Mp3/video players

[popinfresh]

So after my last mp3 player got nicked, never got another one. I work 10 hour shifts and usually bring a CD wallet in and play em on my bench. But now music has been banned at work unless it's on an mp3 player, so I need to go get one this weekend or i'll be going crazy at work.

Basically, thinking about getting an iPod touch or something similar. I really cannot be bothered searching for hours and hours on the net just to save me 1 or 2 hundred bucks, got better things to do.

So does anyone on here own an mp3/video player? I'm looking to spend around $500au and was going to go a bit more for a 32gig ipod touch. Have creative, iRiver or samsung got anything to rival it at a better price? Easy to use software or drop/drag is a big plus, i never liked iTunes, which was a main reason i stayed away from ipods in the past, but a few mates have them and it seems easy enough.

Just want something to play video's and music (big screen is a plus), good storage capacity (16gig is the minimum), easy to use (including getting the stuff on there) flexible and reliable. I've heard horror stories about ipods, but i've also seen many last ages. Needs good music quality too, i'll be using after market headphones.

Just don't want to make a rushed decision i'll regret if there's something better out there.

NOTE: We don't have the iPhone in aus, and i'm not interested in one.

[Joe Gress]

I have a zune (30 gig) and it kicks ass. Could use a longer batt. life though. I heard the newer (80 gig) is a little better at this though.

[Ben Lesser]

I've got a 16 gig iPod Touch and really can't be happier with it. Incredibly fast and easy to use because you're just using your fingers. Nice screen for watching videos on, too. I like that.

iTunes really isn't that hard to use and after having used it for quite some time, it's probably my player of choice. The only thing is that you'll want to move all of your music over to iTunes because it's the only way (that I know of) to put tunes on an iPod and when you put stuff into iTunes, it makes a copy of it in the iTunes folder, so you'll end up with duplicates of everything. The remedy, of course, is just to delete the original folder once everything is copied over to iTunes.

Battery life seems average. I usually charge it twice a week and that gets me around a couple hours a day when I'm going to and from school. The hold feature seems to retain a lot of battery power... I've fallen asleep listening to music and woken up 8 hours later with only a bit of a change in the battery life.

/my two cents
//more like two dollars

[popinfresh]

Hmm, the Zune 80 isn't available over here yet, but it does look good. I could always import one, but means that I can't claim warranty. It's the same thing with the clix2 i think.

Ben Lesser - haven't checked into it, but does the touch have fm recordable radio? Also does it have a line in to record?