20GB Ipod VS 30GB Dell DJ VS 40GB Zen Touch Which is best?

[leglez]

Ok i'm going to be getting an MP3 player after christmas but was wondering which one i should get?

Should i get a 20GB Ipod $259

40GB Zen Touch $259

30GB Dell DJ $299

Which is the best in your guy's opinions and why?

 

[Eureka]

Out of those three, I'd say the Zen Touch, but I'd recommend the 20GB iRiver H10 if you haven't looked at that yet.

Zen is the best price-per-value, and it's from a reputable company. Dell DJ is also good, my friend has one. And yes, I dislike iPods.

Norm

 

[leglez]

Ok what would you recommend between the H10 and Zen?

Also as for headphones what should i get are these good? I want something that either goes in my ears, sits on my ears, or goes around the back of my head, I dont want those huge gaming headphones or anything that goes over the top of my head.

 

[Eureka]

The H10... that's what I'm hoping to get. You can view pictures on it... although I'm not sure if you want to look at a 1.8" screen. Also, it has the touch pad, which (in theory) should make it easier to use.

Norm

 

[leglez]

Hmm ok I'm going to look around and look for some reviews of both before i decide and go up to staples or something and see if i can test them out for myself

 

[Eureka]

Best to do that. And tell your results, I want to get one too.

Norm

 

[Unkno]

get the newer generation of ipod which is 30gb and comes with a larger screen to allow watching videos (very high quality).

 

[leglez]

I searched for it on newegg couldn't find it do you have a link to it? How much is it?

 

[Eureka]

30GB ipod is 300 I believe, you have to get it from store.apple.com.

I'd stay away from iPods, 6 hour battery life (compared to 16 for H10 and 24 for Zen), and there was that whole battery thing where it would last a year and then die.

Norm

 

[leglez]

Well would you suggest something else for video then? Cause I would love to be able to take it to classes and be able to watch videos on it.

 

[JDub02]

I have a Dell DJ30. I like it. Solid construction and looks good (I like the brushed metal look over the white Ipod). I will concede the fact that the Ipod interface is about the best going. Their little click button whatever is pretty slick. Better than the scroll barrel on the Dell. But the Dell isn't bad and I got 30 gigs for $230 or so compared to $290 for a 20 gig Ipod.

 

[Eureka]

Originally posted by: leglez
Well would you suggest something else for video then? Cause I would love to be able to take it to classes and be able to watch videos on it.

There are plenty of good dedicated video playing machines...
http://www.creative.com/products/produc...egory=210&subcategory=211&product=9882

If you ask me, there's no reason to watch videos on a 2" screen anyway...

Norm

 

[leglez]

Do you know any other with at least a 40GB hdd? 20GBs won't last me very long. Also that Zen vision or whatever only has a 3.8" screen. Not much of a difference

 

[Eureka]

Yeah, but it's a bit better to view a movie on than a 2.5". Plus you get double the video viewing time.. iPod is rated for 3 hours, the Zen PMC is for 7 hours.

Anyway, there's the iPod 60GB video if you're into that, or the older Zen Xtras.

Norm

 

[leglez]

Yea the 60GB VIpod is the one im looking at

 

[theslickvik]

Your question is very vague in that you dont define the best. All rounded and good bang for the buck i would recommend the Zen touch. I would say the dell is lackluster for a multitude of reasons. The ipod looks the best, but then again everyone has one. The ipod is a bit pricey but the interface is to die for. It is foolproof etc....However in terms of battery life...errrrrrr...i dont want to get started. The 8 hrs number that apple gives you is the biggest corporate lie in years. THe top i got from mine is 3 hours.

BOTTOM LINE: ZEN

 

[Unkno]

ipod batteries last 16hours.....

 

[Griffinhart]

I have a zen micro, and it's been excellent. I'd imagine the Ten Touch is of similar quality.

Personally, I'm staying away from iPod's in general. They don't support music subscription services like Rhapsody, Napster and Yahoo music. While Zen's don't support ITMS, there are work arounds for that. But, I love my rhapsody subscription and woudln't want to give it up because I got an iPod.

 

[LtPage1]

The new 30Gb iPod Video.

 

[Eureka]

Hehe, I tested the ViPod 30GB and iRiver H10 at Best Buy the other day... walked out with a h10. The iPod looks like a wafer... a really fragile wafer.

Norm

 

[Wuzup101]

I have to agree with some of the above posters. When you buy an iPod you're paying a premium for the unique/awesome user interface. It's definitely not the most full featured thing out there, but it does what it's intended to do. Sound quality isn't as high as some, and it doesn't support everything, so take that into consideration when buying. I personally would rather have the user interface than anything else, and that's why I own an iPod. I'm not an audiophile, I typically use my iPod in the car, at the gym, and while walking around a fairly large college campus. I could care less if the sound quality isn't quite as good as some other players out there. I'm not using lossless encoding (far from it) and I don't have $300 in ear headphones - if you do then consider something else. If you want the easiest to use mp3 player out there, go for an iPod.

