Customer Reviews

Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB MP3 Player Gray

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Only had it a few days, so I can't speak to the durability or battery life, just first impressions and those are great.

It's small, light and has great sound. My only complaint (and it's a nitpick) would be that the lowest volume setting is actually pretty loud compared to most players.

Small screen but nice interface, lots of options (you can even flip the display in case you want to see it from the other side).

Bought mine at the store and it came with a belt loop and arm band, no neck strap like is listed here.

It was easy for me to get songs loaded on my XP box, just drag/drop like a flash drive.

FM radio has surprisingly good reception.

PROS: Small, lightweight, 1Gb, easy to use controls, great FM reception, great sound.

CONS: Uses AAA battery (maybe a pro for you, I prefer built in rechargable)

Great player!

My wife and I bought 2 of these about a month ago here on amazon. A friend of mine bought a $400. ipod and likes the ease of use with this one more!! Adding songs is so easy! You just drag and drop from songs on your computer's hard-drive and you can even drag and drop songs from a CD!!! That's so awesome!! No complaints about this little gem!!!

[Note: When I postd this, the seller was charging a lot more than the retail price for this unit, which is just under seventy d0llars. If you order from Creative or buy at a Cambridge Soundworks store, you may be able to get a better price. Creative's site stocks all colors.]

I would have given Creative Zen Nano Plus (abbreviated "CZNP") 5 stars, except for two small deficiences: it does not have gapless playback (see #10 below), and the build quality and controls are kind of cheap (see #4 below). Assuming it lasts, it seems a very good unit for the money. Here's why I bought mine, and some questions to ask yourself when you're choosing. [Updated 8/28/2006]

0. Do I want to make a fashion statement with my MP3 player?

Some people will only buy a trendy iPod. Buying a lesser-known unit like CZNP makes a different statement, and you can choose from 10 colors. I prefer function over form, but CZNP offers some of each. I bought an orange one because it is easy to find in my black bag.

1. Do I want to play more than just sound?

The CZNP is a basic MP3 player, FM Radio, and recorder. It has a simple monochrome display and controls that make it a good choice for playing music, podcasts, and ebooks, and listening to local radio stations. It can record from the built-in mike or radio, or from a line input, which may be handy for some.

Some players can play videos, show pictures, etc, and cost a lot more because of the required color screen and larger memory. I don't need these things and prefer not to spend the money needed to get them.

Of course this player can STORE any kind of content, just like a thumb drive, but it only plays audio.

2. Will I be listening to mostly music or mostly spoken content?

When you switch off a unit while it is playing, or pause it and it turns off automatically after awhile, some units will resume at the beginning of the current track, and others (e.g. CZNP) resume exactly where you left off. If you are playing music, you usually prefer to start the song over again. For ebooks or long podcasts, I need to resume where it was turned off (like CZNP does), because it is hard to fast-advance back to where you were.

3. What kind of accessories can I get?

Creative has a set of speakers tailored to the CZNP, and there are many generic accessories that will work with it. By comparison, there are entire catalogs of accessories tailored for optimal use with an iPod (and may not work with others). I have what I need, but pine for some things available for iPod only.

The best accessory of all is a cable that has a 1/8" stereo plug (like the headphone plug) on one end, and two RCA plugs on the other. Plug one of these into the auxiliary or CD input of all the stereos you use, and you can quicly plug this in and play on the speakers. Such cables are available at Radio Shack and most places selling electronics products.

4. How convenient is it to use?

MP3 players vary considerably on how easy they are to use. The iPod is famous for ease of use, though it does not do everything I want to do. The CZNP has relatively cheap controls that work well enough, and does what I want. You don't have to be a computer whiz to use it or its software.

I have been using it while driving with reasonably good results. It is easy to pause and start it, turn it off, adjust volume, skip or repeat tracks, back up or move forward in the current track, and small enough to hold in your hand and still be able to hold onto the steering wheel.

But if you want to skip to a different album, you have to skip, wait, listen, and skip until you find the first track of the desired album. Of course there is a menu way of getting there more easily, but you can't use menus while driving.

It is small and light. About like a Bic cigarette lighter except twice as wide. So far I have found the size very convenient; I don't think I would want it any smaller. But being small, it might be easier to lose - which is why I bought an orange one.

5. How long will it last?

On Amazon, click the link "See all ... customer reviews", then look for the dropdown "Show:" and choose "Lowest review first" and click the Go button. There are a number of reports from people who had problems with their CZNP, some bad enough to throw it away. Some are real problems, others might be a lack of understanding how to use the player.

Despite these complaints, the average review is high. You'll find about the same mix of reviews for most players.

I decided to take a chance. My unit will be well-cared for. If I have a problem, I'll update this review.

6. Can the battery be replaced?

CZNP uses an AAA battery which is said to last for 15 hours and can be changed easily.

The iPod Nano has a rechargeable battery that is not designed to be replaced, which means the iPod Nano becomes landfill when the battery no longer takes a charge in a couple of years. There will be millions of iPods being thrown away simply because the owner cannot make them continue to work, which has an impact on the environment. There are now battery replacement kits for iPod, with tools and instructions, so this concern is lessened for DIY people, but most won't bother.

7. How does it sound?

The CZNP sounds very good to when when I use good earphones like Koss "The Plug", or when plugged into a stereo.

The free headphones you get with it won't give you the best sound, and you should not judge any player on how it sounds with the included headphones. Go buy quality earphones for any new player, as this will make a huge improvement in your enjoyment at relatively low cost.

8. Does the player use flash memory or hard-disk for storage?

CZNP uses flash memory. Flash memory is more expensive per MB/GB than hard disk memory, and flash memory players are smaller than hard disk players. I would not want a hard disk, which I think is too heavy and too fragile for a portable player. Get a hard disk player if you want to carry a lot of content, but make sure you have a backup. Get a flash memory player if you want to hold the content you will listen to today or this week.

9. Does the player have enough memory?

I use Highest Quality VBR, which gives me MP3s usually 200-250 KBPS, and I get about 10 hours of MP3 music. For podcasts or other material recorded at lower quality, you'll get a lot more. With that much space I can have some new or favorite albums left on the player, and have plenty of room for content that changes (like podcasts). If you don't use a computer regularly, you might want more memory, maybe even a hard disk, but 1GB is very convenient for my purposes.

10. Does the player support gapless playback between tracks?

Some albums have music that flows continously from one track to the next. Examples: Radiohead "OK Computer", Dandy Warhols, Moody Blues. The listening experience is disrupted if the tracks have a gap as the player switches from one track to another.

I don't know of any portable MP3 player that offers gapless playback (without Rockbox), though it's bound to come. The CZNP has a brief gap with no clicks, but it is still somewhat disruptive. One solution is to rip the album as one continuous track. The Rockbox open-source technology essentially replaces the firmware on your player, and it features gapless playback. It is supported on a few players, including some iPods, but not CZNP.

11. Does the player require proprietary software or hardware?

CZNP includes software, but since it also works like a USB drive, you can manage content with Explorer / Finder if you want to. All connectors are industry-standard and you can find matching cables in electronics and computer stores.

iPod can only load music using iTunes, and other players require software supplied with the unit, or with Windows. The iPod and others also use proprietary connectors, so replacing a lost cable is more expensive. I would not be happy with such restrictions. Open standards promote flexibility and interoperability. On the other hand the iPod is widely supported and it's easy to find compatible accessories.

For me, at a minimum, the player needs to look like a USB drive when I connect it to the computer, so that I can load it by dragging files to the player's file system, and the CZNP does that. I want to have a program automatically create a custom listening program of various short podcasts that play in a particular order to support Radio on Demand, and I want that to happen by simply connecting the device to the computer, with no keyboard or mouse interaction involved. I have not found such a program, and may have to write it, but I can do that if I want to. With an iPod I have no choice but to use iTunes (or replace the firmware with Rockbox). iTunes will not do what I want it to do, and there is no option to use my own or third-party software.

12. Is the player file-based or tag-based?

The CZNP is file-based: it will play songs in alphabetical order for a given folder. Naming songs with a two-digit sequence number at the beginning of the filename ensures they play in the correct order. It also has shuffle play, etc.

I had tried the SanDisk Sansa, but returned it because all content is organized and played on the basis of tags, exclusively. While my music has tags correctly set to play the way I wanted, podcasts don't use tags consistently enough to play them in a particular order that I chose. With the CZNP you can at least control the order by putting a sequence number at the beginning of each filename.

Tag-based may have some advantages over file-based (though not for my uses), but only if all of the content you want to play is properly tagged.

There is a "bad batch" of Zen Nano Plus MP3 players. I unfortunately got one of them. I changed batteries and when I tried to play my songs that I downloaded from WalMart it kept shutting off! I e-mailed the company and they told me to run a program on the MP3. It deleted all of my songs but I had them backed up. I tried it again and it did the same thing. I called customer service and got a very helpful customer service person. He told me there was a "bad batch" of players out there that won't play the WalMart downloads if there is a new battery in them. My options are to deplete the battery first or use rechargable batteries. After 9 hours of messing around with this thing and depleting the battery I got it to work again. They said they might have a solution to the problem at the end of the summer but until then I am supposed to use low juice batteries. If you purchase this player download from another music store besides WalMart. Good luck!

This has turned out to be one of my favorite toys. It works nicely as an mp3 player, and it's a surprisingly decent radio and voice recorder as well. I've gotten my money's worth and much more out of this. My wife has the 512 mb version, and she's just as happy with hers.

Pros: Tiny; drag-n-drop file transfer; mp3 and WMA format; replaceable battery.

Cons: Controls and interface take some figuring out; plastic body might not last forever.

I just recently received my Nano plus in the mail... I set it up on my work computer fine, but am having no luck on my laptop. Nice little player, but from reading some of the other reviews I gather I'm not the only one experiencing difficulty in getting Windows XP to recognize its existence...

Very Satisfied.

Player works very well. Love the huge memory.

Able to organize and name music and books easily. Hold position for books.

Why settle for less, when you can get a brand new original iPod nano 4GB for Free! I got mine from this web site: ilikethis.info/ipod-nano

This looks good on paper but:

None of my three computers at home recognize it (XP home SP2, XP Pro SP2) so I can't transfer files. I've tried installing CREATIVE's software but their software nor WMP 10 recognize this.

Play for Sure? Not in the least.

Check out the website? Not much help there. A few things to try that don't work. Look at the manual? Not much there. They don't even tell you how to use anything more than the most basics. Call support? Well its a toll call and they are only open when I am at work (9-6 central time M-F). Looks to me that they don't really want to help their customers.

I am a fairly advanced computer user and I am very dissapointed. I've check the USB ports, used multiple computers, and check the web. Four hours and I still can't hear a single song.

Stay away from this one. Even if it works for you, supporting a company with such poor customer support is a bad idea. No more CREATIVE for me.

(OH, and it comes in one fo those packages you have to destroy to open to returning to AMAZON is not an option unless you accespt a partial refund.)