Creative Zen 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
by Creative
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: CreativeBrand: Creative Labs
Edition: Electronics
Audio: English (Original Language); French (Original Language)
Format: CD
Platform: Windows
Model: 70PF216200111
Color: Black
Publisher: Creative
Studio: Creative
Music Label: Creative
Product features:
- Product Type - MP3 Player
- Connectivity - USB 2.0
- Memory - 4GB
- Dimensions WxDxH - 3.26" x 2.16" x 0.44"
- Clock and alarm function
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Creative Zen 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
Customer Review: Love it - Great value
Summary: 5 Stars
I've owned this Zen 4GB about 3 weeks and am very satisfied with it. It's about 2/3 the price of the same capacity Ipod and has additional features:
- Bigger screen
- FM radio
- SD Card slot
I've loaded 2 full-length movies onto a 2GB SD card as well as several YouTube music videos using AVI format. Haven't needed to use the Creative Software and they play very nice right from the card and still have 1GB left on a 2GB SD Card. I've watched movies on miniature LCDs before (a Palm Treo, Ipod Nano, ...) and this slightly larger screen on the Zen makes a substantial difference in viewing. While you're still only watching movies on a 2.5" screen, it's larger & better than other small-form devices.
I've used the FM radio at work a few times too. There are 32 slots to preset FM stations. It scans and auto-sets them, and allows for manual tuning. You can type in the Station Call letters or give each preset slot a name using the keyboard tool on the player. The headphone cable acts as part of the antenna so if you use the radio without it jacked in the player gives you a message.
When I bought this I initially wasn't lured by the SD slot but have come to find it's actually pretty useful once you try it. I have movies and photos on there and keep the player memory just for the MP3s. You can save photos (from the card or the player memory) as Wallpaper and that will become the background image for all player functions.
I keep all my music in high-capacity MP3 format (320kbps) on my computer so can't speak to usage with Windows Media player or WMA format files, but other reviews mention it works well. I use Media Monkey as my PC music manager - it recognizes the Zen, let's you maintain most Zen features (except playlists) but most importantly for me MediaMonkey allows dynamic, on the fly downsizing of my MP3s from 320kbps down to 160kbps during the file transfers. It's customizable down to any bitsize format you want, but I prefer 160 when saving music to the Zen player. I've got 760 tracks down there now and still have a little room left (300mb).
The Zen allows customizing the menus, so, for example, I removed Voice Recorder from the main menus, added Random Play All as a main menu option, and have reordered the menus for my own preferences.
In short, it's all sort of little things that make this a sweet device. My wife also really loves the larger format text and screen size just when playing back music - she uses the smaller Zen V but is hinting she wants an upgrade.
I have had to hit reset a couple times but have had no problem doing that - all computers need to get rebooted sometimes. I also have to hit reset on my son's Ipod Nano much more frequently. I haven't had to reset when just playing back tunes though - it seems it's when trying something such as function changes; going from one thing to another. It's been very infrequent - not enough to rate a real con on the player in my opinion.
As also suggested in other comments here, after plugging the unit in and letting it charge up - before adding any tunes - I downloaded the latest firmware. This caused some initial issues as I couldn't boot the new update and got into a format/reload/reboot menu on the player. I think this may have had something to do with the way I ran the update - I chose an option to update all software at once including the PC drivers, Creative music software and the firmware during the setup. I'm wondering if just doing the firmware first would have made that a cleaner experience. I got a fresh copy of the firmware and re-ran that installation - all by itself this time - and it then booted up fine.
One last thing. There's a bug with Album Art where an Album Name is "Greatest Hits" or other common name. The art for all "Greatest Hits" albums is shared among all artists, using the art of the most recently installed Greatest Hits artist's album. I confirmed this in the Creative user forums. So for example, you end up with art from Neil Young's Greatest Hits album when playing back Stevie Ray Vaughn's Greatest Hits. You either have to live with it for now or do as someone in the forum suggested (and I have done) and add in something to each artist's album named Greatest Hits, so, I added Neil Young onto the front of his Greatest Hits album.
Even with these few dings, I give the Zen 5 stars overall and prefer my player to my son's IPod (those have quirks, cons and dings too).
Description of Creative Zen 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
This credit card-sized ZEN has a stunning 2.5" color screen and is perfect for music, videos and photos. Enjoy up to 4,000 MP31, WMA or AAC songs, watch up to 60 hours2 of videos and share hundreds of photos with your friends. Even expand your portable music, video or photo collection by adding additional content through the convenient SD memory slot.Bring your media with you wherever you roam with the Creative Zen 4GB player. Watch 16 hours of videos, enjoy up to 1,000 of your favorite songs or share hundreds of photos with your friends. And do it all on a device that's about the width of a credit card.
 A razor sharp 2.5-inch display makes your photos and videos come to life. See the Zen in detail. |
 Small size. Big features. All in the palm of your hand. View larger. |
 Add even more storage capacity via the SD card slot. View larger. |
The Zen sports a 2.5-inch TFT color display with 320 x 240-pixel resolution and support for up to 16.7 million colors. This razor sharp display is packaged in a device that weighs just 2.1 ounces and measures 3.26 x 2.16 x .44 inches (W x H x D). The internal battery powers the Zen for up to 25 hours of continuous audio playback and up to five hours of continuous video playback. Use the Zen's SD slot to expand your portable media library with music, photos and videos stored on your SD card. There's also a handy built-in microphone for capturing notes on the go.
Features
Load up up your favorite songs, as well as your album art, and get going with the Zen. The device supports iTunes Plus tracks from the iTunes store and MP3 and WMA tracks. Subscription and pay-per-download music services are supported, as well. Discover, save, and play millions of songs when subscribing to services such as Yahoo Music Unlimited and Napster To Go. You can even tune into your favorite stations with the Zen's FM radio. The radio allows you to save up to 34 presets.
The Zen has you covered when it comes to video, too. The device supports MJPEG, WMV9 and--with transcoding--MPEG1 and 2, MPEG4-SP, DivX 4 and 5, and XviD. Enjoy purchased movies and TV shows from online services, such as Amazon Unbox and Walmart.com. Watch home videos. Even load your Tivo To Go movies and TV shows onto your Zen.
Additional features include a clock and alarm function, volume restriction, eight equalizer settings, and a USB hard drive mode, which allows you to drag and drop files directly to and from your Zen. The Zen can also function as a handy organizer, allowing you to synchronize with Microsoft Outlook and display your contacts, calendar, and tasks.
What's in the Box
Zen player, earphones, USB 2.0 cable, installation CD, and quick start guide.
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| A slick user interface makes it a snap to enjoy your media. | |||
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