Creative Zen Micro 5 GB MP3 Player Pink

Creative Zen Micro 5 GB MP3 Player Pink
by Creative

List Price: ~~$179.99~~
Our Price: $35.95
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Category: Network Media Player
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Customers in the UK, buy this product at amazon.co.uk for British Pounds

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Manufacturer: Creative
Brand: Creative Labs
Edition: Electronics
Audio: English (Original Language)
Model: 70PF108000138
Color: pink
Publisher: Creative
Studio: Creative
Music Label: Creative
Product features:

Micro-sized 5 GB digital-music player stores up to 1,250 songs at 128 kbps or 2,500 songs at 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)
Vertical touch pad simplifies navigation; body is curved to fit your hand
FM radio with 32 station presets for listening and recording; 10-hour voice recording through built-in microphone
12 hours continuous playtime using the supplied rechargeable lithium-ion battery; extend your listening using multiple batteries (sold separately)
Includes headphones, a belt clip, a stand, and an AC/DC power adapter

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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Creative Zen Micro 5 GB MP3 Player Pink

Customer Review: Review from a mp3 player Virgin
Summary: 5 Stars

That's right...the Zen Micro is the very 1st mp3 player I've owned. I'm a CD kind of girl, with probably 200+ CD's in my collection. (Since I buy a lot of used CD's, I can usually buy anywhere from 2-3 CD's for the price of a new one.) I have about 500+ mp3s, but these are usually just for listening to at work or home. It wasn't until my co-worker bought himself an iPod that I began to consider getting one myself.

I had a few requirements for my mp3 player:
1. It had to be small, compact & lightweight for exercise.
2. I wanted an FM radio.
3. I wanted to be able to change the battery myself.
4. It needed at least 4+ GB storage capacity.
5. It had to be easy to use.
6. I didn't want to get sucked into the world of Apple, where I'm sort of forced to deal with iTunes & weird Apple file formats that only work in Apple hardware & software.

I researched everything out on the market. I wanted something dependable, with a good reputation, and good support. This was a major purchase for me. With 2 kids, car payments & a mortgage, spending $200 on my own personal enjoyment is a HUGE deal.

I came to like what I was hearing about the Zen Micro. Since Creative is trying to compete with Apple, their product seemed to have everything the iPod was lacking. It is also PC friendly, catering to the Windows world for us non-Mac users. Since I use Outlook for my job, I liked that I can sync my Zen with my calendar, tasks, & contacts.

The Zen is shorter than the iPod, although slightly thicker. (It's slightly smaller than a regular size Altoids mint tin.) Even though the iPod has a sleek, modern look, the Zen has it's own unique look with the blue backlight trim. It has a radio with 32 presets and a recorder for voice & radio capture. The recorder is a handy feature since I'm a writer in my spare time & often get inspiration & ideas faster than I can write them down.

What really sold me on the Zen was that I could change the battery myself. iPod's internal battery makes it so that in a year or two, I'll have to ship it to Apple & pay them a fee to get a simple battery changed. That idea completely turned me off. I just turned 30 yrs old! I've been changing batteries in things for probably 20-25 of those years. It's patronizing that Apple feels only THEY should change your iPod's battery in order to get you to pay more $$$$ for a product you already own. I've also heard bad stories about this process, such as getting your iPod back with all your stored music gone.

So far, I'm loving my Zen. In the course of a weekend, I was able to upload 431 songs, (roughly 36 CD's). Ripped at 128kb files, I still have over 3 GB of space available.

I haven't had to read the manual at all. (I read the little 5 page booklet in the box, but haven't had to brave the 65 page User's Manual.) While my Zen charged (in just under 3 hours), I installed the software with ease. I was able to program my Zen & start ripping & transfering music onto it with zero instruction. The radio works great. The reception is decent, although sometimes I do get some static for stations that I get just fine in my car.

Things I was happy about:

~ The sound quality is far better than I expected!

~ I've had no real problems with my pink Zen Micro. It worked great straight out of the box.

~ It looks pretty cool, better than I thought it looked in pics. While it has a kind of "plastic" look, compared to the iPod's sleek, metallic look, the Zen is still pretty cool looking. The glowing blue trim lights that pulse off & on when charging give it a sort of alien strobe light effect. But I noticed my Zen gets a lot of comments & catches people's eye. Everyone & their grandma has an iPod, which makes the Zen more of a conversation piece because people are curious about it. *Everyone* at my office, even my boss, wanted to try my Zen out. (That didn't happen when my co-worker brought his new iPod to work the 1st time.)

~ I can make my own unique "case" for my ZM out of an Altoids mint tin. I plan on painting mine & decorating with some cool decals. I'm an artist, so making a personalized case no one else in the world has really appeals to me. (Google "Zen Micro Altoids case" or go to the head-fi.org forum for some cool pics & instructions.)

