Customer Reviews

Creative Zen 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black)

5 star:		(416)
4 star:		(230)
3 star:		(91)
2 star:		(55)
1 star:		(129)

 

 

This is a great choice for those people who previously limited their flash players to workout duty, or only holding a small piece of their large music collection and having to change the music on it every so often. With a 16GB capacity most people can fit their entire collection on here without difficulty, and even have room for some videos.

First impressions of this player are very good. It is extremely appealing to the eye, everyone who sees it will ask about it. It is about the size of a credit card, just thicker (less than 1/2inch). The front is a very glossy black plastic that looks great until you touch it, instantly covering it with fingerprints :) The back is a rough, cheaper feeling black plastic. Overall it has a nice solid weight and feel to it, but not very heavy. This will easily fit in a pocket.

The 2.5" screen is absolutely gorgeous. Very bright with vivid colors. The viewing angle is very good, two people can easily look at the screen at the same time while watching a movie for example. The menus are all nicely animated and intuitive to navigate. The icons and text are big clear and easy to read.

One of the big perks to having so much capacity is plenty of room for videos. This was one of the first things I've tested as it was a big reason for my purchase. First of all it DOES play Amazon Unbox videos perfectly. Transferring files was very easy (just a few clicks) and very quick. The quality of the video was great as well. The max size of videos is apparently 320x240, I have not been able to get it to play anything larger than that. If the video is smaller (for example widescreen) you have the option of playing it at the correct aspect ratio, or fill the screen (stretched out). I've gotten it to play videos encoded in Xvid and WMV format. Xvid files were encoded with AutoGK, and the WMV files were encoded with Arcsoft MediaConverter. If you synchronize with Windows Media Player, you can put in *almost any* video file and it will automatically convert the file into WMV format and then transfer to the player. How long it takes to convert depends on the type of video you're encoding, how big the file is and of course the speed of your computer.

Music sounds very good on this player, but please... get rid of the stock headphones they are horrible. Using a decent pair of headphones makes a HUGE difference. The EQ options are OK, there are about a half dozen presets and a customizable EQ. The "Bass Boost" option just made it worse in my opinion, it just distorted the sound. Otherwise it is a very even and balanced sound, very similar to the Vision:M.

The FM radio has a whopping 32 presets and the reception is pretty good. Strong stations are in stereo, weaker ones come in mono. I haven't had a chance to test out the built-in mic.

I easily transferred music and playlists onto this player from Windows Media Player and MediaMonkey, as well as protected music (WMA) from Napster. Everything was very easy, usually just dragging and dropping. The speed of transfer is probably the fastest I've seen. I've used this player on XP Home and on Vista Premium 64-bit.

Regarding the SD cards. I think its only a slight inconvenience that the memory card media isn't directly integrated with the other content. Meaning if you have videos on the SD card you don't go to the "Video" menu where all the other videos are, you have to access them through the "Memory Card" menu. Once there, you browse through the file structure like normal. If you organize the content smartly on your cards you should have no problem. And really its a small price to pay for that feature. Currently SDHC cards are up to 16GB in capacity, meaning you could double the capacity and carry around 32GB worth of content in your pocket. Amazing. I tested a Kingston 512MB SD Card and a Kingston 2GB microSD card (with adapter of course) and they were recognized and played the content without difficulty.

A quick note about the firmware. Mine came with 1.10.05. When my player turns off, it really turns off. With newer firmwares when it turns off it goes into a sleep mode for a while before it finally turns all the way off. What that means is with the older firmware each time you turn it on it has to "boot" all over again, whereas with the newer firmware you get an "instant-on" at the expense of slightly reduced battery life (since it is asleep and not off). Something to consider before you decide to upgrade the firmware.

MP3 players have turned into a commodity. They're not terribly expensive, they sound fine, they're very small, they're easy to use. There's really not much to say, and even Apple is tying them in to web browsers and cell phones and video players, to make them stand out.

The big advantage of this player against the Nano (the obvious competitor) is that SD/SDHC cards allows a measure of expandability. I got the 4 GB version of the player; it's the smallest version but it still lets me put my favorite 60 albums or so on the player. If I want to listen to other albums, I put them on a spare SD card and pop the card in the player, it's easy.

Of course this will be more and more of an advantage - right now, 8GB SD cards cost about half as much as this player, and I'm sure over the next year 16 and 32 GB SD cards will get released, at comparable prices. I have a very large music collection, I like the idea of being able to stick a very large collection on a very small player.

The interface for this device is, like the iPod, pretty good but not great - sometimes you feel like you're working against the menu system. The worst fault is, music on the SD card is put in a separate list than the music on the device's internal memory - it's a little clunky, if not terrible. Also annoying is that the player takes about 10 seconds to boot up, whereas the iPod turns on instantly.

The screen quality is very, very good, the included videos look excellent - on the other hand, it's a small screen for watching a movie, and converting a normal .avi file to the required format requires a couple hours. So except in special circumstances I don't expect to be doing that often.

The battery lasts a very long time, and charges quickly off USB. The sound quality is pretty good, and I've heard it's better than the Nano, but I haven't done any direct comparisons so I can't really say.

Also, be sure to update the firmware off the Creative site, it only takes a few seconds. The firmware as shipped would constantly crash when I accessed the SD card. After the update I haven't had a problem once.

This is an all around solid MP3 Player. I will describe some of the pros and cons about this player. I will say right now the pros strongly outweigh the cons. I have also tested this player adequately and have tested the SD card slot which I find very nice. Despite some complaints about the SD card, I find it adequate to suit my needs.

By the way if you are wondering why I am publishing this review... I received the player from Creative where it is in stock. Amazon is taking a little while longer.

Pros:

1) Excellent Sound - This MP3 Player is a bit louder, and sounds better than my previous Vision:M. I think the sound quality is quite superb.
2) Bright, Brilliant Display - The display is just stunning, and the 16 million colors really show great improvement over the ZVM.
3) Easy Navigation - I love the navigation on this player, and I really love the different themes.
4) Videos - The videos look incredibly nice... I've only played a few
5) Transfer Speed - Extremely Fast! What can I say? This is what has surprised me the most. The speed is an extremely huge difference over hard-drive based players.
6) Good Button Placement - Though small for some, I do happen to like the buttons
7) Nice looks - I really like the looks of this (this is very subjective)
8) Small Size - This is a very light player, that is only a foot print of what the ZVM was. The most amazing part is that the screen is 2.5" inches.

Cons:

1) Power Adapter - It should come with one, but it only comes with a USB power cable (which is acceptable)
2) Crappy Ear phones - Eh. Buy the Creative EP-630. You don't buy a nice player and use the provided ear phones. The EP-630 are an incredible set.
3) Buttons are a bit hard to push at first - This is something others have experienced... this is true for a while.
4) Can smudge - to prevent this get the plastic case!

How does this stack up against an ipod?

It crushes it in my mind. I really think Creative did a fine job here, and I'm sure firmware will be updated constantly knowing Creative's attention to the customer.

Edit: Added a few things.

I've owned this wonderful little player for about a month now, and I am totally enamored with it. The direct competitor to this player is the new ipod nano, and honestly, I can't imagine why anyone would go for that player over this one. I see that at the moment, an 8 GB nano costs $189, whereas with the Zen you get 32 GB for $285! Hello?? Do the math?? Plus, as always, a Creative player has much better sound quality (they are a manufacturer of sound cards, after all...) and a crisp, brilliant screen that is larger in size (Zen's 2.5" to new ipod's 2"). Music videos look nice on it, and, my Zen also doubles as a portable art portfolio; I can show people my artwork and photography on it and it looks great. Also, as compared with ipods, it is incredibly sturdy. I already dropped it a couple of times (yeah, clumsy...)and it's perfectly fine! Whereas I have friends who have irreparably damaged their ipods by dropping them once. It's a perfect size, slips comfortably into any pocket, and has a nice, sturdy feel to it. Compared with older Creative models, it's also VERY pretty! Pretty-ness is the sole advantage ipods really had going for them before, but this new Zen is definitely on-par in terms of looks.

