It’s clear from its near-absolute dominance in the market that the iPod is widely seen as the bees knees, as far as digital music players are concerned. And, while this is fine and dandy for the throngs of devoted fanboys and masses of trend-following Holiday shoppers, there are those among us with slightly more anti-conformist tastes. More to the point, some people manage to see through the hype and realize that as apt as Apple is at selling us the “user experience”, there are enough products out there with more features, better looks and competitive pricing to make us want to take a look elsewhere. In this article, we’ll take a quick look at three very capable iPod alternatives: the Sensa e200, the Samsung YP-K5 and the Meizu Miniplayer M6.
The Sandisk Sensa e200
Sandisk came seemingly out of nowhere some time ago, and entered the market with its Sensa line of music players. The top of the line model is currently the e200. It sports a 1.8 inch TFT, and an 8GB flash drive, which is the largest in the market (in this class of players). What’s more, this can be expanded through a microSD slot. The casing is made from a metal alloy, and stands up well to scratches. There’s a digital FM tuner, support for on-the-fly FM recording, and voice recording. What’s more, the device will support video playback from a variety of formats, but these need to be converted with the software provided.
The MSRP is $250, and you can find out more on the product page.
The Samsung YP-K5
Samsung’s YP-K5 features an innovative design: its integrated speakers slide out and up, allowing the player to stand on a tabletop and entertain you and your guests. With DNSe, Samsung’s proprietary Digital Natural Sound engine technology, the K5 offers virtual surround sound. This guarantees great volume, no distortion, and a more natural and accurate higher quality sound, even with just two small speakers. It comes in 2GB or 4GB sizes, which is enough for up to 1,000 songs. Its interface is touch based, and there’s also an FM tuner and a very capable batter life of 30 hours.
Retail price on this is $230. Available at a variety of retailers, including this one.
The Meizu Miniplayer M6
This last entry is a little more exotic, as it comes from a relatively unknown company from China called Meizu. The Miniplayer M6 takes its design cues squarely from Apple, and looks nearly identical to the iPod. In fact, many people like to think of the M6 as the Apple clone that could. But, feature-wise, its certainly better. It’s got a very large 2.4 inch, 320X240 pixel display, and native DivX playback support (albeit at 18 fps) aside from the usual range of digital music formats. It’s also got FM tuning and recording. The 4GB player should set you back about $220. Here’s one place to get it.
November 27th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
TO COOL.
November 27th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
Uhh… maybe people buy the iPod because it’s the most user-friendly and (arguably) looks the nicest.
Not everyone needs a radio in their MP3 player.
If you’re putting an “anti-conformist” angle on this, why not promote the Zune? Nobody wants it, after all.
November 28th, 2006 at 12:02 am
I have been playing around with the Samsung YP-K5 and I am really impressed. I OLED and navigation, but the best part about it is how people’s jaw drops when you flip it open and those speakers immediately turn on. It’s a great pickup for those looking for style and some substance, though it is not particularly small or light.
Very good call on the Sansa e280, if I was not hooked on Itunes for its podcast capabilities this is the player I would be using, though sooner or later I would like to move all mobile music duties to my phone…
November 28th, 2006 at 12:11 am
It’s about time mainstream consumers got to know about Sandisk Sensa e200 series media players, because they are serious competition for iPods.
November 28th, 2006 at 1:22 am
[...] Another week, another addition of mine to Federated Media’s Holiday Gadget Guide. This time, I decided to add my five cents to the whole iPod alternative business. Check out my post here. [...]
November 28th, 2006 at 8:27 am
FYI, it’s SanDisk SAnsa not SEnsa…
November 28th, 2006 at 8:37 am
Just one little quibble — it’s the Sansa line of players, as in Sandisk, not Sensa.
November 30th, 2006 at 9:36 am
The Creative Zen Vision:M should be listed. Though it’s not new, it’s the real iPod killer and one heck of a media player. And Mykel, the iPod isn’t the most user-friendly. In fact, the iPod probably trails in most aspects of what makes a good mp3 player. The only thing they’re way ahead on is marketing, brand recognition and relying on people with the ability to think and research for themselves…
November 30th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
The Creative Zen Vision:M has a built-in FM Radio & recorder and a high resolution screen making it better than the iPod. It has so many great features over the iPod. Apple stole the GUI from Creative and had to pay $100 million to them. Creative invented the MP3 player, not Apple. Apple unfairly dominates causing Creative to loose money