Customer Reviews

Creative Labs NOMAD Jukebox Zen NX 30 GB MP3 Player

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I bought the Nomad Zen NX fully expecting to return it and buy an iPod. I was having a discussion about the two players with a friend and he suggested that I buy the Zen NX. At $200 less than the iPod, I was skeptical but bought it knowing that if I didn't like it, I could always return it. I have to say that he was right! The Nomad Zen NX boasts incredible sound quality (remarkably better that the iPod), a replaceable lithium-ion battery and a stylish look, though not as sleek as the iPod. The sizes and weights of the two are quite comparable.

However, I do have a few reservations... I don't like that all the controls are on the sides. There are none on the face of the player. This makes it especially difficult to navigate with one hand.

The scroller/button is a nice navigation tool, but you have to press it dead-on to be able to select the items you are shooting for.

The bundled software is a pain to deal with especially if you are dealing with a huge MP3 library that you already own. It's all good if your MP3 tags are correct to begin with, but if not, you are in for hours of tedious tag editing. Because the player uses these tags to sort your files into albums. (Save yourself some time, buy a copy of Notmad from Red Chair Software.)

The bundled earbuds are a joke as with any other player on the market. Buy good earphones to experience the true quality of this device.

The included case is nice, but it's annoying that it covers the LCD screen.

I have owned another hard drive based player and liked that it had a drag and drop interface. Each folder became an album. Not so on the Nomad. It would be nice if this was a fix in future versions of the firmware.

My advice? If you are looking for superior sound quality, buy the Creative Nomad Zen NX. If you are looking for something more sleek and curvaceous with a super-expensive Apple logo, buy the iPod.

This is my first mp3 player purchase. I had toyed around with an iPod at an electronics store and was almost sold on it. It was just so cool. But after thinking things over I decided it wasn't worth the price. So I started looking into the Zen. I was close to buying it when the Zen NX was announced, so I held out for it. I am sure glad I did! I was able to buy it for less than $300, but even for that it's an incredible deal. 30GB, incredible sound (according to professional reviewers it has the best sound of any mp3 player, including the iPod), well-designed navigation, and cool EAX features. Unlike some people, I didn't have any problem at all with the software it comes with. However, I had ripped all my software beforehand with other programs, so my ID3 tags and everything were all set. I only used Creative's program to upload them to my Zen. My only complaint with the player is the scroll wheel is a little hard to click. While the screen is small, it's sharp and easy to read and navigate. In short, this is the best bang for the buck. It's a good, convenient size, feels solid, comes with plenty of space for mp3s, sounds awesome, and is relatively stylish as well! Highly recommended for buyers unwilling to waste extra money on style (iPod).

I am quite tech-savvy and spent hours researching which player to buy. In the end, my two choices were the iPod and the Nomad Jukebox Zen NX (30GB). Size- and weight-wise the two players are almost identical. Capacity-wise, both give you varied options. Price-wise, however, Apple just makes absolutely no sense. For $$$$ less, I bought the Nomad and boy am I pleased! The player is OUTSTANDING -- superior sound, great capacity, sleak design, light, nice faux-leather cover, and an exchangeable battery, which is key! The only downsides were: 1) The earphones that come with the player are crap, but for under $$$ you can buy great ones from any top brand, and 2) the software.

The Creative MediaSource performs well in basic uploading of files to your player, but it does a terrible job with maintaining tag information. Since I have a huge library, that means either manually editing hundreds of tags or ditching the software completely. I'm going with plan B!

Besides that, however, I recommend the player over the iPod anyday! Whoever priced the iPod was out of his mind!

This is truly an excellent player and a great value for money. The player is very pleasant to look at and seems much more aesthetically pleasing to the eye than the USB 2 version. The flip-type case coming with the player is very smart looking- it does have a flaw in that with the case fully closed, one cannot see the LCD screen. I feel that creative should have thought about this and made a slot for the LCD to peer through. The sound quality is EXCELLENT. However, you would need to get new headphones. The ones coming with the player dont do it justice. The player has the same EAX options as the USB 2. One of the biggest improvements is the software. The creative mediasource was a joy to use. The software was able to recognize the ID tags automatically and list each track by its respective title, artist, album, genre etc... This was a major flaw in the playcenter software. The transfer from the PC to zen was flawless. I was really happy with this pleasant improvement. The battery life is amazing too. I am getting around 12-13 hours with one charge. And of course the battery is user replaceable- a huge bonus. Eventually plan to get another battery for those long trips where u cannot charge. However 12 hours should more than suffice for a trip or your daily needs. All in all i think its a great buy and i am nothing short of very happy with the purchase...

I live in the United Arab Emirates , and since theres not much of a gadget "fever" here like other places , I've mostly relied on Amazon's members' reviews , which didn't always prove to be scientific .....

I'm a relative late buyer of the NX , I bought it in the beginning of Sep 2004 .

So here's the story , I needed mammoth storage device , for I have a huge collection of MP3s in 4 languages ..... I did my research and narrowed it down to 3 items , the iRiver 60GB , iPod 60 GB , and Creative Xtra 60 GB .... aiming for the best (or so I presumed) .....

And in the midst of my "quest" to find my dream gadget , a nearby retailer was clearing out the older merchandise , so there I saw the Nomad Zen NX 30 GB ,with a price tage of about 150 dollars .... which was amazing as compared to the iPod's hefty 600 dollars (in the UAE) ... I had other gadgets in mind to buy , such as a PDA/Surround ...etc .

I usually trust Creative because I've been using its products for a number of years now , and they always proved top notch when it came to sound products , so I reluctantly bought the Zen NX (after reading the hysterical BUY THE IPOD!!! Amazon reviewers) unable to ignore the 4x price difference .

Well heres the juice :

1- You DON'T need a radio , voice recorder , games , calendar , address book , or any of that babble , most of these specs are available on new age Nokia and other mobile phones .. so its more sensible to get it (IF you need it , because you're paying a hefty difference for these) in a PDA or an advanced mobile phone .In the beginning you might wander around the menu a little , but later on , it only boils down to music playing.

2-NO matter what they tell you , the menu of any handheld device is tiring to venture through , so the least options the better ...... more needless specs complicate things .

Now my review of the Zen NX :

1-Sound Quality : Superb ! I wasn't disappointed to trust Creative on this , specially if you have a Creative surround system/sound card . I'm a semi-pro musician , and I was very impressed by the sound quality .

2-Battery life : It lives up to the 14 hour line , and I use EAX sound effects , so maybe 11-12 hours for me , which is still great .

3-User Interface : I'm beginning to wonder if the iPod is some mystical creature from the garden of Eden ..... because 45 minutes after unpacking the NX (without reading the manual) I knew every nook and cranny in the NX system ... so I'm wondering how easier it can get .

4-Harddisk : After filling 18 Gbs out of 30 , the delay time is very minimal and only if you open an artist with a huge number of songs . You can connect the harddrive to your Laptop (which I did) and its a high quality harddrive .

5-Design : Matter of personal choice , but the front cover never fell off although i did drop the player quite a number of times .

There are some cons , such as not having an LED controller on the headphones' wiring ..... but hey , organize ur playlists and you won't need it , plus , considering the price ... you can't expect it all .

Bottom line is : If you want a fashion statement , go for the iPod (although the trend is fading into oblivion) , if you want a good easy-to-use does-the-job gadget , I highly recommend the Zen NX .

I'm 40 years old, and I've loved music my entire life. I have owned countless stereo systems (home, car, and portable), TVs, comptuers (notebook, "luggable" and desktop), tape recorders and players of all shapes and sizes, digital recorders, and other media gadgets. I don't think it's an exageration to say that this is quite simply the best tech device I've ever purchased, and now I don't know how I ever managed for so long without one.

I have had none of the problems that some people describe with using their players or the software that comes with it. From the time I sat down at my computer with the CD to install the software, it took me about 20 minutes to install it and figure out how to use it. Within a couple of hours I had transferred a library of a couple of thousand tracks to the Nomad, and that was only using a USB 1.1. It is no doubt a lot faster with a 2.0 connection. You just highlight the tracks or folders in the directory on your computer, click a button to point it at the Nomad, click a second button to start the copying, and let it go. I don't see how it could be any more painless or simple.

I do have a couple of suggestions. First, I use RealPlayer to copy my CDs rather than the Nomad software. Maybe it's just what I'm used to, but I find it easiest to use. Second, the only problem with the Nomad is that it has some trouble if you have more than one track that has the same name. For example, I have a CD on which the first and last songs are called the same thing, and getting both tracks on the Nomad required some hand editing of the song titles. This is a minor complaint, since this situation does not really come up very often.

The battery life is also surprisingly good. You should consider the 16-hour figure as sort of a theoretical maximum, if you turn it on and let it run constantly. In actual use (turning it off and on, etc), I get closer to 13 or 14 hours per charge, which is still pretty good and better than I expected.

