Hello all !

Someone I know is flying to Dubai and has very kindly agreed to get me any electronic consumer goods that I want. Right now, a personal music player is at the top of my "I want this..." list.

However, I want to ask the advice of users on the forum as to what particular model they'd suggest. The following parameters are must-haves:

1. At least 2 GB capacity
2. FM tuner
3. ability to play WMA, MP3 - a must. (Plus points if it can also play MP4 / OGG / AAC)
4. good battery life - 10 - 12 hours actual playback (which means a rated life of about 14 hours)

I don't need/want a colour screen. Even removable AAA battery would do as I have plenty of rechargeable batteries lying around.

Looking forward to your inputs, guys !

Finding an MP3 player with radio is difficult, because a hard disk is sensitive to magnetic fields and an radio antenna creates a magnetic field.

I think that you'll have to go for a solution with external radio plugin module:
Such as: Ipod nano 2Gb (199$) + radio Remote (49€)
Link

Nah, I don't know for sure which ones have them, but there are a good number that have built in fm tuners. I wanna say the zen micro's would fit all your criteria but I'm not sure... I'm sure someone will show up soon to list off the best ones

Indeed, there are a certain number of players with built-in FM, but I haven't heard good comments about those. The apple-solution that I metioned earlier is both very extended (? English is not my native language ) and very easy to use.

Oh really? I've never heard any complaints from the people I know who use tuners in their mp3 players. Then again, that doesn't rule out the possibility for fault, it just could mean my friends are all lucky hehe. Streamus, happen to know any sites that discuss if that is a documented problem with any mp3 players? Just curious about it now

Well, I believe your friends as much as I believe the posts on forum's I've read so far.
What I've read, was written on the Telenet Forums (but they are written in dutch, so I fear you won't understand).

As I recall (and it's a while ago) the problems were:
- Difficult to save radio stations
- If the HD was spinnig, a high frequent buzzing was noticable while listening to the radio.
- Euhm, that's what I can recall. I'll try to find the thread and will edit this post if I have more info.

But I believe you, and maybe you can post the brands and series of players your friends use, so I can recommand them if other people come up with the same question.

(My sister is looking for such a player as well. )

This post has been edited by Streamus: Apr 12 2006, 04:53 PM

Thanks for the replies:

Two options currently are both from Creative:

The 20 GB Creative Zen Sleek

6 GB Creative Zen Micro

Both of the above have an FM Tuner and seem to fulfill my required criteria.

I asked a few of my friends that had them, and they all had variants of the zen micros (one had another creative one... he wasn't sure the name since he didn't have it on him, probably a zen as well)

I would suggest an ipod nano or a creative zen that would give you what you want.
I am currently using a creative muvo 128mb and the battery life is quite high, it can go on for days playing and it doubles as a flash drive.
It can also support wma and mp3 and it is very easy to install.. just plug and play
So yeah, have a search around for the one you'd like the most, if i were you i'd pick one of the newest ones because they usually come with all those features as standard.
Good luck picking one!

-HellFire

Er, my oppinion is that an ipod nano 2 GB will run you I guess someone said... $200? It fulfills most, or maybe a little less then most, of those requirements. The one that I am sure that it doesn't fulfill is an FM tuner. I think it fulfills the others though. I am pretty sure it can play AAC and MP4, not sure on the OGG. I think it has a rated battery life of 14 hours, though maybe it is just 12 or so. maybe a little researc hat store.apple.com or pcmall.com and/or macmall.com is in order?