Customer Reviews

Creative Zen V Plus 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black/Green)

5 star:		(89)
4 star:		(68)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(43)

 

 

I bought two of these (one for my wife also). I've owned a 15GB 3rd gen iPod and a 60GB 5th gen iPod (video). I returned the iPod video to buy these two and get some money back. I don't care what they say; iPods never have worked and played well with Windows.

I've never owned an iPod nano, so can't compare to it. Maybe some of this is better to be viewed as a hard disk versus flash based player review.

The Zen Vs so far have done well with windows. It's not quite as easy as drag-and-drop as they indicate on the site, but it is close. You have to open the Zen explorer (set up like the Windows explorer) and drag them into that.

I use Foobar2000 for a music player. When a good song comes on, I just drag the song from the playlist into the Zen explorer and it transfers it without a problem. Or, you can select a bunch of songs and drag them all in (from file or Foobar or where ever).

The player's screen is nice and bright and sharp, but the resolution is apparent when looking at photos. The zoom comes in handy for photos, but it never looks as good as when viewed on a high res screen, as you would expect. I put a custom background on it as soon as possible to get rid of the butt-ugly default background.

I haven't been using the cheap bag they include with it. It's too big and too ugly. But even without the bag, I haven't noticed any scuffing or scratching so far. I haven't intentionally tested it, but I haven't been gentle with it either. I always kept the 5G iPod in its case, but seemed to scratch it anyway. I'm still puzzled about that.

Navigation is easy and intuitive; click right to move deeper into the menu, left to go back to a higher level, until you hit the end (play a song or view a picture), then the back button is used the get into the menus again. Holding the back button will bring up the options menu. There are plenty of settings to play with, which I like.

The player has a solid feel to it. I like how all the buttons feel. The joystick is a bit small (and I'm a big guy), but I don't have too much trouble getting around with it. I don't think about it at all now, just a few days after getting it.

From my few days of listening to it, the sound is very good. Most of my mp3s were transcoded using high quality settings, so they are a good test. You would have to be pretty picky to complain about the sound quality. That wasn't the case with my two iPods in my opinion. I should mention that I used a good set of studio headphones to form these opinions. They sound excellent with this player. The bundled earbuds are fine, but not great.

The recorder works fine; easy to use, sounds just ok.

Haven't tried the inline recorder.

I've been surprised at how many songs I've been able put on it. I was used to 60GB of space and thought I'd really miss it. But now I realize I just had a bunch of crap I didn't listen to on the old player; I was constantly fast forwarding through songs I didn't like. I have 234 tracks on it and have it ~half full.

The scroll wheel on the iPod was better for running through songs, but the Zen V has a keyword search and quick way to get to the start of a section (like the songs starting in M section). It's different, but just as effective. Honestly, with 60GB of stuff, the scroll wheel still took forever to find anything. I think I like the keyword search better.

I like that it attaches with a standard USB cable (mini on one end). Cheap to buy a replacement or a longer one (the included one is short, but fine).

The Zencast software works great for syncing to the player, but it's not quite as intuitive to get podcasts as with other programs I've used.

I like the size and shape of it. It fits easily into my shirt pocket without making it droop badly like the iPod did. The earbuds are the hardest thing about pocketing the player.

Things that it doesn't do (picky stuff):
If the last song played was paused when the player shut down, it doesn't power up into the middle of the song, it restarts it. If you power it down while the song is playing, it starts where it left off.
Doesn't seem to count correctly when waiting to dim the screen, does it too fast for the setting it's on.
Doesn't have radio, wish it did.
Doesn't have video, but the screen is so small I don't think it would be worth watching.
Doesn't work as a USB drive - Doesn't do this right out of the box, but might be able to be configured as one.
Doesn't have that cool padlock style screenlock thing that the video iPod had
Doesn't use iTunes... oh, wait, neither do I (not a big fan), maybe that should be in the pros column.
Doesn't fetch me the newspaper or make me coffee.

One warning: Install the software before plugging it in the first time. Windows won't recognize the player if you don't.

All in all, I'm really happy with this player. I'm a really picky person, so that's pretty high praise from me.

I have never owned an iPod and I doubt I'll ever consider buying one. I did own a few other MP3 players over the years, including two Creative MuVo devices (both died within a month of use) and an ancient Creative Nomad Jukebox (which is still surprisingly functional).

