Those looking for capacity at a low price will note that the 8-gigabyte Fuze costs less than the 4-gigabyte Nano, which costs $149. Also, the player is rated for up to 24 hours of music playback (or five hours of video playback), which is right up there with its body double.

Samsung YP-S3: With its long, slender body and glowing, touch-sensitive LED controls, Samsung's S3 ($100, due out by early fall) looks oddly like the top half of a flip phone.

Despite that and some other annoyances, the S3 -- available with 4 gigabytes in the U.S., though I tested a 2-gigabyte version -- proved to be pretty solid.

Most notable is the S3's crisp, 1.8-inch LCD that is surprisingly good for watching videos or viewing photos.

Images show up in wide-screen mode, so it is necessary to turn the device sideways to watch videos. The S3's controls also rotate with the video and photo functions, which can get confusing.

Listening to music on the device was simple, with lots of equalization options that were easier to manipulate than on the other players I tested.

And when using the player's digital radio, I enjoyed seeing information like artist names, song titles and the names of stations I tuned in to.

Another feature unique to the S3 was the inclusion of several games, with more set to be available for free over time through Samsung.

The device's playback time is rated as essentially comparable to the Nano, with 25 hours of audio, four hours of video.

But while the controls were nice to look at, my fingers would sometimes hit the wrong LED on the S3's small, flat face, resulting in unexpected actions like the music suddenly stopping.

I also thought it was odd that the S3's radio would stop playing when I navigated other areas of the player -- something that didn't happen when listening to my MP3s.

For those looking outside the iPod box, all these devices offer a good jumping-off point. And hey, if you try a non-Nano and find it's not for you, don't despair: If you've built a library of MP3s, they should work just as well on an iPod.