Which portable mp3 player is the best to buy?

Well I don't know what best to buy, but I've got an iPod mini, not a Nano, just one of those normalish sized ones. The battery on iPods is not too great, mine anyway, the battery drains quite quickly and I hardly ever use mine. I think they're quite expensive for what they are aswell, but I won mine so I'm not complaining! I've seen other peoples iPods and they get scratched quite alot because they're coloured and shiny. The earphones you get with them don't last long either, don't get me wrong, they sound great while they work. They've got good built in bass and they're really good quality, the experts say not to turn up the volume too much because they're more powerful than normal headphones and cause damage to the ears. My left earphone went fuzzy, then while on the plane coming back from holiday the right one stopped working altogether (was this because of the pressure on the plane, I have no idea). Then all of a sudden, I turned my iPod on yesterday and both earphones work fine! Hope this helps!