Issues I've had w/ the Zen Micro:

~ No internal FM Transmitter to broadcast your mp3's onto your car/home stereo! I thought this feature was included in the standard player, like the iPod. An annoying detail that miffed me a little.

~ The Earbuds are terrible!! The earbuds are so "bulbous" & large that they don't fit into my ears at all. They made my ears sore the 1st day from constantly trying to stuff them back in. It's all too obvious that I'll have to buy replacements. If they won't stay in when I'm sitting at my desk, they definitely won't stay in when walking, jogging, or riding my bike.

~ The battery drains, even when player is switched OFF!!! This is a well known & documented problem in the Zen Micro. The Date/Time, sleep/alarm funtions, etc cause the battery to run constantly. See, the ZM doesn't turn OFF...it's literally always in "Stand By" mode, which causes the battery to run even when it's not in use. There are several ways to help this though. Use timer/alarm functions sparingly. Using the player conservatively helps the battery life. (i.e. playing at full blast, skipping around constantly, not lowering the LCD lights to minimum setting, etc will run battery down quicker.) However, the best method is to fully charge the battery, then simply take it out of the player overnight. This actually turns the player OFF & keeps your battery from draining overnight. I also plan on updating my firmware regularly (in case they someday patch this problem with software) & buy a 2nd battery to rotate my player with. (It seems to help to fully charge the battery before 1st use, then play it until it fully drains. Do this a few times, fully charging then fully depleting the battery. Once the battery is "primed" this way a few times, it seems to keep a better charge for longer.)

All in all, I gave it 5 stars, despite the 3 issues I had. These issues are all things that can be worked around. The iPod has it's own battery issues, however with the Zen, I can at least replace my own battery without having to ship my player off for several weeks. To me, that alone is worth the 5th star.

I would recommend this product to a friend. And I would buy another Creative Zen product again in the future. Actually, I'm thinking of getting my hubby his own Zen Micro so he'll stop stealing mine.

Note: I do not work for Creative, Apple, or Amazon in any way. I'm just a regular customer who is enjoying her 30th b-day present very much. Hope this is helpful to someone else.

****Update**** 10/18/05
I've owned my Zen for over a month now & it's still working great. A software upgrade from Creative's website fixed the battery drain problem. I only have to recharge it once a week, sometimes once every OTHER week. I have 560 songs on it with just under 3GB of space left. I keep in an Altoids mint tin, which is nice cause it's protected from getting damaged when I throw it into my purse. I love it & have had zero problems.

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Description of Creative Zen Micro 5 GB MP3 Player Pink

Non Stop Music - Non Stop Fun!

The Zen Micro digital music player from Creative Labs packs an incredible 5 GB of storage capacity into a shell small enough to sit comfortably in your jeans pocket. It also rides nicely in your hand, with a palm-fitting profile and thumb-friendly front-panel controls. It's a bit shorter than an Apple iPod Mini, yet its rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides 12 hours of continuous playback--50 percent more than iPod Mini's. The Zen Micro is compatible note merely with MP3s and WAV files, but with WMA as well. Toss in USB 2.0 connectivity and you're looking at one spiffy portable music player.

But playing isn't all the Zen Micro does. You can use it to receive FM radio (with 32 station presets to keep your favorites at the ready), and to record, either from the radio or from live sources such as dictation or lectures using the built-in condenser microphone.

Trimmed in a luminescent blue glow and with easily visible backlit buttons, this stylish pink player holds up to 1,250 songs (83 hours) at 128 kbps or 2,500 songs (166 hours) at lower-fidelity 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)--that's a solid week's worth of music listening, never playing the same song twice. Compatibility with Microsoft's WMA compressed-audio format grants access to over 2 million downloadable songs offered promotionally or for sale online.

Perhaps the Zen Micro's coolest attribute is its DJ feature, which will shuffle not only all the songs you've loaded or all the songs on a given album, but, at your discretion, only the tracks you listen to most or only the ones you rarely hear, taking the work out of selecting your favorites or hunting out all the music you're still getting to know.

Zen Micro's rechargeable battery is easy to replace.
For navigation, the device features a vertical, linear touchpad designed to make searching through songs or playlists easy, quick, and fun. The unit's blue, 160 x 104-pixel, electroluminescent LCD shows key functions and song details at a glance, and you can even customize the main menu to keep right at your fingertips the features that matter most to you.

Another of the Zen Micro's handy features is its personal organizer. You'll never forget an important anniversary with the onboard calendar, and it also includes a to-do list and a contacts list, all of which sync seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook (Outlook thus required for use of these features). In addition, the device offers a sleep timer and alarm so you can drift off to sleep to the strains of one playlist and wake to a completely different one.

The Zen Micro's removable battery is easy to swap with another fully charged battery (additional batteries sold separately), extending your listening by a half-day per swap.

What's in the Box
The Zen Micro player, stereo earbud headphones, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, a USB 2.0 cable, an installation CD, a quick- start guide, and Creative MediaSource software.

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