Dominant as iPods are, they still have flaws, according to our tests and the results of our survey of some 3,000 subscribers who own MP3s.

More than 50 percent of iPod owners reported that controls and music management were excellent. By comparison, no more than 35 percent deemed those to be excellent on all other brands combined.

Also, 65 percent of iPod owners described the players, including the display, as excellent in appearance – nearly twice the proportion for the non-iPod group.

But only about 20 percent of iPod owners characterized their player’s battery life as excellent, compared with 30 percent for the other brands.

Also, iPod owners were only half as likely as owners of all other brands to describe their player’s array of features as excellent. (Apple’s player lacks the FM radio and voice recorder found on many other brands.) Apple and most other brands offer players with flash memory and players with tiny, built-in hard drives. While unit size varies by model, flash players typically have 4 to 8 gigabytes of storage, enough for about 1,000 to 2,000 songs. Hard-drive models have 10GB to 80GB of capacity that can hold 2,500 to 20,000 songs.

You should consider a flash-memory model if a lower price, smaller size, lighter weight and long playback time are more important to you than a vast selection of tunes. Apple’s iPod Nano comes with storage capacities of 2GB to 8GB at prices ranging from $150 to $250. Other fine flash-memory models include the Cowon iAudio U3 (storage of 1GB or 2GB for $125 or $180, respectively) and the SanDisk Sansa.

If large capacity is most important, a hard-drive player may make more sense. The 30GB and 80GB versions of Apple’s iPod cost $250 and $350, respectively. For $300, you can get either the 30GB Creative Zen Vision M or the 20GB iRiver H10, both fine players.

Creative’s Zen Micro Photo ($225 for 8GB) is a good choice in microdrives.