Creative Zen 8 GB Portable Media Player (Black) by Creative
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Digital camera reviews of Creative Zen 8 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
Digital camera Review: Better deal than an iPod, but a few things you should know if you are new to MP3s like me
Summary: 4 Stars
HOW I CHOSE THIS PLAYER: I wanted a small MP3 player to be able to listen to FM radio, saved podcasts, & occasionally music at work on weekends and at night. I like to listen to NPR and will likely download some podcasts from NPR's website. I will occasionally listen to music, but mostly from my CD collection rather than songs purchased online. Given my needs it didn't make sense to spend more money to get an iPod and not have the FM radio feature.
FIRST WARNING: CREATIVE ZEN DOES NOT PROVIDE THE INSTRUCTIONS YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO DOWNLOAD A PODCAST. IF YOU ARE NEW TO MP3 PLAYERS AND DOWNLOADING AND SUBSCRIBING TO PODCASTS, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO FIGURE IT OUT FROM THEIR WEBSITE. The CD that came with the player didn't provide step by step instructions. I then went to their website and it's a mess - not at all easy to find the "how to" sections (except the one simplistic one with a link on the homepage) and like the CD the website does NOT provide step by step instructions on how to download a podcast from, say, NPR. You first have to download ZENcast Organizer if it wasn't on the CD included with the player. Then you have to open that and even then the only intuitive thing is how to download Zen's podcasts from their website, as opposed to ones you find elsewhere.
Here's what I learned after researching all this stuff on the internet: 1 - you have to have some special software like ZENcast organizer or a free program like "Media Monkey" on your computer to handle podcasts. You must FIRST download a podcast (using that software) onto your computer BEFORE you can save it on the MP3. The MP3 is NOT like a thumb drive that you just save to directly. 2 - Once you have Media Monkey or ZENcast Organizer you have to find a webaddress for what you want to download. Find and copy that address. Then open ZENcast organizer, click on the "subscribe" + sign at the top of the screen, and paste the web address of the podcast into the window that opens. That's how you get it into your computer. 3 -- Then you use the software to copy it onto your MP3 player. With ZENcast you click on "Transfer" at the top of the screen. You can subscribe (often free) to a regular "show" like one of the NPR shows. I have "subscribed" to "This American Life" which is one of my favorite NPR shows. The "This American Life" website lets you download each show for free for 6 or 7 days after it airs on the radio. Once you are subscribed, the software will periodically download all the recent podcasts available from the site you subscribed from and you can pick and choose which ones you want to load onto your MP3.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE DECIDING: I agree with some reviewers that the buttons feel cheap. Also, this unit does NOT come with an A/C charger - you have to use the short USB cable provided to charge it. I ordered an accessories kit that comes with a skin & also with car and A/C chargers. You'll definitely want those accessories. Right now the player is charging from my computer and I hope it will charge faster from those chargers in the accessory kit (it hasn't arrived yet.)
FM RADIO: You can't set a station by picking its station number - you have to use the "auto preset" feature and it will pick up stations it can find. You might want to do this outdoors where you get the strongest signal because if a station you want does not have a strong signal in the building where you are setting the stations, your player won't pick it up. I set my local NPR station while sitting outdoors & when indoors I manipulate the earphone cord (which acts as an antenna) until I get it clearly.
Digital camera Review: Better than iPod?
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this for my mom, therefore I just spent a few hours teaching her to rip cds, and sync music.
I have owned three iPods (a nano, a video, and an original one). This is a more feature-packed device than any of my ipods. For many, it will be a better choice.
Features:
Zen beats iPod in the features department. The screen is better than the one on the new Nano (same resolution, but larger). The display eye-candy factor is better. It includes a very good recorder and a strong FM tuner, which are missing completely in the ipod.
Accessoies:
The zen doesn't even offer a dock. iPod kills zen in the useful accessories competition. You can get any imaginable accessory for iPod. If you want a player to do more than drive your headphones, don't get the zen.
Ease of use:
Ipod gains an edge here. Both are easy, but ipod is easier. Ipod will probably always win this battle because itunes is very good software. Podcast options in itunes are easier. Options like picking playlists and videos are easier in itunes. The itunes store is far superior (although I prefer to buy most music on discs). I had a couple crashes when initially setting up the zen due to conflicts with WMP trying to access the player at the same time as the Creative update software. I had to soft reset the device twice while messing around with it. This kind of thing doesn't happen with iPods because iTunes does it all, and it is designed for iPod. Zen relies on compatibility with WMP, which is not Creative brand software. Because I bought this as a gift for an older person (my mom is almost 60), if I made the purchase again I would buy the ipod nano.
Form factor / controls:
Ipod has a slight edge here too. The click wheel is a lot easier to use than the 5-way nav + play button + menu button + up button on the zen. Ipod is slightly more pocketable. The zen is quite a bit larger, but both are so tiny and pocketable that it hardly makes a difference.
Price:
Zen is widely available for about 25% less than the iPod.
Conclusion:
If you want a super-easy to use, super slick device: iPod is the best choice. If you are less tech savy and computer software drives you nuts, ipod wins again. If you want a richly featured device and are willing to put up with slightly awkward desktop software, the Zen is the way to go. If I buy another player, I think this one would win for me because the FM radio and recorder would be very useful, and I am patient with computer hickups. As a gift for my mom, I wish I had bought her the iPod.
Digital camera Review: Better than my iPOD
Summary: 5 Stars
I got this 'cause my iPOD randomly died on me, and I've loved it ever since. It has all the features on it that I liked about my iPOD, including video but it also has fm radio and a built in microphone to record with. The SD card slot isn't integrated, which is mildly annoying, but it's not the hard to deal with. You can delete things directly from your player, instead of having to redownload everything on it just to get something off of it. This is a really nice feature since I tend to not plug it into my computer very often and when I get tired of a song, I want to take it off my player. It also works with SpiralFrog (a site that lets you LEGALLY download music for free and put it on up to TWO mp3 players as long as they aren't iPODs or Zunes). The USB cord that comes with the player is exceptionally short- I don't even think it's a foot long. But that's the only really annoying thing I've found so far about this player and I've had it for several months now.Digital camera Review: Better than the iPod.
Summary: 5 Stars
Pros:
Drag and drop interface, no futzing with proprietary software, proprietary formats, DRM, etc.
Beautiful large screen.
Fast intuitive interface.
SD card slot.
Great sound!
Long battery life.
For someone that usually tosses the software, their music manager is actually pretty good.
Cons:
SD card not integrated with main memory. A lot of people whine about this but I don't see this as much of a minus.
Some song files don't seek well. Never been able to figure out what caused this.
Other:
No case/clip included. I use a cell phone case I got from the hardware store.
Digital camera Review: Big white rectangle...
Summary: 1 Stars
I received my Zen-via-a-meditative-white-rectangle eight hours ago and it's been a complete and thorough disappointment.
> 4 hours of charging
> 1 hour of trying to make the White Rectangle Of Death (WROD) go away
> 2 hours of searching the www and Creative's site for support
> 1 hour of telling everyone what I think of this "creative" piece of advanced aural technology
Creative does offer an apology and directions on where to go, so I can't claim they're completely worthless. Stick with the iPods - you pay more for the quality (i.e., they turn on and play music like you would expect), but you're not wasting time boxing up and shipping back garbage.