[realfan87]

I am wanting to get my girl an iPod for her birthday. If I get her one, it has to be one that few people have. Meaning either the red 4GB or 8GB Nano, or the red and black U2 30gig iPod.

Now, is there anything out that this is better? Not the same or a little worse but cheaper, but is there anything actually better all around?

The new Zen Vision looks cool, but does it stack up to the iPod? I have a buddy with an older Zen and imo, it is a pos compared to the iPod. Its bigger, slower, crappier UI, heavy, crappy software, crappy computer abilities, ect. ect.
About some Nano competition? Is there any there?

[codecouponqw]

Have a look at the Sansa e200s. I personally love mine and consider it much better than a nano.

[Timoxari]

tbh, for the person you intend to buy it there is only the Nano

[aliceingoogs]

I'd get the Nano (got mnie for my GF as well, the brushed metal one and she loves it).

I have not tried the Sandisk model discussed in this thread, but I bought the SanDisk Sansa e250 and returned it immediately. Sound quality was bad, and the amp in it was to weak to power a pair of Koss (in-ear-model) headphones. Big disappointment.

[Keendwainge]

I don't ever trust any Sandisk products. They seem like the poor man's ipod; they look like **** and the quality sucks. I got the blue 4gig nano and I like it. I don't love it, but I like it.

[Alina20100]

The thing I hate about iPods Videos is how god damn slow the interface is. Scrolling through artists/songs is an eye sore, the same goes for changing volume and such.

Also the new 5th gen's grind too much (I don't remember the other gens grinding as much). You can hear and feel it. Which irritates me because it makes it seem shoddy.

All in all, you really can't beat a 5th gen iPod. Easily the best MP3 player on the market. And this is coming from a person who would never buy one before. Apple finally got me with last gen's nano a couple years ago (or however long its been). Then when the new 5th gen videos came out, I had to have one as they're practically flawless.

Like everything this comes down to personal preference... However, how does she take care of her electronics? If she throws them around and doesnt really care about scratching it up and all that, definetly go with a Nano. If she takes care of them and such (plus likes to watch some videos? and have the power to hold more than you desire), by all means get a Video.

If you need something looking different, you'll have to go with a red Nano. As I don't recommended getting the U2 Video for two reasons. 1) it's last gen 2) i personally think it's an eyesore.



EDIT: With the Video I recommend the 30gb as I have no clue in hell as to who would ever need an 80gb. That's like storing every show on iTunes and just about every song on iTunes. Which I guess would be practical if you planned on being stranded on a deserted island sometime soon...

[jackie Obrian]

I've owned several types of mp3 players and can comment on their pros/cons:

a) flash based creative nuvo: a good solid player but a terrible interface keeps it out of my routines. This thing could have 100 gigs and I still wouldn't want to store and play my music from it.
b) iriver HDD based player: good functionality and a better interface and really fun rockbox open source firmware project, but the interface is lacking due mainly to the difficult buttons.
c) Ipod 5th gen: unbeatable interface, desktop integration, form factor, and performance. I didn't want to be assimilated by the ipod borg but it was inevitable with the video being so vastly superior to the competition


Gopher the 5th gen video. It's great for watching videos on planes, too. The nano just doesn't have the horsepower to distinguish itself.

[realfan87]

If you need something looking different, you'll have to go with a red Nano. As I don't recommended getting the U2 Video for two reasons. 1) it's last gen 2) i personally think it's an eyesore.

Are you talking about it being 4th gen? You do know that there is a 5th Gen U2 iPod right? I am not sure if it is the revision one or not, but I am sure that it is. Even if it wasn't there would still be little overall changes.

[SkeniaInhilla]

tbh, for the person you intend to buy it there is only the Nano

QFT. Women only understand "Ipod." I pull out my creative Muvo2 and people ask me, "what's that, is that you're Ipod?" The name Ipod has become synonymous with mp3 player for John and Jane doe. Unless she knows quite a bit about mp3 players, don't even consider buying her another brand. To those that are uninformed, the Ipod is the ONLY music player out there and is a product to be held up upon a golden pedestal as the epitome of fashionable and functional.

Trust me, she will be disappointed if she does not get an Ipod. Even if it is a superior product, she wont understand.

[Alina20100]

Are you talking about it being 4th gen? You do know that there is a 5th Gen U2 iPod right? I am not sure if it is the revision one or not, but I am sure that it is. Even if it wasn't there would still be little overall changes.

Oh there's a 5th gen? I've never seen it advertised.

Well in that case get it if you want. (5th gen is definetly worth getting over 4th)

[lovespellszz]

QFT. Women only understand "Ipod." I pull out my creative Muvo2 and people ask me, "what's that, is that you're Ipod?" The name Ipod has become synonymous with mp3 player for John and Jane doe. Unless she knows quite a bit about mp3 players, don't even consider buying her another brand. To those that are uninformed, the Ipod is the ONLY music player out there and is a product to be held up upon a golden pedestal as the epitome of fashionable and functional.

Trust me, she will be disappointed if she does not get an Ipod. Even if it is a superior product, she wont understand.

Thats exactly what I was thinking too. Go for the red nano, other wise she might be dissapointed.

[Timoxari]

QFT. Women only understand "Ipod." I pull out my creative Muvo2 and people ask me, "what's that, is that you're Ipod?" The name Ipod has become synonymous with mp3 player for John and Jane doe. Unless she knows quite a bit about mp3 players, don't even consider buying her another brand. To those that are uninformed, the Ipod is the ONLY music player out there and is a product to be held up upon a golden pedestal as the epitome of fashionable and functional.

