Creative Zen 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
by Creative
|
List Price: Our Price: $45.00 You Save: $54.99 (55%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Creative Zen 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
Customer Review: I am absolutely crazy about this thing.
Summary: 5 Stars
After spending a happy two years with my Creative Zen Neeon, I decided to look into some of Creative's new products when my Neeon broke, since I'd been pretty happy with the quality of their players. I picked the Creative Zen because I wanted a music player that could store the movies I like to make with my friends, and I didn't need a whole lot of space, so I got the 4GB. Lemme tell you; it's the best quality mp3 player you can get for this kind of money.
I was completely amazed the first time I charged it and turned on the screen; the picture is crystal clear and altogether beautiful, and the screen is plenty big. The sound quality is good, I've found it quite easy to load my music and convert my videos, and I'm in love with the thing. I find the quality to be quite a bit better than my friend's iPod, which was more expensive.
The USB cord that comes with the player is ridiculously small; I'm not sure if they expect you to just let your player dangle from the computer while it's charging because it's only a few inches long, but I have the one I used for my Neeon so that's not a problem for me. The battery life is excellent; I charged it on Friday, it's Monday night now, I've used the player several hours every day, and the battery is still 3/4 charged.
The only strange thing I've noticed is that the screen kind of flickers when you shut the player off, but nothing has gone wrong so far so I'm not really worried about it.
A sidenote: I ordered the plastic case that goes with the Creative Zen, and I'm kind of disappointed in it. It feels like it's going to crack under the least bit of pressure, and some of the buttons are kind of hard to get to while the player is inside the case.
Aside from that, I totally reccomend this player to everyone.
Customer Review: Creative Zen 4GB
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this mp3 player for myself during the holidays. I had owned a creative product in the past (a 30 GB Zen Xtra) and was pleased with it. It had a hard drive in it that eventually went out after several years of heavy use. Since then I had been using a Ipod Shuffle to fill the gap (not a very good replacement).
The Creative Zen fits my needs perfectly. The 30 GB player I used to use turned out to be overkill. I filled it with tons of files that I would never listen to just because I had the space. This meant skipping alot when trying to shuffle all songs and made it difficult to navigate through menus to select something worth listening to. Having the Ipod shuffle made me rely on my laptop for music storage and I started using the player just to carry songs I wanted to listen to (a much better system for me). The Creative Zen 4GB is an excellent size for this type of application. I currently have 813 songs on it - more than enough to last between docking sessions. The added benefit of a SD card slot means the memory is expandable if I ever need it.
I am also incredibly impressed with the features in this product at this price. The video/picture viewer looks excellent and the menus (both the firmware and the file manager) are intuitive and thought out. I am in software and a bit of a menu snob. Creative did an excellent job here.
Overall, this is an excellent product. My only dissappointment is that I could not find accessories in any retail store in my area. One store (Best Buy) has stopped carrying creative mp3 players and is now offering only Ipod and Zune players (and a some junk, throw-away players). if you want to buy accessories like skins, etc. You'll have to get them here at Amazon.
Customer Review: Mac user+MP3+XNJB=Working Zen
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this unit to cokmplement a Creative Zen Nano Plus 1GB that was a great pocket MP3 player hampered only by limited memory capacity. I figured that it would do OK with the PowerBook, since I saw that CNET listed the Zen as "Mac compatible." To make a long story short, it isn't. I connected it up to a 3GHz Pentium 4 running Windows XP, installed the software, and was rewarded with a system that has a love/hate realtionship with the Zen. (Sometimes it works, sometimes it won't see the Zen player.) Yesterday (7/1/2008) I was at Low End Mac, looking at this and that when I saw an article on the new SanDisk Sansa Clip 4GB player, when the author mentioned a software fix for the Creative Zen. (http://www.wentnet.com/projects/xnjb/) XNJB provides a multiple window interface to view what's already on the Zen player, upload MP3s from your computer, etc. Why is this important to me? I have an old G3 and a newer G4 Mac PowerBook that have very different iTunes MP3 collections, ripped from my music CD collection that I'd like to mix up. In the iPod/iTunes world, you must choose one computer's MP3/AAC library, making it necessary to load other MP3s on a CD/DVD or external HDD. So, I can shuffle between The Who, Louis Armstrong, Dan Tyminski, Barefoot Natives, etc.
As for the Zen package, I don't use the supplied much-too-short USB cord; the one that came with a digital camera does the job. This unit doesn't come with an AC adpater, but I found an adequate Belkin F8Z121 wall charger that also charges iPods. Otherwise, it's a fine unit, though the FM radio tuner in this Zen doesn't log as many stations as the Zen Nano Plus did. I have a 4G 20GB iPod just for music and don't really need video playback, so this works out better than an iPod Nano for now.
Customer Review: Died after day and a half of use - RMA takes a month
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this product because the price was right, and I wanted to try something non-Apple after my iPod was stolen.
First the good stuff
The interface is probably the best (non-Apple) that I've seen. I can't stand jagged fonts and I like when i can see the album art. The zen does displays album art embedded in MP3s and the fonts look nice and smooth throughout. The player is very small and light, like a small stack of business cards. It has a SDHC card slot (supports up to a 32GB expansion card, supposedly).
The not so good
It supports video, but only video that's encoded slowly by Creative's special software. I wasn't able to get better encoders like VLC to encode a file that the zen would play. Creative advertises that the device supports a range of video formats. It's a lie. You have to use the provided software to convert the video to the precise format the zen supports. The buttons are kinda clicky (loud).
The awful
Mileage may vary, I got a day and a half out of mine. I decided to RMA the device to Creative, because I figured I just got a lemon. Little did I know Creative takes it's sweet time with RMAs. Its been almost a month since I sent my device to them, and according to their website, they haven't even looked at it yet.
Conclusion
If you get a defective one or have problems - return it to Amazon if possible. Don't waste your time with Creative.
I'm giving it a poor rating because I haven't been able to use it since I dropped 75 bones on it over a month ago. And the supported video formats were not accurate. If you can't deliver a feature, then don't list it as a feature.
Customer Review: Very Good, Affordable Media Player - Recommended
Summary: 4 Stars
My needs for a portable media player were mostly for video and radio use at the gym. After doing a lot research and feature vs price comparison, I decided to go with the "Zen 4gb Portable Media Player". The deciding factors for me were:
* Large 2.5" screen has an amazingly sharp, clear picture (very viewable while on treadmill)
* Long battery life while playing videos (over 4 hours)
* Support for SD cards (a little cumbersome, but usable)
* Good FM radio with 34 "Presets" (must have since TVs in gym broadcast audio on FM channels)
* Low price for 4gb model
Transferring media onto the Zen can be a little tricky to master at first, but here is what worked for me:
* Use iTunes to get podcasts and music downloads
** Use the included Zen Media Explorer to transfer iTunes selections to the Zen (there is an iTunes button)
* Use Amazon Unbox to get TV and movie selections.
** The Amazon Unbox software will detect and allow for transfer to the Zen (only Free and Buy can be transfered, not Rental)
My only real complaint with the Zen is the long work time needed for the "Creative Video Converter" to reformat videos for transfer (this is not needed for Amazon Unbox). I typically update my iTunes subscriptions at night and start the conversion and transfers before going to bed, so they will be ready in the morning for my trip to the gym.
For my needs, the great video functionality, and the fairly low price, the Zen is highly recommended!
Not being a serious music buff made my choice somewhat easier since it looks likes the iPod is hard to beat in that area.