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iPod MP3 Players - iPod or Not?

aricher

aricher

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Feb 20, 2004
2,211
1
Chi-il
I have a friend who is trying to figure out what kind of MP3 player to buy. I have had iPods since the original 5 GB and am trying to convince him to spend the little extra cash on a new 20 or 40 GB. Can anyone give me some good reasons why he should get an iPod over a Creative Zen? Here's what he wrote me:

"I'm considering buying a (hard-drive) MP3 player and looking for input. Don't need anything major- right now considering a Creative 30GB Zen. Seems like good deal for only $200. Sure, could buy an iPod, but I haven't heard any real benefits over the Creative. I'm just looking for something to drag to work, along for bike rides, and possibly RF or Mini-plug into a car stereo. Don't need to spend more the $200-300."
 
Well at the end it all on personal choice, i use some flash based MP3 players but nothing comes close to how simple and good as an iPod. I have not read anything bad about the Creative so i cant give you much info, all i can say is i am a happy iPoder. Just look at the number.

iPod has something like 90% of the market share of harddrive mp3 players, numbers dont lie.
 
aricher said:
Can anyone give me some good reasons why he should get an iPod over a Creative Zen?
Click to expand...

I would say 2 main reasons:
1) The iPod interface is much easier to use and the click wheel allows very easy navigation at variable speeds through even the longest playlists.

2) The entire iPod experience is much smoother with its seamless integration with iTunes and iTMS. Invite him over and show him how iTunes will control his CDs, rip them to MP3s, make playlists, burn custom CDs at high speed, and allow him to buy songs if he desires. All in one program that simply syncs back up with the iPod. Doesn't get much easier.
 
Well you have to ask yourself one important question.

Say you owned a Zen.
If you met a nice looking girl who happened to be listening to an ipod, would you really want her to see what mp3 player you were using?


My advice: unless you enjoy the idea of celibacy, go for the ipod.
 
mcmav37 said:
... snip ...
2) The entire iPod experience is much smoother with its seamless integration with iTunes and iTMS. Invite him over and show him how iTunes will control his CDs, rip them to MP3s, make playlists, burn custom CDs at high speed, and allow him to buy songs if he desires. All in one program that simply syncs back up with the iPod. Doesn't get much easier.
Click to expand...
I agree with this one.
Several of my mates have bought Creative products. When they see the ease with which I manage my "small-ish" library (3000+) on iTunes & iPod they go very quiet and ask whether their machines will interface with iTunes. The iPod is the hardware part of a package.
 
Take him to Best Buy or some place that will have the two models side by side, and let him play with them both. My bet is that he chooses the iPod without hesitation, because they are that much better.

Daniel
 
The Creative Zen is really not great compared to the ipod, i am not sure why people buy it. I guess because ipods aren't in stock still...
The Creative is:
1) Bulky
2) feels and looks cheap
3) HORRIBLE to navigate through the songs with their vertical scrolling thing
4)Windows Media Player is not as good as itunes looking at the features of itunes
5)ITMS is a superior store to navigate compared to Napster/Real/Msn but it the only annoyance i have with it is that it doesn't offer different qualities
 
You should also mention the incredible breadth of accessories available for the iPod. There are thousands of options for cases, transmitters, special speakers, etc. etc., that are just not available for the Zen.
 
Thanks for all the input - I'll pass it all along to my friend. I just love how helpful everyone is here. Have a great weekend!
 
I was looking at flash-based mP3 players in Wallmart last night and they cost way more than the iPod Shuffle.

128MB for 100.00

256MB for 145.00

iPod Shuffle costs 99.00 for 512MB or 149.00 for 1GB.
 
V.A.Toss said:
Well you have to ask yourself one important question.

Say you owned a Zen.
If you met a nice looking girl who happened to be listening to an ipod, would you really want her to see what mp3 player you were using?


My advice: unless you enjoy the idea of celibacy, go for the ipod.
Click to expand...

:D
Very very nicely put... :D :cool:
 
greatm31 said:
You should also mention the incredible breadth of accessories available for the iPod. There are thousands of options for cases, transmitters, special speakers, etc. etc., that are just not available for the Zen.
Click to expand...
You should also mention the incredible EXPENSE of accessories available for the iPod. There are thousands of options for cases, transmitters, special speakers, etc. etc., that are just not available for the Zen.
 
