens are cheaper, have a bit more storage and better battery life (plus you can change the battery like a mobile's).

Ultimately, it's for a teenager, so style is going to be the most important factor, so it sounds like the iPod. Just make sure you get some replacement headphones - the standard white iPod ones are supposed to be an advertisment to muggers that you have an iPod...!

they break to easily and they are rather big and not very good battery life compared to creative(by the way i do not work for creative and im not advertiseing for them lol)

20gig ipod here - great.

Gets abused and hasn't broken yet, is scratched to death tho'. Battery is fine, sound is great.

Get a Iriver H-120/140, much better alternative to the Ipod plus it's cheaper too .

www.advancedmp3players.co.uk - Best place to buy mp3 players online.

I've got the Rio Karma, excellent! 20GB, battery lasts about 20 hours, just what you need

thanks everyone-still confused but will at least have a better idea now.

Too add a little more confusion -

PC Pro have done a review of the Rio Carbon, they rate it very highly.

5Gb hard drive, plays MP3 & WMA, it's measures just 61 x 12 x 84mm and weighs 78g and only

i pods rubbish honestly.creative labs are the best

I'm getting an mp3 player for mrsdsemuk for xmas gift, and iPod is looking good atm... but I would be interesting as to why Creative Labs are better than the iPod?

now i like these:

creative zen xtra jukebox @ 146.82 from planetmicro

creative muv02 4gb @ 152.00 from simply computers

creative zen micro @ 163.99 from lowestonweb

mini ipods are hard to get hold of by the looks and many others are out of stock. they're as popular as tracey island was!

going into simply computers newly opened shop in wellingborough tomorrow

I'm getting an mp3 player for mrsdsemuk for xmas gift, and iPod is looking good atm... but I would be interesting as to why Creative Labs are better than the iPod?

well compare them to the ipod

creative zentouch

FEATURES

Up to 24 hour(2) battery life at 128kbps MP3 or 32 hour(2) at 48kbps MP3 continuous playback

Up to 97dB Signal-to-Noise Ratio - as good as expensive hi-fi systems!

20GB hard drive holds up to 10,000 WMA or 5,000 MP3 songs(3)

Create and customize playlists on-the-go

Unique search function locates any song, album or artist

USB 2.0 for faster transfer

4-band custom equalizer and advanced EQ presets let you customize your music playback

AudioSync

iPods have the better controls... We've got a zen micro and ipod mini... iPod's wheel is deffo the best...

Sound quality will in part depend in how you encode the music...