As to my needs, my music collection is by no means extensive or large, consisting of about 400 songs at the most; I'm currently subscribed to a dozen or so podcasts that are updated weekly; I not a big fan of audio books, although I purchase about one every month to listen to during slow working hours or long walks; and I have no interest in carrying around photos, videos, or contact information on my MP3 players.

With all that in mind, the Zen V is a perfect fit. It is by far the best MP3 player I have owned. Construction wise, it feels rugged and so far has withstood repeated drops to the floor and getting soaked with sweat during my workouts.

You have to see it for yourself to realize how lightweight and how compact the Zen V really is. Just to give you an idea, so far my biggest complaint about its size is the fact that it has made me acutely aware of the inconvenience of carrying earphones around, the size of which was negligible with other players I have owned.

I have found Zen V's navigation system to be very usable, although it took me a while to get the hang of it. Most of the buttons are overloaded, in the sense that they perform different functions depending on the current navigation menu and whether they are pressed briefly or held down for a few seconds.

The screen is very small, but it does a good job of displaying track information and album art. I doubt it would be as effective in displaying pictures, but so far I haven't used that feature and I'm not likely to do so.

The earphones that come with it are absolute rubbish in my opinion, but I had a trusty pair from a previous purchase. So that wasn't much of a problem.

I found the bundled software to be mediocre, but after a few days I found that I didn't need it at all. Windows Media Player 11 is able to sync with this device, uploading all supported media files and album info (including album art), and even down converting the qaulity of uploaded music files to have them all fit into the player's memory. I was used to using my MP3 players as flash disks, simply dragging and dropping files to them as I would with any USB drive. However, I was so impressed with Window Media Player 11 functionality and strong integration features that I now use it exclusively to manage my music collection and the Zen V.

As to podcasting, I use Juice podcasting software and Windows Media Player 11 auto playlists feature. It is by no means as good as iTunes' built in podcasting features, but it is a fully automated solution that works well for me.

As to auido books, I purchase those from Audible, and the AudibleManager software is able to upload files directly to the Zen V without using any third-party software. The Zen V is able to play large files (eight hours long is the biggest I have tried so far), and the bookmarks feature is indispensable for audio books.

The biggest problem so far has been the lack of accessories. I can't find a decent pair of speakers that would double as a charging station. Creative offers a universal charging adaptor that is supposed to work with the Zen V, and they also offer a few generic speaker systems as well. But nothing nearly as aesthetically pleasing as one would find for the iPod in its many incarnations.

Even with all of those caveats, I'm still a very satisfied customer, and I believe anyone with similarly modest needs will find the Zen V to be very satisfactory.

I bought the 2 GB model because at the time 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. There are now 4 GB models available with twice the storage capacity of this model.

This is the V Plus version, so it sports an FM tuner and the ability to display videos as a bonus.

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 NPR's website, or 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.

Just got the cute little thing up and running. It's nice! The color screen is very readable, and controls are intuitive enough to use without needing 2 hours of instruction. ZEN V has a great feature set with line in MP3 recording and easy to use menus. Battery life seems to be pretty good for something so small. The Zen V unit is the size of a large ZIPPO lighter; because it's so small, larger hands and fingers might have a problem manipulating the buttons. Not that big of a deal.

Set the sleep timer, and resume playback where you left off when you turn the unit back on, which is great for large continuous recordings. The forward fast is super speedy; you can get to the center of a five hour recording in a minute or so. Unfortunately, the Screen is too small for photos or video, so unless you NEED the FM tuner or motion video it may not be worth the ZEN V PLUS.

AVOID THE CREATIVE NEEON even if the 5-6 GB capacity is attractive, it was slow to respond, locked up quite a bit and choked on it's own recordings, not to mention that the navigation wheel was a joke. This little ZEN V is responsive to the push of the navigation buttons and powers on quickly and plays on command.

The AC/110V charger is a "Must Have" accessory, and yes! The ZEN V is totally functional when using the sync cable for recharging, or while using the AC wall adaptor. The Zen Neeon was non-functional once you needed to recharge the unit with a USB sync cable. The Earbuds are Ok, a bit large for my liking, but they sounded fine when they weren't falling out of my ears. I am sure there are plenty of aftermarket headphones/Earbuds that would work fine.

