At a minimum of $250 a pop, a 20 GB MP3 player is a big desicion for most of us to make. I spent countelss hours researching and comparing MP3 players before I went out to buy. I narrowed it down to two, the Creative Zen and the iPod. I used and tested both, here is what I came up with. For the most part, you can't go wrong with either player. They are both comparable in size, features and build quality. There is one area that the Zen excels FAR above the iPod and that is in price. Zen 2.0's are going for as low as $249 these days and the iPod is still up around $400. I also like the fact that the new Zen uses USB 2.0 as opposed to firewire. I have found the USB 2.0 to be much more reliable and consistant than the firewire. The Zen also has MORE features than the iPod, the Zen incorperates mobile playlist editing, all kinds of EAX effects, etc. all of which the iPod dosen't have. I ended up purchasing the Zen and haven't regreted it yet! I LOVE this thing! The sound is great, the size is perfect and it has great battery life (about 6-7 hours of continuous playback). The only cons I would list would be the user interface (i.e. buttons and menu's) aren't quite as nice to use as the iPod, but their not that bad either, just a little small. The other con is the headphones, although the headphones the Zen comes with sound pretty good, the Zen dosen't truly shine until you put on some quality digital headphones. At that point, the sound is amazing! I highly recomend this MP3 player and not only like it better than the iPod, I played almost $200 less too!

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 270