Creative Zen 16 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
by Creative
|
List Price: Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
|---|
(Click here)
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: Nothing creative about this Creative Zen
Summary: 4 Stars
QUICK REVIEW (longer review further down):
- Good design; you won't realize how slick this player is until it's in your hand
- Good user interface with the on screen menus and tactile buttons
- Navigation is very quick and easy
- Flash storage means better reliability over hard drive based players and there aren't many 16gb+ flash players
- Best 2.5" screen gives outstanding image quality on photos/videos
- SDcard expansion slot for more media content (see details below)
- Limited accessories
- Improved sound quality over iPod is just a hype? (see details below)
- divX, Xvid video codec transcoding is a non-feature (see details below)
- Firmware does not give user much control over music organization on player (see details below)
If you already have a device that works and meets your storage requirements, there is no need to purchase this device as an upgrade unless your player is just really really old. The Creative Zen's strongest attributes are its 16gb flash based storage and its size/aesthetics.
EXTENDED REVIEW:
I had my eye on this player for a while now and I finally bought it a week ago. My music collection is currently 12Gb so most of the flash players available are too small. If I go with a hard drive based player, its either iPod or Zune, not exactly a great selection. With the 16GB Zen, I have the capacity I need and also the SD slot. The idea was to use the 15Gb available storage for music and use the SD slot for videos since I could never store all my videos on a single device.
This is a great simple mp3 player but I wouldn't recommend it to people who are not somewhat computer savvy or are extremely particulate about their music organization.
However, all the nuisances I had with this player can be fixed with firmware updates.
Overall build quality of the device seems pretty good. The buttons seem kind of small. If you use the clear plastic case /w key ring (the best case for it in my opinion), the small buttons might be hard to press but I had no problems.
The Main Menu looks good but it doesn't cycle through once you get to the end of the list. I find this odd when every sub-menu in the device lets you do this. (By cycle through, I mean when you get to the bottom of a menu, you keep scrolling and start back up top again continuously.) A bit irritating if you have lots of menu selections to scroll through and you know it can be done faster.
The screen is the most advanced on such a small device. You can seem an incredible difference between 96,000 colors on an iPod and the millions of colors on the Zen. You can customize the background. Screen scratches easily like any other player.
SD card slot accepts SDHD so you can potentially have another 16gb of swappable storage. Some users may complain that media on the SD card doesn't integrate seamlessly with the rest of the Zen library. In order for this to be done, a completely original software must be developed. If I have some voice recordings, songs, music videos, movies, and tv shows all stored in the same folder on my SD card, what will determine where these files will go when they integrate into my Zen internal memory? I don't want to be browsing regular music on my Zen and have a voice recording stored on my SD card show up in the same menu. The current ID3v2 tagging can't determine where to place these audio files. Correct me if I'm wrong, but since there currently is no way to tag more identification to the files, Zen shouldn't be faulted for this lack of integration.
Besides, the Zen firmware doesn't even fully recognize the tag information, or it doesn't utilize it. Lets say I have a double-album in my library, an album with 2 discs. I can tag the files as being part of disc 1 or disc 2. In other players, the player will recognize the tag and sort the tracks in that album accordingly: disc1 tracks first and then disc2 and so on. The Zen will display track1 of disc1 first, then track1 of disc2, then track2 of disc1, then track2 of disc2 and so on ... losing the original order.
Also, the Zen firmware isn't able to recognize prefixes like "the" or "a" in artist names and ignore them when sorting. An artist like "The Beatles" will be placed under "T" rather than "B". The special ignore "the" prefixes feature is found on many competing players. Again, not a big issue but can be annoying if you want your music to organized perfectly.
Then there is the Zen syncing. The ability to sync your library to your device is good for two reasons. First, if you are lazy or unfamiliar with a computer, syncing will do all the thinking for you and you will have music on your player. Secondly, syncing means that your device will always match your computer library. If you make any change to your library (add/del music, change tags etc), these changes should be reflected on your player after syncing.
