iPod mini vs Zen Micro with an Aussie Twist

[pauls]

I know there are plenty of threads on this, but the Zen Micro is finally coming down under. The difference being that Creative has not invested in an expensive advertising campaign here, and has not priced the micro as agressively as it appears to have done in the US & Europe. The 5GB micro will retail at 25% more than the 4GB mini. ie Price/GB is identical - therefore, there is no extra value factor (from a capacity perspective) for the micro.

Question to those that have used both - Which is the better player taking the above into account? A couple of us are chucking in for a present for the old man and it will be between these two. From a SQ perspective, I'm a real Creative fan (although I've never listened to an iPod). However, I''m leaning towards the mini purely based on iTunes which is supposed to pretty easy to use. (The old man will be 75!!)

Any advice?

pauls

 

[yyoo]

Go with the iPod and ease-of-use for your old man. And unless he's a basshead I'm sure he'll be fine with the SQ.

 

[mr.karmalicious]

Go with a Carbon. Cheaper than both. Drag and Drop should be easy enough, if you ask me

 

[aeriyn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr.karmalicious Go with a Carbon. Cheaper than both. Drag and Drop should be easy enough, if you ask me

I would say, "w0rd" but I'm supposed to be a die-hard Mini fan.

If you can find the Carbon cheaper, get it, it's a great little DAP. But if not, pick up the Mini.

 

[frankcent]

i think ipod user interface is pretty friendly. the ease to use is the most important factor for old people. my grandpa and grandma both have the same cellphone that has grey screen, no fancy ringtone, no wap and no camera. that model was popular 4 years ago. although it does not have many features, it is handy for casual usage. even if my mother buys better cellphones with tons of fancy features for them, I highly doubt that they will use those features. if a old man cant use it, what are the bonus features for?

 

[mr.karmalicious]

The Carbon VUI is just as easy to use as the iPod's...

 

[yyoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr.karmalicious Go with a Carbon. Cheaper than both. Drag and Drop should be easy enough, if you ask me

It's still a pain. Heck, I'm a Windows software developer and have been in the industry for 17 years and I still hate moving files around. It's just a waste of time. Why do it if you can avoid it? The iTunes auto-synch is much less of a hassle. Make life as simple as can for your old man and it's more likely he'll actually use the device and that you won't have to exchange it.

There is a reason why so many people put all of their files directly under c:\ or in Documents without a subfolder structure. People don't want to deal with the hassle of moving files around or organizing them.

 

[mr.karmalicious]

You can also use Rio Music Manager, which supports many syncing options, if you please. You can ALSO use WMP10, if that floats your boat...

 

[scorpian007]

So it's finally arrived here in stores? Which stores did you see them in, and also did you see any accessories? I need that damn remote. Anyway to answer your question, I'd probably still go for the Zen Micro, just because of the more features and the removable battery. I think the removable battery will make it cheaper in the long run.

 

[AManInJapan]

Definitely buy the Mini

 

[mr.karmalicious]

Why? It loses in just about every aspect compared to both the Carbon and the Micro...

About the 'battery problem,'

http://forums-riovolution.com/index.php?showtopic=12503

 

[Cyclone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aeriyn I would say, "w0rd" but I'm supposed to be a die-hard Mini fan. If you can find the Carbon cheaper, get it, it's a great little DAP. But if not, pick up the Mini.

dido im a die hard micro fan but if you can find the carbon cheaper than the mini or the same price i would go for the carbon.

 

[pauls]

Thanks for the replies.

The micro will be available from mp3direct.com.au (as is the mini) - they are currently taking pre-orders. This is reputedly Austalia's largest supplier of mp3 players (I haven't seen any bigger on net searches) and they supply all of the major manufacturers ..... except Rio!!!!

The Karma, Rio, etc has never really been available in Oz (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) - I've never seen any Rio products anywhere. Therefore, the Rio Carbon is off the list. I'm not going to buy a player from overseas because of warranty hassles - I'll pay extra for the peace of mind of dealing with an Australian distributor.

So it's only micro vs mini, and I'm still leaning towards the mini from what I've been reading.

cheers

pauls

 

[Cyclone]

price to performance ratio i still give to the micro but only by the slimest of margins because they jacked up the price in AU. thats really to bad cause its alot better/more fun than the mini IMO. oh well at least you wanted the micro(if it were the same price as the mini) unlike many people out there.

EDIT:

just did a quick convesion and the zen micro is 375 US dollars in Australia. wow.... thats too much i would not buy it if it were that much here in the US. (thank god its ~230 here)

 

[Underdog311]

Well I don't know how well the old man will do with the software...but my dad just came to visit me who is getting up there in years ya know? And I showed him my micro and let him play with it, and my nephew has a 4g ipod which he also played around with, and he was able to use the ipod interface much easier. I believe the click wheel on the 4g ipod is the same as the mini, so it probably would be the same. Anyways, just my input, good luck.