5 Reasons Not to Buy an iPod

TommyH1000 writes "CNet has posted an article with five reasons not to buy an iPod. " The article really just shows the major shortcomings with the iPod (Battery, Cost, Moving Parts etc) and gives several alternatives. A great summary of the major things going on in the portable MP3 player market.

Comments

Re:6. No Ogg Vorbis!

[dabadab]

Yeah, that was my first thought too :)

RTFA, people, RTFA

[Anonymous Coward]

Five reasons not to buy an iPod

By Eliot Van Buskirk

For the past year, the media has been clamoring about iPod killers on the horizon--new MP3 players with more features, longer battery life, and designs nearly as svelte as the iPod's. However, this oversimplifies the situation; in truth, while the iPod rocks, it's not now, nor has it ever been, perfect for everyone.

We too have run our fair share of iPod-centric headlines--for a good reason. With about 1.5 million units sold, the iPod is the most popular MP3 player in the world, and it still makes other players look and feel inelegant in comparison. Don't get me wrong; it's still our favorite overall MP3 player. Although everyone can think of reasons why they want an iPod, I've decided to use this column to list a few reasons why not to buy one.

Before you send me rants for putting down the iPod, please read the list, realize that we still love the iPod, and take a deep breath. If you still don't think there could be reasons to go with something else, feel free to e-mail me your comments.

1. Six-plus hours of battery life is not always enough.

Dell Digital Jukebox DJ (15GB)
Read the review
Check prices

If you regularly take long airplane flights, you'll find that the iPod's battery craps out before you reach your destination, leaving you to rely on the low-grade tunes pumped to the arm of your seat. If you need a long battery life from your MP3 player, go with the Dell Digital Jukebox DJ (15GB), which lasted almost 20 hours in our battery test--and it's less expensive than the iPod.

2. Jogging with a hard drive-based player is not cool.

iRiver iFP-395T (512MB)
iRiver iFP-390T (256MB)
iRiver iFP-380T (128MB)
iRiver iFP-340T (64MB)

The iPod and other high-capacity MP3 players use hard drives to store music. In order to extend battery life and avoid skipping, the hard drives turn on only every once in a while to fill up a flash-memory buffer, which itself has no potentially skipping, moving parts. The flash buffer, in turn, plays the music. If something jars a hard drive-based player at the precise moment when the hard drive is spinning to load the flash buffer, the player could skip. Some experts say that it's impossible to damage the drive in this way, but I'm not buying that--hard drives spin thousands of times per minute, and they have tiny, fragile parts. Instead, use a small flash player, such as something from the iRiver iFP-3xx line. They won't skip, the batteries last longer, and they're much lighter than the iPod.

3. The iPod is expensive.
As much as we love the iPod, it sure is expensive--especially when you consider that the nonreplacable battery will lose its resiliency in a few years. Although not nearly as glamorous as the iPod, MP3 CD players offer much more megabytes per dollar and can approximate the experience of using a hard drive-based player. Since each MP3 CD holds about 10 hours of music, you could carry 20 CD-Rs in a CD wallet and have about the same amount of music that fits on the 15GB iPod. Best of all, you can pick up a decent one (the iRiver ChromeX) for less than $60.

iRiver ChromeX iMP-150 (budget)
Check prices Philips Nike psa[cd8 (plays mini CD-Rs)
Check prices iRiver SlimX iMP-550 (high end)
Check prices

4. You want to make high-quality digital recordings.
Apple recently announced the availability of a voice-recorder accessory for the iPod, but there's still no way to use the device to record high-quality audio. DJs who want to record their sets, people who want to encode their vinyl or cassette collections to MP3, or musicians who are looking for a replacement for their DAT recorder need this feature. Luckily for them, two new iPod competitors offer this option; compare them below.

Samsung Napster YP-910GS (20GB)
Check prices iRiver iHP-120 (20GB)
Check prices

5. You want a choice in online music stores.
Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the Apple iTunes Music Store; its AAC-enco

Five Rebuttals (You'll hafta RTFA)

[superdan2k]

1. If six hours isn't enough, take an airline power adapter with you and plug it in.

2. Sure it's cool. I ride mountain bikes and BMX bikes with my iPod turned on, and I can't remember it ever skipping. Chalk this argument up to FUD.

3. Boohoo. Quality costs money. Live with it. Show me another MP3 player with similar size, features, a decent UI/controls, and equal storage space that costs less.

4. What percentage of the owners of portable MP3 players are DJs that want to record their sets? DAT is lossless and is an industry standard, which makes it considerably better for recording your live sets.

5. Huh? Who cares? I'd be willing to bet that between 60 and 75 percent of the music on iPods everywhere is stuff that was downloaded, with 24 to 33 percent being ripped from personal collections, and the remaining 1% purchased from an online store. (On my iPod, which currently contains 4303 songs, 27 of them were purchased at the iTMS. 0.6%)

I guess the question is, how much did Samsung and iRiver pay for this article?

Solution is obvious

[zakezuke]

I agree the artical is skewed, though the gent does have a valid point, even if it's hidden under *don't buy this product*. What would be spiffy is if there was an option for the IPOD to replace the onboard HD with a flash drive, for cases where you want the benifits of flash media. Either that or have it accept flash media.

Apple typicaly being turn key technology, isn't likely to support such a drive replacement.