The included Creative Sync Manager software does not seem to detect all the music in my computer, which is all saved in the same folder and are all of mp3 format. I try to sync the files it does detect but the program freezes during the syncing. Alternative syncing methods can be used: Windows Media Player, MediaMonkey, work but I still can't be 100% sure of the syncing accuracy.
The Zen is a true drag-and-drop player. This is good since you can manage your music on any computer. I am not sure how Zen recognizes album art but transferring my music using drag and drop did not transfer album art. I had some files where the art was embedded into the file tag and with others, the image was stored as a folder.jpg for that album. Both did not show up on the player. Again, not a big deal since your music is still there, just without the album art. But if you want things to be perfect, drag and drop is not the best option. (If you choose to install Zen Media Explorer, you can add music in a drag-and-drop like interface and this does recognize album art embedded into the file)
I guess I am no audiophile since I can't tell much of a difference in sound quality between the Zen and the notoriously poor sound quality iPod. I used these some #30 dollar earphones from Sony to do my testing with mp3s ripped from CDs at 320kbps and I couldn't hear the difference even though I wanted to. Maybe if you own a pair of Shures and you can tell the difference. However, a typical user shouldn't buy the Zen or choose not to buy and iPod because they fear poor sound quality.
And then there is the advertised Xvid, DivX... transcoding support. What this all means is that the converter software that comes with the player can convert these formats into a format that the player can play. This means that the Zen is just like any other player that doesn't natively support these formats. Just like any other player, you need to first convert the video and this can be done faster and better with free software on the internet.
I've identified a lot of so-called problems with the Zen but they are mostly firmware issues which means we can expect fixes with updates. I only mentioned these because they usually don't make it into most reviews and they can only be discovered after actually using the device for a while. As I said before, this player looks great and functions great. It fills that gap between 8Gb flash players and 30Gb+ hard drive players. It's better then the SanDisk Sansa 16gb and better/cheaper then iTouch 16Gb.
BTW, your new Zen should come with the current firmware already installed.
Customer Review: Worth every penny...
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a techie. Not really a super techie, but everything I own in the techological sense is a top brand or is one of the highest rated in its class. When I buy something I want to make sure I'm getting the best I can for my money. Anyway I needed to find a replacement for my iRiver H10 20 GB MP3 player that I bought 2 1/2 years ago. It was actually the top-rated MP3 player in its class (go figure) when it came out. Overall, it was way ahead of its time and served me great throughout its life. For an MP3 player user, I'm pretty hardcore. I worked on a cruise ship for 2 years and honestly used my iRiver at least 2 - 3 hours each day and took it everywhere with me. It had its fair share of drops and eventually it was needing reset more often than it needed charged (battery life started at 16 hours, ended up at 4). Anyway, in a perfect world I would be completely happy with a newer version of what I already had.
Unfortunately it didn't exist. iRiver got known for making its Clix series and was focusing on much smaller MP3 players that were between 2 and 4 GB. My old one was 20 GB. I listen to trance music more than anything else and I honestly have at least 10 GB of trance music alone that I want to be on my player, so a bigger capacity is a must. I also took a lot of good videos/pictures when I was on my cruise ship (in Hawaii) and wanted a device that I could use to share those with friends. For listening on my own, I use Shure E3C headphones (which are absolutely amazing by the way).
My first choice was to get the Archos 605 WiFi player that just came out. I figured it would solve all my problems. I don't need to go into too much detail about what it promises but the device looked really neat. I own a lot of DIVX movies and also thought I could just put them on the player (sized at 40 GB) and would be able to watch them whenever I wanted. The battery life was rated at 13 hours for music and 5 hours for video. The problem with the Archos is that it comes as a barebones sytem. Everything extra you want it to do costs more, including watching your own movies.
I was under the impression that I could take videos on my digital camera and transfer them to my Archos media player and watch them like they were on my pc. NOPE. Ok so I have to convert them with the included software. NOPE. Nothing's included. I downloaded a sample program that converted files into any format you wanted but because it was a sample, there would be a watermark that would flash on and off the screen for the duration of your video that would only go away after you use the real program. Couple this kind of program in with the already $300 you spent on the unit and you're on your way to making it a not-so-user-friendly machine. Plus, when I took it to the office my first day of using it the battery barely lasted 8 hours playing music and showing minimal video. It had some nice features and had some nice add-ons available, but overall was not worth it for me. So I took that back to the store and was in the market for something new. I started looking into the newest MP3 players. That's when I saw the Creative Zen.