Battery life at this point shouldn't really be that big of a deal IMHO. How many times do you listen to 30hrs of music straight w/o access to power. The iPod has plenty of juice to last all day in most people's cases. If you're into taking large road trips, pony up for a $10 car charger. When you get home and are done using the iPod for the day... charge it! I've yet to run out of juice on my 4th gen 20gb iPod for any reason. Of course, you're results may vary - and of course, that is why you have a choice of what to buy.

 

[DeadMilkman]

Reasons to buy an iPod:

#1. User Interface
(hardware/software) is the best of the bunch.
Even if you don't like iTunes you can use other programs because so many try to code to include ipod support.

The massive use hits up on #2 as well.

#2 3rd Party Support. Ipod is the king of 3rd party support...If you want a gadget for it, someone makes it and sells it at wallmart. Most of these 3rd party hard/software is ipod specific and built to work with it well.

#3 Warrentee Support:
Apple is one of the best about support. AS LONG AS It is in warrentee.
(mainly because a very vocal minority of its users are prefectionist assholes)

Example: My girlfriend's ipod stopped charging...she filled out an online form, they sent her a box via next day Airborne Express. Her ipod was back to her 5days later repaired (*note she had her's custom engraved, it was not a replacement sent back)

One of the above poster's mentioned only getting three hours on it...Apple's battery policy would cover this IF it was under warrentee it would be a free replacement. If its not its 60$.


Why NOT to buy an ipod:

#1. You want it cheap.

While Apple is not the cheapest....its kinda funny that THEY are the ones who continually lower the MP3 player price point. Several other competitors have had to eat losses just to match/beat Apple when they do a lower price point.
(if they don't lower/beat they get destroyed.) This is oddly enough why Apple is never cheapest (unless they just lowered price points) because most of the rest of the competition has been commoditized, and Apple likes to price just enough to pressure competion to be lower while still at a premium based on their costs..


#2 You don't like Apple. You don't like popular/pop culture.

nuff said

#3 You don't like iTunes and want to buy from another store.

This imho is the "One true arguement" If you like rental services, or renting your music via subscription...you cannot use an ipod. ACC (itunes format created by Dolby) is a direct competitor to WMP (created by Microsoft) Neither wants to the other to win...
Apple choose not licence Fairplay (a DRM extension to ACC) because in all honesty they want to win the music store wars and are just now barely turning a profit off it.
(iTunes store was not created to sell music...it was created to sell ipods...Apple gets 5-10 cents PER song to pay for, run, and host the Itunes store...66 goes to the labels*who give 5-20 to the artists, 28-33 goes to Credit card process fees)

#4. You want some kitchen sink feature that a 3rd party does not provide to Apple.
(See also "I wanna play OGG"

You are the weakest link (minority niche consumer). Sorry, buy the company that is supporting your niche and not apple.

4a. Extended feature:
see battery life

Usually someone one ups Apple for a little bit...Get what you want if these really matter to you...Everyone is unique on this aspect.

 

[TSS]

i'd more then likely go for the zen if i had to buy one. simply because it offers more storage space for the same money. that and the ipods my friends have crash my mobile HDD when we try to tranfer files at school

but really, from what i heard the battery life's longer which is always a good thing and havent heard anything bad about the sound quality either. they support enough formats too. and yeah, the apple's interface is easy and foolproof. but for the price you pay i definatly ask myself "am i a fool?". i just find it cheaper to spend some time figuring it out then to pay that much more money.

i bought a 1 GB flash MP3 player for 100 bucks when they where dropping in price back in march. took me a day to figure out where every menu was, but in the end i did. also bought 2 rechargable batteries for like 10 bucks. a 512 mb shuffle still costs 100 bucks. the sound quality's the same. my 2 batteries keep it going for 12 hours too. mine does have a display, the shuffle doesnt. and i have like double the space (which i need, too). i did replace my batteries recently with another 10 bucks pair, but that still beats replacing the entire player. or sending it away for a few days.

in the end though it all comes down to what you want. if you want a easy interface, and a little more comfort, you pay the premium price. if you want storage, its good to settle with a less "hyped" player. i do give the ipod the advantage of beeing supported by alot of makers and all the accesories made for it, but it still depends if you actually want to buy those. but i'd go for the storage.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Personally, you'll be plenty happy with either the iPod or the Zen Touch. I used to not be a fan of the iPod, but after using one for a few months, I grew to like it a lot. The only thing I missed from my Zen Touch that I had been using mostly before it, is the battery life (which never was a problem for me with the iPod).

Not to say anything bad about the iPod, as its been my favorite MP3 player, and I've used plenty of them (Zen Touch extensively for one), but I was positively astounded by what I heard someone in my marketing class say.

They said that they did not know of a single other MP3 player that could hold as many songs or have as many features as the iPod. The instructor, while not exactly knowledgable on the vast amount of players out there knew enough that it wasn't true and he was trying to say in a nice way that the person didn't know much (seriously, unless all you go to is the Apple Store, how could you not know of other players that offer as much storage and features?). I would've corrected them, but I gave up talking in that class after discussing some other things and the absurdity that the people would say (they're the typical brainwashed consumer that now hates Wal-Mart but still shops there, thinks Apple is the only MP3 player because it looks good, would say BOSE makes excellent products, among the many other trends in consumer stupidity).