MP3 players forum: Hard drive based players

From experience i can say that if you want a rugged device that will stand up to a lot of damage, you are going to be best most likely to go with a zune 30. I know people who have done horrible things to this device and had it survive. I myself accidentally smashed mine a few times. The newer zunes, and the iPods for sure are not going to stand up to much damage.

HHD players are excellent for one thing: Holding your entire collection of movies, pictures, music, podcasts, etc.

HHP players are generally cheaper for the amount of memory they hold. The Zune 120 costs $250 while the Zune 16 costs about $149. The reason is simple: flash-based technology is not yet cheap enough.

With flash devices, it usually drains the battery less, are more durable because they have no movable parts, and are much smaller, but they hold significantly less.

The only time a HHD player is extremely vulnerable to a fall is when it is reading the music off it's hard drive. When you select a song to play or picture to view, it has to load it onto it's hard drive to it's internal memory. (both the iPod and Zune use this system). It takes it about 1 to 4 seconds. WIth large movies, it does it every 15 to 20 minutes or so, but when its not reading from the hard drive, theyre generally pretty reliable even when it comes to falls.

I don't konw about the Zune but I suppose they use the same tec as Ipod in the players over 8 gigs I think and after that it's hard drive and I will tell you some thing for notting what ever about a bike they don't like to run so ended up getting two one hard drive for car and one solid state for running so I had no problems after that but if your mountingbiking or on roughground it might not last I only got 3 months out of my first

After much consideration I decided to get a 120GB Zune. I plan to use it at the gym, around the house and in the car (no more carrying CDs!)and I'll use my Sansa 270 for biking and rough activities. Thanks for everyone's comments.