They had the 8 GB version of the Zen at Circuit City (where I bought the Archos), but they did not have the 16 GB version that I would want. You can read the editor's review to find out all the actual specs, I'll just list what I like and don't like about it.
When I first picked it up I was amazed at how light-weight it was. Another reviewer talks about how it feels like a pack of gum. Well, he's right. But that's actually a good thing. It's VERY light-weight but also has a great battery life, seems really durable, and looks slick in its all black paint. If you're working out with it in your pocket you may actually forget it's there. If it accidentally falls out of your pocket it wont even rip the headphones out of your ear because it's too light. So I think the weight is a good thing.
The included software makes it easy to put media on the device and it only takes about an hour or so to fully charge the battery. Both pluses there. At first I was disappointed that the battery life wasn't lasting as long as it said it would, which was around 20 hours or so. I realized the screen would be dim, but still on when the music was playing and couldn't figure out how to turn it off to save battery power. Turns out the only way (that I can figure out) is to lock the unit while it's on and that makes the screen black out but you can't even change the volume while it's locked.
Onscreen controls are real easy to figure out from the get-go and pretty self-explanatory. It also took me a while to figure out how to get to the list of songs that were actually playing, instead of just the song that was playing. To do that, you need to keep hitting the "enter" button when a song is playing. First time hitting the "enter" button lets you rank the song, second time shows the album cover, third time shows all the songs in the list you are currently playing so you can pick another song without trying to find it on a random shuffle.
As far as the videos and pics are concerned, this little screen looks a whole lot better than I thought it would. Yeah, it's small but to have all the other capabilities this device has, it's more than enough. Oh, and with the video, it also doesn't play your DIVX movies or digital camera movies right out of the box. However, this handy little thing comes with FREE SOFTWARE that will convert it for you. Any file, any size, converts for free. Oh what a relief it is!
Sound quality is phenomenal and it comes with some preset equalizer settings which I also enjoy since I do have a large variety of music playing on the player. Oh, and the Archos DID NOT have any preset equalizer settings. I don't listen to the radio or use it for voice messages so I can't give any feedback for those yet.
It doesn't go without its faults though. There are only a few gripes I have about it. The main one is the need to put it in "lock" mode to save the battery power since you have no access to anything while it's in that mode. Another gripe is the power cord that comes with it. For starters, the cord is about 4 inches long and the device can only be charged through a USB port. So to charge it out of a wall you'd need to buy some kind of converter. Charging is quick though, but that cord is so tiny. Also, while the device is charging I can't figure out how to still be playing music. That's about all the negatives I have about it. I'm very happy with my purchase and would recommend this unit to anyone. I paid $250 for it and it's worth every penny. Overall, I'd give it a 9.7 out of 10. Hope this helps some of you.
Customer Review: Surprisingly good sound, even for classical (if you get the right earphones)
Summary: 4 Stars
As I listen almost exclusively to classical music, I never took much interest in MP3 players; hardly any serious music listener would cherish the idea of compromising a refined performance by compressing it into some lossy file format and then squeezing it through a pair of diminutive earplugs. On the other hand, however, these players are tempting gadgets, and of course there are ample occasions when it is nice to be able to take a sizeable portion of your favourite music with you in such a compact form.
Compact this Creative Zen certainly is. It is slightly smaller than a bank card, be it rather thicker. Though made of plastic, it makes a sturdy impression and doesn't feel fragile at all. The design is effective and nice - no contrived minimalism here, functionality is the prime object; yet the whole thing looks clean and uncluttered. There are real buttons that you actually have to push, which I prefer much to the slick but error- (and fingerprints-)prone touchscreens. The buttons, too, make this feel like a serious little machine. They are easy to use and respond quickly. This is matched by a well-considered menu-structure. You will find your way around soon enough - no manual needed. Better still, menus are customizable. You can select from a full list of options which items you want to appear in your main menu-screen, and in which order. I must say I would have liked it if this had been taken one step further, and itemnames too would haven been customizable (so that I could, for instance, change "Artist" into "Composer").
