Creative Zen vs. Sony NWZ-S638F

[J-W]

Hi guys! A newbie from the Netherlands speaking

I'm looking for a new mp3/media player. I've been doing some research and thanks to google and the nice reviews on this site I've managed to distill my choise down to 2 players: the Creative Zen Cobra 8Gb (that credit-card sized player with the 2,5" screen) and the Sony NWZ-S638F. I can get the 8 Gb Zen for about 95 Euro's (about $133) and the Sony for about 115 Euro's ($160). I often make long trips (more then 3 hours) in public transport so I want to watch some video (nothing fancy, but tv episodes for example) aswell on the player, when I get tired of my music Also, I have a large music collection so I will be stuffing the player full of mp3 files and therefore need a clear UI, good for navigating trough large libraries.

What both players have in common:
- 8Gb flash storage
- 30fps video playback support
- FM radio
- Voice recording (feature I will probably never use)
- Album art, mp3 tag/folder browsing etc.
- Both also work in linux

Reasons for buying a Creative:
- Cheaper
- Larger 2.5" screen, ideal for watching video (tv episodes)
- SD-card expantion (although crippled, still nice to store video on)
- More feature rich UI? (Naming radio station presets, playlist on-the-go, fast skipping trough long audio/video tracks*)

Reasons for buying a Sony:
- Better sound quality and headphones
- Improved battery life over the Zen
- Smaller and (in my personal opninion!) better looking (less toy-like).

* I often download long dj sets as a single mp3 file with a duration of about 2 hours. With the Zen you can fastforward quite rapidly to a specific location because the longer you hold the 'skip' button the faster you fastforward (Ipods also have this propery). I'm not sure the Sony S638 has this feature aswell, but it would be extremely dissappointing if it had not. Can somebody please tell me?

I am a big fan of Sony but when I look at the list I made above I'm leaning towards buying a Creative Zen. I have heard a lot of great things about the NWZ-S638F though and wonder if it is worth the extra money.

Your help is greatly appreciated!

[Dreamnine]

The Sony is the better player.

[J-W]

Originally Posted by Dreamnine

The Sony is the better player.

Thanks for your comment, but do you have any particular reason why Sony would be the better one? For example, do you know if it supports the 'fast skipping' feature I was not sure about (see my original post)?

[Dreamnine]

I'm not clear about that- you maybe need to search the forum a bit, or perhaps someone will know and answer. But I've yet to hear of anyone who's been disappointed with an S638- reputedly the best SQ of all the Sonys. The Zen is ok but nothing special.