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Creative Zen Micro 5 GB MP3 Player Red by Creative
Digital product summary informationManufacturer: Creative Brand: Creative Edition: Electronics Audio: English (Original Language) Model: 70PF108000140 Color: red 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
Accessories:
Digital camera reviews of Creative Zen Micro 5 GB MP3 Player RedDigital camera Review: Actually 4-and-a-half stars...read on: Summary: 5 Stars
I love this gizmo. Here is why: It changed my life for the better. It made my music accessible. It made it possible for me to listen to standard mp3 books anywhere. Did I mention that it changed my life? :-)
Okay, any competent mp3 player can do that. Why the high rating?
Well, first about the interface: for the first two hours, frustration. The touchpad is sooo...touchy. After the first day or two, satisfaction. One gets used to it. After a week, joy. The interface really works well. I do not doubt that the iPod's may be a bit better, but I am not an Apple person, really. Once you "get the touch", the interface is fine.
Second, sound: it is superb. This machine can drive my best (Audio-Technica Art A900) headphones as loud as I want and the sound is gorgeous. Incidentally, the earbuds are a far cry from the earphones of old. They have a lot of bass and really sound great. I just don't like earbuds. But, if you have nothing else, you will be entirely satisfied with the 'buds supplied.
Third, accessories: a nice, thick white plastic case, open-faced, with a slot on the back for a stand or belt-clip, also supplied. I just put it in my shirt pocket with no clip. I think the case acts as a nice "shock absorber". Anyway, a very nice package. The usual cords, etc. No problem.
Fourth, software: it works well, just as it should. No problem here.
I took off a half-star because: it can't read audible dot com audio books (and any serious product should be able to) and has no line-in. To get those facilities I bought the flash-memory-based Zen Nano Plus (please see my review). I have never been a particular fan of Creative products before, but they have won my heart with this product. Not perfect, but very, very good. I would buy it again, unless I decided to get Creative's 30GB player instead (which does play audible's books).
Summary of Creative Zen Micro 5 GB MP3 Player RedNon 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 not 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 voice dictation or lectures using the Zen Micro's built-in condenser microphone. Trimmed in a luminescent blue glow and with easily visible backlit buttons, this stylish red 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 in a given album, but also, at your discretion, only the tracks you listen to most, or only those 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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