Albums, Genres and Artists are listed alphabetically and scroll vertically. If the list is very long you can use the alphabet on the right hand side of the screen to jump straight to the correct initial. Once a music track is selected, all relevant track and album info is displayed. Titles that are too long to fit the screen float by in ticker-tape fashion, which is nice, though the movement at times is less than smooth.
So how about the sound? Frankly, it is hard to say, as the sounds reaching your ear are at least fifty percent, if not to a much greater extent, determined by your headphones. As per usual the makers of the Zen put all their efforts into a well-designed player, only to ship it off boxed with an indifferent set of earphones. They look nice, and at first impression may not even sound too bad, with their deliberately warm colouring and exaggerated bass. But in fact the sound is grainy, unfocussed, fuzzy, and lacking in detail. I found results infinitely improved once I plugged in my set of Shure SE310 phones, even before they were properly burned in. Indeed, while I had purchased the player thinking I would use it for baroque and chamber music only, I now found that listening to Mahler's Fourth was not only viable, but quite pleasant. I must add though that I need to crank up the volume to nearly its maximum in order to get a realistic orchestral sound; and bass performance is still a pretty long way of from what I get through my regular stereo set, even with the "bass boost" option turned on and after fiddling with the equalizer. I should furthermore add that the surprisingly satisfying results were reached using the MP3 format at its maximum quality bitrate. That is, the aforementioned Mahler adds up to some 135 MB, and the storage capacity of the 16GB Zen will be exhausted with a 100 to 120 works of similar dimensions. Well, still a lot more than I could ever take with my CD-walkman... Finally, I should mention one irritant I encountered in playback: there is an audible electrical "click" when the Zen switches from one file to the next, which can get very annoying in pieces that play continuously but are broken down in tracks. Obviously, this is a problem that only classical music listeners are likely to encounter.
Next to the sound, the rest of it seems to me a collection of cute but fairly irrelevant perks. I cannot imagine anyone seriously wanting to view a complete photocollection, let alone watch an entire movie, on the tiny 2.5" screen. The screen has a clear, sharp image, but despite its many millions of colours is lacking in contrast so that pictures tend to look slightly washed out or overexposed. You can load one of your own images as a wallpaper, which is nice, though many wallpapers do not work out well due to the unnecessary, semi-opaque gray bars at the top and bottom of the screen. The screen cannot be switched off during operation (why not?), but fades to a low-lit setting after a customizable number of seconds. The lighting intensity of the screen can also be adapted to your own wishes, as so much else in this player can.
The Zen comes with a CD-ROM that installs software for getting media onto your player. Though a lot can be done simply in Windows Explorer, I found that the Zen Media Explorer is a quick and easy way to transfer files and rip CDs to the player. It did a better job of it than Nero and some CD-rip freeware I tried. If, however, you need to correct errors afterwards, say in a track title, the Media Explorer can't do that and you will need a tag editor like Mediamonkey. Rather more problematic is the fact that the Zen software will only let you rip CDs to WMA-format. If you want to rip to the better quality MP3 you will have to unlock that option by getting the "Creative Audio Pack" at an additional cost of 10 dollars - it will not break the bank, but I found that pretty disgusting nonetheless.
Finally, though there is actually a possibility to display an album's cover art, it is not made easy to achieve this. The (generally poor) manual doesn't have a word on it, and while the Media Explorer includes an option for adding artwork, you have to follow an obscure route to get there, in my case only to find that it didn't work. Use Windows Media Player to rip and synchronize, however, and artwork duly appears on your Zen's screen.
In all however, a worthwhile possession, quite a gem in some ways; and soundwise I am pleasantly surprised - but only after investing in a good set of earphones.
