Creative ZEN 8GB MP3 Player

 

 

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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).

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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.

I did a lot of research before deciding to purchase a Zen 8GB - mostly (Though not exclusively) from customers here on Amazon. There is clearly a 2-way split of opinion between the 'Don't touch with a barge pole' and the 'Absolutely fabulous' camps.
Consequently its virtually impossible to decide what to do.
I tried to get Amazon to reveal the scale of Zen returns but they either couldn't or wouldn't reveal such information.
In the end, with the knowledge that getting Amazon to take it back and give a refund wasn't going to be a problem, I decided that the only sure way to find out what this little MP3 player was really like was to go ahead and get one.
As a result I have now fallen into the 'Absolutely fabulous' camp.
As soon as I got it I did an immediate firmware upgrade before doing anything else and my experience is in agreement with all the 5 star reviewers here - it is just stunning.
I haven't got round to reading any instructions yet - its really easy to get to grips with the menu system though maybe if I had read them I would have discovered that plugging an SD card in with the power on isn't a good idea - it causes a reboot and loses all the Radio presets that you've carefully named! (Not a criticism that - just my stupidity)
Overall money well spent - get one!

Aesthetically, the Zen is extremely attractive in its glossy piano black finish. The screen is an absolute joy, by far the best I have seen on such a small player. Because the screen is relatively small, 2.5", it needs to be good. There are so few controls that belie what is on hand, but the menu structure is not difficult to master.

I was so keen to get it up and running that I didn't even delve into the menu to start with. What a mistake! I loaded some classical works, very easy to do using Windows Media Player, plugged in the supplied headphones and....disappointment. I was greeted with a so-so sound, nothing like I was expecting from other reviews and a hi-fi mag that said the sound was stunning. I even plugged in my Sennheiser PX100 headset, but even these couldn't pull up the sound rating. Something was clearly not right. As it was by now late in the evening, I went to bed and came back to assess the unit properly the following evening.

Delving into the menu I found the audio settings. As delivered, the EQ was set to flat, and that is how the music sounded. However, once having set the sliders to my preferred settings, or even using the "classical" EQ setting, the sound was transformed. Somewhat of a surprise, this showed just how good the supplied Creative earphones are when compared to the Sennheisers. I can't measure it, but the Zen bass frequency does not appear to go as deep as some of my other players, so in the Zen the Sennheisers have no real advantage over the Zen phones. In organ works, or with large scale symphonic works, the Zen just misses out on the last degree of bass response that would otherwise underpin the work.

The radio is definitely an added bonus, it works rather well, picking up Radio 3 and Classic fm with no problem. Contrary to other reviews, I found there to be more than sufficient volume available from the Zen.

The ability to expand the music library by using SD cards is a boon. This enables me to maintain my main music library in the body of the unit, and copy over fresh material as and when I fancy to the card. Two features I particulary like: one is the ability to search using an alphabetical list, and the other is the playing track contiues to play while I search for another and until the new track starts. No silence whilst I browse the library!

As for the star rating, I would give the unit itself 5 stars, it really is a little gem, but the overall rating is 4 stars, as I still have some slight reservations about the overall sound capability for classical music. So, perhaps a 4.5 rating would be my final choice.

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3.0 out of 5 stars mp3
i refunded eventually, not very practical this days having very useful phone which enables you to make a conversations and use it as a mp3, these days ONLY mp3 player, doeasnt... Read more

Published 11 months ago by Marcin

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Buy ever!
After 2 years of use, my ZEN player has been an awesome companion. Excellent Quality - I've had a couple of panics, but "reset" has cured each one. Read more

Published 13 months ago

5.0 out of 5 stars Pick it up and put it in your pocket!
I am not one for gadgets and gizmo's but absolutely love my music. My specs when first looking for an MP3 Player was something that was easy to use, (I am not too fussed by lots... Read more

Published 14 months ago by clichy22

3.0 out of 5 stars Some good points and some bad
overall I am happy with my experience with the Creative zen - and i would consider buying another and reccomend it to others - however having lost mine recently - rather than buy... Read more

Published 22 months ago by Mr. D. Thompson

4.0 out of 5 stars A good little player...
The small size of this player is great and the quality of the screen amazing. The sound quality is excellent too. Read more

Published on 29 Nov 2009 by Krupskaya

5.0 out of 5 stars gr8 little number
This a gr8 little device - I love it!!!
.... more accessories would be nice e.g. a means to play over surround (or pseudo surround) sound while charging - but it's no big... Read more

Published on 19 Aug 2009 by Tanglewood

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome
What an awesome mp3 big screen great for watching movies and videos. Its layout is simple and easy to use. A lot better than the Ipod Nano it stores album art and wallpapers. Read more

Published on 24 July 2009 by A. Sharma

4.0 out of 5 stars creative?
Never owned any other MP3 player, and they probably all do this, but I find it really irritating that you can't organise the tracks yourself, into files with subfiles and folders,... Read more

Published on 24 July 2009 by C. Heneghan

5.0 out of 5 stars LOVE IT... FANTASTIC!!!!
A really great product in my opinion, it looks good, sounds great and the system is easy to use and attracative. Read more

Published on 18 July 2009 by Mrs. A. J. Jacobs-cook

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 on 8 July 2009 by Cheshnoo

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