Recommended Z5 replacement?

[worldzfree]

Hello,

It looks like my trusty Z5 has met its demise. While I used it everywhere, it served me really well when riding my bike on the road or mountain biking due to the tactile nature of the buttons which allowed me to work with the player without taking it out of my pocket. That being said, I am looking for some recommendations to help me find an equal/better replacement. Can someone recommend a comparable newer Samsung (or another brand) player that has the following Z5 features (in order of preference)?

• tactile buttons (play/pause, previous trk, next tk, volume)
• close to "gapless" playback
• long battery life
• The "tap twice" feature (one to wake it and bring backlight on, two to change the setting) to reduce inadvertant tactile changes (instead of requiring hold switch all the time)
• Attach as mass storage AND/OR use with windows media player

I am currently trying out a Zune 8gb flash player and while it IS quite flash (the UI and size is cool) it doesn't have that "tap twice" feature, requires the zune software to load it, and the volume control is on the directional pad (kinda sucks when you press the wrong direction while in a ten minute techno song).

I appreciate any insight you all may have as I haven't really looked at an MP3 player for a few years as my Z5 handled all my needs. Thanks.

[FreeZ5]

I really like my Sansa Clip 2 GB (although 1GB and 4GB also available).

tactile - yes, at least by my definition
gapless - probably not
battery life - there have been some complaints, but I haven't had any problems
tap twice - nope - seems to be press once
mass storage - yes - I just copy in Windows

My Z5 is VERY slow to start up. The Clip is very quick.

Steve

[andyrynk]

I really love the Samsung T9. I recently bought one for my young daughter who really loves the fact that it's quite like dad's Z5 but loads better. It has similar features to the Z5 but it's lighter, smaller, far neater looking, has an excellent quality fm radio with auto tuning & rds and even has a very watchable mp4 video function which is excellent for watching episodes of The Simpsons - one 20 min episode takes only about 60 MB of memory once converted with the supplied software. Sound quality & battery life are excellent as on the Z5.
I got an as new, 2GB one off ebay for £40.
My only regret was not keeping the T9 for myself and giving my daughter the old Z5 which looks & feels like a brick in comparison.

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/s...&subtype=yp_t9

[sharodin95]

A SAMSUNG P2 is beautiful, it has dictionary, bluetooth object push, bluetooth phone calls, etc... (although it is touch)

But I would go with iriver. Now, if only these babies were cheaper...