This is the most useful MP3 player I've used in 3 years.

I've been buying MP3 players for just about as long as they have existed, going back to the old 64K flash players which were around before the IPOD marketing revolution.

The Creative Zen is the neatest thing since a couple flash IRivers I bought years ago.

AESTHETICS
Size and feel are perfect. When you take it out of the box, the rounded corners, and how plain NICE the Zen V feels in your hand, will both make you smile. I noticed that it seems to be very sturdy, well built.

FUNCTIONALITY - PLUSES
Music quality is great. I did not notice any background noise from the player.
The little joystic thingie used to navigate menus is easy to use, if a bit delicate. Within five minutes of using it, I no longer had to think about its functions. Very easy and quick to learn.

PLAYLISTS - FINALLY a player which has no issues with playlists. I listen to an ecclectic mix of chillout music, so for a hundred songs, I have a hundred different artists. Thus the album/title/artist listening options are useless for me, and I HAVE to rely on playlists.
The Zen V comes with Creative's Navigator software which flawlessly transfers music to the player, and flawlessly creates playlists on the Zen V.
Here's the best part -- I will NEVER have to use Windows Media Player to manage music on the Zen V. Creative's software is much better. No longer will I have to sacrifice a chicken, do a rain dance, and cross my fingers, hoping that MediaPlayer will properly create a picklist, and sync it, without wasting an hour of my time. Joy unbound!

FUNCTIONALITY - MINUSES.
I found the following very minor negatives. They are especially minor, since every other MP3 player I've handled has bigger. more annoying flaws.
1. The screen, even set at 100% contrast, is a bit difficult to read in direct sunlight. So what's new! That applies to every screen, on every electronic device, in the world. Solution -- stand in the shade!
2. If you fast-forward through a song, the Zen V does it silently, instead of playing music at an increased speed. I hope there will be a firmware fix for this, since it helps to hear the music as your're fast-forwarding through it, to get a feel for when you want to go back to regular listening speed.

First two weeks I owned, the MP3 worked fine. Then the MP3 player started locking/freezing up. I would have to press reboot key (which requires a very small paper clip)to get it to unfreeze. The occurences of freezing got more frequent and even the reboot did not help. I tried emailing Creative Labs, but the customer service email was not working. Also, called their customer service line twice and was left on hold forever (this is NOT a toll free call by the way). I finally was too fed up and returned it. The joystick is a little tricky too. I am a little hesitant to buy another Creative Labs product because I could not get through to the company.

Would be a 5 except that the screen no longer works! This is 8 months old, not heavily used! No idea why, but there are quite a few of us who either have defective product or are too dumb to fix it becaues we all have the same black screen. You can search their website to verify! And i have not even posted anything there! Music plays, can't see a thing. It's a flash so it should be durable. NO IDEA. Creative charges 25$ non refundable just to look at it despite that it is clearly an issue that occurs more than rarely. They also cover ONLY parts/hardware for one year... Guess I never thought I'd have to deal with this nonsense buying a Flash Player! Not sure what will happen but looks like I'm out a 140$. Unless i want to gamble. Will keep y'all posted! I'm hoping that Creative Labs can help. Costs 13 bucks to actually talk with someone so will be awaiting email!\

Hi Robin.

Thank you for contacting Creative support about the V Plus.

I understand from your email that the screen is no longer working and you have been offered the opportunity to have it sent in to be taken care of.

I can understand not wanting to have to pay money for labor and repairs because who would want to pay for something if they didn't have to.

It is your choice to take advantage of the opportunity to have the player sent in. At this point you have not provided the information needed to start the RMA process. I will not be able to waive the labor fee for you since this appears to be the first time you have needed to have the product sent in.

I use my Zen for music and for listening to audio books I download from the libary. I also like the Line In feature which is great for converting old tapes to digital format. You play an audio book from a tape player and use the Line In cable to convert it. Works great.

Here's a nice trick for removing Windows DRM protection from audio files. Play them on your computer and record them immediately to disk by using a $4 cable from RadioShack to connect the microphone jack to the headphone jack on your computer. Bingo, you've got an mp3 file. Then just copy it to your Zen player.

