Creative Zen Stone 1 GB MP3 Player (Black) by Creative
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List Price: Category: Network Media Player See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Creative Zen Stone 1 GB MP3 Player (Black)
Digital camera Review: My "Zen Jr." is exactly what I've been looking for!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've only had this about a week, but so far I love it! I'm always in a car or a truck & needed something small and durable..It goes from my duffle bag to my pocket, to the truck dashboard hooked up to the stereo via a Phillips Cassette Adapter..All this could not be done as easily with for example my wife's Zen Vision-M..The sound is great with said adapter, as well as the accompanying earbuds which are actually pretty good..Am ordering one for wife as a backup..Granted, you are not getting the features & quality of a $200 model, but at this price, what more could you want?
P.S. Windows Vista insisted on installing a driver which I just pushed "cancel" and found the Zen Stone in "computer" The software is VERY buggy on Vista Ultimate..Had to restore the computer to be rid of it..
Also I'm not Suzanne!! lol
Digital camera Review: Nice MP3 for the Money
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought it to use in the gym and it is very good for just that. It does not come with software which is not a big deal other than to be able to control the built-in volume limits. (I chose not to download it and install more junk in my Computer.) It does not have a clip so you have to buy that separate. The clip is poorly engineered and it's hard to work without pressing the skip button. It's half the price of the shuffle and nice for limited use.Digital camera Review: Nice little number for the $
Summary: 4 Stars
I was looking to get a simple mp3 player for my mother for her birthday. She would consider herself not "techno-savvy" so I knew it had to be extremely simple. She also didn't need much music (doesn't listen to it unless travelling)and didn't want anything bulky. The player was great for the price. I like that it allows you to shuffle or listen to your songs in a linear fashion. I have a zen nano so I found it easy to load music on from my own software but it does come with a really simple software you download off net. What are the drawbacks...the biggest one was that during second play she could no longer hear any music and it wouldn't shut off til the battery ran down. After investigation...somehow it crashed and it needed to be reset which lost all music files or vice versa...not sure. Anyway,I reloaded everything and it seems to be working fine. The only other thing is that it doesn't come with a cord to wear around neck. There is a place for a cord so it should come with it- but doesn't. There are however, a number of accessory options that you can buy seperately (i.e keychain, arm band)Other than that little annoyance and the one time episode- It plays 215 or so songs,it's cute, and my mother says it's her favorite present since she was a kid.Digital camera Review: Nifty Device, with some room for improvement.
Summary: 4 Stars
My iPod died and I wanted a cheap replacement while I wait for the next generation of iPods to hit the market. I've also wanted a smaller, flash-based mp3 player for awhile, to for activities where my iPod was either too bulky or in danger of getting scuffed or broken.
What I like:
-Love the design, it's tiny and nice looking. I don't miss having a display. I almost bought the larger version with the display but decided this version was more aesthetically pleasing and really covered the bases I needed. I wish it came with a clip though. Third party options are available, but how hard would it have been to just put a clip on it to begin with?
-You don't need to install any software, you can just drag and drop files right into it, and put them in folders if you wish. It will play just what is in a certain folder unless you press the button to advance to the next folder, or have it on shuffle mode.
-It does what it's supposed to do, and is very simple. This is the kind of mp3 player you can give to your parents or any tech-phobe and they should be able to figure out how to operate it pretty easily.
What I dislike:
-There really needs to be a hold button. Twice now I have come back to find the device with a dead battery. Both times I am 100% positive I did not leave it on. It must have gotten bumped while on my desk or something and turned itself on. This is extremely irritating as I usually notice it's dead when I'm not near a computer to plug it in and where I was depending on the device to provide some entertainment. A hold button that locks the device in "off" mode would solve this issue easily.
-The only way you can charge it, without buying an adapter, is through your USB port. This normally wouldn't be an issue for me, but right now I'm moving between houses and don't have my computer set up, so this has been a big drag. Because of this, I had planned to use this device mostly with my work computer, but that has caused issues that are explained below.
-I wish the shuffle feature stayed within a folder, instead of choosing songs from random folders. To me, the whole point of organizing the music into folders it to divide up genres so you can listen to what you are in the mood for. And with a device with a small amount of memory, you are mostly going to listen on shuffle mode so you don't get bored. I like to listen to loud, fast music for certain activities, and softer stuff for others. It sucks that when you put the device on shuffle you may go from one extreme to another. I wish there was a toggle to either let the shuffle mode roam over all the folders, or stay inside the one you are in.
-My biggest issue with this device, and the reason I knocked it down a star is that it will not work at all on my computer at the office. The device shows up in My Computer, but when you click on it, windows hangs. I'm using XP Service Pack 2. The stone also comes up in the device manager, and I have uninstalled it and reinstalled it several times, installed the optional driver/software from Zen, and read all the support documentation on Creative's website and cannot find any suggestions that get this device to work on this computer. I have plugged it into three other computers and it has worked fine. I am pretty savvy when it comes to computers and have used all kinds of different USB devices on my office computer w/no problem. I cannot for the life of me figure out why it refuses to work on this computer. Even just having it plugged in to charge will cause the OS to randomly lock up and sometimes crash so I have to reboot. And if I reboot with the device plugged in, windows won't even load, like there's a new master disk plugged in. It is really annoying, and frankly disappointing, because I purchased the device solely to use with this computer.
Overall though, it's a good little player and I don't regret the purchase. There are just a few things that I think could be smoother. But for the price it's a great deal. With the exception of my isolated computer issue with it, it's extremely simple to use. A lot of these smaller flash mp3 players are ridiculously too complicated to use - it's like they are trying to make up for not being an iPod by having all these different "features" and "modes". But really you just want to click play and get going. Creative did a good job with the design and ease of use, they just need to work out a few kinks.
Digital camera Review: One Fine Stone
Summary: 5 Stars
The Zen Stone is a rolling stone. It is great fun to travel everyday to work with this little but powerful mp3 player. The sound quality is very nice. The music sound is clear and well balance when using headphones, and external speakers. Easy to control through the software Creative Media Lite i can control the player's operation such as controlling the volume, ripping music cd, and downloading and deleting music files and folders. This is a nice digital player for music lovers.