Value

When I was first in the market for an mp3 player, I mainly was looking at features and value. This was when the iPod mini debuted, and I decided to go with the Creative Zen Micro 5GB. It seemed like a good deal, and had hands down beaten the iPod in features/value/what I thought would be reliability. As you'll see later in the guide, that wasn't necessarily the case.

I just purchased my iPod 30 GB Black a few days ago, and I absolutely love it. Compared to other players, it's midpriced at $299 for my model, $329 for the 30GB U2 edition (red and black), and $399 for the 60GB version.

Don't ever decide on price alone when purchasing a device like this. I did, and it was a mistake.

Storage / Storage Technologies

There are two types of storage for Mp3 players currently. The first, is flash, and the second is a hard drive.

Flash

Flash devices tend to be much smaller in size, but with the small size, comes another compromise. Flash players tend to have much less storage, and are generally low in price for small capacities. I think that as of this point, the largest amount of flash storage in a player is 4GB. I have seen though, flash drives as high as 64 GB, but until they come down in price, you won't see something that big in a player. The price? $3,500+ Apple products containing flash based storage include the Shuffle (512 and 1GB(1,024 MB), and the Nano family, in 1, 2, and 4 GB capacities. You can get a 4GB nano for around $250. For $50 more, you can get a 30GB iPod 5th Gen.

HDD (Hard Disk Drive Based) Players

These players, like the regular iPod players store their music on regular hard drives, like what you would find in your computer. You can get a much higher capacity hard drive player than a flash player. Now, hard drive players like my iPod can play videos, music, and show photos. Hard drive players tend to be a little bit larger, and are not as good for working out or movement as flash devices. The drive can be damaged through vibration, dropping, or other rough activity. HDD players generally have higher end features such as rechargeable batteries, and others. All hard drive players also have a cache, or additional flash memory. The iPod 30GB has a 32MB flash memory, and the 60GB iPod has a 64MB cache. The cache stores music that is going to played next in your playlist/play sequence. 32MB is about enough for 8 songs. The larger the cache, the longer the battery life. This is because the more it can store on readily available memory, the less it has to spin the hard drive, which deteriorates battery life. This is why you get highly diminished battery life if you select different songs after another, for example going from Coldplay to Three Days Grace. The next song isn't cached, so the drive has to start up again to find it. The same concept goes for if you're playing videos, because video is much higher quality and has to be cached much more often, due to the larger file size.

Features

When I buy a player, I generally look for a screen (I prefer color), a high capacity, and a rechargeable battery.

My Experience

When I bought my Zen Micro, it was great for about 4 months. Then it would hang on boot, freeze up, or do other crazy things. I repeated this process, and after my fifth unit died last week, I decided to get an iPod. I planned on selling the unit as functional, because I bought and iPod as a replacement, but unfortunately it broke. I actually did take good care of it, too. I sold it on eBay for parts. Each time I would send the unit in after it because non-functional, they would charge me $25 because it was out of warranty. I decided I was sick of that. My iPod was working great, until yesterday, when it displayed a folder with a warning sign. I tried everything, and my computer would not recognize it. I popped on by the Apple store today, and without a problem, I received a brand new unit. I was flabbergasted. The level of Apple's customer service is impeccable, and when I buy my next computer, it will be a Mac. The iPod is a fashion statement too, and is amazing on features and quality.

Protection

It is imperative that you buy a case for your iPod, as soon as you start using it. Everyone I know who didn't do this, had scratches by the 3rd day they had it. I prefer hard cases, as I just don't like the feel of the silicone or whatever. Plus, my friend had a Dlo case, and it left markings on his iPod which he couldn't get off. I bought a hard case, which has rubber around the outside and is clear hard plastic. It works great. It does have lots of scratches in it though, which can be buffed out with scratch remover. I'm so glad that I bought it, because all of those scratches would have been on my iPod if i hadn't have bought it. Worth all $29.99 of it.

The motto of the story? iPods are amazing, and can't be beat. Do not buy a Creative, ever. My family members who also recieved them had the same little problems and failures that I did. Just don't buy one.