Today I got a mail from one ebay member asking about the mp4 players, known as Chinese Ipod clone, that I bought before.
Don't call them chinese Ipod, because real Ipod is also made in China, haha.

Frankly to say, these AKA MP4 players are not reliable on their quality.
Some got fake memory, some got short battery life, bad alligned LCD, loosed connectors(earphone, usb), unuseful CD, easy-burn adapter, etc.

I don't mean all are same, if you are lucky, you can get real nice one with real memory.
They look same, but they are all different, I mean they are changing continuously in details as...
Firmware ( graphics, functions, games)
Buttons (some are real nice, some are xxx)
LCD ( Resolution, size, physical fittings)
Earbuds Connector (2.5 or 3.5)
USB connector (same to Motorolla or funny one)
Memories : I don't treat them got real 4Gb or 8Gb even 2Gb, mostly they have only 1Gb.

Try 2Gb on same price, I got around 30 players from ebay, they are at least 1Gb and some 2Gb are real.
Don't go to 4Gb or 8Gb, they are 1Gb.

Don't be a fool with their warrantee, mostly, their price is cheap and shipping is high.
You can return them, but you will get nothing.
If you want to buy them, bid under($00) their buy-it-now price, that's the way you won't regret.

I prefer sansa e200 series.
Their s/w is nice and longer battery life and playing time.
I think I don't need to tell about sansa more.
But treat them carefully, all the mp3 player have same problems with their tiny-fragile-thin board inside, that I fixed a lot.

----------Important-------------------------------------------------------------
Never synchronize with your Windows Media Player and the player.
First you listen on the PC and then copy to the player, one by one.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, sansa is reliable company for memory maker.
And personaly I like their design and color(black) and wheel controller.
Most important thing... is, they have hard and glossy outer case and long exchangeable battery playing life.
Ah, one more, reasonable price compare to Ipod.

I got several sansa series from e250 to connect.
If you are handy(wo)man and you can fix some troubles, you can choose second hand e250 in cheap price.
Mostly, second hand ones have memory problems that are caused by - as I wrote - don't syncronize...
Maybe, you can format and upgrade to newer firmware easily.

Good Luck.