I prefer external AA or AAA battery mp3 players with built-in mic recording.
Thus far, I only know iriver T10 (1gb, 45+ hours, AA battery) and SanDisk Sansa m250 (2gb, 19 hours, AAA battery).
iriver's T10 seems to be hard to find now, interesting rarity for such a useful and popular brand.
If there are others, I shall add them to this entry.