The Zen V Plus stores photos and acts as a voice recorder. I especially like the BOOKMARK feature. You can set up to 10 bookmarks - this is important for listening to audio books and long podcasts. 2GB is plenty of storage space for several audio books and enough for 1000 songs.

The sound quality is great on the Zen V Plus and the menus are easy to navigate. This is a nice player and you really can't go wrong. It's a bit thicker than an Ipod but shorter. Nice feel to it.

Have had 2 days, so intial reactions of player and as compeared to my previous players as follows:

Pros:
1) Great small small small size!
2) Stylin' looks are fantastic (but why no orange-controls-on-black-body for larger GBs???? Only green (2GB) or blah blue (4-8GB.)
3) Sounds decent (after twiddling with custom EQ settings, but this capability weak compared to iRiver, also used different earphones, Shures, than came with it to get improved sound quality)
4) Can be used as data store (must use Creative SW to get into Removable Disk mode. Would prefer if Windows recognized as just another data device in my computer and managed directly as any other external data store. Detailed management functions, e.g.playlists) should be done via on-board player SW thru' device user interface)
5)Beautiful little screen, I will rarely if ever bother with movies on a 1.5 inch display, but the screen is very clear, crisp, and nice to use which is a big plus to me.
6) Nice it has Radio feature, have not tried yet though. Unclear to me if you can record directly off-air as in iRiver, but maybe you can.
7) Like direct line-in recording feature, haven't tried yet. (Not sure yet if able to upload to PC from player to save in that direction).
8) Not an iPod !!!! Yay! Upped to 4 stars just for this fact!

Annoyances:
Many, will not hit on all. Let me say I work in SW industry so weak or non-working User interfaces are very aggravating to me. Also critical of instruction manuals not giving enough info to problem solve, and this is an example of an inadequate manual (compare the combined printed and SW user's guides to iRiver comprehensive printed manual packaged with player).

1) Wndows XP Professional on IBM laptop first knows device is attached and then doesn't. Flakes in and out while firmly plugged in to USB port. Not problem with the USB cord or port on computer, tested those. Sometimes unplugging and re-plugging gets it recognized again, sometimes not. Go to Creative website for Windows media patches to download, improved time between drop-outs, but did not eliminate problem.
2) SW only works when deivce plugged in and recognized: cannot work with files "offline" then transfer to device when ready. If decides to stop recognizing device while you are working with files, then all work is lost. Happned to me numerous times. Only tried with Media Explorer so far, possibly would be better with the Organizer SW.
3) SW harder to use than some others (e.g. iRiver). Also annoying that transfer sort options won't just let you default to order you put files in (iRiver does allow this). To do ordering must take the time to fool with tags or to create playlists (some of us do not want to spend this much time fiddling with our MP3 player.)
4) Recording button is in the way, next to volume and on side where you bump it easily, constantly. And I have small-ish, agile hands. Should be on top, more out of way.
5) Takes forever to trickle charge through USB (1st time 6 hours,next time almost as long). Wall charger should have been included. Also, when checking to see if charged up, first gives 'charged' symbol then when you pick it up to do anything the 'charging' indicator starts again. Can't tell when its really charged all the way or not.
6)Horrendously slow downloads. On first loading (1.8 Gb, took about 20-25 mins on USB 2.0 connection...compare this to tranferring this amount to my thumb drive or any other modern external drive).
7) Stops at end of each album rather then keeping on playing to next...this is a pain for a busy professional using when traveling or when exercising. Again, if had time to fool with playlists, surely it would play the whole list.
8) Screen turn-off and idle time sleep / player auto-shut down timers do not time properly (too short) and there is not enough control over allowable settings. Also, depending if it shuts down or you do it manually makes a difference in where it picks up again in songs. Have not used for anything but songs, so don't know about books.
9) User interface on player OK once you play with it long enough to mostly figure it out, however a better instruction manual could save valuable time here.

The screen can not be read in sunlight.
File transfer is really quite slow, maybe 2 minute per album.
The transfer software is buggy and prone to lock up.

As noted in some of the positive reviews there are some good qualities for the MP3 player but those are mostly aesthetic. These manufactures need to engineer a working product first then put on the lipstick.