I have tried many music players. If you do not want an ipod there are several options, I recommend you Sony Walkman NWZ-ZX1 It is very good, compact, stylish but If you do not want something too expensive I recommend the Sony Walkman NWZ-A is "small", lightweight and inexpensive both supports FLAC format (loseless).

fiio x5 or one of the iBass devices.unfortunately iriver stopped making good mp3 devices years ago.maybe a cowon device would be option?

Really? Shit, just as my good old T10 is started to give up on me i learn i should look for a successor elsewhere.

I know, i don't regret buying mine since it worked like wonders for the past 3 years but i just hate the clicking noise (i'll explain below) and the cheap build.

It's not a clicking noise from the music/sound, it's from the plastic button when changing tracks, you can hear it here.

Uhm, this looks interesting but a little expensive considering that it doesn't even has internal memory (i'm aware that it has a mini sd card slot but so does the sansa clip and that one it's cheaper AND with internal memory). Uhm, 130€ (with postage) is above of what i was expecting, dunno...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL8XaA0t4x8

the clip on nano really is a piece of crap to be honest
its a shuffle with a screen
urgh

that x5 caught my attention

That's why any decent phone comes with a microsd slot. Since I got my first smartphone, I pretty much stopped carrying an MP3 player with me because it wasn't really doing anything for me that my phone couldn't do.

And people who insist on lossless audio on a portable device are idiots that should be sent to a re-education camp before they flip, the rest of the way, out and hurt people.

people want what people want
including shinies

and even then peopel still want lots of space to carry their whole library or all their audiobooks

I like the Sansa Fuze+. It has a very long battery life (roughly double the Clip+) and when you have the latest firmware installed it seems to sort out a few of the initial criticisms of the responsiveness of the touch controls. It also plays AAC unlike the Clip+, which is why I'm not interested in the latter since I've got a lot of iTunes music.

And I like the sound quality of the Fuze+, which I believe has a different audio chip to the Clip+, but I realise this is a personal preference.

Unfortunately all the online retailers in South Africa say it's discontinued, even though the official site doesn't mention anything, so I'm not sure how readily available it is in Portugal.

I'll second the Sandisk players. I have a Sansa Fuze (first one), which is is still working, except that it seems that the internal memory is defect (playing some songs it seems the player freezes). Thanks to the micro-sd slot that's not a problem, as the firmware (I use rockbox) is still working and all music is on the micro-sd cart. I heard they kind of ruined the controls of the newer Fuzes, so maybe the Cliips are the better players right now. Beside this I would also advise to check the rockbox site and see which supported players are still available.

I still don't have a smartphone. Have a tablet but use the space on that for apps and the like. Plus the battery on my mp3 player lasts way, way, way longer than a tablet / phone would while playing audio. It's also pretty sturdy. No problem throwing it in a bag somewhere. It is a lot smaller than a mobile phone, too.

-----

Vote for giving the Sansa Clip (Zip) another chance, too. Mine still works perfectly fine years after I bought it. Or the Creative Zen Muvo T100 (there was a follow up model, T200, too) mentioned further up, if you can find one second-hand. Nothing beats that one for size and durability, if the smaller memory size isn't a hindrance.

fiooooo ahem x5
go on you know you want to !

Not having a smartphone is certainly a legitimate reason for wanting an MP3 player, although, I get so much done with my smart phone that I'm not sure how I could do without it.

I'm a fan of the Sandisk players. If you select wisely, you can even install Rockbox on them.
People do, but sometimes what people want is absolutely ludicrous and deserves to be laughed at derisively. You can hold a whole crapload of music at 196kbps VBR Lame preset standard without any noticeable drop in sound quality. And that's probably overkill for listening to in public.

Because you can get mp3 players without a touchscreen.

And I can bring 160GB of audio around with me.

I don't need to have my whole music library around, but with my 32gb micro-sd cart I'm still feeeling limited. There are special moments that you will get an earworm and you want to eear exactly that album or song you last time maybe listened half a year ago.

Easier to skip or repeat tracks,or change the volume without looking on your screen or pulling it out of your jacket pocket. Not a big thing for me, because I mostly listen to albums, but still handy for some situations.