I've often been one that sees which direction the crowd are running in and then nip out the back door which is why  I said  no-no to Nano, of the Apple variety and bought a Samsung K3 instead.   Firstly my decision  process needs some examining since  this  is the right player for me at this time.

SAMSUNG's Digital World - MP3 Player | YP-K3JQB

The good:

• sound quality
• battery life
• UI
• build quality
• Packaging has some thought behind it, they totally mess it up by clamshell wrapping it but hey,  all corporations believe us to be thieves so par for the course 
  

The middling:

• Touch sensitive controls ( love / hate relationship)
  
• Pain in the ass connector that works, just could have been done better)
  
• Headphones are standard fare
  

The bad: 

• The display in bright sunshine is useless. ( I live in Arizona so  major points off)
• There's a photo gallery feature that's not well served by the display.
  
• Xp only using MTP  , yeah I thought I could hack a driver into 2k , as others have done but... so far I've failed to get it to work and just found it easier to use my XP box
  
• Doesn't do aac 
  

Anyway  over the last few weeks this player has maintained it's impressive sheen, doesn't seem to get as messy as a Nano and has behaved perfectly.  The restriction to MTP when connected to Windows box is frustrating and needless since the device is capable of other modes. Ultimately  I use it to listen to daily podcasts  so I chose a 2gb model which is  based on these requirements.

Hold 10 albums at 196kps mp3 and enough podcasts for my commute and the backup spec is carry enough audio books  and battery life to  fly across the atlantic and back.  ( obviously waiting at airport times are not included)  I didn't need video since  there's not many answers to that question  that I like , seriously came close to a Zune over Ipod mainly because I do not like  iTunes on the PC it's slow, buggy and a real pain in the ass where  video is concerned  plus I gave up buying DRM music  since I've  been bitten  by  Buymusic buy.coms music store refusing to reauthorize tracks after a pc upgrade  and  Real's pain in the ass music format that means no player I could buy can  play music or the audio books ( Audible.com think I am a thief too for paying them money Hey assholes I can  get nearly ANY  book free on a torrent without your service. I just don't believe in stealing from others  so having to buy a player that you approve of, er no thanks.    That's totally useless and it's why I held out on replacing my  256Mb player for so long since I couldn't get over the choice. ( ok  and I finally lost my player but hey  there's a principle, kind of,  in there.    I considered the creative zen 2gb  or 4g , cheaper but just too ugly, Sansa,  I loved the  expandable memory socket but..  not a lot else.  Best Buy's own brand.. er very funny joke ha ha.   

Anyway  it's a nice sounding, aesthetically pleasing player that works for me. YMMV ( mine's about 24mpg city, 30 hwy)