MP3 Players – SanDisk versus iPod

OK, I recognize this has nothing to do with biblical studies or biblical Hebrew, but it does fit in the category of something that interests me! I am in the market for a MP3 player for my daughter. I am looking for a flash memory player, either 2 GB or perhaps 4 GB. After some on-line and in-store research, I have narrowed it down to two players: The iPod Nano or the SanDisk Sansa. I know the iPod is the cool one that all the cool kids have, and I know the iPods are the leading brand, but I can get her a 4 GB SanDisk for about the same price as a 2 GB iPod — and the SanDisk also has FM radio and video capability, among other things.

So my questions to my readers are:

  • Is the iPod Nano really worth it? Or is it status and hype?
  • Does anyone have a SanDisk Sansa and can vouch for it?

5 thoughts on “MP3 Players – SanDisk versus iPod

  1. Tyler I’ve been using a Sansa e140 for several months now and have been quite satisfied with the unit. It’s a one gig device, but has an SD card slot that will read cards up to 2GB. I got it for 35 bucks at a one-day Future Shop sale. It doesn’t have the cachet of an iPod, but at my age, that’s not a big issue. For daughters, the cool factor may be more important. 😉

  2. Hi there, I saw your post, and wanted to share that my friend just bought a Sansa yesterday and really likes it. One thing to consider if it is for your daughter, is that with something like a sansa you can join a music subscription service like Urge, or Yahoo, or Napster (I think the sansa may be set up to work with Rhapsody already judging by his player, but any ‘plays for sure’ player can use the listed services.) etc.. And depending on how fickle her tastes are you are paying 15 bucks a month usually for a wide range of music. That way if she doesn’t like something it is not a 10 buck loss for an album, she can just delete it and download other stuff. Plus, double the memory is always worth it.

    I personally am using a Zen Vision M with Urge, and have found it to be a pretty good service. I should also note that I am a former iPod user, so i have no beef with them, I have just found I like subscription much better.

    Hopefully this helps a little bit,

    Richie

  3. Tyler there is a reason the ipod out sells the competition, its ease of use is unmatched. If it is not a surprise i would let your daughter pick, and I suppose she will go with the ipod.

    cheers,

  4. Hey Tyler,

    I love Amy (my ipod… say do non-ipod owners even bother to name their players?), and think it’s absolutely the best. Being the cheapskate I am, though, when it came time to buying a player for my sister, I bought her a cheapie mp3 player on sale at Future Shop. It works fine… unfortunately it doesn’t play encoded WMV files nor of course Apple’s AAC encoded files. Which is to say, the possibilities of purchasing and downloading music from the net is slim.

    I have a chain around Amy when I’m with my sister.

    My two cents worth.

    Steve.

  5. Tyler,

    What’s going on here?!? What’s next – “Should I get Vista for my daugther?” iPod, hands down, is the winner. I just bought a reconditioned, second-generation iPod Nano (2 gig) for $115 for Chloe.

    Bob

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