I have the above sony as well, it's nice enough. Only problem is that like every player and its mother it doesn't have proper buttons, but touch sensitive areas. 30 % of the time you will hit the wrong button. You will also need to lock it before putting it in your pocket or it will start doing whatever a random combination of buttons tells it to.
On the plus side it can run a proper set of headphones instead of those horrid ear plug thingies. You don't want a player that doesn't have enough juice to properly amplify anything. It also has decent battery life. I just got the 4 gb version, and I haven't
filled it up yet.
The menus are a bit counter intuitive, especially with those spastic buttons, and they are not customizable like the Zen I had before this.
Software package is an excellent combination of open source codexes which you can auto update when needed. Drag and drop interface - just plug it in and it is recognized as a drive, you won't need the software for anything unless you need to convert a movie to play on its pathetically tiny screen.
Also no proprietory bull**** formats and no online stores or ad/bloatware built into the firmware.