I bought my creative zen micro in dark blue from www.purefiveaudio.com and like it alot. It's pretty small, nice lighting around the screen, and I have no complaints yet. I haven't used the ipod mini, but can't imagine anything better than the Zen. I really like how it fits your palm while too, unlike the mini which is long and straight in shape.
What do you think is the best/up-and-coming HD MP3 player? What do you think the current trend is with HD MP3 players? Let me know what you think! Here's my take on the current MP3 player market:
Top companies in my opinion are iRiver, Creative, Archos, and Cowon. Archos only if you want their PMP (almost as small as the iPod and it plays MPEG-4?s!!). Creative?s Zen Touch is great, though it?s getting a little dated with all the new feature-laden MP3 Players coming out. iRiver has some slick designs (finally a cool-looking black MP3 Player!) and is the king of audio features, though the players are thicker than most. And Cowon has the extremely thin iAudio M3 (10% slimmer than iPod, what?), which, despite its lack of main LCD, is looking pretty attractive to me right now.
As for what?s on the horizon? haven?t heard anything about a Creative developing a new 20GB player yet (though I would certainly be interested considering the stellar battery life on the Zen Touch). iRiver?s H3XX series just came out so that?ll be the newest thing from them for a while. There is a lot of anticipation about Cowon?s next players, slated for first-quarter releases. The X5 will be similar to MP3/PMP crossovers that can play video and could turn out to be really hot. Cowon?s other to-be-released player, the M5(L), follows suit from the super thin M3, but supposedly boasts over 30 hours of battery life, unprecedented in the MP3 Player market. If this is on schedule to be released in March, I might just have to wait for it to come out.
Which player do you have the most anticipation for? Or is there already one out that kicks everyone else's ***?

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic