Frent MegaStore

I bought the Zen around 2 months ago and have found everything about it brilliant the videos, radio, and music are all excellent. My downloads have been very easy. I haven't downloaded an audio book or language course but hope they will work as well as the other downloads. Recently I bought the EP60 ear phones and find that the bundled ones are much better. This is my first MP3 player and after printing the instructions found that I understood it very well.


Bought the zen a few weeks ago. Thoroughly impressed with the ease of use and quality of the product.

Uploading files is just a case of drag and drop. Changing files is really simple as it can be done by deleting from an external drive on the computer or on the Zen itself.

The image quality on the screen is excellent too. I have uploaded pictures from my hard drive and use them as wallpapers.

The memory is expandable and this means that the larger memory systems seem to be a bit of a waste of money.

The only slight drawback is the battery life which seems a little short.


After losing my Zen V series, I was on the hunt for a new MP3 player, as I will never worship at the alter of Apple, I looked at the various offerings from Samsung, iRiver and Creative.

All companies offer very good products, but the SD card expansion and the superb sound quality of the Creative finally won me over.

I opted for the 4gb version as it forces me to refresh the music every so often (I found with a former 20gb unit that I just would fill it up and never really knew what was on it).

As for the criticism about the files on the SD card not integrating to the library and have to be view separately, I find if you just put videos on the card then this leaves the memory on the main unit for music.

The navigation systems is a joy to use, the display is bright and exceptionally clear and the unit as a whole look fantastic.

After a month of continual use, I am more than satisfied with this player.

As for someone complaining that it does not support the Mac platform, why should Creative support such a small platform that seems to close itself off from innovation from other companies.

Creative win again!


I got a ZEN for christmas and was playing around with it as soon as I could get it out the box.

Since then, I have downloaded most of my music via the included software, and have also put on a number of videos.

The included software is great, and allowed me to quickly and easily transfer my media to the device. My only critisism is that I am unable to rearrange my videos once they were on the device.

I use Stage6 to get most of my videos off the web, and so was looking forward ot the DivX playability on the device, however I was dissapointed here also, the DivX videos I tried to put on the device were uncompatible and required me to change their format before they could be transferred to and played on the device. A process that I foud agonisingly slow (probably due to my slow PC though). However once I got the videos on, I found them superb to watch.

The screen may seem small, yet it displays colours crisply. The quality really shows, I'd heard the screen was good, but in reality it is something else entirely. A pleasure to watch, and not a strain on the eyes at all. I have stared at it relentlessly for several hours, and the only dissapointment was stopping.

I havn't really tried the radio much, but although the presets have been lousy(non-existant)probably due to it being a US device, and myself being in the UK. yet after a bit of scanning the problem was soon allieviated.

It displays album pictures as well as listing them, making it easier to select the album you're looking for. It also has a 'DJ' set of functions which gives you an album of the day, or lets you listen to your favourite songs, amng other similar features.

The SD card slot is great, and I have recently bought one to increase the memory. It utilises full sized SD, which is cheaper and comes in higher capacities than its smaller brethren. Unfortunatly the SD card must be acessed seperatly from the device, and so any media stored on it does not appear under the other headings of video, music or pictures on the menu, which is a bit of a shame.

The sound quality is fairly good in my opinion, though this is with listening with the bundeled headphones, and so it is probably far better with more expensive headphones.

The device itself is small - credit card sized, and thin, it also weighs only 63 grams. The glossy front is very cool, and the device's back has the trademark creative ripples. The only downside to this aspect of the device being that the screen and buttons are prone to smudges which are hard to remove,and also, my buttons are covered with numerous small scratches, probably from excessive use and not enough care. However these smudges and scratches are only visible when the ZEN is turned off, and when on, do not hamper the viewing quality at all. Despite this, it am going to have to invest in a skin or case to keep it looking its best and to prevent future wear and tear.

Despite its few failings, the ZEN is definatly one of the best MP4 players available today, another creative triumph and a rival with any competitors. The iPod may be a brand icon and a fashion must, but the ZEN beats it hands down when it comes to sleek trendy design. It may not have the memory or screen size of an expensive and bulky Archos, but for price and utility, it definatly triumphs, in my opinion.

The ZEN is a great bit of kit, and I would veritably recommend it to anyone looking for an mp4 player today.

Now, if you'll excuse me, my ZEN is calling me...


Really high speed service once again. Got it the day before Christmas and really early in the morning so I could get start working with it straight away.

Was desperate to find a high quality mp3 player. I heard from my Aunt that Creative were a good make and I was let down at all. It supports lots of languages which makes me happy because I'm asian and I listen to lots of asian music and it supports the characters on there. I transfered video from PC to mp3 player but the codec wasn't support. Creative has a software which automatically converts the format and transfers it instantly to your mp3 player. Didn't take long to convert considering I have a fast Dual Core CPU. The playback of the video quality is astonishing. Everything looks spot on even though the screensize is really small.

