Okay, we’ll say it, and understand that we’re writing this post on an old iBook: the iPod line is starting to look tired. Sure, that Touch is elegant in the same way as the iPhone—but its capacity is similar to the Nano, and what if don’t want to carry around a Kubrick-style slab of minimalism? There are now some really nice alternatives out there if you’re willing to walk away from the perks of being a member of the Apple camp.
For example, the revamped SanDisk Sansa View has double the memory and a slightly bigger screen than the new iPod Nano, plus an FM tuner, microphone, and expansion slot, and it costs the same amount. Is it as nice looking? Meh, it’s getting hard to tell at this point, if you value functionality over form. Even the Zune—with a capacity and price equal to the iPod—is starting to look decent, with its well-designed interface, strong styling, and broader format support.
The one thing you’ll miss out on is the ease-of-use of being locked into the iTunes/iPod symbiotic relationship. Depending on how comfortable you are with figuring out a new syncing set-up, this may or may not be an issue for you.
The article brings up another potential drawback, depending on how you look at it: you won’t find anywhere near the same aftermarket support when it comes to accessories and cases. But then again, if the product is made properly, it doesn’t really need a case, whereas digital audio players that are designed to wear when working out usually come with straps or attachments.
(Disclaimer: we rely on a screenless Shuffle, which has its own obvious drawbacks, and our Nokia phone, which would be perfect if not for the battery drain.)
“Don’t want an iPod? Lots of choices available” [Reuters]
(Photo: Getty)
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I am a happy user of what may have once been an iRiver H320. I’ve upgraded the hard drive to 30gb, put in a 20-hour battery, and replaced the default firmware with RockBox. Now, the player has absolutely everything I wanted – gapless playback, a wide range of audio formats (including .ogg and several lossless formats), customizable display, good picture viewing, and a folder-like interface (which I vastly prefer to playing with tags). I’ve had it for 3 years, and won’t change until it disintegrates.
@Buran: Awww, you seem like a grumpy bear. Do you need a hug?
I’ve always ihated itunes, so I never drank the ipod coolaid. I’m using a Sansa myself right now, and am pretty happy with it. I wish it didn’t have a proprietary usb plug (and like all my other devices used the 6 pin usb plug), but other than that it works great.
For $30 you can buy a kit from Nike that plugs into a Nano and tracks your distance and pace while out running. There is nothing like this for any other MP3 player, AFAIK. That alone makes me an iPod person.
@Consumerist Moderator – ACAMBRAS:
I have one of those Creative Zen nanos with armband, too — great for walking and the gym.
I also have a Rio Karma that serves as a household stereo, I am praying that hangs on for a long time, as they don’t make ‘em anymore. And a Zen Vision:M with a bunch of my DVDs ripped to it, great for long plane flights.
And we have a Sansa. I’m not anti-iPod, just pro-diversity…and, okay, a little anti-iTunes.
Currently happy with a 30GB Zen Vision: M. This was an upgrade from a 6GB Zen Micro, which is still in use.
Roommate bought a Zune1 last month, and I’m very impressed. Considering 80GB Zune2 when it comes out.
Oh, I use MediaMonkey – even paid the $20 for the Gold Version. Well worth it.
I bought a refurbished Sandisk 256M MP3 player on Woot for $20. That’s more than enough space to store music for a few trips to the gym, or a few hours of flight time. I spent about $80 on a really nice set of earphones which made a dramatic difference in the sound quality, plus I can use them with other devices as well. So, basically, I win.
@porktree:
There are some power adapters available for the Sansa. I was a bit worried about the proprietary plug myself until I picked up one of those. Now I can recharge it whereever there is an outlet.
The one year warranty came in handy for a friend of mine who experienced some problem with her screen. She had no hassles with obtaining a RMA authorization and recieved a brand new unit within one week of sending it in.
@Buran: Umm, it was more of, like, a suggestion?
+1 to everyone who said Archos & Cowon iAudio.
I’ve got an Archos gmini 402cc that hooks up to my Mac without a problem & lets me copy music on/off freely, and I bought a Cowon G3 as a gift for a friend. That one gets about 40-50 hours out of a AA battery, and it actually has a radio tuner that gets good reception-we tested it out on a moving tour bus.
Right now I’m split between getting one of the new Archos multimedia players for Christmas, or waiting for one of the updated HD-based Cowon players (the A3 & M7) to come out 2008-ish.
If Creative would make their large DAPs cross-platform, I’d definitely look at them as well.
i’ve yet to buy an ipod for myself (got my sisters the mini when it came out), but i’m really impressed with them. not so much b/c of their design or their click wheel, but b/c they are the whole package (or were until they started packaging without an a/c charger). there’s a lot to be said about the system that was developed to accomodate the ipod. it really requires almost no work on the part of the user.
incidentally, i had to download the zune interface on my computer to stream songs to my 360. that is the worst media player i have ever dealt with in my life. itunes isn’t the best i’ve used, but the zune computer player is just awful in comparison.
@leemajors: Thanks, I’ll give that a shot. It may streamline the process. I still think its rather unfortunate to have to rely on a 3rd party software in order to make my iPod usable the way I want it.
@BrooklynMike: If you could tell me how you do it, I’m all ears. But 80% of my videos, when I try to drag them into iTunes, I get an error “The video cannot be imported because it is a format not supported by iTunes”. And then, sometimes, I’ll finally get a video into iTunes, but then when I go to drag it into my iPod, I get the same error saying it isn’t supported by iPod. And yes, there is a right-click menu item for “Convert video for iPod” and even “Convert video for Apple TV” right within iTunes.