i know this is an arranger forum, but i know lots of people here are interested in a portable recorder, at least Diki and I are ;-)

so which is best?

well...
Sony has better mic pre's as noise floor is less than H4N,
Sony has better built quality
Sony has built in 4gb memory,
Sony does not Record 4 chann. simultan., H4N does
Sony does not offer XLR inputs, H4N does
Sony does not have built in speaker, H4N does

which to get?
i wish Zoom was a bit "quieter", but H4N has more features...hmmm

check out this site, has 2 articles with many tests
http://www.bradlinder.net/