Any reason not to go with the Zen Vision M?

[blurredvision]

I'm looking to upgade my Nano 1GB, and at first just considered the new release 30GB iPod. However, I'm leaning towards the Vision M, and even though reviews look great across the internet, is there any reason you guys see that this doesn't deserve my money?

I'll have a long, hard road burning all my purchased music from iTunes and reconverting into mp3, but I hope it'll be worth it.

On a side note, which music service should I now check out if I do pick up the Vision M? I certainly will not use iTunes anymore.

Thanks!

 

[KeithTalent]

Did you actually go to a store and play with it? I bought one, took it home, used it for a while and hated it. I had some other problems (pretty sure it was a defective unit) but I also found it quite bulky, at least for my purposes.

There are a lot of people that love them and I am sure they will chime in here, but I just thought I would pass on my experience.

FYI I currently use Toshiba Gigabeat S and am loving it!

 

[chairbornrangerx]

I used to work at best buy, and ipods in general suck IMO. I'd go with the vision M just because its not an ipod =)

 

[Schadenfroh]

Well, my cousin's Creative MP3 player has been unreliable, locked up a good deal and it finally died. He is the only one in my family that uses Creative MP3 players. Creative did RMA it when it died and the 2nd one worked until Katrina buried it in a couple of feet of sediment.

I use an iPod 60gb video, I really like it. About the only major brand of MP3 players that I have not used or owned is iRiver.

It has been the best one that I have used so far, does not lock up, great UI, works with my iTunes music, loads of 3rd party accessories (try to find the nonipod accessories at CC), small, easy to put music on via a WinAMP plug-in. But, if I had it to do all over again, I would have bought the Toshiba to save some money, as I rarely use the video feature of the ipod.

I don?t like the idea of Creative software being on my system (other than drivers for creative labs sound cards). But, its your system to put as much bloat on it as you want ;P

I believe Microsoft's new music store sells DRM laced WMA files that should "Playforsure" on your Zen.

Take a look at Microsoft's new Zune, it is built by Toshiba.

 

[acegazda]

The gigabeat s and the vision m are my two considerations. I own a creative zen micro, and have for 2 years. The audio quality is superior to any comparably sized mp3 player, it puts the nano to shame. They came out with a new version of the vision, the vision w, for widescreen. Its screen is brighter too, better resolution than other visions. The vision m probably has the inferior screen of the three but it is more user friendly and ergonomic. If you use the mp3 funtionality of the vision more than the video, get the vision m, however get the vision w if you watch more videos than you do listen to music. You can also replace betteries and get extras which is another advantage over the ipod. iPods are pretty much like $ony and m$ except you can't substitute an s in their name with a $. They charge extra for the ipod name (and admitadly good style) For the features they have, you should look elsewhere.

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Take a look at Microsoft's new Zune, it is built by Toshiba.

I considered this, but I'm not sure when it'll be released. I got a bonus at work, which is what I'm using to purchase this new player, so if I don't buy one now, I won't.

Also, the Vision M is on sale at CC for $240, plus I have a $40 off coupon that will bring it down to $200. The coupon isn't valid for iPod's.

Thanks for the info so far guys, I appreciate it.

 

[Fishy007]

I own a Vision M that I bought in June of this year. So far it's been pretty good to me.
Pros
- can play DivX stuff
- slightly longer battery life than an iPod
- no need to work with iTunes
- can store data on the system
- not too light (so it doesn't go flying off of my treadmill stand at a small jerk)

Cons
- with the latest firmware you NEED to install the bulky creative software to load files to the player
- accessories are not nearly as plentiful as an iPod
- creative isn't the best company for faithfully updating drivers/software

The main reason I bought the Zen was so I could play my library of DivX stuff. I had already ripped almost 50 dvds to divx and didn't want to convert them to an iPod format again. If this is of no concern to you, then go with the iPod. At the very least, you'll have a metric assload of accessories and plenty of help for any troubleshooting on teh Intrawebs.

 

[blurredvision]

Thanks for the info guys. I went ahead and picked up the Vision M, walked out of Circuit City for $199.99. They had it listed at $299.99, so I matched it to their online price of $239.99, then used the $40 off $199 coupon to bring it down even further. $199 for a 30GB mp3 player that doubles as so many thing? Any day of the week.....

 

[acegazda]

Wow, awesome buy. Post this in the hot deals section!

 

[Razgriz]

Originally posted by: blurredvision
Thanks for the info guys. I went ahead and picked up the Vision M, walked out of Circuit City for $199.99. They had it listed at $299.99, so I matched it to their online price of $239.99, then used the $40 off $199 coupon to bring it down even further. $199 for a 30GB mp3 player that doubles as so many thing? Any day of the week.....

:thumbsup: I'd get one if I didn't already have a Zen MicroPhoto.