Also, the fellow who complained that this player is expensive compared with the larger hard-drive based Creative players - well, he's wrong to discount the importance of this being a flash player. The fact that this is a quite large capacity flash player IS a big deal. Main advantages of flash over hard drive: sturdier, much longer battery life, less prone to crash, less prone to damage if dropped, runs and loads faster. No moving parts, so it's overall more reliable and less prone to breakage. It's just a much superior technology overall.

To those who complain about the earphones that come with it: no matter what player you use, if you care about sound quality, then you don't use the earphones that come with the player!! I think Creative is good to simply include some spares and NOT charge you for what they think are good 'phones. Why? Because it should be up to the individual what kind of headphones they prefer. I've been using my Zen with Bang & Olufsen Form 2 headphones, and this combination sounds fantastic. Also, I rip my CD's to ~192 VBR; I don't hear too much difference in sound between 192 and 320, but I DO hear LOTS of difference between 128 and 192, so for me this seems to be the ideal happy medium between file size and sound quality. I would encourage everyone else to experiment and find their ideal bit rate, because Creative sound quality and good headphones won't help you if you rip to 128 bps!

A quick rundown of some pro's and con's in general:

1. As mentioned - great sound and beautiful clear screen. I don't find that I really need a case (I usually keep it in my pocket so there's nothing in there to scratch it), however, a screen protector is a MUST! I bought one with the player and put it on before doing anything else.
2. It's damn cute. Just looking at it makes me smile. :)
3. The software is fine, and I also like being able to simply transfer files just using folders.
4. The SD card slot is a GREAT idea. It would be nice if they integrate it better in the future, but even un-integrated it's very handy. I keep my videos on it and my music and pics on the player.
5. Really not expensive at all for a 32GB flash player!
6. Sturdy!!! I have dropped it without crying afterwards... :)
7. It seems to be very stable. So far I have had to reset it twice while it was docked, but this was due to my own error - both times I had tried to delete an album off the player that was set as "now playing" - so I think I confused it! But as long as I don't do anything silly like that, I haven't had to reset it.
8. Very long battery life. I've spent practically all day walking around listening to the Zen, and still have half a charge left at the end of the day. My ears get tired before it does!
9. This may not be important for all users, but is very important for me: displays foreign characters correctly. I have music on here that uses Scandinavian languages (with some funny characters) and also some music in Russian - I have had problems with other players displaying Cyrillic letters incorrectly, but not this one.

Not many con's, just a couple:

1. The cable is indeed short, but it doesn't seem problematic to me. The player is light enough to just hang off the usb port on the short cable with no problems.
2. The one major con for me - that it doesn't have a usb host function as its hard-drive based cousin seems to have. That would have been a nice feature, I hope they integrate it into the next model!
3. Indeed the screen is very hard to see in direct sunlight. But, this is another one of those not-very-important cons that I have learned to work around. If I am in direct sunlight I simply work the player while shading it with my hand or jacket, or I step into the shade. Mild annoyance, but really not that big a deal.

