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: Need a player for audio books? This is the one!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I had originally purchased a Microsoft Zune because I thought it would be user-friendly like its other products/programs...WRONG! So, back it went and I did some more research and chose this Creative Zen and I am so very pleased with it!!
PROS:
1. Great price for 16gb
2. Very user-friendly. I was able to add music, videos and pictures without a problem. In fact, when I tried to add a picture to the Zen that was not compatible, the Zen program asked if I wanted it to convert the picture to a compatible format!
3. Zen downloads audio books from my state library website from the get-go...no special downloads needed (unlike Zune)
4. The USB cable is super short -- about 5 inches. At first it bothered me that the Zen dangled from the USB cable while it was charging, but now I like it because I know at a glance which cable is for the Zen among my many USB cables for my digital camera, camcorder, etc., and the Zen is so light that it won't damage the Zen or my computer USB port. ALSO, my cats can't step on the Zen because it's up out of the way.
CONS:
Only one that I've found...the screen protector that comes on the Zen can't be used to protect the screen because it has printing on it, so you really want to purchase one according to other reviewers who said the screen scratches easily. And, I'm going to listen BEFORE the screen gets scratched.
RECOMMENDATION: Purchase a good leather case to protect the unit. I am VERY pleased with the following case that I purchased. It was not sold directly by Amazon but from a vendor (Enforcity), so I had to pay shipping but it was only $2.98. Enforcity mailed it the very next day and I am extremely pleased with it:
Full Flap Leather Case for Creative Zen, Black
I also used Amazon's customer service help line: 1-866-216-1072
because I had several questions about the Creative Zen. The rep was super friendly and answered my questions so that I could make an informed decision. I won't hesitate to use this number in the future when I have questions about products that I am thinking of purchasing.
Customer Review: Excellent Player
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an all around solid MP3 Player. I will describe some of the pros and cons about this player. I will say right now the pros strongly outweigh the cons. I have also tested this player adequately and have tested the SD card slot which I find very nice. Despite some complaints about the SD card, I find it adequate to suit my needs.
By the way if you are wondering why I am publishing this review... I received the player from Creative where it is in stock. Amazon is taking a little while longer.
Pros:
1) Excellent Sound - This MP3 Player is a bit louder, and sounds better than my previous Vision:M. I think the sound quality is quite superb.
2) Bright, Brilliant Display - The display is just stunning, and the 16 million colors really show great improvement over the ZVM.
3) Easy Navigation - I love the navigation on this player, and I really love the different themes.
4) Videos - The videos look incredibly nice... I've only played a few
5) Transfer Speed - Extremely Fast! What can I say? This is what has surprised me the most. The speed is an extremely huge difference over hard-drive based players.
6) Good Button Placement - Though small for some, I do happen to like the buttons
7) Nice looks - I really like the looks of this (this is very subjective)
8) Small Size - This is a very light player, that is only a foot print of what the ZVM was. The most amazing part is that the screen is 2.5" inches.
Cons:
1) Power Adapter - It should come with one, but it only comes with a USB power cable (which is acceptable)
2) Crappy Ear phones - Eh. Buy the Creative EP-630. You don't buy a nice player and use the provided ear phones. The EP-630 are an incredible set.
3) Buttons are a bit hard to push at first - This is something others have experienced... this is true for a while.
4) Can smudge - to prevent this get the plastic case!
How does this stack up against an ipod?
It crushes it in my mind. I really think Creative did a fine job here, and I'm sure firmware will be updated constantly knowing Creative's attention to the customer.
Edit: Added a few things.
Customer Review: Great MP3 Player
Summary: 5 Stars
We have four of these players in my family now, a 2, 4, 16 and 32 gig player. We have all had fantastic luck with them.
I did notice a few things though:
1. I have had a couple of videos lock up on my 32 gig player. But they seem to lock up at the same place all the time, and when I use the included video converter they seem to play fine. I see that as a problem with the video.
2. The included video converter is very slow, but it has a better compression ratio than my other converters, so I put up with that.
3. I only did the iTunes thing for a while. It works fine on the Zen, but I found that the MP3 files form Amazon have no DRM encoding in them at all. I can play them anywhere. No more iTunes.