Customer Review: Pretty disappointed
Summary: 3 Stars
Quick summary: For all of it's faults, I still can't bring myself to give the Creative Zen any less than 3 stars. It's not a terrible portable audio player, but it certainly is not as good as I had expected after about 2 months of researching. Would I recommend anything about it in this price range? No. But does that mean it's a good product? Not necessarily, it just means that the competition is weak, and companies seem more focused on technology and forgetting how to make a solid, reliable, pleasing to use product. If you're comfortable trusting your $179 to a 50-word review, I'd say buy one. If not, read on...
I am reviewing the 16gb version, although I'm sure the key points of my review would not change if I had picked up any of the other variants. For reference, I've used in the past various versions of the iPod, the Diamond Rio Carbon, Microsoft Zune, and the Creative Muvo. All had their faults, some of which the Creative Zen seems to overcome, and some it seems to share.
My biggest gripe with the Creative Zen is it's battery life. I've charged it to full and used it to empty (until it simply would not start up again after powering down) 8 times now, and the longest the battery has lasted was a few minutes shy of 9 hours. In this day and age, I think you can play DVD on a mainstream laptop for longer than that. This is without a doubt the most pathetic battery life I have ever gotten out of any of my portable audio players, even worse than my Rio Carbon's during it's dying days. The Rio might not have cycled through the menu's smoothly, and it might have rebooted itself occasionally but when it played music, it played it for 12+ hours without needing a recharge. I'm hoping I got a dud here, because various reviews and Creative's own claims indicate battery life should be no less than twice what I am seeing. With regards to conserving battery life, I set screen brightness to the lowest setting (10%) from the second I got my Zen, and it auto-dims after 5 seconds - there are not many other options. I do not run the internal equalizer although I'm not sure if that has any effect. And it seems the only way to get the screen to turn completely off is to set the power button to "hold" mode, in which case you cannot skip tracks or adjust volume, obviously.
Instruction manual: there is none supplied with the player. You get a quick start guide, of which 25% is English, all stating the rather obvious. However, the player's UI is simple enough that you don't need a real instruction guide to navigate it and learn it's functions, but if there is a way to turn the screen off without putting the player on "hold" mode, it's not in this quick-start guide, that's for sure.
Build quality: Seriously, who cares? If you do, you're not going to find any twisting/cracking/scratching/dropping insight in my review. Moving right along...
Sound quality: I bought this player to play music, and when it plays music, it plays it just fine. I have no gripes about the sound quality, and if I did I think a pair of upgraded headphones would suit my needs just fine. As I'm not an audiophile, I don't have any deep insight here either. Something to note though, with regards to the Zen's output: when connecting it to some output device other than headphones, the volume is not that loud even when maxed out. In my car, I play CD's at 11 or 12 on the volume dial to listen at a reasonable volume while cruising. The FM radio plays at 15, as did my Rio Carbon. The Zen I have to play at 20 or 21 with the "aux input volume" set to it's highest setting, and the Zen's own volume all the way up as well. On a pair of crappy desktop speakers I use at work, it is the same sort of scenario.
Screen size: It is surprisingly usable. It looks small, but I've watched a few videos on it with no straining or resulting eye-soreness. Colors are great, and video files run smoothly for the most part. I watched "Training Day" from start to finish on it with no problem, except for an odd issue where it would sometimes route "left" sounds out of my right speaker, and vice versa. I watched "Final Fantasy: Advent Children" and the display was crisp enough that I could read the smallish subtitles easily, but I did run into some slow-downs / audio glitches during some of the more action-packed scenes.
User Interface: Simple. It has a very minor issue that is hardly worth mentioning, but sometimes when you have not navigated through the menus for a while (say, listening to an entire album then going back to switch to another album), the menu is a little slow in moving around, and there is a noticeable delay in the graphics moving. It goes away after you move through a few screens.
Others: fat fingers might have trouble pressing the desired buttons from time to time, because they are small and overlap will happen. It has an alarm function, which is nice because you have the option of waking up to the FM radio (which itself is a nice addition, but not something I felt necessary to devote a section to) or to any random track on the player. Sometimes I wake up to A Perfect Circle, sometimes I wake up to Pachelbel. And sometimes I don't wake up at all. Which means if you plan on waking up to music, you'll need to set the volume a little higher to have the same effect as a more annoying sound, like an actual alarm.
