[Kestrel]

Although I would have never admitted it years back, I'm going to pick up an iPod for line out use with my PCII. The competition has not satisfied me although Sony's ATRAC would be *lovely* for gapless use... The iPod battery issue annoyed me but with so many replacements available - I'm not too worried about it anymore. I plan on picking up one of the refurbished models to save a few bucks - the warranty is still 1 year - if anymore has any argument against the refurbs then please let me know now

I'll have roughly 300 to throw around and it seems as if my best options are the 4G 40gig refurb with the dock - or a 30gig color...

Simply put - which would you rather spring for and why? Is the higher battery life on the color worth sacrificing 10 gigs of storage space for? Replacement batteries will kick the life up regardless - but I won't have to worry about that for a while. Personally I wouldn't really view photos or any of that mess on the iPod period so the color screen isn't exactly a make it or break it type deal for me.

Just curious what you guys and girls would do at this point. Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[The Monkey]

I'm not a big fan of refurbished electronics, generally.

 

[Kestrel]

Neither am I

Rumor has it that they are reliable however...

Apple eliminated their middle players - problem is... that is exactly what I am looking for =/

 

[blessingx]

I went from a 4th gen 40 GB to a iPod Photo 30 GB (similar to current model). I didn't miss those 10GBs cause I have more than 40GB of music so it's not like I'm on the edge. If you're not also I wouldn't worry about it. Is the extra battery great? Yes, espeically so if you're considering lossless. Is the color screen nice? Yes. Fonts are much more readiable, etc. Cover art is nice if you tag correctly. There are some other things that take advantage of it - iPodSubwayMaps for example.

The one thing to consider is some users have experienced audio problems with the colors. Gain seems a bit off or something. Probably can be fixed with MP3/AACgain, but it's a problem that didn't seem to be there on the 4Gs.

 

[Kestrel]

Seems like this may - but would it affect the line out?