4. My old Zen needed the installation software to put music on the player. This one works with Explorer. I like that a lot better.
5. When I try to delete the last song in the music directory my player hug up and I had to do a reset. It seems to do that whenever I delete that last song. I normally keep all my tunes in subdirectories in the player but now I always keep at least one in the "root" of the music directory.
6. I would suggest that you always keep videos on the SD card and not the player. They eat up a lot of space, and they play fine from the card. Music should be put on the player as it shows up in the display classified by artist and title, etc. If you play music form the card it only shows the file name. Others have suggested that Creative include tunes from the card in teh players "catalog" but I would prefer not to wait for the player to sort the card out each time I change it. I really like the import from the card function as it allows us an easy way to swap music and photos between the players.
I have used ipod before. The Zen is MUCH better and you don't have to deal with Apple's sorry copy proofing system. The ipod is fine for teeny-boppers, but I think the Zen is a lot more suitable for the over 17 crowd.
Customer Review: Creative Shines Again
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using a Creative Zen Touch now for 3 1/2 years, and absolutely love it. The best part about it was that, even though I'm not a whiz at computers, I was able to pick it up, get it out of the box, and within minutes, start transferring music onto it. I finally decided to get an MP3 player for my wife, who likes to listen to audiobooks a lot. I bought her an IPOD. Big mistake! After an initial failed attempt at understanding the thing, it sat and sat for two weeks before I even wanted to get back to it...finally, a friend spent six hours with me trying to show me how to work it. Ultimately, I learned roughly how it worked, but was far from satisfied, and rather frustrated by its limitations. Suffice it to say, I returned the thing to Sam's Club and, after doing much research, settled on ordering a Creative Zen 16 G for her. We have had it for not quite 48 hours, and already have music, audiobooks, pictures, and videos on the thing. What a delight to hook it up and have it work so smoothly! The software seems almost flawless, except that when you ask it to rip a CD to the computer and to the player, it only rips it to the player, and not to the computer...but this is easily solved by ripping to either/or, then transferring the ripped media to wherever you want it. No problems other than this with the software. It's not even a problem, but rather just a glitch that can easily be worked around. Video conversion works seamlessly. The radio works well, the mic recording works well. If my Zen Touch broke down, I would buy one of these newer models for myself in a heartbeat. Go Creative! Unlike many reviewers of Creative products, I find the lack of a touch strip a bit hard to get used to. But then again, we get so comfortable with what's familiar. The overall package of the new Zen is far superior to the old Zen I have...and of course way, way superior to the IPOD. Great going, Creative, with this solid state, versatile, sturdy little gadget!Customer Review: Great Decision
Summary: 5 Stars
I needed a new MP3 player to replace my stolen iPod. I didn't want another iPod, as I hate trying to deal with the scroll wheel while driving, and it sucked trying to make it work with Linux. The Creative Zen is much more driving friendly, especially protected by the silicon case and screen protector. Transferring music isn't quite as easy as advertised for Linux. The proprietary Microsoft MTP (Music Transfer Protocol) is required to be used to transfer music. There are workarounds for Linux, like mounting hacks or using Gnomad2, but the advertised "Drag and Drop- like a USB drive" isn't quite correct. It is drag and drop, once you get around MTP- something that happens in Windows automatically. Also, the Zen doesn't do a very good job of recognizing music files placed on it without it's software. You can get them on there, but some/most aren't recognized (for me, no AAC recognition) and none of the album art is seen. However, it does work fine if you use the Creative software. Maybe it was just the way I did it, but I ended up having to boot into Windows to get all my music on there (now that I think about it, Gnomad2 might work better, but I gave up before then. It has a crappy interface).
All in all, it is a very good player. I am extremely happy with my purchase, especially now that I got all my music on there. I focused solely on problems I had, and everything else imagionable about this player is positive. Music playback is great, I like the interface, the controls are very well thought out, the "Album of the Day" button is the best idea I've ever seen on a player, and movie playback is great (once movies are converted into the correct format- which you will have to do and requires Creative's software to do it). I would definitely buy again.