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Creative ZEN 2GB MP3 Player
 
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Creative ZEN 2GB MP3 Player

by Creative
3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (385 customer reviews) More about this product

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Technical Details

  • Product Description: Creative ZEN digital player / radio
  • Product Type: Digital player / radio - flash based
  • Enclosure Colour: Black
  • Dimensions (WxDxH): 8.3 cm x 1.2 cm x 5.5 cm
  • Weight: 65 g
  • Sound Output Mode: Stereo
  • Equaliser: 5-band
  • Equaliser Factory Presets: Disco, NewAge, Acoustical, Rock, Jazz, Pop, Classic, Vocal
  • Supported Digital Audio Standards: WAV, WMA, AAC, Audible, MP3, ADPCM
  • Supported Digital Video Standards: M-JPEG, XviD, MPEG-4, WMV, DivX
  • Digital Photo Playback: Yes
  • Digital Video Playback: Yes
  • Built-in Display: Colour - 320 x 240 - 2.5" - TFT
  • Built-in clock: Yes, alarm
  • Radio: Radio tuner - digital radio tuner - FM - 32 preset stations
  • Flash Memory: 2 GB
  • Supported Flash Memory Cards: SD Memory Card
  • Headphones: Headphones - binaural - stereo
  • Microphone: Microphone - built-in - mono
  • PC Interface Supported: Hi-Speed USB
  • Battery: Player - rechargeable - Lithium Ion
  • Manufacturer Warranty: 1 year warranty
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Product Description

Manufacturer's Description
ZEN puts a world of entertainment at your fingertips. This amazing, credit card-sized digital media player, with its incredible screen, is the ultimate choice when you want to enjoy your music, movies and photos, whether downloaded from your digital library or from web sites around the world. It also includes an SD card slot, so you can add extra memory or more entertainment whenever you want. If you're ready for a world of enjoyment, then you're ready for ZEN!

Product Description
Creative ZEN digital player / radio.

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Customer Reviews

385 Reviews
5 star:
 (148)
4 star:
 (100)
3 star:
 (40)
2 star:
 (29)
1 star:
 (68)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (385 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
918 of 933 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars **** Use it sensibly for a satisfying experience. Here's how ****, 29 Jun 2008
Right. Now for a more "user" perspective review. A review for people who will actually want to use this product the way it is meant to be. There are far too many negative reviews and some over-the-top positive reviews that really make buying this product more like buying a car on a wing and a prayer, hoping that it lasts out the depreciation. This turns out to be a lengthy review since I have spent some time using and abusing this player to establish the best way to use it resulting in a rewarding / satisfying experience. So dig in.

***** The Likes:

1. Small (not tiny) music player with photo and radio capability. No, seriously you don't want to watch feature length films on this, the odd YouTube flick maybe. The reason for this follows later.

2. Easy navigation buttons (rocker style) and are not flimsy as has been grandly claimed in other reviews here. Mostly if you stick to playing properly constructed playlists and the albums, you would not have to fiddle around with the buttons as much.

3. Crisp, clear sound but don't expect Dolby surround sound effects unless you have actually encoded the music using Dolby or THX or similar software. The EQ feature will help you tune the music to you taste. Good cans like the ones from Sennheiser or Grado will make a big difference to the listening experience. I am not trying to do a product promo here, but making the point that good headphones do make a significant difference to the listening experience.

4. SDHC support. Upto 16GB of external memory ought to be about the limit to which this player can take. Anymore and the firmware will start to strain. So with 16GB of additional storage over this player's inbuilt 8 GB and I have more than enough of all the music I need to hear on the go.

Besides there is not need to carry each and every one of my MP3's just because I can. We don't carry all out CD's with our CD player when on a holiday so why carry the excess baggage?

***** The Dislikes:

1. Radio can be used only with bundled headphones which act as an antenna (at least on my piece, I couldn't get reception with my personal cans plugged in). This is a shame because the bundled phones are not great sounding.

2. Memory card data cannot be logically structured the way it is stored on the player. So it's rather less intuitive.

3. Finger smudge magnet. Well this is solved with a screen protector. I won't recommend the extra accessories like the leather case or the clear case as this will double the size of the player, quite the opposite of the reason why I bought the Zen in the first place (small size). Just hold it nicely and wipe it regularly using a lint free cloth.

***** Myths vs. Reality *****

1. WSOD - Well documented problem of white screen of death. Fortunately I haven't faced it and most people won't either. The Zen's sold these days are preloaded with the latest firmware and together with the mass production of so many millions of players; Creative is also getting the hardware in top shape.

