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,
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: Nice Nano alternative for the price
Summary: 5 Stars
I meant to give this four stars but messed up and Amazon won't let me change it.
I recently lost my 4GB Nano and was frankly not too distressed. I was very frustrated with iTunes(kept deleting my e-music files and losing tracks I ripped from CD's) and the capacity was no longer sufficient. Also, tuning in to the FM broadcasts of TV audio at the gym required a separate device. In looking for an mp3 with as much flash capacity as possible and FM capability I settled on the Zen. The biggest Nano is 8GB and the 16GB iPod touch is twice the price.
The Zen is a nice package with a great price. It's light, looks good, has good sound, capacity, expandability, FM, and video capability. I downloaded a video from Amazon Unbox with zero problems.
It's not a perfect device for sure. The unit is slower to start from standby than my Nano. It has also crashed a few times requiring a reset through the small hole in the side of the unit. The one time my Nano crashed I had to let the battery die so I could restart it.
I do not care at all for the included software, but have found Windows Vista Media Player to be a very capable and friendly interface. I am thrilled I no longer have to deal with iTunes.
In short, the Zen is not as slick a device as the Nano, but there is really nothing in Apple's line up that gives you the features and capacity for anywhere near the price.
Customer Review: The best for my needs.
Summary: 4 Stars
2 years ago I bought an 8 GB player by this same company. It was a heavy, solid, really well-built hard-drive player - on par with the quality you get with the Apple iPOD players. Unfortunately, I dropped it and it stopped working. I tried contacting the company about getting it repaired but all I could get was useless feedback from their "support" site. No real person. And no real help. So I had to buy a new player. I got the brand so I could use the accessories I had purchased for the other player. This new player is better for me in functionality but the quality is down a peg or two. What I like about this new player is that I can navigate the menu items with the big screen. It's easy to see the Playlists etc. What I would suggest they do (apart from making it higher quality like the previous models) is makr the navigation buttons with tactile and visual marks. E.g. Make the Volume buttons "feel" different so you can easily find them by touch. I listen to my player in bed at night and it's hard to navigate by touch. Otherwise, so far the player has worked just fine. With 16 GB of storage I can put about 8 full-length audio books on the player at one time. Or 20 music CDs and 5 novels. The best thing about the player is the big screen, which makes it easy to read. I have yet to figure out how to put video on the player though. I can easily download video from YouTube to RealPlayer but not to my Zen player.Customer Review: All around good performance
Summary: 4 Stars
All in all the ZEN is a great alternative to an ipod. If you're like me you'll never fill that 80GB worth of space and so why should you pay for it? With the ZEN I got exactly what I wanted, my music library in my pocket.
The following are what I personally found great and not so great.
Pros:
- 16GB worth of space (thats about 4160 mp3 songs)
- a vibrant screen that looks great with videos
- the ability to import any short video or pictures (providing you convert them first)
- you can take any picture and make it your wallpaper
- a great price (especially from amazon)
Cons:
- creating playlists on the ZEN is a disaster, much easier building it on the program bundled with it.
- video and audio playback can sometimes get out of sync and you'll have to pause the video to let it correct itself
- when connecting the player to the computer things can get a little crazy as both the player and Windows Media Player try to sync each other up, you can get quite a few doubles of songs in your library. Make sure you tell the media player to not start syncing without your consent
So with that I highly recommend this mp3 player as it has a slick design and works like a charm, plus it's a great mp3 player that doesn't have the apple logo on it!
Customer Review: Sleek, light, thin, but...
Summary: 4 Stars
I wanted to give this a 5/5 stars so bad, and I almost did. But a few things stopped me.
Pros:
Black finish is very slick, but, just like my old Zen, I've heard they scratch very easily. I ordered the silicone case with the wire management.
Great screen. Watching videos and looking at pictures is just as good as looking at them or watching them on your computer. I'm sure it scratches easily as well.
Small. Could be a bad thing for some. Much smaller compared to my old Zen Vision: M.
Syncs right up with Windows Media Player11. Works with Macs too I think...
SD card slot. I don't use it, but it's there.
8 EQ presets, or you can set it yourself.
Cons:
No "Hold" switch. 'Might seem worthless to some, but good if you like to work with it outside and it's annoying as heck to have buttons getting inadvertently pressed. Plus, the hold switch on the old Zen turned off the screen to preserve battery power.
No video out, if you want to watch on the big screen
USB cable is 4 inches long! Rediculous!
So far, it has worked as it should, but it's only been a few days. It did freeze up once while I was syncing. If anything happens, I'll update...
Customer Review: Awesome versatile mp3 player
Summary: 5 Stars
This replaced a Creative Micro Photo 8gb (micro hard drive) with which I was extremely pleased with for two years. I bought the 4gb version of this player for may father's Christmas present, and I was so jealous I got myself the 16gb version.
This little device is incredibly versatile. Plays mp3 with great sound (but buy better earphones), plays video on a great 2.5" screen, has an FM radio built in, microphone, and even has a slot for sd memory cards, something I haven't seen in a similar device. I use Windows Media Player to manage songs (but need the supplied software to handle playlists). I occasionally use a remote designed for earlier versions that connects via the headphones jack so I can keep it on a belt clip while exercising. I wish the Creative software was better, but that's really not a problem. It's a much better value than a similar iPod. The only advantages iPods have over it is the abundance of accessories and easy integration with iTunes (can work around that).
I highly recommend this one, though there's already a 32gb version. I expect in a couple of years to buy a replacement that's 64 gb or more and with bells and whistles I can only dream of (built in Bluetooth?) from Creative. Remember, these are the guys who invented the iPod touch dial interface!