[Tordenskjold]

As I was rather unimpressed with the mediocre battery life on my old clip (which apparently is about to die on me anyways) and just got my tax return, the prospect of buying a new DAP is upon me.
 
One big thing is said battery-life: I want real (not manufacturer-********) ten hours...twelve would be better, more of course a bonus. Those good old things that run on an exchangeable akkumulator are apparently a victim of the same thing that made touchscreens popular...and that reminds me. No bloody Ipod.
 
Tactile buttons would be a big bonus. Touchscreens are not to my taste, there's only one thing worse: these asinine non-tactile buttons. Those disqualify any DAP that sports them.
 
Memory. 8GB and an SD-slot is fine, more would of course be a bonus.
 
I want something that plays Music. Nothing else. So no multifuntional touchscreen wannabe smartphone. I know the big cowons are good...but I simply don't need all the crap they sport and I seem not to be able to go about and use a touchscreen. I've tried it, and apparently I'm to old for these things. Hell, I'd be fine with a monochrome display! (that btw. means no video either.)
 
File Support: Flac would be nice, but is no necessity. Again: Music. No video, no pictures, no album art. 
 
Browsing by folder - would be a big plus for me. 
 
If I could I'd go and get myself the Cowon U5 that seemed so expensive back then, but those apparently do not exist any longer, what a pity. I copuld kick myself for not having done that. Its apparent successor, the iAudio 9, sports a tiny touchscreen which is imho stupid, but at least sports a nice 29 hours of battery-life...supposedly.   
 
Sandisk Sansa Fuze+ has a ****ty battery, and those stupid sensor-buttons that combine the faults of both systems. The Archos 2 at least has normal buttons, but as the company says it will run ten hours - and we all know what companies do with these numbers - it's propably crap anyways.  
 
Does anyone know wether the buttons on the iriver E150 / E300 actually are mechanical like those on the clip-zip or thise idiotic sensor-things? If they are not there is as far as I know no alternative left to the original question:
 
Sansa Clip+, Sansa Clip Zip or what? Which of them has the better battery-life? 

 

[Dreamnine]

If you want good battery life you should have a look at Sony.
 
The E465 is fairly inexpensive and is rated at 50 hours for battery life.. I have an S754 and it seems to get very close to the 50 hour mark playing high bit-rate lossy files.
 
And they have good tactile buttons.

 

[Tordenskjold]

Yes, they do. Unfortunately it seems  thatSony hardcodes the EU volume cap in them, and  thatyou cannot remove that idiocy, rendering ther otherwise nice devices all bloody useless. Sorry. 
 
Absolutely idiotic, this EU-****. They ought to have banned crappy headphones instead. 

 

[mukumi]

Quote:

Yes, they do. Unfortunately it seems  thatSony hardcodes the EU volume cap in them, and  thatyou cannot remove that idiocy, rendering ther otherwise nice devices all bloody useless. Sorry. 
 
Absolutely idiotic, this EU-****. They ought to have banned crappy headphones instead. 

Apparently the new Sony ones do not have that volume cap anymore (Trustedreview.com comments).
 
But anyway, they do not have a SD Slot so they might be out of your needs.

Did you check the Cowon C2 ?

 

[Dreamnine]

I have a Clip+ which is around a-year-and-a-half old.. the battery on that seems to be as good as when I got it - around 14hrs or so with Rockbox.
 
The new Clip Zip has a stated battery life of 12 hours.. I got mine a couple of days ago and I can't stop playing with it. Cost me £40 which is absolutely worth it.
 
If you can live with that kind of battery life then Sansas are definitely worth it imho for the capacity, tactile buttons, etc.

 

[Tordenskjold]

Quote:

Apparently the new Sony ones do not have that volume cap anymore (Trustedreview.com comments).
 
But anyway, they do not have a SD Slot so they might be out of your needs.Did you check the Cowon C2 ?

Ok, the SDslot isn't that important. I had a sony in my hands a few weeks ago and found it to be quite nice, the good battery-life is also a bonus.
But that volume-capping-crap. Hmmm. I'd call the clowns, but the german sony-website refuses to load. As for the cowon: a touchscreen is bad enough, but a small resistive one?! No thanks. Just where did you actually read that about the volume-cap? As far as I know its still there.
 
 
 

Quote:

I have a Clip+ which is around a-year-and-a-half old.. the battery on that seems to be as good as when I got it - around 14hrs or so with Rockbox.
 
The new Clip Zip has a stated battery life of 12 hours.. I got mine a couple of days ago and I can't stop playing with it. Cost me £40 which is absolutely worth it.
 
If you can live with that kind of battery life then Sansas are definitely worth it imho for the capacity, tactile buttons, etc.

Actually the one thing I hated with the sansas I owned was the battery life - I could live with the clip+'s 14hrs...barely. I'd rather buy a sony - provided that volume-cap is gone.  
 

 

[Dreamnine]

The EU volume hobbling is still present on my S754 (2010) and S765 (2011)
 
But, I have read elsewhere that it's not present on the new A series - IDK.
 
BTW I tried out the Cowon C2 and the screen and UI were absolute garbage.

 

[Tordenskjold]

Damn, the Sony devices sound quite excellent for my needs. That idiotic law only exists in france anyways, the EU only calls for a limitation-OPTION! 
My old Fuze had said option - switched it off and all was fine! But its battery sucked. 

 

[Dreamnine]

Well, with Sony you don't have even that option in EU countries outside of France - the volume limitation is there and with no way round it.
 
It doesn't bother me, personally, my Sonys are loud enough for my uses.

 

[Tordenskjold]

Quote:

Well, with Sony you don't have even that option in EU countries outside of France - the volume limitation is there and with no way round it.
 
It doesn't bother me, personally, my Sonys are loud enough for my uses.

Might one ask what you're using them with? (I actually don't even live in France, ironic, isn't it?)
 

 

[deyo]

It's already possible to install rockbox on the Zip?

 

[Dreamnine]

I'm using my Sonys with my ie8s and occasionally my Sony ex500 iems.

 

[Achmedisdead]

Quote:

It's already possible to install rockbox on the Zip?

No, not yet.

 

[Tordenskjold]

Quote:

No, not yet.

 
Seeing as the two viable alternatives are getting a clip+ or a clip zip and an USB-chargerpack like http://www.amazon.de/RAIKKO-AccuPack-mobiler-Ersatzakku-Blackberry/dp/B004BTWMEI/ref=sr_1_1?s=ce-de&ie=UTF8&qid=1319439946&sr=1-1 - how long will propably it be until Rockbox on the Zip is possible?
 
 

 

[Dreamnine]

Quote:

Quote:

No, not yet.

 
Seeing as the two viable alternatives are getting a clip+ or a clip zip and an USB-chargerpack like http://www.amazon.de/RAIKKO-AccuPack-mobiler-Ersatzakku-Blackberry/dp/B004BTWMEI/ref=sr_1_1?s=ce-de&ie=UTF8&qid=1319439946&sr=1-1 - how long will propably it be until Rockbox on the Zip is possible? 
 

I couldn't give you a definitive answer.. but I would hazard a guess: not long.
 
And the Zip is a great player.