Need help choosing a MP3 Player for teenager

[hangin'witthepeeps]

Okay story....

My 18 yo DD has an iPod (3 years old) and wants the new iPod Touch (which I've bought already). She made the comment the other day that if she got the new iPod she wanted to give her friend the old one. Well I paid almost $300 for that iPod and I want if for myself, which I told her "if" she got one the old one was mine.

I have already bought a few things for her friend. She is a very nice girl but I suspect her family life is hard. I don't like to "guess" at peoples circumstance, but they did not even have Thanksgiving Dinner? So I would like to buy her a MP3 player for Christmas. I found this nice one at Wal-Mart that has a camera also. Do you guys have any suggestions on a good MP3 player with at least a FM tuner for less than $50?

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ematic-4GB-MP3-Video-Player-Black/15126061

I did a search for reviews, but only Wal-Mart reviews can be found.

Thanks, Melissa

P.S. We (me, my sister, my aunt and my granny) got her some new clothes, a purse, ring, and socks. Let's just say she has made a big difference in the life of my daughter. My daughter has several mental/behavioral problems and this girl has really helped out by being my daughter's friend at school and home. This is the first friend that my daughter has kept for more than 2 months and I like having around my house.

 

[Siler]

It's great that your daughter seems to have such a wonderful friend. I would be on the cautious side tho. I don't have children, but I do have a 12yr old niece. She had two "friends" that would hang around a lot. It took my SIL an entire summer to figure out what I grasped in just a few hours. These girls didn't really like my niece, but liked that my SIL would take them places like the movies, mall, out to eat, etc. They were only hanging around because they got free stuff. And this at 12yrs old!

Aside from all that I have personal experience with both the iPod and a "generic" mp3 player. I have a Samsung original. It doesn't hold much in the way of music and it's terribly organized, but it has an FM radio that I like to use when I lay out around the pool. It's also gone through 2 complete loads of laundry and has never suffered from it. I paid $100 originally, but I think they're way down now.

Ok this just made me Google and I came across ratings on Cnet. The version of Samsung player I have is the YP series. They're cheaper and they have the radio built in and like I said mine seems to be able to take just about any kind of abuse. An issue could arise if they still only charge on a computer like mine. I have to boot up the computer to charge it and if this girl doesn't have a computer then she can only charge it by using your daughter's computer. If they do spend a lot of time together then she can still charge it, but that's an inconvenience especially when the battery doesn't last any longer than a heavily used cell phone.

Good luck!

 

[KCchickens]

I bought a new iPod recently and I really like it. I think it's a 4 GB one but to be honest I don't remember. It was $150 and it has a video camera too! I know it's not under $ 50 but it's relatively ( kinda ) cheap.

Both my step daughters want those $300 I touches.... And that means forever paying for songs to download to it off it iTunes and the fact that both girls are younger than 14..... Sorry kiddos, love ya but not gonna happen!

 

[slightlyscrambled]

I bought both of my girls this one last year for Christmas and they have had no complaints
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Philips-Gogear-Video-Mp3-Player/11091212 you do how ever need a computer to charge them. I think you can buy the extra cord to adapt to wall outlet.
Good luck

 

[arabianequine]

We like the Zunes best....we bought the kids one each a few years back and all still working great. No problems. The are the 80gb older style....and were close to $300 each.

My son's just went bad earlier this year and the battery stopped working and when they checked it said the mother board it corroded. Would cost $100 to fix and can mail it in and no labor charge not bad for all that memory.

What we did instead is bought one on black Friday....a memorex for $40 from staples and it is 4gb......I thought I heard somewhere you can get 1000 songs roughly for each gb maybe someone else will chime in to the truth of that.

Good luck.....I know people like I pods/nanos.

 

[littlegorb]

not sure if you have a Dollar General down there, but here we do and they had a Poloroid PMP280-4 4GB mp3 player, with a touch screen. plays music, videos, and photos. no fm tuner. it was 40 dollars, and i had a 5 dollar coupon from a previous receipt. i bought it for my daughter's birthday and she loves it. overstock.com also has some good deals. good luck!

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

Well as bad as their situation seems to be, they do have a computer and the internet. That's why my daughter like to go over there. BUT her disability can make her an unwelcome guest really fast. I think they spent 2 days there and my DD "had" to come home. Yep, I knew the reason. That's why God gave her to me, I'm the only one who can put up with it.

Her friend does spend time at your house, but we don't take them to the mall and I've never taken them to the movies. They spend their time helping with farm chores and hanging out at the house. I did take her to the Zoo with us, but only bought her ticket to get in and we brought a picnic lunch. She paid for any extra things she got. She's such a sweet girl, but she can't have my iPod.