In case you do face the problem, the solution is to reinstall the firmware and use the Zen recovery tool from Creative's website. (All this is explained nicely in the FAQ's on the website). This does work well as I have used it before on the Zen MUVO. So this problem is being magnified by the negative reviewers many times over. The solution is there and it is pretty straight forward.

2. The Big Freeze - Again well documented. The player freezes intermittently and has to be reset. Now here's to all the people out there. I am a software designer and created many a multi-tasking software so here's some advice. Don't overload the player. It's best to leave it at about 90-92% capacity at the most. Softwares are but arrangements of 1's and 0's so if you stuff the player, it's going to seize. Much like your operating system. After a point overloading it to the brim of bursting is seriously going to compromise performance. This relates back to the first point I made about the videos. You seriously don't won't to watch movies on this piece. If you really want all that jungle juice go for a more expensive PMP like the Cowon A3 or the Archos 605. Don't simply buy this player, stuff it and then moan that it does not perform. Obviously it won't.

3. Albums/tracks appear in random order - No they don't if you take the pains of tagging the MP3's properly. If your tags are sloppy, the player is just going to tell you that you are sloppy.

4. No mains charger - Don't need one. The mini USB does the trick. Again, remember this is a portable media player to listen to music when out and about and not your mega bucks hi-fi system. I hope after you are out and about you will return to civilization. Just plug it in to the USB on your PC/Mac and recharge.

5. Reset button is way too small - Of course it's got to be small or you'll accidentally keep pressing and resetting the player and then complaining that its way too large.

6. Bundled software is too slow - You don't have to use the bundled software. Connect the player using USB and it will appear as a media storage device on your PC/Mac. Just copy and paste the music. I don't recommend drag-n-drop as this leaves behind cached information on your machine which is not much fun to have (techies will relate to this).

-------

So the bottom line is, use this player sensibly and in the manner in which it was meant to be used and you will be amply rewarded. Overloading will lead to trouble. Most problems can also be fixed with updating the firmware (latest is 1.21.01) and using the recovery tool.

Create proper playlists and tag the music correctly for ease of playback.

Hope this review clears some negative air over this otherwise genuinely good piece of kit. I am giving it 4.5 stars as it could be better and because no player out there is perfect enough to merit a 5 star.

I was reviewing the 8 GB version and later used my friend's 16GB version in put it thru its paces and got similar results. So this applies to all versions and maybe to all similar MP3 players in the market.
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79 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Creative ZEN is an iPOD Killer!, 26 Jan 2008
By Iain M. Maxwell "tothemax100" (Edinburgh) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is an amazing MP3 player that is much better than the equivalent iPod Nano for so many different reasons:

1. Sound Quality: To be fair to iPod, the Zen is just as good in this department as both devices have excellent sound quality.

2. Video Quality: The Zen display is excellent with crystal clear images and is just large enough to allow you to become immersed in the TV-Show or Movie that you are watching. Much better than the iPod for image quality and size. The only downside is that movies need to be trans-coded to play on the player with either the application Creative provide or a Third Party tool which does take a long time. But the range of support for different video formats is good and again better than the iPods.

3. Extra Features: The Microphone, FM Radio & Organiser are all nice touches although I have never used the organiser on any of Creative's products. Since the iPod doesn't have a Microphone or Radio the Zen wins again even though the iPod does have games, which I have no interest in.

4. Photos: Both devices display your photos adequately but again the Zen wins due to its larger clearer display.

5. Expandability: The iPod has no expansion capability but the Zen has the SD slot which can also take SDHC cards. I personally have a 8Gb SDHC card in my player (giving me a total of 24Gb of space) and it is an excellent feature that allows you to fill up this great player with more media. Some people do not like the fact that it doesn't integrate the content on the SD card with the players own internal memory in the UI but to be honest it's no big deal given the expandability that you get!

6. Looks & Build Quality: Even though I am a long time Creative fan I have to admit that Apple have always produced great looking devices, Creative aren't far short with this sexy looking player. The iPod also wins in the build department as some might complain about the Zen's flimsy controls and lightweight plastic case but so far I've found the Zen to be quite sturdy as I've dropped it several times until I got a decent skin for it.

7. Use-ability: Both devices are very easy to use with excellent menu navigation to your media. Although the iPod has the still innovative slider the Zen does just as good a job but without the gimmick.

8. Size & Weight: The Zen is the same size as a credit card but almost 10mm thick but it's still really small. It's also really light which is great for sport. The iPod is smaller and slimmer but given that both are so small I prefer the Zen as you get the bigger screen.

As you can see the Zen is a great player and a worthy adversary to the iPod nano, if not in fact a better choice on the whole for your portable media player.

