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: Disappointed
Summary: 3 Stars
The reason I bought this one has two folds -
1. It plays Audible. I am an Audible user, my iPod went out of battery; I hate iPod becomes useless when the battery is exhausted, so I intended to try ZEN with MP4. Unfortunately, ZEN is buggy.
2. It has 16GB of built-in storage. But, you can't use it as a portable storage, because you have to have ZEN's software installed on the PC you want to copy data. The only solution is to use its SD card slot.
BUT, SD card slot is very buggy - after I installed the Audible audio books on built-in memory, I can't listen to MP3 music that's installed in SD card. This is really strange, I'll see if I can get help from Creative. I can listen to MP3 music before I installed Audible books. My guess is the power is not enough to drive both MP3 and Audible or a lot of other stuffs at the same time.
That I give 3 stars is because it still can play Audible, which is my primary usage of this device. Of course, I might use its video features sometime when I find applications.
Worse is - I don't think this ZEN works with Microsoft Media Player 11. I had to uninstalled MMP 11, and went back to version 10 in order to use ZEN; otherwise, XP won't recognize this device. I strongly suggest Creative improve this into a better situation - you don't need Microsoft Media Player to use Audible or other features. You indeed should let a bare XP/2000 or other OS recognize this device without Microsoft Media Player. You can add MMP function after your device is recognized by XP or other similar OS. I think Creative is not doing a good job in this issue.
I just saw a person "Steve" left a review as below -
"I've had Creative flash mp3 players for years and found them to be very reliable and simple to use. I wanted more capacity so I bought this one. I was very disappointed in this mp3 player and returned it after a week or so. It was very buggy--always just shutting off for no apparent reason and requiring me to reset it."
I agree. This ZEN MP4 shuts me many times; also, when I tried to play MP3 on the SD card after I installed the Audible books, it always crashed and I had to reset it.
I also have a ZEN Nano Plus 1GB, which is much more stable than this one although its Radio function is really much weaker - the autoscan scans less stations.
I really think Creative should develop ZEN/MP4's os without using Microsoft Media Player in the first place. ZEN Nano Plus has already had this capability, why does ZEN/MP4 not use the same idea???? You can add the Microsoft Media Player after you have basic functions built if you really need Microsoft's software, isn't it? I think Creative's ZEN/MP4 designers are really neither clever nor professional.
Customer Review: Great sound and great price
Summary: 4 Stars
I'll start with the negative. The front cover scratches very easily so if you decide to get this player, order a skin or case AND screen protection shields at the same time. As soon as you decide to keep the player put the screen shield on and protect this little jewel. I bought this unit after my Toshiba Gigabeat S30 died. While I was deciding what to get as a replacement I was loaned one of the new iPod Nano 4G (the square ones). It's a nice little player but the sound quality was not the best. There was noticeable distortion in some songs and I still prefer a tactile feel to controls over touch sensitive buttons. I like to know when I've done something by feel (I also hate touch pads on notebook computers). I also needed more than 4G (or even 8G) I read lots of reviews and seriously considered a Classic iPod or a Zune but I really didn't need 80G. I also liked that the Nano was smaller. The reviews I read said basically ranked the sound quality of new Creative Zen just behind the Cowon players which are considered to be as close to audiophile quality as any player. Most negative comments dealt with video, which really isn't an issue for me because 99.5% of my use is for audio.
The sound on this player is the best I have ever heard. I have a pair of Skullcandy Smokin' bud earphones that I got on sale for $10. The earphones that come with any player I typically save to give to my 7 yr old when loses or tears his up. The screen is really good although that isn't a big issue for me. The battery life may not be quite as long as claimed but it's plenty long enough for me (I used to have to charge my Toshiba every night and make sure the backlight time was set to 1 sec.) The FM receiver is one of the best I have come across in an MP3 player. Although the controls are not as intuitive as other player, it didn't take me long to get up to speed. I like that I can delete music without having to connect to a computer. I also subscribe to Napster to Go which works with this player.
I only gave the player 4 stars because of how easily it scratched. That really doesn't warrant taking a full star but also doesn't allow me to feel comfortable about a 5 star rating. In hindsight I wish I had spent the extra money for the 32G and that I had order a skin and screen protection shields.
This little gem smokes the iPod Nano in my opinion. It's thicker than a Nano but you get way, way more bang for your buck. No it's not perfect, but what computer or MP3 player is? Actually, I happy that my Toshiba died or I may have never bought this player.Creative Zen 16 GB (Black)
Customer Review: Great little MP3
Summary: 5 Stars
After researching all the non-harddrive MP3 players out there, I decided on the Creative Zen. It was down to the Zen VS Sandisk Sansa View 16GB. My criteria was:
1) Solid State
2) 16GB or larger
3) Ability to add more memory (reason Ipod & Zune weren't in the running)
4) FM Radio (Ditto)
5) Memo recording
6) Decent sized display (older eyes)
7) Able to play wide variety of formats, no DRM (I hate Itunes)
While I preferred the way you operate the Sansa View, I finally went with the Zen due to the reviews of customers.
PROS: Nice thin size. Great bright display. Pretty good battery life. Excellent sound quality. FM tuner has fairly decent sensitvity. OEM headphones are pretty good with the exception of the straight plug, a 90 degree plug would be better.
CONS: Hard to operate with left hand due to design. Included software is a little clunky, but still does update automatically. Not a whole lot of aftermarket accessories available. The content on the SD card doesn't show up in the normal listings, you have to go into the SD card to access it - this prevents you from including the content in playlists and sorts.