Solafaa said:
All the cool people have an iPod.
Click to expand...
only the dicks who want a fashion accessory get the iPod and want to be popular. from a MP3 player perspective, you should get a Creative Zen or Creative Zen Micro Photo (way cheaper and looks nicer than the iPod)
 
creative players are more fragile, a friend of mine broke his by dropping his, my ipod has fallen down my stairs a few times and is ok, if he's takeing it for bike rides he'll want the ipod for the durability.
 
is the iPod the only thing that will work with ITunes?

If i were to buy a creative, would it work within itunes?
 
///mdriver said:
is the iPod the only thing that will work with ITunes?

If i were to buy a creative, would it work within itunes?
Click to expand...

No other mp3 players other than Apple's work with iTunes but you can drag and drop the music to the creative I guess, definately go for the iPod.
 
Solafaa said:
Well at the end it all on personal choice, i use some flash based MP3 players but nothing comes close to how simple and good as an iPod. I have not read anything bad about the Creative so i cant give you much info, all i can say is i am a happy iPoder. Just look at the number.

iPod has something like 90% of the market share of harddrive mp3 players, numbers dont lie.
Click to expand...

Microsoft has 90% of its market - doesn't mean it's better.

Don't get me wrong, I have an iPod and love it!
 
I am right now not at my home - and I want to listen to music. I bring my iPod along.

This is what I did today:
-I woke up
-Found out I was going to the city
-Purchased 2 songs and converted some others to lower bitrates because of space on my iPod - didn't matter, still sounds the same - 192 KPBS AAC -> 128 KBPS AAC...
-Realized my iPod ran out of battery
-Quickly put it in the dock
-It charged and sync'd all my music up with it in less than 1 hour (80% charge, songs toom like 1 minute)

If I had my dads MP3 Player, I would be doing the following:

-Woken up
-Found out I was going to the city
-Purchased music on Napster or something worse than iTMS
-Realized my MP3 player was not charged
-Needed to hook it up to the power outlet, which takes up the computer port as well
-Needed to wait 1 hour for the battery to be 50% charged
-Then needed to sync it up w/ my computer by dragging songs and folders to the icon
-Needed to re-charge the battery I lost from doing that
-Needed to unplug the wall charger as it overheats

THEN i am ready to go.

iPod is easier
better
easy to control

iPod is the way a user should expect an MP3 Player to work.
 
creative has a big plus

Creative features time scaling. unlike ipod you can slow down the track to either .5x or .75x the speed at the same pitch. If your a musician that feature alone makes it a highly desireable mp3 above all others.

I don't own either but I'm wondering if I can use the creative with my mac titanium power book.

It is apparently not mac compatible is there a way to use it with my mac any how.

If I can it's a done deal, I'll make all the other sacrifices just to have that one collosal feature.

Who know about opptions for circumventing non-mac compatibility?
 
My boss has a 30G zen and seems to like it. It has an interesting 'feature' if you will... since it uses a normal notebook drive, people have opened them up and put in 80G drives.

Even with that, I'll keep my ipod, the size was a big factor to me. The zen next to an ipod looks big and clunky.

At the end of the day we each have to make our own choices, mine was to spend a few dollars more and get what I really wanted.

(and for choice of software to sync the zen with, on windows, red chair software makes notmad, it seems much nicer than the default option)
 
notmad?

Thanks for the comment rasp.

rasp wrote
(and for choice of software to sync the zen with, on windows, red chair software makes notmad, it seems much nicer than the default option)

I didn't quite get that. Do I need to run virtual windows or can I avoid that through a less invasive means? Is there a driver or a program or something designed specifically for the purpose of hooking-up a PC-only MP3 to a mac?

I'm running the latest osx.
 
j-diddy said:
Thanks for the comment rasp.

rasp wrote
(and for choice of software to sync the zen with, on windows, red chair software makes notmad, it seems much nicer than the default option)

I didn't quite get that. Do I need to run virtual windows or can I avoid that through a less invasive means? Is there a driver or a program or something designed specifically for the purpose of hooking-up a PC-only MP3 to a mac?

I'm running the latest osx.
Click to expand...


Sorry, no experience with the zen on a mac, the only machines my boss has are windows xp. And he has no interest in plugging his zen into os x. Does a zen work with os x? got me. I was just making a more general comment about the zen. Didn't mean for any confusion.
 
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