Anyway, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, obviously. I can't think of any other player on the market right now that even comes close to the quality of this one. And no, for all you cynics out there, I don't work for Creative, I'm just in love with my new toy ;)

Pros
Surprisingly noticeably clearer screen (I had the zen vision m before)
Looks nicer than promotional pics
Very light
Thinner than I thought
small usb cable (I like it, but some may not)
Easily recognized by computer and even easier to sync
Sd card slot is a little sunken in so it is hard to accidentally pop it out
Fast sync with window media player
New interface shows album covers kind of like the new ipod nanos
If you have external speakers you can use it as an alarm clock (settings also allow you to have a reoccurring alarm, so you don't have to re-set it every time)

Cons
small usb cable
Cant rotate the screen
Software for video conversion (very easy to use)
Cant bookmark sd content
Doesn't resume playback on sd content
Might have to use an external card reader

SD card slot
-a neat feature is that I can take pics with my digital camera (canon sd 750) take out the card and view them in the player
-there is no lag time in loading audio tracks
-there is no lag time in loading video (video was 25 seconds long)
-there was about a 1sec lag time in loading pics (maybe because the pics were in multiple folders)
-in order to use the sd card as a removable drive you have to be in "removable disk" mode
-if you are in removable disk mode your player will not be seen in Windows media player, the memory card will and you can sync like that if you wish
-when I transferred files with the sd slot in my computer the player did recognize the files and had no trouble playing them
-when dragging and dropping WMV files the player would start to play it then freeze...if you use the software to convert the WMV files it plays it perfectly
-you CANNOT bookmark audio content on the sd card (bad if you want to store audiobooks in it)
-it does not resume playback of sd content if it is turned off then turned back on again
-when you "random play all" it does not include the audio in the sd content (good thing if you want to store audiobooks in it)

I had a zen vision M but I always wanted something smaller. when I heard about this I sold the M and bought this one, so far it's basically the same product with the SD card slot, refresed graphics on the user interface and a suprisingly clearer screen. It was either this, the new nano, or the samsung yp-t10...
I'm glad I chose this. In my opinion for this price range nothing can really compare
(I uploaded some pics from the player)


**************************UPDATE sept. 20, 07*****************************
-if anyone has this player please respond...
if the hold switch is on for at least 30 sec. and then released does your screen turn a blank white but the player still functions? If I turn it off then on again it works fine, but I want to know if its a glitch in the firmware. have you already installed the new firmware? please respond, I need to know if I should send it back.

I bought my first Zen 4GB last week. Within a few hours of ownership, I had the device attached to the PC via USB to charge it, when it suddenly went dead. No amount of pushing buttons or using the reset button would get this device to power back on. I contacted Amazon, and they overnighted a replacement to me and gave me a free USPS return slip. (excellent customer service!) I got my new device, was able to load some TV shows onto it... Awesome! MP3s sound great , the video was sharp, the radio sounds very clear...
then it died the exact same way again, about 24 hours after I received it. Contacted Amazon again- They told me "As it seems that the problem with this item is more widespread than we originally thought, we are not able to send another replacement. I hope you will understand our limitations in this regard." Apparently I am not the only one having this problem.
Maybe a bad production run?

I would be wary of purchasing the ZEN at his timeand would suggest to maybe give it a few months for these issues to be worked out.

As I listen almost exclusively to classical music, I never took much interest in MP3 players; hardly any serious music listener would cherish the idea of compromising a refined performance by compressing it into some lossy file format and then squeezing it through a pair of diminutive earplugs. On the other hand, however, these players are tempting gadgets, and of course there are ample occasions when it is nice to be able to take a sizeable portion of your favourite music with you in such a compact form.

Compact this Creative Zen certainly is. It is slightly smaller than a bank card, be it rather thicker. Though made of plastic, it makes a sturdy impression and doesn't feel fragile at all. The design is effective and nice - no contrived minimalism here, functionality is the prime object; yet the whole thing looks clean and uncluttered. There are real buttons that you actually have to push, which I prefer much to the slick but error- (and fingerprints-)prone touchscreens. The buttons, too, make this feel like a serious little machine. They are easy to use and respond quickly. This is matched by a well-considered menu-structure. You will find your way around soon enough - no manual needed. Better still, menus are customizable. You can select from a full list of options which items you want to appear in your main menu-screen, and in which order. I must say I would have liked it if this had been taken one step further, and itemnames too would haven been customizable (so that I could, for instance, change "Artist" into "Composer").