Also get your player upgraded to the latest firmware (1.20.02e) and you can copy from the SD card to the Zen's internal memory.

Finally, a real bug-bear of mine about this player had been the lack of remote control for it when you are running or in the gym. The remote I had for my old Microphoto didn't work with it. But on a recent trip to Singapore I went to the Creative shop and they provided me with a remote which looks exactly like the one they have for the Microphoto. It's part number is DAA-WR0006 for those of you who need this feature.

Another excellent iPod kickin' player from Creative!

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120 of 122 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Almost perfect, 23 Oct 2007
I spent a lot of time looking at various MP3 players before deciding on the Creative Zen.

So far it has exceeded my expectations.

PROS
----

SIZE - It's very small but seems robust.

SCREEN - Exceptionally clear. Videos are very smooth and watchable. The colours are vivid and bright and it has a wide viewing angle.

SOUND - Excellent. I'm using some Sony headphones which sound pretty good.

SOFTWARE - Simple but very intuitive. It took me less than 5 minutes to get the hang of things. The options are clear, it's easy to find things and fast. Other people have complained about slow start up times but I just upgraded the firmware to 1.10 and it now starts in less than 5 seconds.

CONTROLS - Simple and very easy to use. I'm left handed, but having the controls on the right is not a problem.

EXTRAS - The radio has very clear reception and the presets work well. The SD slot is a big bonus especially as SD cards get cheaper.

VALUE - For £80 you get an attractive 4GB player which can play multiple audio and video formats. The sound is good and videos are very watchable. It has a radio and is easily expandable. 10/10

CONS
----

It's hard to think of any. The screen inevitably get smudgy finger prints on it but this is unavoidable. The supplied video conversion software is slow but I'm sure there are plenty of alternatives available.

One extra I'd like is a clear hinged cover to protect the screen. Ideally this could be flipped back to use as a stand when watching vides.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars freeze
When I bought this item I read the reviews, noted the ones that mentioned the zen froze and thought it was a seldom heard of problem. Read more
Published 10 hours ago by Robert Stewart

2.0 out of 5 stars Extremely disappointing - destined for our local landfill site :-(
I bought a Creative Zen in December 2007. The white screen problem appeared after a couple of months but I put up with it as it worked intermittently and by pressing the play... Read more
Published 3 days ago by A. Kenyon

5.0 out of 5 stars Does what it says!
Having seen so much bad publicity about this player but having friends who highly recommended it... Read more
Published 5 days ago by K. haldane

5.0 out of 5 stars Great so far.
Others will be more thorough than I, so I'll just say as an average PMP user that this is thus far working just fine. Read more
Published 10 days ago by Mr. P. R. Dyte

5.0 out of 5 stars Love at first sight!
I've only had the Creative Zen 32MB a few days but I am already a big fan! I pondered for days on which MP3 player to buy, read countless reviews for hours on tons of different... Read more
Published 18 days ago by K. Band

5.0 out of 5 stars 65 going on 14
I'm surprised how much I make use of my Zen - I notice school kids on my way to work with earphones - so what's good for the younger generation is good for this old 'un. Read more
Published 18 days ago by Terence A. Steels

4.0 out of 5 stars My ears love it!!!!!!!!
So....
I loved the quality of sound!!! Amazing:-)I didn't have to buy expensive earphones!
I used to have a huge capacity iPod so in the beginning I wasn't thrilled... Read more
Published 29 days ago by Ms. Eirini Vavatsikou

3.0 out of 5 stars Creative Zen 8gb MP3 player
Nice MP3 player with radio - only downside are the earphones, could be more up to date.
Published 1 month ago by KazC

2.0 out of 5 stars frustrating!!!
was bought one of these for xmas and was dead pleased with the quality of product...up until it froze and although i tried all the suggestions the internet could provide i was... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Adam Brown

4.0 out of 5 stars Creative Zen
I have always liked the creative Zen series because of its easy layouts, it can hold loads of tracks is is easily portable. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. Elliott A. Wright

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Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (103 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
Movies on the ZEN 16GB 3 1 month ago
Zen or ipod; I cant decide? 5 1 month ago
Can you get a dock for the Zen? 0 2 months ago
Pc won't recognise my Zen 7 2 months ago
Audio books 7 2 months ago
Is this better than an iPod? 3 2 months ago
Zen X-Fi vs iPod Touch 2 2 months ago
OMG 7 2 months ago
does it have a speaker 2 2 months ago
The dead Zen sketch? 0 2 months ago
Recording from internal FM Radio? 2 2 months ago
Sturdiness? 3 2 months ago
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