Now That’s What I Call... A Media Player

The Creative Zen media player looks cool with its glossy front finish and a shiny pixie-dust speckled black matte finish and scratch-resistant back. The glossy front does not collect too many fingerprints, contrary to what we’ve seen thus far. It is available in a variety of colours, so you can choose according to your taste.

It comes with 4 GB of Flash memory and is detected as a portable device that you can sync with using Windows Media Player or Winamp, or even transfer files using the Windows Explorer. It is also compatible with iTunes Plus Music and lets you download music and videos from subscription services. There is also an SD expansion slot for additional memory capacity.

The buttons are very responsive and react in an instant. There are dedicated buttons for context menu, playback / pause, back, and there is a four-way rocker to go forward and back and control volume as well as navigate. The interface is extremely easy and intuitive—it’s a joy to see the menus glide effortlessly as you click the buttons.

As is the case with most media players, you need to transcode your videos before they can be played by the Zen—this is achieved using the bundled Creative Media Explorer. Video is amazingly clear, crisp and vibrant, thanks to the 2.5 inch TFT display and the playback was smooth and comfortably easy on the eyes.

Music playback is definitely one of the best we have heard in a long time. The bundled earphones do an amazing job in reproducing even the bass, which is the most difficult to achieve for earbuds such as these. We must add that they are a bit large and may trouble smaller ears. You can customise your own equaliser settings, or choose from eight presets. Bass Boost enhances bass and you would probably want to leave it turned on. Smart Volume, when turned on, protects your ears by normalising the volume in case of extreme loudness.

Now for some nuances: though the battery lasts for around 18 hours of MP3 playback, it could have done better if the LCD completely turned off during music playback (it dims, but stays on). There is not much to complain about, but a TV-Out option would have completed the package. The Zen has FM Radio with 32 preset stations and a voice recorder. Other features include the organiser, with a calendar, tasks and contacts. It costs Rs 9,999, and we recommend it.

Specifications
Capacity: 4 GB; Display: 2.5-inch 16.7M colour TFT; Audio: MP3, WMA, AUDIBLE 2,3,4, AAC (unprotected); Photo: JPEG, BMP, TIF, PNG, GIF; Video: WMV9, MP4, DivX (converted using bundled software); FM Radio; Dimensions: 53 (W) x 10 (D) x 81 (H) mm; Weight: 60 gm

Contact : IDLDPL
Phone : +91-11-46096400
E-mail : contactus@idldpl.com
Web site : www.creative.com
Price : Rs 9,999