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General discussion

Holiday Rush, Confusion of Choice

Dec 17, 2004 3:58AM PST

I'm shopping around for a micro hard drive mp3 player for christmas. Right now I'm leaning toward the zen micro because of its great reviews and physical appeal. However in the cnet ipod assassins guide there are two other mp3 players that seem to be good choices. The dell pocket dj seems to be a decent player at a good price and the gateway mp3 photo jukebox appeals to me because of its color screen and photo capabilities. However, I've been waiting for their reviews to be published for some time now and they still haven't come out. Please give me some advice on which player would best fit my needs (1-audio quality, 2-ease of use, 3-support/firmware upgrades, 4-style/size, 5-features such as radio and recording). Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Confusion of Choice
Dec 23, 2004 12:29PM PST

The Creative Zen Micro!

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which mp3 player
Dec 24, 2004 12:59AM PST

I would recommend that you get the Zen Micro. It's a Cnet Editor's Choice and I have found that Cnet is quite accurate about these things. I had been debating between the Ipod Mini and the Zen Micro and finally went with the Micro becoz of the following:

- great storage capacity (5GB) versus 4GB for the Ipod Mini;
- support for many different formats, including WMA files. I have a lot of songs downloaded from pay services like Napster, MSN Music and MusicMatch and they all use WMA formats. Ipod Mini does not support WMA files and that can be a real problem if you have a lot of songs legally downloaded;
- FM tuner - nice to listen to if you get sick of your playlists Happy
- replaceable battery. That's a big deal for me as I have several friends who own Ipods and have had endless problems with failing battery life after about 12 months of use. One friend sent her Ipod to Apple to have the battery replaced and it cost her $150! Replacement batteries for the Micro cost $40 and you can replace the battery yourself.
- lastly, the Micro looks pretty cool!