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So zen lets you use any format (except Ipod)? I hadn't known that; it does make a difference.

I think so. The Zen is manufactured by a company called Creative Inc. I don't know who manufactures the Zune.

The Zune makes me sad.

I actually own a Zen Micro, they're not so bad. I don't really care for the media player that's bundled with the software, it sort of lags my computer, but otherwise, it's a great MP3 player. I love the file transfer tool, it's so much easier than trying to synch up anything in WMP or iTunes, and there's an option to edit the properties of the MP3 before copying it over to the Zen so that there's proper information on the player (helpful if you obtain music by not-so-legal means; the songs tend to have incorrect or no information making it hard to find when searching.)

iPods are...blech. They're so picky about the computers you hook them up to as well as the files they'll take, because Apple is rabid anti-piracy. Plus...the lowercase I at the begining of it's name makes me feel so icky when I have to put 'iPod' at the begining of a sentence. D: Thank you for cornering me into mutilating the English language.

Do I save up forAges and get an iPod, or save up for not quite so long, and get an iPod nano?

I'm happy with my 1GB SanDisk. Just have to go into my 200GB external HD (85GB of which is music) and change it up once in a while.

I love my ZEN.... aaf

Few years back, my brother bought me a little Zen V Plus. It's a fairly basic MP3 player, but it does what I need it to: play music razz I like the size, as it fits easily into my pocket ( I usually wear "carpenter" style jeans, and it fits in the smaller pocket on the right thigh )

Honestly, in choosing between iPod and Zen, it's down to personal taste. They're both great products, and the iPod has a lot of extensibility, especially the newer ones from what I hear.

I liked the Zen because I didn't need to install any software to get it to work ( without the special software, Windows will just recognize it as another storage device like a thumb drive or external hard drive ). I prefer manually copying over my files, but that's just me.

The software they do give you, however... Well, I haven't used it in probably 2 years by this point, so I'm not sure how valid my opinion is anymore ( I may download it just to try it out and edit this post later tonight ), but I didn't much care for it. It seemed rather thrown-together confused

Not to mention, I just dig the name. razz