Cheaper Alternatives to the iPOD Touch

The iPod touch is known to be a transferable and handy media player. It is a Wi-Fi platform for mobiles planned and promoted by Apple Inc. This product first entered the market on September 5, 2007 in the course of an event called ‘The Beat Goes On’. If you are the owner of iPod touch, it will add to the graphical interfaces Multi-Touch, Cover Flow to the iPod line. You will get it in a varied range of 32, 16, 8 GB flash memory. It contains web browser like Apple’s Safari and is known to be the first ever iPod accessing wireless function for the storage of iTunes.

As this device is well equipped in Wi-Fi technology, you can also use this to purchase audio tunes from the music store of iTunes Wi-Fi. As in the case of iPhone, your iPod touch also will not assist the 802.1x verification method. This iPod touch 2.0 Updated Software will seemingly assist the 802.1x authentication method. You may think that the iPod touch is pretty costly, but the cost depends upon its storage capacity. It will really serve you with ultimate entertainment without any stoppage. But now as this gadget has emerged, many other devices similar to this device have arrived at the market. Some of them are even cheaper. If you are interested to buy a cheaper substitute of the iPod touch you can always opt for one of those.

The Archos 605 WiFi is a very cheap alternative to the iPod touch. You will get a 30 GB memory space in it and will cost $280 alone. But you will have an additional expense for using this device, i.e. an Opera Web Browser for the internet (wifi) to function; this browser will cost $30, which will increase the cost to $310. Even this is cheaper as the iPod of only 8GB memory costs $299.You will get the flash player included through the internet, but the iPod touch do not have it. The archos will also offer you a 4.3 inch screen together with a touch-screen.

The Archos' 605 WiFi will always offer you a steadily improving scale as it becoming slimmer and much easier to apply. This 605 WiFi is the latest version of this brand and comes very much close to become what the Apple's iPhone would have been if the phone was not included in it. Contrasting the iPhone, this 605 WiFi will allow you download TV shows, movies, and quick music, stream the most recent videos from YouTube by applying its wireless function.

Still, the amount of content supplier is very thin at this instant, and several of its major convincing features (most remarkable of them is the Web browser) will make you spend additional money. The 30GB hard disk edition was tested for these conclusions, but you may also go for an 80GB or a 160GB model which are also available in the market. You can also choose the 4GB flash-based form of Archos' 605 WiFi having an SDHC (secure digital high-capacity) card slot.

You may face only some hardware dissatisfaction. The battery of this device is fixed, and the slot for storing up the stylus may have been of a superior choice than an incorporated kickstand. If you are an owner of the 30GB model, your battery will persist for a little more time than 5 hours of video shows and nearly 17.5 hours of audio playback. But your battery duration will vary based on screen brightness and volume intensity

The Samsung YP-P2 is one cheaper option for you to analyze. You will get it as a 4GB (costs $200) and 8GB (costs $250) model. The YP-P2 seems like a touch smaller and thinner edition of the Apple's flagship MP3 player. You will also find it similar to the Touch, as it offers the touch screen function for navigation. The YP-P2 will present you a decisive and multicolored screen of 3-inch width (480-by-272-pixel) display, which will provide you with a pseudo-cinematic atmosphere while watching videos. If you are fanatic about altering audio settings, the plentiful audio presets and EQ settings of this model are the perfect for you to have.

The Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity helps you out in pairing the YP-P2 with a sequence of speakers or headsets supported by Bluetooth. Unluckily, the FM radio of this player will not support the Bluetooth 2.0, for this reason you will only be able to employ the Bluetooth for digital video and audio playback. Continuous tests were performed on the YP-P2's will assure you more about its purity. Wireless implementation was made with the transportable speakers i.e. the BS300 Bluetooth manufactured by Samsung, and this device had a very positive feedback. It owns a transparent line of vision to the speakers, audio streams without any disruption from nearly a distance of 80 feet. When in closed doors, audio streams constantly from a distance of about 30 feet.

Although you get clean and spontaneous menu navigation, it may take a little while for you to get accustomed to the touch-screen function of the YP-P2. When you switch on the gadget, the primary screen shows three options: music, pictures and videos. But you will get to see more menu options lurking below those three. If you want to see them, you will have to hit your finger in a downward motion on the touch screen. This will fetch the settings options, FM radio option along with 30 specifications, file browser, the Bluetooth menu and the podcasts ("datacasts" in case of Samsung Company) for you to access.

You will get a very limited file support while using this device. The YP-P2 can work with MP3 & WMA audio files, WMV & MPEG-4 video files, and JPEG image files. The digital video rental or download service assistance of your Samsung YP-P2 is confined to only Vongo and CinemaNow.
Another device which you can use as a cheaper substitute of iPod touch is the Creative Zen Touch 20GB music player. It may be declared to have initiated the original hard drive-based player, but Apple's iPod has always underestimated its works. While the Singaporean designers of Zen Touch have concentrated on the functionality of their product, Apple's focus was on appearance and style. So as the iPod will appear as an eye-catching device to you, the Zen Touch will give a nomad essence through its looks and will never appear at ease beside user electronics kit.
The Zen shares a plethora of controls and keys with the previous jukeboxes. Probably you will find the upcoming Zen Micro to narrow those down, and catch the iPod-fashion. The Touch possesses 11 keys along with a Touch panel. At the top of the gadget you will discover a switch, next to the USB 2.0 port and a remote control or headphone sockets. The left-hand spine exhibits volume down, volume up and power buttons. On the face and back you will find a screen. One side sports the Random play and Menu buttons, on the other you will see the track skip forward, play/pause & track skip back buttons. Flanked by them there will be a circular OK button over the touch pad. You will receive a complete idea of the facial feature of Zen if you come to know about its dimensions. It is bit larger than the size of the iPod. Both are 10.3cm in height, but Zen is more fat, thick (6.8×2.3cm to 6×1.5cm) and heavy (201g to 159g).
Unless you are playing something, the display takes you to the primary Menu by default, which will allow you to select music from the library of this device. At first choose the play button, you can repeat tracks or a particular collection of songs or shuffle them. You can also modify the settings, and have look at the songs that you have copied till date and how much space they had occupied. The sub menu will allow you to alter the sensitivity of the touchpad. That is where we have obtained the name of this new Zen from, even though it may be the weakest feature of this set. You can consider it as the equivalent of the clickwheel of the iPod or the jogdial.

At first you may find it frustratingly tricky to use. Scrolling rapidly through a lengthy list of songs should be fine for you, but if you attempt to narrow down to one particular track, it may be a bit difficult. Besides adjusting the sensitivity of this device you can switch off the 'tap to click' button. Again, that is compulsory if you are not to unintentionally create unnecessary settings selections or play an off beam track. There should not be any doubt that the users of Zen Touch will get used to the peculiarity of the touchpad. But this thing doesn’t happen in most cases. You may curse yourself for buying such a complicated device.

But it has extraordinary features which can not be avoided; its sound quality will never let you leave it away. And now the most important one, it runs continuously for 24 hours. You may get an average service of 24 hours from it if you are lucky.