Rating: - Ergonomics and navigation subpar, freezes and must reboot
I held onto this product for two weeks before returning it. I was ready to accept it despite the poor ergonomics (if you're holding it in your right hand, the buttons aren't well placed to use them with your right thumb, so you wind up needing to use both hands), the hard buttons (as in, hard to depress, too hard), and the confusing navigation system (I never felt like I knew where I would wind up, or that I would get where I wanted to go easily and quickly, when using the system); however, it started freezing up on me, and the only thing that would get it to shut down was resetting it by sticking a pin in the reset hole. Upon restarting, it would "rebuild" for five minutes, and then freeze again either immediately upon pressing any button, or sometimes after it worked for about ten minutes. The only way to really get it back in working order was to reformat it entirely, which meant erasing and then refilling the library. Then it would freeze again after working for about a day. Obviously, hanging on to this item was not an option. I recommend steering clear.
By the way, I bought this from J&R, and it gave me a refund without a hassle, so I do recommend J&R.
Rating: - It is all I expected
It is exactly as I hoped and expected. After I saw my wifes, I just had to get one and have enjoyed it a lot.
Rating: - Much Better Than 60 GB Zen Vision M, But Still Not Quite There
Our first music players were a pair of Zen Vision M 60 Gb units. These are essentially unusable for our purposes due to constant freeze-ups and inadequate battery charge life.
Have had a pair of the Zen 32 GB flash based units for about two weeks now to replace the Vision M's. Battery life is good. Don't know that I am getting 30 hours as advertised, but certainly the units can play all day on a charge (my days are like 16 hours). The charge indicator seems to be misleading though. You'll be showing half, and then suddenly none. I'm running a time trial right now. After 11 hours am still showing full charge. We'll see how far I get. I'll post an update.
I've charged mine 4 times now, to give you an idea how much use it's had, and have had three freeze-ups. This is much, much, much better than the Zen Vision M, but still unacceptable for my use, since it means I have to pull-over and get off my motorcycle to restart. In each case the player still shows that it is playing, but it is not. To reset I have to navigate the menu system back up to the main Music header, then drill back down, and then it's fine after it's re-qued the music.
Other things I like:
The unit is responsive. With the Vision M it took three or four minutes to boot, and up to a minute to respond to commands... infuriating. This unit, the Zen 32 GB boots in a few seconds and responds promptly to commands.
The interface is much better than the Vision M's. All I want is music playing, so no comments on other functions, but generally moving around is much better.
Download time was still not right, but much improved. I loaded 20 GB of 128 kbit wma onto the machine in less than an hour and half. The same download on the Vision M took about 8 hours. To contrast, using a speed class 6 SDHC card in the same USB slot I can move 8 Gb of files in about 10 minutes. Draw your own conclusions.
The units are small, attractive, and light. They don't come with chargers or screen protectors. Plan on ordering those. With the charger they charge up from dead in about 2 hours, maybe a bit less. Of course you can always charge them from a USB port with a standard USB cable... thank goodness... because the Vision M required a stupid dongle thingy. Vast improvement now that thing is gone.
The controls on the unit are so, so, so, so much better than on the Vision M. Easy to use and reasonably intuitive.
The charger, Creative branded unit, is very bulky and heavy. There seems to be little excuse for this. Also takes three parts to work with the Zen: Base charger unit, local plug adapter (e.g. two prong for U.S.A.) and a USB adapter. Mucho hassle. The plug on the plug adapter doesn't fold in like most modern chargers. The Creative Charger is definite negative... I would suggest looking for an aftermarket unit.
We did not load any Zen software, or flash any firmware updates. Charged units, connected to computer, treated as usb hard drive, selected music files for transfer and pasted them into the music directory on the player. Done. Worked great.
Wife loves the equalizer on hers as she can compensate for some hearing loss. Equalizer allows custom settings or presets.
Sound quality is fine.
So, all in all, if they didn't freeze up, they'd be 5 star units for playing music. Since they do freeze, I think I'm being generous giving them three stars... but rationalize it because I think that for most users a lock-up is easier to deal with and not such a PITA.
Rating: - Great little MP3
After researching all the non-harddrive MP3 players out there, I decided on the Creative Zen. It was down to the Zen VS Sandisk Sansa View 16GB. My criteria was:
1) Solid State
2) 16GB or larger
3) Ability to add more memory (reason Ipod & Zune weren't in the running)
4) FM Radio (Ditto)
5) Memo recording
6) Decent sized display (older eyes)
7) Able to play wide variety of formats, no DRM (I hate Itunes)
While I preferred the way you operate the Sansa View, I finally went with the Zen due to the reviews of customers.
PROS: Nice thin size. Great bright display. Pretty good battery life. Excellent sound quality. FM tuner has fairly decent sensitvity. OEM headphones are pretty good with the exception of the straight plug, a 90 degree plug would be better.
CONS: Hard to operate with left hand due to design. Included software is a little clunky, but still does update automatically. Not a whole lot of aftermarket accessories available. The content on the SD card doesn't show up in the normal listings, you have to go into the SD card to access it - this prevents you from including the content in playlists and sorts.
I would like to be able to sort the music easier using the Creative software, maybe in a future update.
Tips: Get a screen protector and put it on before you take it out. Also recommend a case, I found some of the rubber ones on eBay. DON'T leave it plugged in and let your computer go into hibernate mode, this locked mine up and nothing Creative or anyone else suggested would make it power back up. Had to return it to Amazon for a replacement. The folks at Amazon sent a replacement ASAP - Thanks Guys! The only additional feature I would like is Bluetooth so I could get rid of the cord.
Creative Zen 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black) Reviews
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