Ipod or Zen or .....?

R

RiO

Skilled
I need to buy a gift for someone in India and I have absolutely no clue about portable players.

Would like the player to support audio, video and photos... I've seen the ipod classic 80gb which is about 130 bucks here but what other players can I consider? I heard the Zen supports SD cards, which seems like a nice feature. Just trying to figure out which is the better player (sorry ipod fanboys), and capacity is not as important as audio quality/features.

I don't mind buying the player in Bangalore if the cost is similar - not interested in the gray market or their prices.

Thanks in advance for sharing your opinion.
 
Oh yeah, forgot about Zune... thanks for bringing it up. I'm down in India later this month so I'd like to buy it in-store than trust the lazy online stores.
 
Leaning toward the Zen now for these features: 2.5" screen, SD card support, radio and voice recorder. Ipod Nano and Zune also seem good but are not as feature rich, so my next question:

Any Zen users around? I'd like to know if there are any playback or storage issues with it.
 
well.. you do need to convert any nd every video that you might have before you can watch it.

how about sandisk? the sansa series is also supp to be very nice.

also cowon? the D2 costs about 10k in India. comes with expandable memory and everyone who's ever purchased one arnd here has absolutely loved it.
 
sTALKEr said:
well.. you do need to convert any nd every video that you might have before you can watch it.

how about sandisk? the sansa series is also supp to be very nice.

also cowon? the D2 costs about 10k in India. comes with expandable memory and everyone who's ever purchased one arnd here has absolutely loved it.
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Videos will be probably be .avi from some camera and music will be ripped from CDs. Will check the Sansa players, but I heard Cowon is not available in stores - not interested in the gray market.
 
I can order from the US myself but I'd rather get it from UK or India for obvious reasons.

Btw, Sansa has a long string of players... which one were you referring to? Fuze is not available in UK.

EDIT: Nevermind, found it for £75... let me know whether you were referring to the Fuze or E2xx series.
 
well you talking about buying at heathrow??

at heathrow they have apple,philips,sony and archos(these are the ones that came from the top of my head)

the classic 80gb was 135 there...while nano 8gigger was 110pounds

the official price in india for these 2 is like 13k and 10.5k

i did use 2 creative players (4gig and 5gig respectively)...didnot like the navigation AT ALL!!

too confusing for my taste :p

googled ... the ones i used were creative zen micro and zen v-plus

only heard them on stock earbuds so cant comment on the sound quality

EDIT:: i am guessing sansa e series
 
it depends on how much of a 'techie' he/she is..

A. considering basic functionality,style and stunning audio- get the ipod classic !

or

B.more features like fm,mem card support,voice recorder etc apart from good audio quality - get the Zen

My vote: ipod classic 80gb FTW! simple,chic,easy to use and does its job exceedingly well!!!
 
Zen appears to be a combination of A + B. Some reviews suggest it has better navigation, but then some reviews say the same of the Ipod.
 
RiO said:
Zen appears to be a combination of A + B. Some reviews suggest it has better navigation, but then some reviews say the same of the Ipod.
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like i said..the ipod is easy to use and looks the part! (millions of owners couldn't have gone wrong!?)
don really like the ZEN's design..
 
the navigation depends from one person to another!!

i just used the zen for like half an hour but hated it...maybe if i had more time i would probably get used to it

the ipod is easy to understand...but i feel it takes too long going through the menus by pressing menu everytime :)
 
thetoxicmind said:
like i said..the ipod is easy to use and looks the part! (millions of owners couldn't have gone wrong!?)

don really like the ZEN's design..
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I'm not with the crowd, I think on my own. Ipod went first to market, so factor that in when you talk about market share.

_pappu_ said:
but i feel it takes too long going through the menus by pressing menu everytime :)
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That's what I read about the ipod, still not decided between the three... will sleep over it.
 
I don't know if the Zen Vision Ms are available anymore, but if they are you should probably consider them as well. They have a plethora of features. Navigation with the touch pad is very easy and intuitive too. I can vouch for it (using a Black ZVM for 2 years :))

Please don't buy the Zen, it has too many flaws.

Cowon D2 is another good option 2, but is a bit short on storage capacity (I know you can upgrade and all that, but still...)
 
Thanks Shade, I'm curious to know what those flaws are in the new Zens.

Vision M's are available so will consider them too.
 
Sorry to butt in late; :p

Hw abt considering the Archos 605 WiFi or even the latest 705 WiFi; :)

I've seen both of them personally and to be frank the newer iPod Touch would be the only rivals to these PMPs but these come in hefty hard drives [30G, 80G, 160G and there's even the 605 WiFi which's even thinner and sports a 4GB SD slot]

Formats supported by the 705 WiFi: MPEG-42, WMV2, protected WMV2, MPEG-2**, VOB**, H.264** (*with optional plug-ins)

Formats supported by the 605 WiFi: MPEG-4, WMV, protected WMV, MPEG-2*, VOB*, H.264* (*with optional plug-ins)
And it'd be certainly wise if u can buy these from there; :)

Just my 0.02$;

PS: I've no clue abt the budget though;
 
_pappu_ said:
the navigation depends from one person to another!!

i just used the zen for like half an hour but hated it...maybe if i had more time i would probably get used to it

the ipod is easy to understand...but i feel it takes too long going through the menus by pressing menu everytime :)
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it's the case in any mp3 player :eek:hyeah: !

you can't expect all options & features listed at once...

and ppl sure don't mind navigating thro them..

keeps them busy at times :hap2:

it still is your choice though.
 
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