Close to an iPod.  It seems like every self-respecting hipster in Chicago is sporting an iPod, replete with distinctive white ear phones.  If you read all the reviews, you'll find most players being compared to Apple's iPod.  The DJ is a very close second, and a much better value.  I deliberated.  The iPod is engineered better, slightly more efficient to use, slightly smaller, and  has a ton of aftermarket accessories that I might have used.  But it's battery life is poor ( <8 hours) compared to Dell's 16+ hours, and the basic 15Gig iPod was $299.  I'm generally happy with my decision.

Stronger than a Zen.  I have no experience with the Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra player.  What little peer feedback I've gotten has been positive.  But I read about quality issues, and that drove me away.  Besides, who wants a player whose name is 10 syllables?

Sturdy and usable.  The DJ feels good in my hands.  More solid than I expected.  More metal then I expected.  The outer-top bezel is metal, as are the sides under the rubber cladding.  The buttons have a nice spring-back to them.  I prefer the iPod's wheel to my DJ's barrel, but it works well.

Lousy headphones.  They didn't fit my ears well.  They are flimsy.  My low-end Sony earphones are better.  I've recently upgraded to Shure e2c headphones.  This is a personal indulgence.  Regular earphones would have been adequate.

Plenty of power.  I easily get 15 hours on a single charge, using the backlight and the equalizer.  Dell advertises 16 with these features disabled, and most people report closer to 17 or 18 hours.  By comparison, iPods are rated at 8 hours, but rarely get 7.

Good backlight.  The blue backlight is bright and works well.

Kludge to view Artist & Album on one screen.  This was particularly problematic before the March 2004 firmware updated.  But I still don't like to have to drill-down.  My work-around is to change the album names to [artist]:[album].  Works like a champ.

Accessory Envy.  If I were to order again, I would have gotten the 20 gig.  It came with a case and a remote control.  I don't care about the case, but it's a real pain to fish the player out of my pocket when I'm on the train.  After three weeks, I broke down and paid $25 for the remote.  For another $25 at the outset, I would have gotten 25% more capacity.

Shoddy firmware.  Prior to the announcement of a firmware patch in early March of 2004, customers endured a small collection of annoying bugs.  Tracks didn't play in the right order.  Artist tracks weren't separated by album.  The firmware fix came six months after launch, and didn't include much else to get excited about.  Apple is much better in this regard.

MusicMatch Stinks.  Prior to a software release in March of 2004, the only way to load music onto the DJ was via a buggy MusicMatch product.  Tracks didn't load properly, and couldn't be re-tagged once they were loaded.  Lots of random crashes and flakiness.  Fortunately, the latest version of the Dell DJ software eliminates the need to use MusicMatch and eliminates all of these limitations.

CDex to the rescue.  MusicMatch also does a sub-standard job of ripping CD's.  CDex is a free tool that is far better.  It rips faster.  It also includes an internet cd database and skip protection.

Special software to function as a hard drive.  In order to copy PC files to the DJ, the Dell DJ software must be installed on that PC.  That's a little inconvenient.

No iTunes support.  Support for Apple's ACC format is only available on iPods.  You can use iTunes, but only if you burn the tracks to a CD, then rip them again.  Conversely, iPod doesn't support the WMA format that most other players do.  Both formats tout the ability to produce higher quality tracks with less storage space.  For now, I'm sticking with MP3's, which are supported on all players.

Scroll-to-fit.  If the name of an album (or other information) is too long to fit on the screen, the DJ slowly scrolls the text from right-to-left.

Charge via PC connection.  The DJ can charge via the USB or Firewire cable, but only while it's not in use.  I think I read that charging time with this method is longer than with the (included) AC adapter.

Decent equalizer.  The built-in EQ choices are a nice touch.  The effects of each preset are noticeable.

Glowing buttons.  The glowing buttons are nice for use in the dark, but unnecessary once you get the hang of the device. 

Built-in microphone.  I guess this is a nice feature, but I doubt I'll ever use it.  Reviews indicate that the quality is lousy, and there are some fairly restrictive limits on the size of recordings.  There's a lag of a couple seconds to start it up.  In some cases, I've accidentally turned on the mic, which interrupts music play.  I wish I could disable the button.

Decent start-up speed.  It takes about five seconds to start up.  Not bad, I suppose.  I wish I didn't have to hold the button down so long in order to get it to turn on.

Replaceable batteries.  I don't know this for fact.  But there are sites now advertising DJ batteries.  This is better than iPod's situation, where the battery is not replaceable.  Worse, some early iPod models had batteries that tended to die after 12-18 months.