Albums, Genres and Artists are listed alphabetically and scroll vertically. If the list is very long you can use the alphabet on the right hand side of the screen to jump straight to the correct initial. Once a music track is selected, all relevant track and album info is displayed. Titles that are too long to fit the screen float by in ticker-tape fashion, which is nice, though the movement at times is less than smooth.

So how about the sound? Frankly, it is hard to say, as the sounds reaching your ear are at least fifty percent, if not to a much greater extent, determined by your headphones. As per usual the makers of the Zen put all their efforts into a well-designed player, only to ship it off boxed with an indifferent set of earphones. They look nice, and at first impression may not even sound too bad, with their deliberately warm colouring and exaggerated bass. But in fact the sound is grainy, unfocussed, fuzzy, and lacking in detail. I found results infinitely improved once I plugged in my set of Shure SE310 phones, even before they were properly burned in. Indeed, while I had purchased the player thinking I would use it for baroque and chamber music only, I now found that listening to Mahler's Fourth was not only viable, but quite pleasant. I must add though that I need to crank up the volume to nearly its maximum in order to get a realistic orchestral sound; and bass performance is still a pretty long way of from what I get through my regular stereo set, even with the "bass boost" option turned on and after fiddling with the equalizer. I should furthermore add that the surprisingly satisfying results were reached using the MP3 format at its maximum quality bitrate. That is, the aforementioned Mahler adds up to some 135 MB, and the storage capacity of the 16GB Zen will be exhausted with a 100 to 120 works of similar dimensions. Well, still a lot more than I could ever take with my CD-walkman... Finally, I should mention one irritant I encountered in playback: there is an audible electrical "click" when the Zen switches from one file to the next, which can get very annoying in pieces that play continuously but are broken down in tracks. Obviously, this is a problem that only classical music listeners are likely to encounter.

Next to the sound, the rest of it seems to me a collection of cute but fairly irrelevant perks. I cannot imagine anyone seriously wanting to view a complete photocollection, let alone watch an entire movie, on the tiny 2.5" screen. The screen has a clear, sharp image, but despite its many millions of colours is lacking in contrast so that pictures tend to look slightly washed out or overexposed. You can load one of your own images as a wallpaper, which is nice, though many wallpapers do not work out well due to the unnecessary, semi-opaque gray bars at the top and bottom of the screen. The screen cannot be switched off during operation (why not?), but fades to a low-lit setting after a customizable number of seconds. The lighting intensity of the screen can also be adapted to your own wishes, as so much else in this player can.

The Zen comes with a CD-ROM that installs software for getting media onto your player. Though a lot can be done simply in Windows Explorer, I found that the Zen Media Explorer is a quick and easy way to transfer files and rip CDs to the player. It did a better job of it than Nero and some CD-rip freeware I tried. If, however, you need to correct errors afterwards, say in a track title, the Media Explorer can't do that and you will need a tag editor like Mediamonkey. Rather more problematic is the fact that the Zen software will only let you rip CDs to WMA-format. If you want to rip to the better quality MP3 you will have to unlock that option by getting the "Creative Audio Pack" at an additional cost of 10 dollars - it will not break the bank, but I found that pretty disgusting nonetheless.
Finally, though there is actually a possibility to display an album's cover art, it is not made easy to achieve this. The (generally poor) manual doesn't have a word on it, and while the Media Explorer includes an option for adding artwork, you have to follow an obscure route to get there, in my case only to find that it didn't work. Use Windows Media Player to rip and synchronize, however, and artwork duly appears on your Zen's screen.

