Alternatives to ipod touch

Hello everyone,

You guys have such wonderful advise here that I would like to ask you a question. The thing is I’m soooo fed up by my ipod touch 1st gen, so much that I’m considering selling it and buy a new device.

What would you consider the better alternative to an ipod touch. I mostly would like a touch device with at least a 3.5 screen, internet connection and a good choice of app ( android would be my favourite).

Does Taiwan has some specific alternatives and at which cost ?

If some of you wonder, I’m tired of my ipod because of the limited storage and the fact that my song list has too often been cleared…

As usual, thank you

Seems to me someone asked the same question not too long again (sorry, can’t find the thread), and no one could come up with a comparable alternative.

I’ve read any number of tech columns bemoaning the lack of an alternative. Maybe something new’s come out in the last while, but the only news I’ve heard was that Microsoft was burying the Zune.

Timely thread, my kid has been bugging me for one. was hoping to find something android, but haven’t seen yet. we may hold out for the 5g if not, if i hear the camera is any good.

There really isn’t a viable direct alternative. If it’s about getting more storage, the most direct answer is to get an iPod Touch with bigger storage. Another answer, which is also more direct than it seems is to look into getting an Android phone or a large capacity iPhone. A low-priced new Android or iPhone 3GS for example might be a workable lower-price alternative.

The reason Apple can sell the iPod Touch at their price points is because of component and channel sharing with the iPhone and iPad. Another reason they can do this is they can strategically eat margin on the iPod Touch in order to get more users and make their app store ecosystem more attractive to developers. If you’re looking for sharks, first find the fish. Note that in concept all the iPhone is, is an iPod Touch with a cellular radio that sells for basically 3x the price of the iPod Touch (thus the popularity of the iPeel).

A big reason other competitors aren’t jumping in is because it’s hard for them to compete at the price points Apple has set with a decent device and the simple fact that the stand alone music player space is a declining market.

In the end, iPods, along with other music players will for the most part die as the Zune already has, killed by smartphones, which with their connected point-n-shoot camera, and always-connected nature, are more a more complete pocket computer than their WiFi-only cousins.

If you are looking at just a music player then check out Cowon. They make excellent music players and are well known for amazing sound quality. I have a Cowon J3 and it’s great. It will play almost any music format so you are not stuck with apple. It also has a micro SD slot so you can expand the amount of storage space you need. It does not have Internet capability though so if you are really interested in having this then Cowon’s not for you. There are some apps out but I haven’t really looked into it all that much. I mainly use my player for listening to music and the sound quality from this player beats any other player out there.

Oh c’mon, there are plenty of alternatives, the question is if they offer what the OP wants.
The biggest problem is that most of the alternatives are not on sale in Taiwan, which makes it a bit tricky to recommend something.
Creative has the Zen Touch 2 which runs Android 2.2 (3.2-inch screen though) sg.store.creative.com/products/p … &pid=20275
Archos has the 43, although it calls it an internet tablet and it too runs Android 2.2 archos.com/products/ta/archo … us&lang=en
They also have a smaller model called the 32 (3.2-inch screen again, but lower resolution than Creative) archos.com/products/ta/archo … us&lang=en
Philips has a 4.3-inch device, but it’s not Android afaik, but it’s at least high resolution shopping.pchome.com.tw/?mod=item … 1D&ROWNO=5

The problem might be finding an alternative with a large enough screen that also runs Android.
It might be worth checking out this site for some details on iPod options anythingbutipod.com/
There’s a new piece there about a new Android device from Philips as well.
Samsung should also have some new Android players out shortly, but dunno if they’ll be available in Taiwan again.

[quote=“TheLostSwede”]
Samsung should also have some new Android players out shortly, but dunno if they’ll be available in Taiwan again.[/quote]

Actually a Samsung guy told me the other day they would be. First thing I saw in a review though is that the camera isn’t great. Been hoping for something solid in that regard.

I have recently bought items from Merimobiles and Pandawill and am pretty satisfied. You might want to look at a few alternatives there.

Here are some tablets from Merimobiles with more screen real estate than the ipod:

Ramos W7 5 inch tablet - capacitive touch screen

SmartQ V5 - 4.3 inch tablet - resistive touch screen

Herotab M5 - resistive touch screen

Ramos T11AD 4.8 inch tablet - resistive touch screen

If you want to go the phone route, I have one on its way to me this week from PandaWill, here: A2000 Quad Band Android Smart phone - resistive touch screen. I can let you know how I like it, when I get it.

Here is a more expensive version with a capacitive touch screen: a9191 android v22 with capacitive touch screen

Hope that helps.


By the way, when using Merimobiles, your billing address and shipping address must be the same - for security purposes (something that I like to see). Oh, and they routinely get the tracking numbers on their packages mixed up.

Do keep in mind that the iPod Touch is about the size of an MRT card in height width and thickness when deciding whether any of these large, un-pocketable devices are really alternatives. Also consider the fact that an iPod Touch 4 can serve as a very capable international video conferencing machine (Skype, FaceTime, Tango) and 720p HD video recorder AND editor (using iMovie). Looking at the prices, the options are either comparable in price for less functionality or slightly less price for significantly less functionality.

Given this, I don’t personally see why anyone would choose any of these “alternatives” unless they had a deep rooted hatred for Apple.

If we are taking about iTunes as the core of the issue, one can synch mp3 music and video of numerous formats just fine into an iPod Touch, without using iTunes even.

Obviously people will get whatever they want, but why get something significantly worse for a very marginal difference in price?

For me, I need the extra screen size, even though the screen resolution on the ‘touch’ is better.

Ok, here’s a real alternative with a 5-inch screen, Android and a sub 9k price shopping.pchome.com.tw/?mod=item … 3U&ROWNO=1

Or if you can make do with a 4-inch screen, there’s a 7.5k version shopping.pchome.com.tw/?mod=item … 3U&ROWNO=1

it seems that the Samsung have a GPS-Sensor, right ?
Is a fully functional Papago navigation software in these packages included ?
If yes, only Taiwan covered, or even Hongkong Macao also ?
Price sounds nice, will give apple a lot pressure for its next generation.