Okay, my 1 year(just out of warranty) Creative Zen X-fi 16GB has decided to give up the ghost permanently. So... what should I replace it with? I've shortlisted: Ipod Touch 32GB Cowon s9 32GB Samsung P3 32GB Samsung YP-R1 32GB Is there anything else worth considering, that isn't a creative product(since I've decided they have serious quality control issues)
Cowon! I love my Cowon product to bits and as long as you don't mind lots of settings then it's brilliant.
Problem with the s9(besides the huge price and the need to encode in flac to make the best of it) is it's due for replacement...Cowon j3 which I'd hope come out in the 32GB capacity as well.
If you are in the states, you have the Zune HD. Compared to the iPod Touch, you have: - Zune pass (15$ per month, unlimited downloads, and at the end of the month you can download 10 songs for free, yours, DRM free, in high quality) - Superior headphones and sound card chip - Can be used as a portable Media Center like when attacked to a TV via HDMI (with the dock station) Dock Station comes with all you need and remote. - No open development games/application... - Zune software is far superior to iTunes. Alternatively, you can wait for Windows Phone 7 (if you are looking for a cell phone), where you have a built-in Zune. It is expected to be sold worldwide, and is out at the end of this year. The platform will be open for developers. Windows Phone 7 is a very promising phone OS, which great features, and resolves issues that the iPhone interface has. Having this as an OS as is for phones, allows a wide variety of phone models (touch screen only, or touch screen with keyboard, or slide out keyboard with touch screen, OLED or LCD screen and so on, all from different providers).
sony walkman x series best mp3 player by a long way amazing screen amazing sound quaity drag and drop system or windows media player which is so much better than itunes noise cancaling good ear phones which come with nothing better http://www.play.com/Electronics/Ele...-MP3-Player/Product.html?ptsl=1&ob=Price&fb=0
Depends what capacity you want as well. For example I need 45 Gb minimum to get my collection on. Love audiobooks for travelling. This always leans me towards iPod classics as you can't argue with the huge capacitys and to be fair I have big banana fingers and dont get on with touchscreens.
The Cowon is better than the Sony imo bagman, it's £40 cheaper and has particularly good file type support. If it were my choice I'd buy an i9, touchscreens are overrated imo. 32GB is enough for a decent music collection, if you listen to more it's easy to swap it over with a PnP USB player.
If I were in that position I'd buy an iPod Touch and jailbreak it. The Zune HD looks very appealing and all, but I think the iPod would end up being far more versatile because of its massive developer community.
I'm leaning towards the cowon or the samsung p3 so far. I use it for a bit of video so the screen needs to be a decent size, which is why I'd prefer touch. However I think 32GB is more than enough for the next 2-3 years. I didn't shortlist the sony x series since I already have an excellent pair of earbuds and it's price is absolutely massive.
yes it costs £40 more but you don't have to buy a new set of earphones like you would have to do with the cowon or ipod and those noise cancalling earphones you get with the walkman cost £70 on there own so it is actually quite a good deal
I already have headphones. Nice pair of Denon AH-C751's which I'd say are better than any stock earbuds, even sony's.
i got the Samsung YP-R1 16GB brand new for £75, RRP is £189 bargin! its recommended, sounds stunning and the touch screen is very responsive. good review here, with a video overview: http://www.trustedreviews.com/mp3/review/2009/10/15/Samsung-YP-R1-8GB/p1 sony walkman's are only any good if you spend sh!t load one on like the X series, there lower end (E,S) products are rubbish...
I have a S9 and i love it. As far as i know it surpasses most if not all other brands in filetype support, and the BBE+ is a really nice feature. I use mine with a pair o Audio-Technica ATH-A700 Headphones and it's a joy to listen to music with them, works well with Melodic Black Metal. Another plus is the battery life, i use mine daily on my way to work 40min/day and only need to recharge it once or twice a month. I have tried to watch movies with it on airplanes, and if you don't mind the 3 inch screen the there is no problem. didn't even have to shrink the resolution of the movie. and i really like that it do not require any extra software to manage the music or other media on it. The only real downside with it, that I can see is that it dose not come with wireless lan and a browser. But i don't mind i still thinks is one of my best buys.
The screen on the X series really makes it a serious contender - as does iTunes support with the bundled drivers should you want it. The killer for me was BBC iPlayer sideloading support - at the time it was by far the best option when I bought mine a year ago. And the dedicated controls for play/pause, rewind, fast-forward and volume are brilliant. It's not perfect though - you can't make playlists on the player itself. Perhaps the biggest issue though is the proprietary USB cable - it's like having an iPod cable that can't be used for anything else. Based on the above, I would recommend it. However... I managed to break the screen thanks to a 20cm drop onto a tiled floor. The screen still worked properly and registered touches perfectly - but watching video wasn't particularly good tbh. So I took it to Sony's repair centre in Wales - and their charges leave a LOT to be desired. Sony's prices are extremely expensive. They charged £70 just to look at it and provide an estimate - and there was no discount for taking it directly to their service centre in Wales as I did. They also failed to tell me that there was an additional cancellation fee if I chose not to go ahead (about £20). I work for a company that does TV/DVD repairs and £70 would cover a 42" LCD, including collect & return - we certainly don't charge extra for not going ahead with a repair. And not only was the estimate for £200, (about £30 less than buying a new 32GB from Amazon) but Sony refused to break down the costs - so I had no idea how what their labour charges were (something we provide). Unsurprisingly it's the last Sony product I've bought - and for that reason alone I'd advise alone I'd advise against the X10, even though mine was a decent player. It's a pity Creative don't make the Zen Vision M anymore - mine's still going nicely 3 years on...
Another vote for the SonX Series. Got mine for £180 just after Christmas from Play so it might be possible to find it cheaper somewhere else.
The thing that makes Itouch / Phone a great gadget is not the quality of sound. It is all the other things it can do: apps, wifi net surfing,Nike+ receiver. For pure sound quality go for the Creative player with built in X-Fi mp3 enhancement chip. Its the only company that has it. The downside is that If you already have all your MP3's in a Lossless format it doesn't do ANYTHING.
