Creative ZEN Review

sourav123 · 25-12-2007, 06:40 PM

Here is my review on the new Creative ZEN. Visit my blog to read the review with pictures.

I bought the ZEN around a month ago from London as it was not available in India at that time. The ZEN has been released in three versions, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB. As this was my first experience with portable music players (PMP), I went for the 4GB version. The cost when buying from amazon is £89.99 which is almost Rs. 7300/-

Design: The ZEN comes in only a jet black colour. The size is almost that of an average credit card and easily fits in your pocket. This is similar to the new iPod NANO 3rd generation versions. The screen is around 2.5" and supports 16 million colours. The navigation keys are designed very thoughtfully to minimize the number of controls. It features a standard 4 way navigation key with select button in centre which also doubles up as the volume controller when playing media files. Also there is a key for selecting menu options, a key for going back to the previous screen, a key for playing/pausing media and a customisable key which you can assign to a function of your choice. Overall, the design is quite sleek and visually appealing.

Features: When it comes to features, this small PMP beats all others hands down. Creative has done a lot of improvements in this player. Among audio files, it suppors playback of MP3/WMA/WAV and DRM free AAC files. So all your tracks you have purchased for your iPod can be played back on ZEN. When it comes to playing video, ZEN supports playback of MPEG-3/WMV/XVID and DIVX files. Also the Media Explorer software bundled with the CD can convert unsupported formats so that it can be played back on the ZEN. Also you can view your pictures using the ZEN and it also supports slide show of pictures while allowing you to listen to a song at the same time. It also includes an FM tuner with 30 preset channels and also a voice recorder. You can also transfer your contacts, calendars and tasks from Outlook to ZEN. But possibly the best feature of ZEN is the support for external SD/SDHC cards. Although you cannot directly copy SD card contents to your ZEN, this is a pretty nice feature if all you want is to temporarily increase the disk space of the ZEN.

Performance: The ZEN has a pretty impressive battery life. It can play audio songs for approximately 24 hours and video files for about 4 hours which is pretty good for long journeys and all those international flight trips. The only downside is there is no wall plug charger included and you have to charge the ZEN from the USB port of your Desktop/Laptop. But you can easily find a wall plug adapter from an electronics vendor near you. The sound quality is fine when using the bundled earphones but hardcore audiophiles may want to use their own headphones/earphones.

Final Comments: Although the ZEN may not have the style statement associated with iPod, when it comes to sheer features, ZEN is a clear winner. Also it supports a lot of formats and if you are an average windows user, you do not need to install any extra software and can sync music using a media player like windows media player or real player.

Final Rating: 4.5/5.

ravi_9793 · 25-12-2007, 06:44 PM

nice review brother

Cool G5 · 25-12-2007, 06:52 PM

Good review.

Gigacore · 25-12-2007, 07:44 PM

nice review... adding some images will spice up the review.

sourav123 · 25-12-2007, 08:01 PM

Hi Gigacore,

Thanks for your comments. I have not added images at it may take up the readers bandwidth. You can always visit my blog to read the review with images.

utsav · 25-12-2007, 09:21 PM

Good review

xbonez · 25-12-2007, 09:33 PM

i was gng to get it and had nearly finalised about it...however, Cnet.com users have given it terrible reviews so i changed my mind...

pradeeocitm62 · 17-04-2008, 02:09 PM

Hi All,

I purchased this product last month and I am facing a peculiar problem

.
I was listening to the music and watching photos as well

. Suddenly, scrolling between the photos, one photo was having incompatible format

and now, the player is showing " There is a problem displaying this photo" and it got hanged

. I am not able to shut down or get away with this. Can anyone please help me on this?

P.S. I am a new member and this is my first post

kumarmohit · 17-04-2008, 02:31 PM

Welcome, the est you can do is leave it till the battery is completely empty, then restart it.

pradeeocitm62 · 17-04-2008, 02:39 PM

thanks for the reply......

I found a way anyways.....there is RESET button just opposite to memory card slot.......take one pin and reset the player.

esumitkumar · 17-04-2008, 03:36 PM

Creative ZEN 8 GB is the worst product I have ever bought from Hong Kong...its battery died after 6 months of use and no authorised dealer in Delhi or say India has its battery

..they ask wat the hell is creative zen photo ??

its lying useless in my shelf now....

desiibond · 17-04-2008, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by esumitkumar

Creative ZEN 8 GB is the worst product I have ever bought from Hong Kong...its battery died after 6 months of use and no authorised dealer in Delhi or say India has its battery

..they ask wat the hell is creative zen photo ??

its lying useless in my shelf now....

