I recently got
this $30 (shipped) Actions chipset player, and in most ways it's your average (but seemingly well built) Actions chip player. 2" 220x176 screen and all the usual features and annoyances. Menus and firmware look like the Uxcell Glacier.
Here's the thing though: It does
almost 14 hours of continuous OGG playback (with the occasional fiddling in the menu to switch folder/song).
I guess that, before I pry it open, what I'm wondering is whether other recent players also show better battery life than the norm (i.e. it's chipset related), or if it's just that the manufacturer of this particular model somehow decided to throw in a decent capacity battery.