Must be a presonal taste thing. I love the look of the iRiver, but I think the Creative one is quite ugly, one of the ugliest players I've seen actually. The colors are blah, and the screen looksjust like a regular 2 colors LCD, unlike the full color display of the iRiver.
The iRiver is actually the first MP3 player I would ever consider buying. BUt the price is still a bit too steep for my budget. Over 350$ Canadian... Yipes...