I have two MP3 Players: an iPod (15GB) and a Rio S50. I bought the Rio about a year and a half ago, and I won the iPod in a raffle. Here's my take:

1. The iPod sounds better than the Rio. I played the same mp3 file with the same headphones on the iPod and the Rio, and the sound quality on the iPod was better.

2. The battery life on the iPod is pretty bad -- about 3-4 hours. I get about 20 hours on the Rio before I recharge it. If I run out of battery on the Rio, I can use any AA battery.

3. I hear that a user cannot replace the battery on the iPod.

4. The iPod plays AAC and mp3 files. The Rio plays mp3 and wma files.

5. Windows users need to buy a usb cable for the iPod, unless their machine is equipped with a firewire card.

6. The iPod does not come with a cover, and the pretty stainless steel outside scratches easily. The Rio came with a cover, and it seems pretty indestructible.

7. I have about 1000 tunes on my iPod, and it takes about 3GB of space. I have 128mb internal memory on my Rio as well as a 256mb card. I can get about 100 songs on the Rio with this setup.

I like both players. I use the iPod at work to listen to tunes -- it has the majority of my music collection on it, so I don't have to shuffle songs back and forth.

I use the Rio at the gym. If I drop it and it breaks, I can replace it for under $50 on eBay. It's also a lot smaller than the iPod. I put my 100 songs in random mode and find that I don't need to transfer songs from the PC that often.

If I had to choose which to buy, I'd probably still go with the Rio. It's not as "hip" as the iPod, but it's a great value for the money.

-- Melissa