Better battery life?
maybe, but the player itself won't last very long. Besides, who needs more than 18 hours battery life on a portable mp3 player.
No way, the creatives are extremely well made. Given that creative has a history and is a company that manufactures sound products, I'd be more inclined to trust them than Apple, who make computers and mice with one button. Who needs more than 18 hours? The iPod is actually about 8-10 when you get them new. Apple is notorious for its marketing. Plus it's annoying having to recharge all the ruddy time.
Ipods are portable hard-drives too, and there's nothing easier to use than an iPod with a clickwheel, sorry but that's BS. The software you get with Creatives is crap, no way it's easier to use than iTunes. It's also cheaper because it's cheaply made (..and ugly), and good thing it's easier for repairs because I hear those things need em' often. Sound quality depends on the quality of the MP3 itself and your headphones. Good Luck with customer service too with those other smaller companies...
You can just use explorer with the creative zen. None of this messing around with iTunes. By repairs I meant for example, changing the battery, which is a no-go in an iPod. All batteries fail and loose their ability to hold charge over a time span, and the ones in iPods have a better ability to loose charge than Zen's. Also Creative is not a "small" company, they are one of the biggest in the world when it comes to sound products. The headphones that come with the Zen's are better than the iPod ones . . . and the creative hardware is better at decoding MP3's. Play a song on a Zen and an iPod and you'll notice the Zen has better clarity.
Plus calling a Zen ugly is like FIFA fans saying PES doesn't have official names . . . cosmetic's aren't everything, I myself prefer functionality over looks.
I've personally known people who've ditched their Creative Mouvo slim and Rio MP3 players for iPods after a while, but I've never even heard of anyone ditching an iPod for one of those imitators. Rio even stopped making portable players recently.
I know a fair few people who have ditched iPod's, especially my band mate, his iPod's battery went tits up, and Apple refused to replace it. He got a Zen and likes it a lot more. And Apple are the imitator really, Creative/Rio started MP3 players before Apple did!
I don't really want to argue, but my advice is try them out. I think that iPod's are for people who want a fashion item; Zen's are for people who want functionality. It's almost a case of Intel |= AMD again.
My advice is to get what you want, you probably won't be told by someone else! But consider all options first.