Customer Reviews

Creative Zen V Plus 2 GB MP3 Player (Pink/White)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Update:

The player freezes with no sound and with the screen on (displaying album artwork), at random times and for no apparent reason. One of my two units had to be reset so many times that it can no longer be reset: it feels like that internal pad you press on with a sharp pin has now disappeared (it must have broken off). Our only recourse now is to wait 3 days for the battery to run dead, and hope that it will be reset simply by recharging it from scratch. We've only had this unit since August (it's now December), so I no longer feel the reliability level of this product is sufficient to justify its purchase. Buy something else that doesn't have to be reset all the time!


I bought the 2 GB model because the 4 GB version wasn't available yet and it had the largest flash memory of any unit that works with my Napster-To-Go subscription, so it can store the largest number of songs and color photographs.

Why did I choose a flash memory based MP3 player? Napster-To-Go compatible hard drive models with much larger storage capacity abound, but I figure they'll break prematurely because they use a hard drive that can't withstand much jogging, accidental bumping or dropping.

I bought two of these players plus the separately sold AC wall charger, and attached one of them to the wall charger for 6 hours, while I attached the other one to a USB port on my PC to charge it for 6 hours.

At the end of 6 hours, the unit attached to the PC was fine until I unplugged it, then it went comatose and would not even revive when the reset button was pushed several times. I had to exchange it for a replacement unit just two days after buying it.

The unit attached to the wall charger was fine, and I went on to load it up with music using my Napster-To-Go subscription. That was fine until 2 weeks later, when my wife charged it on a PC using the USB cable. After charging and disconnecting from the PC, it too went comatose.

This time I was able to revive it by pushing the reset button.

Then I took a look at the other unit, which had been charging on the AC wall charger. It had also gone comatose, and I was able to revive it by pushing its reset button.

The reset button is inside a tiny hole on the left edge of this unit. You can find it by following the thin groove that's below the screen all the way to the left edge of the unit, where you'll find it on the side. The picture in the manual does NOT accurately depict its location.

The hole leading to the reset button is very, very small. The instructions say to penetrate that hole with a pin.

I used the sharp end of a safety pin to do this. When the pin is inserted, it's quite easy to miss the reset button unless the pin is inserted at exactly the right angle. You'll know it's not at the right angle if you don't feel that you're pushing on a pad with a spring behind it when you reset the unit. That pad travels a short distance until it's stopped by a control surface inside the unit; that's when you know it has been reset.

The reset system should be redesigned so that it doesn't depend on the angle you insert the pin to work. I suspect that the first unit I returned could have been reset if I had known that you have to insert the pin at just the right angle to do it. Since I didn't know, my several attempts to reset it were not successful.

Resetting the unit is akin to rebooting a PC: it revives it when the internal software (called "firmware") has frozen by restarting the software. It does not erase your songs or photos.

Make no mistake: this MP3 player looks, feels and works beautifully. However, since the firmware is newly designed, it appears to have bugs relating to disconnecting it from USB or charger power that cause it to freeze, and the reset button is a little hard to use if you don't know about the things I described above that could cause you to be unable to reset it. You may just end up with a unit that's frozen and not be able to reset it.

It needs to be a little more user friendly than that. Hopefully a future firmware update will be available that will lower the occurrence of the unit locking up (freezing), especially when disconnecting from a USB port or AC charger after recharging it. As another user noted, the "safe disconnect" icon is often times not even in the system tray.

If you don't subscribe to Napster-To-Go, your options to get content for your MP3 player are to transfer your favorite songs from CDs you own to your hard disk ("ripping the songs"), or purchase songs one track or album at a time, at a price ranging from 88 to 99 cents per song from Napster, Rhapsody or WalMart.

You can also download books you want to listen to (such as best sellers and classics) or "podcasts" (your favorite newspapers read aloud, or your favorite radio programs like NPR) from a plethora of sites (like NetLibrary or Audible) that make these available, onto your computer's hard drive. Now you can listen to your music, audible books and podcasts over your PC loudspeakers while sitting at your PC.

