They're quality. I'm surprised at just how small the new model classic is.

When I was shopping around for a music player, I didn't expect to settle on an iPod. I was expecting to find something as good but cheaper, especially since I was willing to do a bit of hacking (I considered buying a player on which I could install Rockbox, which is basically the Linux of music player firmware). But iPod's have a good price for the features and the UI is really great.