I would say that's bad luck. In terms of support, Bangalore's creative support center is much much better. They are well knowledged about creative's products and my collegue got his Zenvision:W repaired (after a fall from 2mt height).

and btw, it's the support person that is bad and not the product.

Akshay · 19-04-2008, 04:46 PM

seems to hav a gud battery life...

xbonez · 19-04-2008, 05:43 PM

i'd just like to add that i've been using a Zen Vison M for around2-3months now and it rocks...awesome music quality and video playback is flawless too

kato · 19-04-2008, 10:49 PM

Very good review man. Should have put up some pics. I mean atleast some small pics.

abhijit_reddevil · 05-05-2008, 02:35 PM

I bought the Zen 8GB from amazon.com last winter on the christmas sale for around $ 150 and I must say I am very much impressed. I am only facing a peculiar problem from time to time, the player hangs when transferring files via USB. But resetting the same solves the problem. Maybe a updated firmware will solve it permanently but I have not tried it yet. But this has the best sound, better than the ipods of the same class. The supplied creative headphones are ok, but I prefer separate sony headphones which I bought from Best Buy (bestbuy.com) for around $ 14. I do not regret my purchase.

arunks · 06-04-2009, 12:46 PM

what is the price of 2GB creative zen and 4GB creative zen in india..???

I wanna buy one...
-----------------------------------------
Posted again:
-----------------------------------------
what is the price of 2GB creative zen and 4GB creative zen in india..???

I wanna buy one...

arunks · 06-04-2009, 12:52 PM

what is the price of 2GB creative zen and 4GB creative zen in india..???

I wanna buy one...

arunks · 06-04-2009, 07:43 PM

anyone plz reply

Coool · 06-04-2009, 08:02 PM

4GB one is around 5k

rajeshjsl · 06-04-2009, 08:41 PM

I have ordered it online , lets see when i get my hands on it ,

Coool · 06-04-2009, 08:46 PM

^ price? and which one 2GB,4GB.....?

Beckhamgal · 06-04-2009, 09:32 PM

Really nice review.

Coool · 06-04-2009, 10:37 PM

^ Almost 2years old one

Plasma_Snake · 07-04-2009, 01:07 AM

I got mine this Sunday, 4GB one, thru KMD at TE for 3,350/- and this is what I found about the player.

Drivers may get installed but won't get detected by Vista 64-bit, 32-bit
Won't get detected in Linux(Ubuntu 32-bit, Open SUSE 64-bit)
Gets detected initially but won't work with XP 64-bit
Works only with XP 32-bit BUT Flawlessly!
Memory Card supports only importing of Images, no Audio files no video files.
As long as the card is in the slot, you can access and play audio files only, not the video files.

Overall, a good VFM PMP, decent screen but glossy surface prone to scratches and fingerprints. Audio output is good but Bass not strong enough(using EP-630). In case of videos, even the ones with bad audio now sound good using Creative's File Converter. If u aim to watch a movie on it, rather skip it as the screen out put is bit grainy and image feels interlaced, a lot so long viewing ain't all that pleasurable.
The proprietary conversion software recognises only handful run-of-the-mill video formats for conversion, no support for .mkv files. Player is said to support DivX and Xvid but converts and runs mainly .wmv files only.
More inputs will come along as I use it further.

arunks · 07-04-2009, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Plasma_Snake

I got mine this Sunday, 4GB one, thru KMD at TE for 3,350/- and this is what I found about the player.

Drivers may get installed but won't get detected by Vista 64-bit, 32-bit
Won't get detected in Linux(Ubuntu 32-bit, Open SUSE 64-bit)
Gets detected initially but won't work with XP 64-bit
Works only with XP 32-bit BUT Flawlessly!
Memory Card supports only importing of Images, no Audio files no video files.
As long as the card is in the slot, you can access and play audio files only, not the video files.

Overall, a good VFM PMP, decent screen but glossy surface prone to scratches and fingerprints. Audio output is good but Bass not strong enough(using EP-630). In case of videos, even the ones with bad audio now sound good using Creative's File Converter. If u aim to watch a movie on it, rather skip it as the screen out put is bit grainy and image feels interlaced, a lot so long viewing ain't all that pleasurable.
The proprietary conversion software recognises only handful run-of-the-mill video formats for conversion, no support for .mkv files. Player is said to support DivX and Xvid but converts and runs mainly .wmv files only.
More inputs will come along as I use it further.

what is thru KMD at TE ? ?? ........ why is that so cheap...?
Can we not play video files from the card??????
-----------------------------------------
Posted again:
-----------------------------------------

Quote:

Originally Posted by rajeshjsl

I have ordered it online , lets see when i get my hands on it ,

How to order online??? r u from india??