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Electronics : Creative ZEN 16GB MP3 Player
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Rating: 
- Why would you want an Ipod?
Creative ZEN 16GB MP3 Player
I am a reformed Ipod user. After my latest Ipod died (they seem to have an inbuilt obsolescence of 2 or 3 years) I decided to try something new. I have owned several Ipods, from the Classic Ipod when it first came out, the Video version and most recently a 3rd Gen Nano. The Zen beats them all hands down, albeit with a few flaws.
Firstly sound quality; It is vastly superior to the Nano - all you have to do is turn on bass boost and you can hear the difference, the nano seems shallow and quiet in comparison.
Secondly the video; Amazing. The 2.5" screen puts my old Ipod Video to shame. The resolution is amazing, the only hitch as has been mentioned is the long video encoding time to get a video clip or film to work, which seems to go on, and on, and on....
Thirdly the memory; Genius, It is brilliant. The SD card slot is great, they are cheap and cheerful giving you the option of unlimited memory size. I now have a collection of SD cards inside my case (which is a must, the screen scratches far too easily) containing all my films and music, a couple of 8GB cards and you have hours of entertainment. The massive 16GB memory on my version holds all 2000 tracks in my library, and has room for over 5000 more!
The battery life is slightly better than my old Ipod, It advertises 25 hours, Ive gotten between 18 and 20 depending on what you use it for, just playing music it would probably keep going till the next Ice age...
The controls aren't as intuitive as the Ipod's click wheel, but they are easy to understand, however unlike the Ipod it takes a while to workout the menu layouts making changing songs a long and tedious process. Also the lack of a volume control wheel makes changing the volume tricky. The plastic backing on the Zen feels cheap - but how often do you stroke the back of it anyway?
The major downfall of the Zen is the synchronising process. Ouch. I had more locks and crashes in the first couple of days using this thing than I had in 4 years of Ipods. I was nearly at the point of sending it back in frustration. Then I discovered Windows media player. The software supplied with it is dreadful, its slow and buggy. The best way to avoid killing the Zen is to drag and drop tracks onto it, and use WMP to convert the film files for you.
I have my Zen for over a month now, and aside from the first few days I've has no problems what so ever. The Zen was probably the best buy of the last couple of years. Best of all I discovered I was able to burn all my encoded Itunes onto a CD making them MP3's, and hence able to use them on my Zen.
Despite the fact synchronising is a long and painful process compared to the Ipod, the Zen is far and away the better media device, plus it had an inbuilt FM radio tuner (which is surprisingly powerful). If I could go back in time I'd have bought on of these when they first came out instead of the Nano, despite its flaws it is a much better companion on long journeys, as long as you have a mini USB charger that isn't 8CM long to bring with you.
Rating:
- Loverly player, but so unreliable it's useless
I bought this about 6 months ago as an alternative to the ipod and I've regretted it ever since.
In most respects I love it, it's got a great interface (something which was somewhat lacking from my previous sony player), it's pretty, decent battery life and decent sound quality. The SD card expansion has proved pretty handy too.
However, it crashes. A lot. I found I had to carry a safety pin with me to reset it, and on occasion that didn't work and I've had to plug it into my computer and run some 'repair' thing for it to start up again.
Now it's stopped working completely for no apparent reason and I wish I'd listed to some of the advice on here about the problem before I bought it and can only reiterate the same - don't buy this player.
Rating: - Very good player
Does exactly what it says on the tin, with great sound quality and good battery life. Highly recommended.
Rating:
- Ok but....
I've always had a cheaper mp3 players that don't accept downloads and always ran out of space too soon so I decided that I should upgrade and chose the Creative Zen. It is a nice sleek player but doesn't come with any cover so you have to get one and I still haven't been able to download a video on to mine!!! I successful managed to convert one using the software provided but I would play on the player!!!?
Also mine froze randomly after charging. I reset it and it seems to be working fine but I think the only real downfall is there aren't any sufficient information/instruction book that comes with it to outline how you do everything!!
I love mine but wish it had an instruction manual!!!
Rating:
- Great player, irons out other Zen kinks
I have had a number of Zen products and have loved them all, despite their many idiosyncrasies. After being stung by Apple many times with their horrible iPod, I decided to look elsewhere and Creative seemed to be making solid, dependable products. A few of the older Zens (the Microphoto especially) were a bit heavy and had some bugs which would make them freeze, but had great sound a removable/replaceable batteries, so I was happy.
The new generation of Zen's are a different matter. They look SOOOOO good. The screen is stunning, great for watching movies or TV programmes you've downloaded from your PC (legally, of course!) or for viewing photos. The sound quality is immensely better than the iPod, so much so that the iPod sounds like a tinny transistor radio in comparison.
However, there are some downsides.
When last I looked Creative hadn't fiddled with their version of iTunes to make it compatible with Vista, so if you have Vista you have to use Creative's software which emulates Windows Explorer. Its very simple to use however, so no great dramas. If you want to play the music on your laptop, you can simply download iTunes and load all the music through there.
The player is glossy and therefore VERY prone to fingerprints and scratches, so I would recommend getting a screen protector and rubber skin to protect it. It doesn't look as nice, but then neither does a scratch mp3 player when its spent the evening in your pocket with your keys!
Finally, the volume isn't quite loud enough. You have to have it at max or just below to hear it on a busy street. Apparently you can get over the volume limiter by downloading the American firware and software, but I haven't bothered yet.