I would like to be able to sort the music easier using the Creative software, maybe in a future update.
Tips: Get a screen protector and put it on before you take it out. Also recommend a case, I found some of the rubber ones on eBay. DON'T leave it plugged in and let your computer go into hibernate mode, this locked mine up and nothing Creative or anyone else suggested would make it power back up. Had to return it to Amazon for a replacement. The folks at Amazon sent a replacement ASAP - Thanks Guys! The only additional feature I would like is Bluetooth so I could get rid of the cord.
UPDATE 10/20/2009
I still, for the most part, like this player...BUT....Aside from the inability to access any music stored on the SD card in the normal controls and playlists, I've also found that it's a real pain to add a song to an existing Playlist. Or even to sort the Playlists.
I've yet to find a way to easily sort my Playlists alphabetically (to see if I've already added a song) so that the new sorting will transfer to the player. These are BASIC features that should be easy to perform. Also, Creative is VERY slow, if at all, to fix missing features. They seem to put the product out, support it for a few months, and then 'sorry folks, you're on your own'...
These things will keep me from buying Creative players in the future unless they fix them.
Customer Review: Poor UI, slow boot-up
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this mp3 player a moth ago as a replacement for an ipod that was stolen. I'm not fan of Apple, and considering their market dominance, decided to buy a non-ipod MP3 player. My previous mp3 player was an 80GB video ipod, so I set out to buy the largest mp3 player I could find with a reasonable price. This Zen was what I settled on after some cursory research. I am disappointed, to say the least.
The first thing that I noticed was that it came pre-loaded with a bunch of crap that I had to remove, such as random audible clips, and some pretty bad music tracks. Secondly, although this is the largest capacity ZEN (not counting the X-Fi with all it's extraneous junk) available on Amazon at the time, I was disappointed to find that I could only fit a small portion of my (admittedly extensive) library on the device.
When it came time to actually use my new Zen, I was dismayed to note that it takes 15-20 seconds to boot up each time, and never remembers the menu hierarchy that you are in (i.e., you always have to start navigating again from the root menu). The button layout seems functional enough, but it is not the hardware that needs addressing in this device. the menu system is a pain to use - if there is only a single item in a sub menu (one album listed under an artist, say), the Zen will force you to push the select button again to pick that item. Even worse, when you have a track highlighted and select it, instead of playing the track as one might expect, the main button brings up another sub menu, forcing a second click for EVERY track you want to play!
Battery life is alright, I could get 6 - 8 hours of audio playtime. The battery display also has its issues. I was surprised to find that the Zen refuses to function when the battery indicator shows 10% battery remaining. I have assumed from previous portable devices that the device will function until there is 0% battery remaining, so I neglected to charge my Zen for a 1 hour trip I was taking, thinking I could get there with plenty of battery left. I was sadly mistaken when the Zen kicked out on me soon after I left! When the battery display shows 10% left, there should be 10% of the battery life left. I'm not sure whose bright idea it was to 'pad' the battery display, but it makes it much more difficult to accurately judge the remaining power for this device.
In summary, it takes a long time to start up, and requires a lot of extraneous selections to work, and has a hard to interpret battery display - not ideal for use on the road, or for long term use.
Customer Review: Solid Product - Great for iPod converts
Summary: 4 Stars
The 16 GB Zen is a solid MP3 player. There's nothing super-amazing about it, but it gets the job done and it looks fine. The space is enough for people like me without extensive music collections.
I used to have an iPod mini, until it died recently. I decided that I was finished with Apple and went with this player. What really saved me was the fact that this player supports AAC files (unprotected, that is). I used my iPod for podcasts and music. I have about 65 songs bought from the iTunes store, and a few hundred songs from CDs. I originally had thought that iTunes ripped CDs to MP3, but in fact, it doesn't (correction: You can actually select to rip to MP3s when ripping. I was unaware of this when I ripped my CDs, so I ended up with 200+ AAC songs, which didn't matter thanks to the Zen's AAC support). I didn't have to lift a finger to get most of this music onto my player. It really is one of the best features. I recommend this as the first player to turn to for people who want to leave the iPod product line.
Pros:
Easy Interface
Syncs Fast (A 45-min TV show took about 20-30 seconds)
Great Display
Voice Recorder
FM Radio
Plays Unprotected AAC files
Cons:
A little quiet - Listening in public places is a little difficult.
SD Card support is mediocre - you cannot manipulate content on the card as much as you can with the native memory
Podcasts - The ZenCast program does not boot up on my computer, so I use iTunes (which I find a great podcast organizer), but there is no menu selection that can easily separate the podcasts from the music - shuffling through all my songs, I run into a few podcasts.
Minimal contents in packaging - only the player, manual, 3-inch USB cable, and headphones come with it.
Video support - I've been having difficulty getting WMV's to work with the player, but XviD and DivX are supported in the .avi container. I haven't tried other formats yet, but things can get confusing. I really don't understand why there isn't native support for MPEG4, but there is for MJPEG. Also, all of your videos have to be smaller than 320x240, which is especially annoying when your format is correct, but your video is too big. I would have been happier if the video support reflect that of the Vision M.
Although there are some problems with the player, it's still great. You can't go wrong with it. Although you run into some problems when it comes to video formats, as well as the accommodation of audio podcasts, this i still a good choice.