portable MP3 players- HELP


hey folks!
I will be going on a very long trip soon and I have been lokoing into portable players such as iPod, iRiver, Creative Nomad Jukebox, and others.

Anyone have any opions pro/con or suggestions?

-I would like at LEAST 10gigs internal memory.
-music only (don't need video/photo or recording features)
-easy drag and drop download to/from my windows (XP)based laptop

I thought I would ask you guys since you all seem to be well-versed in music collecting and such!
I got LOTS of music I wanna take with me!

THANKS in advance!
*Tommy
 

Gurgitoy2

Active Member
Well, I can only give you an iPod perspective, but it was one of the ones you mentioned, so here goes...

I got a 30gb iPod Photo for my birthday and I love it so far. I did some research about different brands and features and decided to settle on the iPod. I got the Photo version basically for the easier to see color display. I really don't care about the photo aspect of it, and don't plan on using it, but for $50 more than the normal iPod (and 10 gigs more space), I got the photo version.

First, it's so sleek and cool looking, and I really do find the display easier to see than the standard iPod's. Plus I like that I can see the album art with the tracks. You do have to get the album art yourself a lot of the time though, but I don't seem to mind that yet. It's just drag & drop, so it's not hard to do.

Second, iTunes is very easy to use for downloading music or uploading your CD's onto your computer. I was worried about that at first, but for the most part, once you pop in a CD, it reads it and gets the track info (not always correct, mind you), and you can burn the whole thing in minutes. Although the burn time depends on the power of your computer.

I used to use MusicMatch as my default MP3 playback and burn program, but now that I got iTunes, I prefer that. I have not had any issues with my iPod or iTunes yet, and I hope I don't in the future.

My advice to you, Tommy, is to go check out epinions.com and look at the reviews for the various MP3 players you're interested in. It helped me out.
 

Zarpman

Member
iPod definitely wins for coolness. It's the defacto standard when most reviewers are comparing the devices. Plus, it's the only player you can use with the iTunes music store which, if you plan on purchasing music online, has the best catalog and feature set.

I agree with Ben - the best value is the 30GB iPod Photo. $50 is cheap for an extra 10GB and a color display which is MUCH easier to see indoors and out. The photo display is a novelty that wears thin, but the currently playing album art wins for me.

Just my .02
 

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