What options do I have for MP3 players aren't crap or iPods?

Something with an FM radio would be a bonus. I’d also not like to pay too much for it.

Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations for me?

I use a Sansa Clip for the gym. Tiny, great sound, FM, clips (duh) to my shorts instead of getting strapped on my arm, maybe 1/2 the price of an iPod Nano. Got my son a Sansa Fuse for Christmas - also ~$50 and seems great so far.

I know other people like to hate on it, but I’m a fan of the Zune. My 30gb has been running like a champ for three years, no problems, and the FM radio works great.

Also a fan of the zune. I bike to work with the old 30 gig everyday and it still runs like a champ.

Sansa Clip, unless you need video, in which case check out the Sansa Fuze.

I had a Sansa e260 that I quite liked until I broke it. Especially good if you run Rockbox on it.

Also a Sansa owner here. Very happy with it - it’s small, very functional, and easy to use. What else do you need out of a music player?

My wife uses the Sansa and likes it fine. I personally use the Latte. Has a nice screen if you care, but what sold me on it was the built-in codec for FLAC. Very nice sound quality too, btw.

Another Zune fan. Heck, I probably love the software more than I do the actual player. I HATE itunes.

I’ll cast another vote for the Sansas. And if you aren’t necessarily needing one now, Woot frequently has Sansa players at great prices.

Geospark and Tower Defense games, mostly.

Zune! They’re cheap all over the internet (I got an 80gig off of Woot for 150) and i’ve never had a problem with it, and it’s battery life is pretty astounding as well.

I guess that makes me “old school” in that I mainly use them to listen to music.

Though I have considered getting an IPod Touch for the other stuff it offers.

I was mostly kidding, there’s nothing at all wrong with wanting a music player that just plays music. But yeah, the “other stuff” can be a lot of fun too.

Thanks for the advice. I’ll pick a Sansa Clip or Fuze up for my wife. She really doesn’t want more than an MP3 player/fm radio.

Sansa Fuze here, I love it. Works in media mode or hard drive mode, has a slot for a 8gb expansion card (and is 8gb by default so 16gb+ total). The UI is great, although not high resolution like an iPod.

If you get a Clip, be sure it’s one of the new models. They come with a memory slot that the older models lack so you can get a cheap one with minimal built-in memory and then add more later very inexpensively if you want to.

Definitely. There’s no sense in buying any music player these days without a memory slot, I’m not sure why anyone would even market one, though they do. You can basically carry around an entire library of music in an Altoids-sized box that way.

This. Woot.com pretty commonly sells mp3 players. i bought a 4gb sansa e260 from them for about $25 a while ago and it works great using rockbox.

If you want a fancy touch screen or the ability to play doom on your mp3 player, you should get something else though.

FYI - Woot has the 4 GB Sansa Fuze for $34.99, shipped, today.