Then you can transfer your songs, audible books and podcasts from the hard drive of your PC to your MP3 player(s). This enables you to take your MP3 player with you to enjoy listening in your car, in your office, while jogging or working out at the gym, while shopping, or at the pool or the beach to hear your music, audible books and podcasts anywhere.

Bought this as a gift for my ten year old daughter. She loves it. It has a lot of nice features that the IPODs in the same price range do not have. 2GB of memory seems to be plenty for my daughter. She loves being able to load pictures, and use the radio. Software is very easy to use. My ten year old is organizing playlists, downloading music, and ripping CDs.

No problems mechanically. I highly recommend it.

I was shocked at how small this MP3 player was when I openened the box. I feared that it was TOO small to do everything it is touted to do, but I was wrong. In addition, I feared that 2GB was not enough memory for my wife (as compared to my 30GB Zen). I was wrong again. The memory is sufficient for my wife to have all the songs she wants on it together with family photos to look at. Downloading songs was a snap using either the Zen software or using MediaMonkey (I used the latter since I was converting FLAC files to MP3). Even my wife was able to download her own songs without my help. The controls are easy to use and the ZEN feels very sturdy and robust. The battery life has been very good as well. I highly recommend buying a wall plug recharger rather than relying on the USB recharger which can take hours.

I purchased this MP3 player for myself at Christmas. I have downloaded over 200 songs, have all my pictures on it and can listen to the radio. I take it to work out and it has been great. It is easy to add songs, play them and view the pictures. I only had 2 instances when the player froze and I had to reset. This is a good little player!

I am 65 years old and sometimes it is hard to sink in. It has taken me some time to learn all the things I can do with my mp3 player.The direction are not very good and you have to learn thing by trial and error. I use my mp3 player to download audio books from the library. It works great. I am thrilled with it. Lana Stites

I bought this for my wife. Wanted something that looked cute!!! It is compact. The headphones provided with it are not that good. But otherwise the sound quality is pretty good.

It is easy to sync and use. No need to install any creative software if you only want to sync music and pictures. You need the software for videos.

I like this mp3 player alot. It's easy to handle and is lightweight. The scroll is nice, but I do wish that it had a stop buttons and such like the Vision: M. It holds about 300 songs with a couple video clips and photos on it. And the color is cute too. If you travel alot, I recommend getting a wall ac adapter, if you are away from your computer. All in all, it's a very nice product and for the price, I recommend getting it! It's a great investment.

I purchased this for my girlfriend who did not previously have any portable music device. It was a Christmas present and we both live in the city, so she does lots and lots of walking.

Anyway, she loves that the player is pink, small, and has a decent capacity (she actually says that it's more than enough). The player is a very good player, and comes with a lanyard, sack, and headphones, but I recommend buying different headphones (they're not very comfortable). One feature that my girlfriend loves, is the ability to switch the player to landscape. It seems insignificant, but she loves playing around with the orientation.

The software was a bit of a pain because my computer froze while installing it, then after restarting, the software took an extreme amount of time to install fully. The software is relatively easy to use and is not hard to navigate.

Overall, this product is excellent. The software seems to be mildly buggy, and I have had problems with my Creative Zen Touch (40Gb) in the past (although I was able to fix it with help from Creative e-mail support).

As of now, with the product being about month old, I'd give it an A overall.

Feature loaded and easy to use. My 15 year old daghter couldn't be happier after the issues we had with Sandisk. I recommend this for anyone needing a good basic mp3 player with a low sticker.

My daughter is very happy with the product. She not only got the MP3 player she wanted, she also got her favorite color "PINK". Thought we got a great deal and it has been working wonderfully. Infact, my son is now jealous that his younger sister has a better MP3 player than he has.