I love my Zen and I think you will too! x
- Why would you want an Ipod?Creative ZEN 16GB MP3 Player
I am a reformed Ipod user. After my latest Ipod died (they seem to have an inbuilt obsolescence of 2 or 3 years) I decided to try something new. I have owned several Ipods, from the Classic Ipod when it first came out, the Video version and most recently a 3rd Gen Nano. The Zen beats them all hands down, albeit with a few flaws.
Firstly sound quality; It is vastly superior to the Nano - all you have to do is turn on bass boost and you can hear the difference, the nano seems shallow and quiet in comparison.
Secondly the video; Amazing. The 2.5" screen puts my old Ipod Video to shame. The resolution is amazing, the only hitch as has been mentioned is the long video encoding time to get a video clip or film to work, which seems to go on, and on, and on....
Thirdly the memory; Genius, It is brilliant. The SD card slot is great, they are cheap and cheerful giving you the option of unlimited memory size. I now have a collection of SD cards inside my case (which is a must, the screen scratches far too easily) containing all my films and music, a couple of 8GB cards and you have hours of entertainment. The massive 16GB memory on my version holds all 2000 tracks in my library, and has room for over 5000 more!
The battery life is slightly better than my old Ipod, It advertises 25 hours, Ive gotten between 18 and 20 depending on what you use it for, just playing music it would probably keep going till the next Ice age...
The controls aren't as intuitive as the Ipod's click wheel, but they are easy to understand, however unlike the Ipod it takes a while to workout the menu layouts making changing songs a long and tedious process. Also the lack of a volume control wheel makes changing the volume tricky. The plastic backing on the Zen feels cheap - but how often do you stroke the back of it anyway?
The major downfall of the Zen is the synchronising process. Ouch. I had more locks and crashes in the first couple of days using this thing than I had in 4 years of Ipods. I was nearly at the point of sending it back in frustration. Then I discovered Windows media player. The software supplied with it is dreadful, its slow and buggy. The best way to avoid killing the Zen is to drag and drop tracks onto it, and use WMP to convert the film files for you.
I have my Zen for over a month now, and aside from the first few days I've has no problems what so ever. The Zen was probably the best buy of the last couple of years. Best of all I discovered I was able to burn all my encoded Itunes onto a CD making them MP3's, and hence able to use them on my Zen.
Despite the fact synchronising is a long and painful process compared to the Ipod, the Zen is far and away the better media device, plus it had an inbuilt FM radio tuner (which is surprisingly powerful). If I could go back in time I'd have bought on of these when they first came out instead of the Nano, despite its flaws it is a much better companion on long journeys, as long as you have a mini USB charger that isn't 8CM long to bring with you.
Rating:
- Loverly player, but so unreliable it's uselessI bought this about 6 months ago as an alternative to the ipod and I've regretted it ever since.
In most respects I love it, it's got a great interface (something which was somewhat lacking from my previous sony player), it's pretty, decent battery life and decent sound quality. The SD card expansion has proved pretty handy too.
However, it crashes. A lot. I found I had to carry a safety pin with me to reset it, and on occasion that didn't work and I've had to plug it into my computer and run some 'repair' thing for it to start up again.
Now it's stopped working completely for no apparent reason and I wish I'd listed to some of the advice on here about the problem before I bought it and can only reiterate the same - don't buy this player.
Rating:
- Very good playerDoes exactly what it says on the tin, with great sound quality and good battery life. Highly recommended.
Rating:
- Ok but....I've always had a cheaper mp3 players that don't accept downloads and always ran out of space too soon so I decided that I should upgrade and chose the Creative Zen. It is a nice sleek player but doesn't come with any cover so you have to get one and I still haven't been able to download a video on to mine!!! I successful managed to convert one using the software provided but I would play on the player!!!?
Also mine froze randomly after charging. I reset it and it seems to be working fine but I think the only real downfall is there aren't any sufficient information/instruction book that comes with it to outline how you do everything!!
I love mine but wish it had an instruction manual!!!
Rating:
- Great player, irons out other Zen kinksI have had a number of Zen products and have loved them all, despite their many idiosyncrasies. After being stung by Apple many times with their horrible iPod, I decided to look elsewhere and Creative seemed to be making solid, dependable products. A few of the older Zens (the Microphoto especially) were a bit heavy and had some bugs which would make them freeze, but had great sound a removable/replaceable batteries, so I was happy.
The new generation of Zen's are a different matter. They look SOOOOO good. The screen is stunning, great for watching movies or TV programmes you've downloaded from your PC (legally, of course!) or for viewing photos. The sound quality is immensely better than the iPod, so much so that the iPod sounds like a tinny transistor radio in comparison.
However, there are some downsides.
When last I looked Creative hadn't fiddled with their version of iTunes to make it compatible with Vista, so if you have Vista you have to use Creative's software which emulates Windows Explorer. Its very simple to use however, so no great dramas. If you want to play the music on your laptop, you can simply download iTunes and load all the music through there.
The player is glossy and therefore VERY prone to fingerprints and scratches, so I would recommend getting a screen protector and rubber skin to protect it. It doesn't look as nice, but then neither does a scratch mp3 player when its spent the evening in your pocket with your keys!
Finally, the volume isn't quite loud enough. You have to have it at max or just below to hear it on a busy street. Apparently you can get over the volume limiter by downloading the American firware and software, but I haven't bothered yet.
I love my Zen and I think you will too! x