When I got tired of my Creative Zen Vision M freezing up on me I decided to get a flash based player rather than a hard drive one. I'd have to give up a lot of space (going from 30 to 8 in this case, including the SD card) but it was definitely worth it. At first I had to decide between the new iRiver clix 2 and this player, I picked the iRiver and within a week felt like it wasn't living up to what I expected, it was nice but it lacked too much compared to the Cowon D2 (I knew this because my friend has this player). I was disappointed that it was only 4 gigs and not loud enough for me. With the D2 I have 4 gigs and a slot for an SD card, another 4 gigs, so it's double the space. As soon as you install the newest firmware you'll be on your way and ready to listen to music from the SD card as well as the player. The battery life is great, very small and compact, touchscreen works wonderfully, and again the sound is just amazing! And it's even better with the right pair of headphones (in my case I got the Westone UM2's, also on my friends recommendation). (Posted on 1/11/10)