I've got a Creative (Zen X-Fi2) which IMO is probably the best mp3 player I've ever had. All depends what you need.

I honestly can't see why most people would even consider buying a dedicated MP3 player given how well phones do in this regard these days.

Any half decent smartphone will provide a perfectly adequate music player experience and the top level Android handsets in particular will probably well exceed them.

The original ipods were so successful I think most companies didn't put much effort into their MP3 player efforts.

Battery life.

Yep. Storage capacity also.

Which is exactly the reason my wife has asked for an MP3 player; she uses her phone at the moment but complains about the battery life.

I've no idea if they still make them but I've got a Sansa Fuse, it's alright, think it's 4gig with a micro SD card slot so expandable.

It more or less lives in the car as a very small equivalent of the old CD multi changer.

I've probably had it about four years and I've never had a problem with it.

Dunno if this is the right place...

Looking to get some new in-ear headphones for Christmas. Anything in the region of £20-£40 will do. Got some Sennheiser CX300-IIs at the moment which are pretty good for what I paid (£15), but they're just starting to fall apart a bit and I wouldn't mind something with an even better sound quality and a bit of an upgrade. Anyone got any recommendations??

Listening to what and where?

Mainly music on the iPod while I'm out and about or just on the laptop. I'm into a bit of everything really from post-rock to indie folk, modern progressive rock, hipster indie dance or even a bit of classical. I've looked around so far and seen a pair called SoundMagic E10s for around £35 and the general consensus seems to be that the sound is close to some of the higher priced products on the market.

I certainly wouldn't pay more than £25 for a pair of headphones to listen to MP3's.
Those CX300's are as good as anything.

I recently purchased some Phonak 012's for quite a bit more than £25 and they are absolutely superb and miles better than an off the shelf pair of Sennheisers. The bass is beautiful and they are more comfortable than any pair of earphones I've ever had before. And they completely cancel out the noise of the train without annoying everyone around me, as you can't hear them at all. I was impressed with the last pair of Shure's that I bought from a reccomendation on here, but these have blew them out of the water.

And in that price range you'll get better quality, those two you mentioned are hardly in the OP's price range though.