In all however, a worthwhile possession, quite a gem in some ways; and soundwise I am pleasantly surprised - but only after investing in a good set of earphones.

if you listen primarily to music with lots of playlists (or watch a lot of videos) then this review will have little relevance for you. i spend a lot of time listening to audiobooks, often in WMA format which rules out the only really good mp3 player, the ipods. i've gone through (tried and given away or returned) several mp3 players. bottom line in my opinion: for audiobooks (where the book is 1 or 2 or 3 very big files), all mp3 players pretty much suck.

why? first, often then don't hold their place well. secondly, the fast forward or rewind -- when you need to get BACK to your place, which often requires lots of interpolation -- is often clumsy and, worse, slow (i've had to literally hold down a "FF" control for 5-8 min to get near the end of a novel where i'd left off). third, the most egregious misdesign for audibookphiles is that (unlike the great ipods) the same control used to FF or RW also takes you back to the beginning or the end of a file. in many mp3 players it's woefully easy to be trying to FF and RW to get back to where you were (because the player lost your place or froze up or whatever) when, oops! suddenly you're back at the beginning -- 8 hours or whatever from where you wanted to be. blood pressure rising....

enter the zen. it's certainly one of the least evil of mp3 players for audiobookphiles (which i will heretofore simply acronimify as ABPs).and why is that? one word (no, not plastics): bookmarks.

very few mp3 players allow bookmarking (yeah, that's one area where even the well-designed ipods fall short). quite simply, when you set a bookmark, the mp3 player remembers that place in that file (book) and allows you to go right back to it. it's a failsafe. and it works.

a few mp3 players (including a couple other creative products) do bookmark. the zen 4gb (and higher gbs) is one of the newest. it permits up to 10 bookmarks.

i've had my zen for a couple weeks or a bit more and feel fairly good about assessing it this way: overall,it's so-so. again give me an ipod any day (except apple won't allow it to play wma files). i've had plenty of issues including freezing up (keep a paper clip handy for the tiny reboot hole!), battery life shorter than promised and -- very often -- this player also failing to keep its place (that's unlike the creative muvo tx i've used which had no bookmark but at least it always kept your last spot). i wouldn't necessarily recommend it for general use.

however, its reliable and easy bookmarking is great and for that reason i do recommend it for ABPs. (it does have other commendable features which are summed up in product summary and other reviews; it's certainly not bad.) also, it's better than most at permitting you, with some care, to FF or RW WITHOUT accidentally telling it to go to the beginning or end.

if you DO buy this to listen to long audiobooks, USE THE BOOKMARK FEATURE constantly. before i set the player down (on pause) or turn it off, i always, always bookmark my spot. doing so has saved my arse many times, now. you can set the handy shortcut key to "bookmark" so when you turn it on later, to find to your horror that your last spot at -- what was it? 4 and some hours into the novel? or was it 5? etc.-- is not what comes up but rather you're back at the beginning, you need only hit the shortcut then enter and bingo, there you are: 4 hours and 28 minutes, right where you'd left off.

bottom line: obviously i'm saying if you listen to long audiobooks (such as wma files or audible downloads),the zen 4gb is a good bet. i'm also saying it could be a lot better and maybe someday creative or someone else will make one that's a home run instead of just a base hit.

I had been researching for months before deciding on the Creative ZEN. My first player was a Sandisk Sansa e140. For a 1st player it was okay, but my main gripe was that it had no resume feature or bookmarks, amongst other defects. Anyway, it was okay for a beginner device.

About three months ago I decided it was time for a change, since I knew Sandisk, I bought a Sansa e260 4gig: it was nice, but, still no bookmark and the thing was just not built right, seemed like it would break in two weeks...I returned it and after one month of looking at reviews on dedicated gadget websites and Youtube video reviews and looking and trying mp3 players at stores, I finally decided and ordered the Creative ZEN.

Half a year ago,I subscribed to a "Rhapsody to Go" subscription for my son(at 14.99 a month), and I was looking for an mp3 player that would be compatible, the ZEN was not on Rhapsody's "Accepted Players" list.

Still...I decided on the Creative ZEN

I receive my Creative 4GB ZEN 3 days after ordering...Amazon quick!
I looked at the packaging, not too impressive. Charged it up and after a couple of hours (with half a charge because I couldn't wait anymore) I began to experiment.

