Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Does what it is supposed to well, August 1, 2007
Have had this model (the 8gb V+ black/red) for about a week now. Love it. I would give it 4.5 stars, but Amazon doesn't allow that. The reason it isn't 5 stars I go into below later.
The picture makes it look bigger than it is. This thing is tiny, will probably fit in the tiny coin/key pocket in your jeans.
The buttons have good feel to them, the 5 way joystick is similar to the one on my Sony Ericsson cellphone. Very intuitive to use. Although if you have big clumsy thumbs, it might take a little getting used to.
Power/Lock button is on the opposite side from the volume control. 3 inputs at the top of the device.
1.) USB port (for syncing and charging)
2.) Headphone jack
3.) Audio In jack for connecting external CD player directly to the Zen V+
The FM tuner is decent, can get a little static-y in-doors if the station isn't very powerful. But was able to pickup all the major stations.
The OLED screen is supposed to save on battery life, which is nice, but is also the reason I kept it from getting full 5 stars. It is very crisp and clear in doors, but outside, especially under the sunshine, it can be hard to see sometimes. I have to cup my hands over it to see the screen if under direct sunlight. My solution is to just make sure I load up the playlist in the car before I step outside in the morning when exercising.
Battery: I believe it is a lithium ion battery. So don't worry about it having battery "memory" like the old nickel metal hydride batteries. Don't wait till it gets on empty. Just plug the thing into the charger every night to ensure it always has full charge. Creative says it gets ~15 hours of play time, I haven't gone that long. Longest I've gone is 1.5 continuous hours, and it didn't make a dent in the onscreen battery display bar.
Charging: This is a bit of a pain. It does not come in the box packaged with a wall charger. It only comes in the box with a usb cable that you use to both charge from your computer and sync music with. Charging via the included USB cable connected to your computer takes up to 6 hours!! So when I bought this, I also bought the Creative brand Zen V + wall charger. WARNING: Creative, in their glorious corporate greed has seen it necessary so that normal generic USB wall/car chargers will not work with the Zen V+ (for now atleast). So factor into your budget the Creative Zen wall charger if you're thinking about buying this. With the wall charger, it only took about an hour to fully charge it from dead empty to full.
O/S and software:
All Creative mp3 players use what is called PlayForSure technology. Also known as MTP players. It is a technology Microsoft developed that allows mp3 players to talk with computers. Some good and bad sides to it.
The included software from creative is "okay", but not great. It does include the MTP drivers, and some software for converting videos to the Zen V format, and some WMP-esque music organizing/synching software.
If you have windows vista, OR windows media player 11, you already have the MTP drivers installed. The only reason then to install the creative software is if you want to convert videos so they will work on the Zen, or if you really don't like WMP11 :D
After I installed the Creative software, I went and download MediaMonkey on the advice of some mp3 player message boards. It is much better functionality wise, and is fully compatible with the Zen V+. So that is what I'm actually using to add/remove music.
The menus on the Zen V+ itself:
Very straight forward and simple. After using my brother's IPod a couple times, I had no problems switching to the Zen V+'s menu, wasn't too hard of a transition. All the basics are there. You can browse by artist, album, playlists, genre, or view all. Full shuffle/repeat/play once features available.
Since this is a MTP device, it organizes music on the Zen via your Mp3's ID3tags. It doesn't care about the folder structure you use in windows to store your mp3s. So make sure you clean up your ID3tags or you might have a lot of songs stuck in the "Unknown" menu under Artists. :) (ID3tags are editable with the Creative software, or WMP11, or most free MP3 players.)
Sound quality: Very good. I'm no audiophile or music snob(I listen to regular pop/rock/alternative stuff, nothing fancy like classical music), but it sounds pretty good on the included Creative headphones. Most of my Mp3s are at 192kpbs, I can crank it up without any noticeable distortion or crackles. There is an option in the audio menu to do "bass boost", but with the included Creative headphones, I couldn't tell a difference in the bass.
Overall, I love it. It does what it is supposed to, without any problems.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tiny, great sound, has playlists, Napster to Go compatible, August 2, 2007
Well, my title says it all. But it really is tiny, I'd say about 2/3 the size of a credit card (not SUPER slim though, it's almost exactly the width of a dime standing up on its side), and because it has a wheel with push-button in the middle it is easy to use despite the tiny size.
I love that it has playlists. I dowload my playlists from Napster to Go, and get all of my music and standup comedy from there. I plug it in at work, to the USB charger (keep from draining the battery, not that it's finicky) and my speakers or headphones. Oh, you can also listen by artist or random play all. You can change the sound (like jazz vs live, etc), and put on random vs loop vs normal etc.
Basically, this has everything I need. I am buying my husband a Napster to Go player, and really wanted to get him something different, but when looking at the other player specs, I have to say I'm going to just get him the same player, maybe in black with a red wheel.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Cute, but problematic, October 28, 2007
I bought the V Plus last month, but had to return it to Amazon. I had the problem that seems to be common in several other reviews on CNET. The software kept freezing in the middle of playback, and I could not do anything - restart song, go back, even turn the player off - without resetting, which requires a pin or paper clip. Happened several times in the first week. My files were never deleted, but it was a pain. I was sad, but could not justify keeping it - I don't plan to carry a safety pin in my pocket when hiking.
It is too bad, there was a lot to like about the player - the small size was great, sound was pretty good with EQ adjustment and menus were easy to navigate. I did not have much problem downloading files, and the bookmarking feature would have been nice to use since I listen to a lot of audiobooks (although I found bookmarking was not as easy to do as I thought anyway).
Sorry, Creative. Hope the software/hardware issues will be improved in the next generation.
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