Creative Zen 16 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
by Creative Labs
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List Price: Our Price: $89.99 You Save: $90.00 (50%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Creative Zen 16 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
Customer Review: So far sooo good..with certain exceptions
Summary: 4 Stars
I recently purchased this mp3 player(The zen 32gb) and so far it has been quite good.The size of the player is abit smaller than i thought it would be but it is nice and compact the sound quality is very good, the amount of space on it is pretty decent for the price in comparison to the apple nano.(which is what i had before) I have tried the sd slot and the pictures i viewed on the player looked very clear although there were certain pics that i wasn't able to view,for some reason some of them were unreadable.So far the only problem i have had with it is transferring media from itunes into the creative software that came with the mp3 player, for some reason the zen would not come up on my itunes (maybe i need to upgrade my itunes software)however i was able to rip audio cd's using the creative software which i think is pretty easy to use and transfers the music pretty quickly... If you are using the creative software to add music make sure that the information that is on the screen for that cd is correct..ive had to edit or add some of the information to certain cd's and songs..Navigation on this mp3 player is very easy which is a plus.The battery life of the zen is not that great in my opinion, creative claims it last 30 hours on a single charge and that hasn't been the case with the one ive got so don't be misled.One thing i would recommend is to get some better headphones or earbuds because the ones that come with it are not that great.Customer Review: Lock up after lock up
Summary: 1 Stars
At least 50% of the time I had to reset this with a paper clip when I tried to delete stuff from it. It would just lock up suddenly in the middle of deleting files.
1 out of 4 cds I added didn't show artwork. (Yes, I'm tagging them correctly, or the other 3 wouldn't have art either... would they?)
You can delete stuff straight from the player, but it left all the empty folders that had to be deleted manually.
It says it will play all kinds of video formats, which in theory is true, unless you want your audio and video to stay in sync, then good luck.
In the end I just broke mine into pieces, threw it away and went back to my 80G iPod classic. I'm a lot happier now.
Customer Review: Purchased for our 8 year old son
Summary: 5 Stars
We purchased this for our 8 year old son as a christmas present. He was completely thrilled to get his first MP3 player, and was super excited when he found out I put some family movies and pictures on it (or as he put it when he noticed: "Wow! There are memories on here!")
I did not need to show him how to use it, beyond showing him where the power button was... he's been able to figure out EVERYTHING on his own, including how to set the background wallpaper. Talk about an intuitive interface!
I added an 8Gb SDHC card and put some of his favorite DVD's on there for car trips... was easily able to create perfect digital movies for it after a little research at an average of about 650MB per movie. Your best options for encoding movies for this device is either a WMV file (I did not go this route) or an AVI file with xvid at up to 1Mbps and MP3 Audio. I encoded my files at 950Kbps xvid with 128k MP3 using DVDFab, and the results were perfect.
Customer Review: Great...while it lasted
Summary: 3 Stars
Great little gadget...for the most part. I purchased this player at the beginning of 2007 to use at the gym. It's sleek, nicely designed and functional on many levels. It survived well through daily use (no drops, spills, or other abuse). I was very careful with, even though it seems durable. It fit nicely into an ipod armband case, which I bought at a local retailer. The graphics are sharp and the sound is crystal clear (with different headphones).
The firmware is my biggest complaint. It's bulky and buggy-- a quick google search will tell you this. The organization of the files on this player could be easier. Forget about dragging and dropping files under a name that you specify because the player will assign different names randomly (trust me, I'm not new to computers or other technology and yes, I've tried many different methods to try and fix this). The memory card slot is useless as it only allows you drop transfer certain types of files.
Now exactly 2 years later the player will not turn on and go past the recovery screen. I believe it either got cold (50F temp.) or the "update" for the firmware broke it. I suspect the latter. The battery is fine. I've googled and tried countless times to reset it, drain it, etc, still no luck. Even before this problem (in a controlled climate) the player would skip or the screen would flash randomly or the menus would flip quickly as if I were holding the down-button down. It had "phantom-like" behaviors. These behaviors started only a year into ownership. The buttons are also LOUD (sound like cheap plastic) and the buttons should glow in the dark for easier night time use. Also, I recommend that you replace the headphones that it comes with because they are cheap and don't carry much bass.
It is a great gadget overall for the price I paid, however my next player will be the Ipod touch. Goodbye Creative!
Customer Review: Don't use the disc that comes with the Zen
Summary: 4 Stars
I have had the Creative Zen 16gb for several months. I ordered the 32gb for my husband for Christmas. He tried using the disc that comes with the 32gb to download the software and it did a number on his computer. I had it all set to return when we finally found the "hidden" number for Creative customer support(405) 742-6622. They told him they knew there was a problem with the disc and to download everthing from their sight online. Now, it works great but there are still a few lingering problems with his computer from the original download attempt.
Once you get past all this the Creative Zen is a great product. I ordered the 32gb for my husband thinking he might want to download more photos which are a memory hog. Mine downloaded all my photos on the first sync. I have many books loaded and all of my music library (from Windows Media Player) on the 16gb. I occasionally run out of memory but just delete some old photos. I find I do not use the photos often as it is hard to navigate through the photo folders. We neither one have any video loaded so cannot comment on that.
The battery life is very good. I did order the International plugs. Plugging into the wall rather than your comupter greatly speeds up the time needed for charging. I just found the lock button which saves battery life by turning off the display. The lock button is needed if using it for the gym or walking as the buttons can get bumped easily.