Customer Review: Compact, Versatile Player for a GREAT price
Summary: 5 Stars
I was looking for a new mp3 player after my old iPod crashed on me a few weeks back. After searching around the internet for an hour, I stumbled across this player. I was very impressed with the results, and it is by far the best player I've ever had experience with.
Appearance (9/10):
The first thing I noticed when I got it, was its size. Its compact, and like everyone says, its the size of a credit card- it fits snuggly in the palm of my hand. It comes in a glossy black, which looks alarmingly eye-catchy. The back is made of less glossy plastic, but still very durable. And lastly, the screen: very vibrant, very clear. Thickness of the player is considerably reduced from Creative's previous players, but it doesn't match up to the competing iPod nano. Overall, this player has a great appearance, with a glossy black surface, vibrant screen, compact size, and well placed navigation.
Sound Quality (10/10):
Player produces great sound quality, although this partially depends on the kind of head phones you are using. The included headphones are a good starter.
Storage (8/10):
Coming in 4, 8, 16, 32 GB, the ZEN does not come close to the bulky 60 GB Vision M it is replacing. To give it some credit though, the player is extremely well priced for the storage it is offering. The SD card expansion slot works very well, even with SDHC cards. The 16GB Zen I purchased is enough room for my entire 1000+ song collection, and even some movies. Overall, the storage is wonderful for the price, and the SD card slot gives room for growth.
Ease of Use (9/10):
This player is compatible with many softwares and formats, but still not up to par with the iTunes + iPod seamless integration. Personally, I did not use the included software, but instead I used MediaMonkey which is a great music organizer, and syncs very efficiently with the Zen. My first sync of roughly 900 songs took about 10 minutes. And thereafter, auto sync works very well and is a 30 second procedure.
Transferring videos to the Zen is quite simple, too. Drag and Drop works quite efficiently, as does the included software.
I did play around with Zencast, a podcast service by creative, and it worked seamlessly with the Zen.
Navigation in the player is very well organized, and a shortcut button (which I set to random play all) is also available.
Format Support (10/10):
I was very impressed with this player and all the file formats and software it works with. Audio wise it supports the basic MP3 and WMA, and it also works with tracks from the iTunes plus store, not to mention subscription services such as Rhapsody. Video wise, it supports Avi and Mpeg, and even DivX and Xvid.
Photo/Video Viewing (9/10):
Excellent photo and video viewing, although the player can slow up when loading high quality images or videos. Good interface. Also, the player loads data from the SD card relatively quickly.
Extra Features (10/10):
The FM Radio and Microphone were my particular favorites of the ZEN's extra features. I also liked how the player allowed me to set a custom wallpaper. It has a calendar and tasks feature, but I really didn't use them. The Volume restriction was very helpful in volume leveling tracks so that some tracks weren't ridiculously higher than others. The SD card slot comes in handy when viewing pictures from my camera, and simply adding some extra storage space.
In the Box, What's included (8/10):
Comes with a USB charger only, which was disappointing, as an AC charger is good when traveling and such. Earphones are a good starter pair. Quick guide to getting started is great for beginners. Unit itself is well packaged.
Accessories (6/10):
Accessories for the Zen are quite limited. Great selection of cases and armbands. Screen protectors and skins are also offered if you search around. What will turn off many buyers is the lack of an affordable docking system available for the player. A good pair of speakers is a good alternative, although it will not charge the player. Accessory wise, the Zen is greatly behind the iPod.
Overall (9/10):
The zen is a great player with very many functions. Sleek, Stylish, Compact design and great interface show off its great appearance. Many customization choices built into the player. Current firmware is very solid. The Zen is very easy to use, and has basic, but easy to use included software, and much more available online. Drag and Drop is very useful. The player has support for many formats, and plays audio, video, and views images extremely well. The ZEN is a great player and stacks up quite a match against the market dominating iPod.