You can operate all functions practically without reading the manual, it has a very intuitive interface.

I was very pleased with the look and feel of the player.It has a nice weight to it, light enough for a shirt pocket, yet still has the weight of a quality product.

The screen gets smudged up quickly, but it's a non issue. I love the interface and how the pictures and videos look. The volume is loud enough, it may not be the most top quality sound, but it's an MP3 player the size of a credit card...what would you expect?

I was very happy for the first two days using my new toy...I loaded, photos, videos...I had a family video and a short Hendrix concert video. No problem, excellent playback. I even charged it using my Razor V3 cell phone charger! Cool!

Anyway, last night I go in the Rhapsody site and plug in my ZEN and find that it shows on the system...hmmmmmmmmmmmm!
I click on authorize device...BINGO! Device is authorized!
I have loaded this thing with tons of stuff from "Rhapsody to GO"...up to this point I had second thoughts about this player, but the fact that it works with Rhapsody to GO was the biggest selling point for me...
Rhapsody needs to update their site and show that this device is Rhapsody to Go compatible.

PROS:

1) you can set 10 bookmarks
2) Beautiful interface menu display
3) Good sound quality
4) Small and slim (pocket friendly)
5) Resume feature
6) Many options including selection of a "personal shortcut key"
7) Easy to operate and to load files to
8) Lots of features at a very reasonable price
9) Works with Rhapsody to Go...also has free Zencasts and other goodies
from their website.
10) It uses a regular USB connection (not propietary), so you can plug into a razor V3 charge (for example) and if you lose your USB connector, you don't need to panic because you can buy one of these anywhere for just a few dollars.
11) SD slot (does not integrate fully, but works for me...I put in my card from my Panasonic FZ7 camera and was able to see the pics I took, cool enough for me. Besides, 4GIG is enough for me, I don't need to carry my entire music library with me. (not yet)
12) Records off the air very well
13) FM radio reception sounds great
14) Videos and picures look vibrant adn very colorful
15) You can view playlists by album covers if you want
16) Digital and Analog clock
17) Many more features I still haven't even discovered yet

CONS:

1) Sound quality could be improved (a firmware upgrade would do it)
2) No carrying pouch included
3) Doesn't make coffee
4) Does not work as a can opener
5) Cannot be used as a fax machine

I will update later on, after giving this baby a full tryout.
So far, I'm lovin' it!

If you read the whole thing...I guess you should be considering to buy this gadget.
Biggest bang for the buck I could find anyway!

When it comes to MP3 players, I demand a relatively seamless user experience and just enough storage capacity that I don't have to delete songs every time I add new ones, both at a reasonable price (ie: not an iPod). I'm also not an early adopter, preferring to wait for at least a few months of user reviews, but the aptly named Zen caught my eye when it was released and, to my delight, met all three of my criteria.

The Creative Media Explorer and ZENcast Organizer software make syncing and managing my content -- music, pictures, videos, podcasts, Outlook contacts, calendar and tasks -- a snap with relatively intuitive interfaces. Plus, the 4GB storage is more than enough for the average user, while the 8GB and 16GB versions are perfect for power users. As advertised, it's incredibly compact and sturdy enough to carry in your pocket; its screen is impressively sharp and bright; its audio quality is great, even with the included earphones; and its navigation is simple to use and customizable. My two favorite features are the aforementioned syncing of Outlook contacts, calendar and tasks -- my cell phone is for making phone calls, not listening to music! -- and the customizable "My Shortcut" button, which can be set to do one of a number of things, the most important of which is "Random Play All".

For the price and functionality -- not to mention it's one of the better looking MP3 players out there -- the Zen can't be beat. Who needs an iPod?

NOTE: I have a relatively new PC running Windows Vista and upgraded the Zen software via the ZENcast Organizer with no problems at all.