Creative Zen 4 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 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
Customer Review: 4 1/2 stars! Near perfect compact multi-media device.
Summary: 5 Stars
I've owned 10+ well known devices. Far and away the new Zen is the best of the best. Not perfect, but so close.
Pros
- Sound is excellent (Sound quality above all. Zen scores 5/5.)
- Video quality excellent (Image quality amazing 5/5.)
- Size/Weight vs. features (A small powerhouse 5/5.)
- Features (Equalizer, clock, sleeptimer, etc. 5/5)
- Expandable (sd cards up to 16 gb supported 5/5.)
- Design (So well laid out. Nearly operable with eyes closed! 5/5)
- Non-proprietary (plays every kind of file or converts to one it will.)
(Also, software included is good but not necessary! Drag & drop works!)
(Non-proprietary gets a big 6/5! Works as a stand alone drive. 6/5!!)
Cons
- Buggy (Needs a reset on occassion. No big deal.)
- Battery (Specs say up to 25 hrs. More like about 10-15.)
- Screen scratches easily (Needs a screen protector.)
- Can't bookmark off sd memory (Again, not a big deal)
The Pros far outweigh the cons on this powerful device. I cant' tell you how much I've thouroughly enjoyed my player. I've been using it for about a month now. Easily my favorite player ever. It isn't perfect but its so darn close that to complain about its minor drawbacks seems criminal.
I watch movies, listen to books & music. I've even loaded family video on to it. There's just so much to love about this device. Thanks creative!
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NOTE: This player is so, so impressive that I went out and bought the 16gb version and gave my original 4gb version to my daughter!
Customer Review: A solid video mp3 choice
Summary: 5 Stars
The Zen vision is an excellent alternative to the current generation ipod nano. It matches or surpasses the features of the nano and is a functional device. It does however have a few problems.
The video player supports more formats than the nano, including divx to watch your favorite tv shows and the like. The startling problem with the video playback is that it cannot downsize larger videos to fit the screen. If they are too big, it just refuses to play them. Luckily the conversion software works well, but it's still a big let down.
The SD card slot is something you will want to use specifically for videos and other media that you arn't relying on listening to back to back with the rest of your library. Since any songs you put on the card will not be integrated into your library for things like play all.
The FM radio is a bit weak, but it picks up the stronger stations in the area without a problem. And it's certainly better than the nano's lack of the option.
IMPORTANT: If you have itunes, you will still need to stick with your ipod and other apple products. Itunes is very specifically made to force you to buy their apple products and your protected itunes music will not play on the zen or other players.
Overall it's the best choice in it's class due to it's lower price and abundant features. It isn't the strongest video player out there due to the requirement of converting larger videos (higher resolution), but it's an excellent mp3 player.
Customer Review: Makes People Jealous
Summary: 5 Stars
This replaced my cheap Sansa 1gb. I looked at a lot of alternatives but settled on this jem. Showed it to a person who got an Ipod nano for chistmas and they were jealous, actually they were kinda mad. Showed it to a coworker and they decided they were going to get one for their wife! Screen size rocks but invest in a screen protector and some kind of slip on case right away!!! I got the little 3 pack that works perfect for me. Really like the ability to customize background picture and being able to charge and play at the same time (perfect for in the car, you just need to make sure that you are using the right cable - a mini usb charger for a motorola phone should work well. The zen wont let you play while connected to a computer). Some people have complained that anything on the SD card wont automatically integrate with the library (you DO have to navigate the files on the SD card in a separate menu) but thats no biggie for me; Ive already seen a few firmware updates which still seem to be fairly regular at the current time (some of these updates are already -somewhat- addressing this issue). Videos are nice and clear, the conversion process can be hampered if you dont have the correct codecs installed but it can be done. Kinda wish there was MSC support but I can deal. At least drag and drop is supported on this which is really what I wanted anyway. For a good review of this product check out CNETs video review. All in all - really glad I got this, not looking back.Customer Review: Very Neat Little Device
Summary: 5 Stars
I very much like this player.
To help other people decide if they want to buy one, I present my 4 problems with it.
1) The screen smudges really easily
2) Some of the software that is on the CD is crap, and comes with advertisements. Gay. If you are installing the drivers for XP with the CD, just check "Creative Zen", don't choose "Audible" or whatever the other checkbox is, and make sure to check Add/Remove programs to make sure it hasn't installed anything you aren't aware of.
3) It does freeze up if you are syncing with Windows Media Player occasionally. This can be fixed with finding something to poke the tucked-away reset button, which just restarts the mp3 player and doesn't erase settings or music.
4) The control pad is nowhere near as comfortable feeling as an iPod's touch wheel.
Other than those complaints, you get everything that you paid for served on a silver platter. Very cool little device.
On a side note, the Linux kernel and most modern distributions don't seem to have a package that supports transferring media to the ZEN, although a team is working on something to do that, (libmtp - library for media transfer protocol), many mp3 players use the MTP protocol, including the ZEN, and the ZEN isn't supported AT THE MOMENT.
So pretty much, if you are a linux user, you're stuck with using Windows XP or Vista to put media on the ZEN.
Customer Review: Wow! Gorgeous screen and plenty of features
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been using the SanDisk Sansa e250 2 GB MP3 Player with microSD Expansion Slot (Black) for about a year. In fact, we own three of them in our household. I had been wanting a Creative Zen for a while, and was glad to see the price drop making it less than the Sansa.
I was most impressed with the big crystal clear screen. It's almost 50% larger than the Sansa at 2.5" vs. 1.8". One must have feature that I needed was radio, which this has.
I also was most excited about the organizer function and alarm clock. This was easy to sync with outlook so I can carry my contacts on the go as well as my calendar. My husband had been complaining he needed an easier solution than carrying a laptop to get client addresses and this solved the problem without the need for an additional organizer purchase.
The battery life is slightly better than the Sansa at 25 play hours. Since I rarely needed to charge my Sansa, this is more than sufficient for my use.
I also like the SD card slot, although I have not had a use for it yet. This sufficiently stores all 400 songs I have loaded, with room for plenty more. The drag and drop song loading made it easy to use from the start.
I highly recommend this player. It has plenty of features and is a quality product at a low price.