Creative Zen 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
by Creative
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List Price: Our Price: $65.00 You Save: $14.99 (19%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Creative Zen 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
Customer Review: Love Creative MP3 players
Summary: 5 Stars
I started my MP3 player life with an Apple iPod. It locked up and never worked as I was told. I was never happy with it. With in a year it broke and Apple would do nothing for me.
I moved over to a Creative Zen Vision W. I had that for 2 years and it worked with out any problems till my wife got it wet. I was able to open it up with a few screws and dry it out. I did broke the on-off switch. I was able to still use it for 6 months like that, just need a pin to turn it on. The problem was really size for working out.
I got my wife a Creative Zen (the one I am commenting on) for Christmas. She is not a Tech savvy person. The fact she didn't have to install a software life iTunes to put music on her player made her happy. She got allot of songs from the Amazon Pepsi Point. All she did was drag and drop. I mapped out my music drive on her PC so she could take a few of her CDs I had ripped for her. She was really happy and uses the Zen every time she works out or cleans.
I spend some time playing with her Zen. I end up putting my Creative Zen Vision W away and buying a Creative Zen 2GB for both work and working out. I do plan to upgrade to the Creative Zen X-Fi 32 GB soon. I will then keep all 3 MP3 players for different things. The only let down for me was the realization that the Battery was none replicable like the Creative Zen Vision W. I know that batters die out well before the unit does. I think this was a bad move on Creative's part.
Creative Zen X-Fi 32 GB: Work
Creative Zen Vision W 30 GB: Travel (I travel for work)
Creative Zen 2GB: Working out
I have never had any problems with any Creative products. They didn't let me down with there MP3 players. The fact that they use a standard USB mini cord sets them above the rest. No proprietary cables needed. I can use my Cell Phone Car charger & Wall Charger because of this. The cable they gave with the Zen was very short, but I have allot of long ones myself so this was not a problem.
Customer Review: Don't let the reviews fool you!
Summary: 1 Stars
This is a horrible mp3 player! I went through 3 of them within 2 days. The "supposed" touch-screen is impossible to use, having to press any button numerous times for it to even try and navigate it's way through the player. Not only this, but the instructions to the player are so confusing because they are in every language and you have to fight to find English. When you finally find English, there is barely any real information that is usable or understandable when you are fighting with the player. When trying to put video on, forget it. The manager used to sync your files to make them readable to this device doesn't work and winds up corrupting your computer with viruses. You have to have the music you want to put on this player on your computer already. Forget downloading from anywhere because this thing is impossible to sync with. There is no radio, or at least if there is it's impossible to find on the player. The player is impossible to navigate through period, especially with buttons that want you to go one way and you want to go another. The battery life is horrible and takes over a day to charge. That is with only a few songs on it. My first and second players both grew extremely hot, the first actually smoking when it was plugged in and being charged. So if you want to touch your player when it's charging forget it because it's practically on fire. Be watchful of smoke coming out of it, too! Not only all of this but you need a wall plug to charge the thing unless you plan to keep it plugged into your computer. So there was another $30 wasted for that alone. This is the worst mp3 player I've ever come across. Don't waste your money!Customer Review: Overall, a good player
Summary: 4 Stars
Pros:
Reasonable price
Nice, fast interface
Big screen, for the size
FM Radio is a bonus, as is the microphone
Great sound quality
Easy syncing - no extra software needed on Windows
Plays iTunes Plus tracks with no conversion (and they sound amazing)
Good battery life, though we'll see if I'm still saying that in 2 years when I can't replace the battery
Cons:
Issues with SD card integration - no remembering your place in media, no album art (!), strange place in the interface, etc.
Included converter software produces WMV files with lots of artifacts and bad color - this can be fixed with third-party XViD converter software (compare the sample videos with a video converted with WMP or Creative Video Converter to see what I mean - night and day)
No search function - not a huge deal with the letter scroll feature, but still missed somewhat
No bookmark feature in videos - only audio
Overall, this device simply works. There's not a whole lot I can complain about. Don't buy the smallest version thinking you can fix that with SD cards, but other than that, it's fine. I like to use it for walks, loading podcasts for the walk itself and video podcasts for stops I make along the way.
EDIT 02/08/09: I feel obligated to edit this review to point out some issues with the color quality of the screen. In videos with dark areas, there is very serious banding. This is strange on a 24-bit color screen, but it is there. No, it's not my encoding - the file is an 800Kbps xVid file. It plays with correct color on my phone.
Customer Review: I Miss My Lil Zen :(
Summary: 5 Stars
Strange. Some people saw my Zen in the past and then compared it instantly to an ipod. That's crappy! they told me. Why don't you just spend the extra money and get the ipod! But I didn't. I hung in there with my Zen, because it was easy to get used to. The buttons became habit in my hands.
Stranger. I've had four of these units stolen from me now. And it's funny how people criticize my Zen, and how rapidly it seems to disappear.
The memory may not sounds like much...but the video format used allows you to fit an awful lot of video into the unit. In comparison, I now have a Philips GoGear Aria, which uses a different video format, SMV, or something like that. One episode of Simpsons would fit easily on my Zen. But on my GoGear Aria, it's over a hundred megabytes! Yeesh! And the quality isn't as good as the Zen, either.
I also like on the Zen how you can fastforward and rewind the video and watch what's actually going on. You can find your place easily, if you get distracted while watching a show. On the Aria, you get a frame-view every so often, and it looks choppy and cheap.
If people just can't stand my Zen...I'd wish that they'd quit stealing them when I have them! It's getting harder and harder to find these things.
If they hated my Zen so much...you'd think they'd give them back to me after a week or so, hah.
I miss my Zen, so I'm going to hunt around for another one of these bad boys.
*sigh*
Customer Review: No Zen software for the Mac
Summary: 4 Stars
I've owned this player for many months, and like all but a few things. Don't get me wrong, I'll never buy any incarnation of iPod. I'm not a Mac fanatic. For its' size, I think this unit is a much better choice than anything else on the market. I just have a few gripes:
There is no software for the Mac, and unlike my Panasonic SV-MP020 (simple music-only players, I have several of them), it does not show up as a hard drive when connected to the Mac. For someone like me who would like to get through the day without turning on my old PC, this is a downer. I dislike iTunes, and would prefer "dragging and dropping" over being locked into software that constantly schemes up new ways to try to drain my wallet, and push their agenda.
It does not recognize PNG format images, and pukes on most WMA files (unless created with THEIR software).
It CONSTANTLY wants to fade out after 10 seconds (until you change the setting, but won't go over 30 seconds). It won't loop a directory of images, nor automatically repeat a single video when it gets to the end. How hard would it be to add these features to the System settings?
Lastly, you will find it dead as a stone after just a week of sitting around without being charged.
Buy one anyway, because it is still in my "top ten" of must-have gadgets. Load it up with pictures to share and music to entertain - digital entertainment as close as your pocket.