Creative Zen 16 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
by Creative
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List Price: Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Creative Zen 16 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
Customer Review: Creative Zen 16GB Portable Media Player
Summary: 5 Stars
The Creative Zen 16GB portable media player is an excellent product. I can store up to 4,000 tracks and after charging the battery I can enjoy 30 hours of continuos play which I thoroughly enjoy. I can also watch 5 hours of video. I haven't downloaded any video yet but I will get around to it. I installed the software to my desktop computer and I'm able to access the title of my cd's from the internet and if I don't want to get on the internet. The software allows me to type in the information on the tracks I'm syncing to the device which is excellent. When I'm going to work, I like listening to my favorite radion station which is 99.5 on the FM dial and the reception is crystal clear. I have also added some photos to my device which I carry with me. I should have gotten this product long time ago because I'm so thoroughly impressed with the quality of it. I would recommend this product to anyone who loves music, music videos, radio or just a conneisur of the arts. You must get this device. It is worth every dollar and I'm enjoying every track I'm syncing to my device and I just enjoy seeing the album art along with the title of the track and the artist and the sound that comes from the creative zen is awesome. My only comment is the company should make the usb cable a little longer. It is so short. I also love the fact that you can expand the storage by buying an SD memory card so that you can add more which is a feature that sets it apart from other media devices. As you can tell, I am very excited and I'm like a kid in a candy store.
Sincerely,
Stephen Whitley
Customer Review: Good, but maybe don't update the firmware
Summary: 4 Stars
I have owned a Creative ZEN Micro for a few years, but it was getting full and the earphone jack was no longer functional. I wanted to stick with Creative because I have always found their products to be pretty sound and went with this item.
When I received it, I figured I'd check for software/firmware updates. Since I hadn't done anything with it yet, I decided to update the firmware. Probably a bad idea (caveat: since I never used it before the update, I don't know if this caused my problem). Now it freezes constantly to the point that I carry a paper clip with it just so I can reset it. Oddly, the freezing only happens when using earphones. When plugged into my PC with the USB cable, I never have an issue. I bought this thing back in Feb.
I am either sending it back to Amazon or doing an RMA with Creative for this (not sure which). I ordered a new one from Amazon as well and I may just leave the bad one at work where I often use it just via USB cable connected to my PC.
I like the unit alot, so I am willing to give a new one a try, without doing any updates. I bought one for my wife and she has no problems at all, and she never did any updates (and now is afraid to because of my issues).
I also don't like how it imports CD's - for example mix CD's I have burned at home. It seems to sort these by artist, but I prefer by album. I have actually found a way to work around this, though a bit cumbersome.
Anyway, It's a pretty solid unit from a company who makes pretty decent products. If my new one doesn't work, I'll find a another brand.
Customer Review: Quite a nice little player.
Summary: 5 Stars
I picked this mp3 player up because my old iPod Nano 4GB was out of space and I needed more room. I didn't use iTunes at all and didn't really like the new iPod Nano anyway so I decided to look at the other options out there. After comparing my choices I decided on this Zen and it arrived today.
I was able to quickly sync up all my music using Windows Media Player 11 and it was nice to not have to install any new software to get it done (it does come with software but I chose not to install it.) Album art is displayed nicely as well. This player sounds great and I find the user interface simple to get around. The FM Radio is a nice addition and I was able to receive my favorite stations in the house with a nice strong signal. I also updated to the latest firmware without incident.
As a runner the only thing I miss from my old iPod Nano is the Stopwatch feature - I checked the Creative forums and saw that others have requested a stopwatch be added and that request has been passed on to the developers - so we'll have to wait and see if a future firmware update adds one or not.
As others have stated the "sync/charge" cable it comes with is extremely short so plan to spend a few bucks on another option.
Also Windows Vista identifies this as having only 15 GB of space - I doubt this is specific to Creative but it might be important information for anyone that was actually planning to cram 16 GB of stuff on to it.
Overall I'm happy with the purchase and although this isn't as thin as my old iPod Nano it is going to replace it nicely.
Customer Review: Quirky but Good
Summary: 4 Stars
Update: Beware product quality
After about two weeks of use flying to and from the west coast, the player died. First it lost the ability to shuffle all tracks on the player and would only shuffle within an album. Then, while listening, mid-song the music became distorted. some songs no longer play vocals. Really really weird. I think the hard drive got messed up. Back it went and we'll see how the replacement works. Very disappointing for such a cool player
Pro:
size - small and light weight
nice looking
screen quality is excellent
user interface is easy
Con:
requires screen protector (creative doesn't give you one)
short usb charge cable (impossibly short, but blackberry chargers work on it!)
additional software required to rip mp3's (try mediamonkey)
not intuitive to rip movies
quirky (see below)
I tried to move files from my old creative muvo player. Once I figured out how to copy them successfully, the player would crash (lock up with black screen and no functionality, but still on). I kept having to reset the player, again and again, to no avail. I noticed that all my other files that I copied from compact disk did not crash the system. When I deleted the transfered files, the player worked perfectly and continues to do so. I'm guessing the firmware is buggy (both old and new). There seems to be similar problems with a "white screen" that other reviewers have mentioned. If you can't get yours to work, return it while it is still under warranty.
Customer Review: A wonderful piece of technology, with three tiny flaws.
Summary: 5 Stars
I should get the bad parts out of the way before I start gushing, because there are only three of them and only one really detracts from the awesomeness of this product. Firstly, the FM radio has mediocre reception--not a fatal flaw, but one that can make a cloudy day even more depressing than normal. Secondly, the bundled USB cable is so short as to be useless--but that can be solved by attaching an ordinary USB extension cord.
The more significant problem is that the Zen works poorly with Windows Media Player's sync function; it has a tendency to freeze when syncing, connecting, or disconnecting, and it's a pain to reach for a pencil lead or a paperclip every time you use it. Fortunately, the player includes all the tools you need to bypass this problem: bundled sync software of its own, and an SD card slot.
Those problems aside, the Creative Zen is a beautiful device both visually and technologically (though the glossy finish does accumulate fingerprints and scratches rather easily). It easily stores more music than you could possibly need, so feel free to add some video files to your library--and with the aforementioned SD slot, you can carry your entire media library in your pocket, regardless of size. The sound is crisp and worth shelling out for a good pair of headphones to fully enjoy, and the video is clear and bright even on a sunny day (even if it does make the smudges and scratches on the screen stand out). It's the highest-quality player I've ever owned, and I'll definitely look to Creative again if I need a new one.