The Zen can get a bit smudgey so I'll be purchasing some accessories to go with that. I was a bit disappointed at first when I didn't received a power adapter. I thought I got a missing cable in my product but I heard from friends that iPods and Zens don't come with it. Only with a Firewire USB cable but is only 10cm long? Oh well, I have lots of Firewire USB cables which are pretty long anyway so that doesn't concern me at all.

I love how the Zen allows you to use an organizer and even display day and time on screen. It also provides a radio so I can tune into radio channels whenever I want which can come pretty handy.

Last but not least, the charging is kinda strange. It says that to charge up for 4 hours before use. It was fully charged in under 30 mins which I was extremely surprised about.

All I can now is, buy one as you will not be disappointed. I'm going to put my whole life into Creative music players.


I've been searching high and low for a replacement for my dying iPod mini.
I looked at the new Nano - which looked great and also the Sony NWZA816 - which had great reports. I was never happy with the sound quality on the iPods, especially the distortion in the bass which a lot of people seem to notice, so after listening to the new Nano it was a no. I was just about to get the Sony whan I saw this new baby from Creative. I'm so glad I got it because it has everything I want (great sound and stunning looks).
I thought the video would just be a gimmic but it is actually very good, bright and detailed. Add to all that the radio, the SD slot, the drag and drop, the custom EQ etc and you've got an amazing piece of kit for the price. The only problem i did have was the volume was capped and not quite loud enough for my Etymotic headphones. I solved this by downloading
the US version of the firmware and reformating in recovery mode (you do this at your own risk obviously).
To sum up, if you love the Apple style and aren't that fussed on sound quality then the Nano might be what your looking for. If you want great sound, usable video and also great style then give the Zen a listen.


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.


For those looking for an MP3 player which is crammed with features and has added expandability built in via it's SD card slot then look no further.
I was an owner of Creative Zen V plus which is a great sounding machine, as good as any ipod player I've heard, but the video player function was unusable firstly because of the tiny screen and secondly because of it's inability to play compressed video formats. This player solves both of those problems. The 2.5" screen is large enough for viewing on the move and the image is stunning (after applying latest firmware upgrade).
One of the reasons I bought this device was because I have an expensive digital camera that has a broken LCD; it still takes photos but you cannot view them on the camera. Now I can preview the shots on the Creative Zen.
It isn't perfect. The interface isn't as user friendly or as attractive as the one used on ipods. The device itself looks pretty good but again would come second best in a fashion parade with an ipod. But the build quality is much better than I anticipated. It looks and feels really solid.
To sum up. If you are a slave to fashion, look elsewhere. But if you want a device which excels at playing both video and audio then look no further.


Easy to use, great screen, good price. What more do you need?
In fact my 83 year old mother has 'borrowed' it for her audio books! Guess I'll be ordering another.


Having bought one of these for my son for Christmas I thought I'd charge it up and transfer some files across so it's ready to go when he unwraps it. Of course I had to have a quick play, and wow was I impressed !

I should say at the outset that I bought a pair of Sennheiser CX300 headphones to go with it because bundled headphones are never great - I haven't tried it with the included headphones.

Some have mentioned the lag navigating through the screens, I haven't experienced that at all, but then it did update the firmware to the latest automatically so maybe they've resolved that in the latest firmware updates.

Sound quality through the Sennheiser's is extremely good, nice clear treble and very impressive deep bass, and the 5 band EQ is a useful inclusion.

I did a quick video conversion of a uTube clip that my son's addicted to (FunTwo's Canon Rock) which played perfectly and the picture is much clearer than I was expecting. Being a uTube clip I was expecting the audio to be a bit naff, but I was pleasantly surprised there too, it sounded really good.

Build quality is also excellent, it feels infinitely more solid than the Zen V I bought my daughter last year ! The ability to be able to add extra memory via an SD card is pretty nifty too.

My son initially wanted an iPod but I refuse to buy one of those for reasons I won't go in to here, suffice to say that the Creative Zen was definitely the right choice, I'll be buying one for myself in the very near future.

Only thing that wasn't obvious was how to restart the video clip you're playing, if you go out to the menu and re-select it, it resumes playing from where it left off, I guess we'll be needing the manual to check on that, but all other functions were easy enough to figure out.

If you want a great sounding mp3 player with an excellent screen and decent video quality then you can't go wrong with one of these. I was hoping someone would create a solidly built player that had better sound than the iPod, Creative have definitely achieved that in my opinion.