Although some people complain about it, I like the side-mounted jog-wheel to choose tracks. I find it very quick and easy to use once you get used to it and it can easily be maniupulated with only 1 hand. The headphones that come with it are, naturally, terrible. So plan to upgrade.

Overall, I would say this an exceptional buy. Now that I have my entire CD collection in one box, I don't know how I managed before I had it.

It is simply great. Got it, immediately loaded it w/ 170 albums (128 sampling quality) & it still has 20GB left. I got a car adapter & a couple of extensions. I play it at work, at home (on two different stereos), in the car & outside. The sound's good, the menu options are good. The software's is ok, it is a solid product, it is actually smaller & lighter then I expected, it is slick. I got two other brands in the past & returned them back to the store. I am going to keep this one.

Zen Nx or iPod...which one should I go for? After months of conferring with friends and reading reviews on the net, I finally went for the former. Not once have I ever regretted this decision, and these are the reasons:

a) It's so easy and quick to install the software, upload the files and operate the player (I know of someone who was unable to even load the iPod software to their PC and couldn't get any help from Apple since it's essentially not a 'MAC problem')

b) The battery life can indeed go up to 14 hours. I can leave it playing throughout the day, even when I'm out on lunch breaks and meetings and come back with it still full of life. A word of advice; Sound effects / equalizers can deplete the battery life, so unless you've got it hooked on to a power source, let it run normally.

c) The capacity. I own lots of CDs and I've nearly transferred all the songs I love into my player. I'm in this constant fear that I'll run out of space only to realize I've only filled up 10% of it.

d) Though the earphones aren't great, they can easily be changed. Besides, it's not just for my ears, I can hook it up (through the earphone jack) to my surround sound system at home and let it blast through the speakers with all the effects wanted.

e) The price - need I write more?

My only wish: to be able to view the lyrics through the LCD!

So what if it doesn't have the cool white look of the iPod? It has an anodized AL casing which is very modern, doesn't get dirty and a travel pouch that protects it (which is lucky for me, since I've dropped it a few times!) And then, others may say the Zen NX doesn't allow you to play games while the iPod does. Well, the primary use for this device is to play the songs you love, not to play the games you only ever choose to occupy yourself with if you're low on choice!

If you want a player that works, is user friendly and easy on the pocket, go out and buy the Zen NX!

Why Nomad?

Like most, I was introduced to mp3 players by my friend with an iPod. My excitement was quickly crushed when I learned of the ridiculous price tag. This was nothing new to me, however, as I'm familiar with computers and know of Apple's legendary price inflation on virtually all their products - a business model that has, and will continue to condemn them to the margins of any market they do business in.
In fact, my decision to purchase the Nomad Zen NX was a result of the now-familiar decision making process that most made in the past years regarding Apple computers - although the apple product is in some ways superior, its simply not worth the disproportionately high pricetag. As with their PowerMacs, I simply can NOT justify paying more for less power - I have here a 30GB mp3 player that costs LESS than Apple's 15G player.

About the Nomad?

The Nomad, quite frankly, is more stylish to me than Apple's iPod - but that's maybe because I never got into their all-white aesthetic. The Nomad's audio output strength is simply excellent and the sound quality is superb. Where the Nomad is beaten by the iPod is in the menu system, where the Nomad is a little too heirachical, that is, having to go through levels of menus. However, it's not at all "Bad", just not as elegant as the iPod. Overall, however, the unit is excellent, and to me is an ideal player - relatively inexpensive, durable (replaceable battery!), stylish, and with quality sound!

My wife begged me for an iPod, so I got her one. I really liked the form factor over my MP3/CD player, so (naturally) I wanted one. But, I didn't want to shell out another 4 bills for an iPod, so I took a chance on the Zen NX.

Wow. This thing is fabulous. The sound is great and the battery life far exceeds the iPod. It also plays WMA files which are about 1/2 the size of MP3 files.

On the other hand, the interface isn't as cool as the iPod. The case that comes with it stinks (get a $40 Vaja case instead). The earbuds are useless--I threw them out. There is no "remote". The green screen looks like old technology. The recharger is 5V, which is not a common voltage for DC adaptors, even at Radio Shack. It's bigger and heavier than the iPod.

If I had it to do over again, I'd still get the Zen NX. If you want a small MP3 player, and don't want to spend a lot of money, this is the unit for you. If you want it to play WMA files too, skip the iPod.

BTW: Creative Labs just announced the Zen Xtra (I think). It has a larger, higher resolution, blue screen. Just a few bucks more. Looks cool.