Trust me, she will be disappointed if she does not get an Ipod. Even if it is a superior product, she wont understand.

Actually, if I had to get one for myself it might be a Nano 2nd Gen too. The only flaw it has is that you cannot just use it folder based (but you can't do that with the Sansa either afaik)


Unless there would be a SSD mod for the X5 once SSD drives hit retail.

[educationonlines]

Thanks for the Zen! I love it. [thumbup]

[Vezazvqw]

You're welcome

[Luisabens]

QFT. Women only understand "Ipod." I pull out my creative Muvo2 and people ask me, "what's that, is that you're Ipod?" The name Ipod has become synonymous with mp3 player for John and Jane doe. Unless she knows quite a bit about mp3 players, don't even consider buying her another brand. To those that are uninformed, the Ipod is the ONLY music player out there and is a product to be held up upon a golden pedestal as the epitome of fashionable and functional.

Trust me, she will be disappointed if she does not get an Ipod. Even if it is a superior product, she wont understand.

That's the problem.

There are many mp3 players that outshine the ipods. and they are cheaper.

Take the Iriver Clix. I bought mine when the 2 gig nano's were out and it is vastly superior. It has audio recording ability, none on the nano. Can play videos, nano couldn't do that. has a much larger nicer screen, It can go 24-28 hours on a charge. nano can barely do half that. And it just flat out sounds better and doesn't require you to use any software if you don't want to. I can also play flash games on it, view pictures, read text, etc. The only thing the ipods have over it is the interface. but that's only by barely a hair. Oh, and it supports a much larger range of formats and doesn't force you to use any kind of DRM. Iriver doesn't care where you get your music, they just want you to play it.

frankly, the ipods suck imo. and I have convinced other people who own ipods to switch to iriver because they have seen how much better it really is.

[Hmntezmb]

The thing I hate about iPods Videos is how god damn slow the interface is. Scrolling through artists/songs is an eye sore, the same goes for changing volume and such.

Also the new 5th gen's grind too much (I don't remember the other gens grinding as much). You can hear and feel it. Which irritates me because it makes it seem shoddy.

All in all, you really can't beat a 5th gen iPod. Easily the best MP3 player on the market. And this is coming from a person who would never buy one before. Apple finally got me with last gen's nano a couple years ago (or however long its been). Then when the new 5th gen videos came out, I had to have one as they're practically flawless.

Like everything this comes down to personal preference... However, how does she take care of her electronics? If she throws them around and doesnt really care about scratching it up and all that, definetly go with a Nano. If she takes care of them and such (plus likes to watch some videos? and have the power to hold more than you desire), by all means get a Video.

If you need something looking different, you'll have to go with a red Nano. As I don't recommended getting the U2 Video for two reasons. 1) it's last gen 2) i personally think it's an eyesore.



EDIT: With the Video I recommend the 30gb as I have no clue in hell as to who would ever need an 80gb. That's like storing every show on iTunes and just about every song on iTunes. Which I guess would be practical if you planned on being stranded on a deserted island sometime soon...

I have the 80GB one (its actually only 73GB) and I only have 10GB left to fill!!

I have lots of TV shows and Movies, mostly video etc. But I also have lots of music and pictures!

[Seerseraxlils]

With electronics you want something that everyone uses and everyone has, it means it’s a good product and has a lot of company support. Any model Nano would work well, the red ones would only be better if she supported the cause that they donate to. Save the “special” one of a kind thing for a ring or something like that where being unique is important.


As for the 80Gig Vs. 30Gig that someone mentioned, I wish I had been able to afford an 80Gig when I got mine. Videos take up a lot of space and even more if you do the encodes yourself and want the quality to be high enough to replace a DVD. My TV shows are almost always above 400Mb and sometimes above 500Mb for a one hour show (40 some minutes) and movies tend to be around 1.2 or 1.4Gigs. So one season of a TV show could be around 12Gigs total and if you want to be able to carry around maybe all of Veronica Mars or House if you go visit a friend or something then you could be using up 30 to 50Gigs very fast. Toss just 12 movies on there and you’ve added another 15Gigs or so. You could be at 60Gigs or more very fast before you add any music on it and still only be carrying around say your top 10 favorite movies of all time and enough room for maybe two or three “rotating” movies and two or three seasons of your favorite TV show and enough room for one “rotating” season.

For someone that is very mobile and just needs the iPod for personal viewing the upcoming iPhone with it’s 8Gig would probably be the best bet since you could store maybe six TV shows on there and maybe one or two movies and still have about a gig for music since you would be rotating all that stuff constantly. However, if you want the iPod to replace carrying around box sets of DVDs (by using it’s TV-Out) when you go over to your friends place for a marathon of House or Veronica Mars or something, 80Gigs doesn’t seem all that big.

[vekiuytyh]

and doesn't force you to use any kind of DRM. Iriver doesn't care where you get your music, they just want you to play it.
.

iPods will play any MP3 from any source...it doesn't force you to use DRM (not only that, but iTunes is going to start selling DRM-free music in a month).[rolleyes]

[lYVgWWcP]

Why everyone is drooling over an ipod, I have a nano and a SE w800, seriously my phone have better sound and bass compared to my nano, nano is just loud, 0 bass