Ive had a Zen Micro since christmas and its been really good, I wanted something that I could have bin my jeans all the time and not know it was there and its great for just that, I have my mp3 and my phone in the same pocket all day and I dont know its there. The player is very good itself and I've dropped it a couple of times and its fine, also comes with more extra bits that the ipod mini, like belt clip etc should you want that kind of stuff. Dont take much notice of the playback time of any of them really, I have mine on random shuffle all the time and I dont think I've ever had anywhere near 12 hours out of it to be honest, unless I just dont realise how long I'm using it for.
Jack