The Portable Music Player Challenge

My current portable music player is a 4th generation iPod brick--the last of the monochrome screen iPods.  I've got some good use out of the device and unlike most others, I've easily resisted the desire to purchase each follow-up iPod just because it's new.

But I've got to a point now where I think I would appreciate being able to watch some videos on my commute to to work and having invested in a set of Sennheiser IE 6 in-ear headphones I would also appreciate a device with better sound quality.

The thing is, I've told myself that the iPod range of music players can't possibly be the definitive portable music player.  Clearly they were in the early days of portable music players to have attracted such a loyal following, but today I should think that perhaps Apple is resting on it's popularity and other manufacturers have an opportunity to provide some compelling features and prices to show-up Apple.

So I've done some research and it seems this is not the case.  iPod alternatives are not that competitive.  They have their pros but not enough to put the iPod out of the option.  The best example is the Creative Zen X-Fi.  It has some neat features, like an SD card slot and wireless networking for streaming content from a media server.  But I need 32 GBs to allow breathing space for my growing collection of music, but the 32 GB Zen X-Fi is only marginally cheaper than an iPod Touch (if you shop around) with the same amount of storage, and the Touch has a much much larger screen.  I could get a iPod classic with the same sized screen as the Zen X-Fi for a fraction of the price--granted the Classic isn't flash based but at the end of the day I just want to watch videos and listen to music.

I'm kind of surprised that even today, the iPod remains to be fairly priced and competitively featured.  I should think that companies like Creative would be working a lot harder to make their products a no-brainer.

If you feel you know of a player that makes the iPod range look like a pile of puke, please let me know.