Sure, this thing is definitely more cost-effective than an iPod. But with a low price, comes lower quality. Our special friends at Creative gave this thing good sound quality, great features, long battery life, and an unbeatable price. The catch is it's built like a piece of crap. It lasted about 1 1/2 weeks. I didn't abuse it, I charged it every day, but the headphone jack just sort of fizzled out. I tried re-setting it, I tried just about every pair of headphones in my house (10 pairs), and nothing worked. So I contacted customer service at Creative, but they said, "If the product seems broken, we cannot help," or something to that effect. Wow. Don't get me wrong, the thing was like heaven for about a week. If you want a quality mp3 player, splurge on an ipod. If you really need to save, buy this thing on Amazon, they eventually gave me a full refund. I bought myself an RCA mp3-cd player, and I'm happy with that until a cheap, worthwhile mp3 player coomes out.