Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB MP3 Player (Blue) by Creative
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Our Price: $199.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Network Media Player See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB MP3 Player (Blue)
Digital camera Review: GREAT!
Summary: 5 Stars
I got an orange 512MB one from another online site about a year ago. I have treated it rather badly. It has been to Turkey and Egypt with me, gotten crushed in my purse, dropped, bounced, and tossed. It just keeps on going. Now, sometimes when it drops, it opens up along the sides just a bit - I push it all back together and everything's fine. Sometimes the battery door will pop off when it drops, no problem - put it back together it just keeps going. There was a point where it needed new firmware, but CREATIVE's customer service is definitely up to par, directions were very simple, and it was soon running again. (I think it was a complication from my Audible.com audiobooks.) Very easy to use, and if you are (hypothetically) driving while it's plugged into your car stereo, and you want to change the volume, or flip to the next file, there's no need to look at it to handle the controls, as they are very intuitive. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!Digital camera Review: Good Player For The Price-- With Cautions
Summary: 3 Stars
I have owned this player for a little over three months. That is significant, as you will see. It is an exceptionally full-featured player for the price, with line-in recording, autoscan FM radio settings, voice recording, etc. Sound quality is good and it is easy to set up and load with music using Windows Media Player or the included software. Battery life was also satisfactory.
That said, there are some cautions that a potential buyer should be aware of: Being somewhat ham-handed, I found the scroll-wheel mechanism extremely difficult to use to advance songs and access menus. If at all possible, you should try this feature out before you buy it to see whether it is something you can live with.
You should also be aware that the LCD display only shows the title of the song being played and does not include artist or album information. The player offers no means of organizing the music that you've uploaded on it or creating playlists, so you must do that before loading by organizing your music into folders. I didn't see that as a big deal when I bought this, but it was my first player and as time went on, I found it to be an annoyance.
Finally, and here is where the three months becomes significant, Creative Labs limits its labor warranty to only 90 days. Mine failed after 100 days. Customer service was very prompt and courteous, but there is a minimum "non-refundable US $25.00 diagnostics and handling fee" for them to even look at it. To me, paying 50% of the original cost to have something repaired is not a good value. I spent an additional $15 and bought a Sandisk M240 which is less full-featured, but overcomes most of the negatives that I noted with Zen Nano Plus. I am delighted so far, but we'll see how it goes and I will post a review of that when I've had a little more experience with it.
Digital camera Review: Good Quality at a Reasonable Price
Summary: 4 Stars
This very compact player gives good quality sound and is relatively easy to use. The printed instructions are kind of sparse, but the instructions on the software make up for this and are very complete. The scroller control takes a little practice to get use to, since you are using combinations of pressing and scrolling on the same control. Once you've mastered it, it's a breeze.Digital camera Review: Good and bad.
Summary: 2 Stars
I really like the crisp sound on this player and the fact that I can pop in rechargeable AAAs, but my computer will not recognize this player. It locks up my computer when I plug it in. I have to go to my kids' computer to load it with music. Creative's customer service is a joke. I don't have any problem with the Muvo Mix, but the Muvo V100 isn't recognized, either. I'm disappointed that such a common problem can't be resolved.Digital camera Review: Good for a first time user or kids
Summary: 4 Stars
I got this particular mp3 player because I have Windows ME on my computer, and didn't feel like spending lots of cash to update my operating system to try a new gadget. (This is the first mp3 player I've ever owned.) It was the only mp3 player (other than RCA) that supported any o/s older than Windows XP!
That being said, it would have been nice to know somewhere in the manual that came with it, that I could not load the bundled software. And that I didn't need it anyhow! Their manual could be better, I think.
I am not totally computer-illiterate. I do know about files and folders. And creating folders to group songs (albums) into could be much easier. Windows Media Player won't let me create playlists on my portable device. So I have to create them like it's a removable drive. I complained to Creative about it, and they told me to use their software. Too bad I can't load it onto my computer since I have Windows ME.
Also, playing songs in the order they are on an album (such as in Phantom of the Opera or Les Miserables) doesn't happen unless you add a 2-digit track number before the song title (file name) which in the grand scheme of things isn't too terrible, just time consuming. Otherwise, it plays the songs alphabetically.
Creative's customer support could be better. They give standardized answers, and refer to you their "Knowledge Base" fixes for stuff. I had already checked their "Knowledge Base" for answers and couldn't find what I was looking for. So I emailed their customer support, and they just referred me to the same page of their "Knowledge Base" that didn't answer my question in the first place. Frustrating to say the least.
The wheel for surfing thru the menu on the player is a little touchy. But other than that, the controls seem to be just fine. I do see the battery cover breaking the first time I drop it, so I'm trying to be extra careful. The earbuds are a bit big. If I used it while excercising, I'd probably want ones that fit better, but exercise is a four-letter word for me, so it's not that big a problem. I also can't justify paying $25 for earbuds for an mp3 player that was only $64.
It seems like I'm not saying anything good about this particular mp3 player, but I really do like it overall. I would have given it 5 stars if not for all of the things I mentioned above. It really is pretty easy to use, and I'll probably get one for my 6-year old for his birthday. He doesn't care what order songs are in, and by the time he wants to group them into folders and such, he'll probably know more about how to do it than I do.
I'd definitely recommend it.