The Greate iPod debate

Ok so lately i have been concidering buying an MP3 player. I have been looking at the big ones on the market and it seems like 2 lines jump out. The 2 big guns right now are the iPod and the Creative Nomad Zen. Now most of the people in my lab are mac and ipod fanatics so there opinions are a bit biased. I have however after seeing severl of them in action changed my opinion from dislike to indifferent about them. Creative however has been my choince of sound card for my entire life and i have never been disapointed with the quality of their products. I have been looking ar revies on the web and have compiled a list of the pros for each device.

Creative Nomad

• Sound quality superior to that of iPod but it comes with crappy headphones so you have to buy good ones to make it worth while.
• Longer battery life.
• 4 band graphics equilizar and EAX enhancements
  
• Tougher and more resistant to breaking.
• Plays MP3, WAV, WMA(although i dont know why you would want that)
  
• Better interface with PC
• Cheeper
  

iPod

• I have to admit it looks nicer and peopel think more highly of it.
  
• smaller and lighter than nomad and HD is a bit quieter.
• Better user interface, easier to use.
  
• Plays MP3, WAV and some strange apple format i cant use on my pc anyway.
• Better Mac Interface

They can both be used as portable hard drives (as long as you fromat the iPod for windows) and they both require special software. Neither is simply plud and play. I love this guys reviews on a mac website, he basicly admits the nomad is a superior product but still uses his iPod so his friends wont laugh at him for not haveing an iPod.
Good Real world comparison

It's like beta vs VHS alover again. A superior product seems to be swamped out dew to great markiting on the otehrs part. And i have to admit mad as great markiting for the iPod.

here is a more impartial comparison

of course the review if from a few years ago when the two players wehre introduced. since then they have been vastly upgraded. The iPod colour is out and it is compeating with the Nomad Zen Xtra. again mack try to make it's ipod look nicer with a color screen and photo options while Creative made the interface more user friedly biggere screen and better controls and increase its storage size.
Here are seperate revies of each Zen Xtra, iPod Photo

So right now im leaning towards the Zen Xtra. I would rather have something a little bigger and heaver that has better sound quality and longer battery life. Do you guys have any opinions. Which do you find better and why?