Customer Reviews

Creative Zen Stone Plus 2 GB MP3 Player (White)

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

 

 

The Creative Zen Stone Plus 2GB doubles the size of the iPod Shuffle and adds a monochrome screen for viewing track names and settings. Add in the functionality of a built-in FM tuner and voice recorder at $65 and you have a great value.

Pros -
+ good stereo sound
+ nice capacity for a decent price
+ light-weight
+ FM tuner with 32 presets ( though it's just average )
+ voice recording
+ simple design (no more click wheel!) with more color options
+ great navigation and sorting features
+ Nice format compatibility (MP3, WAV, WMA, Audible)
+ USB 1.1 and 2.0 connectivity
+ Can be used as a USB drive / mass storage
+ Can sync music with drag & drop or via Creative software
+ Nice extras like stopwatch function

Cons
- average battery life of 10 hours (OLED screen sucks the battery)
- mediocre backlight ( but it can be disabled )
- some DRM song transfer issues with some firmware versions
- not expandable - few size options 1GB and 2GB
- Creative software is buggy
- larger than the 2nd and 3rd generation iPod shuffles

Creative's Zen Stone line was meant to be the upgrade to the Zen nano, aka Muvo mini. Unfortunately, the 1GB Zen Stone had some quality issues. With the new 2GB Zen Stone Plus, Creative has tried to improve on previous models and compete with the Sandisk Sansas.

I love the new Sandisk Sansa's. The Sansa Express has the advantage that you can plug it directly into your USB port without a cable. SanDisk Sansa Express 2 GB MP3 Player (Black) Still, the Creative Zen Stone feels nicer in the hand. It's not as sleek as the Sansa Express and doesn't have all the cool cache' of an iPod shuffle or iPod nano. But it is priced very attractively and has some NICE features. It's good for a starter, workout unit, or gift for a kid.

The Creative Zen Stone Plus is lighter than the competition, but is still larger than the new iPod Shuffle 2nd and 3rd generations. Unlike the shuffle, you can actually see your track names! The OLED screen is perfect for a player this size but does suck more power and shorten the battery life.

The controls are an improvement from the Zen nano days. While I didn't mind the toggle wheel, it has been replaced by intuitive buttons for the standard functions (select, up, down, play, pause, forward or reverse). There's a headphone jack, microphone hole, and a USB port.

Another change from the Zen nano days is the Lithium Ion battery, which gives you about 10 hours if your lucky. This is less versatile than the old battery operated unit, but more convenient.

What about sound? The sound is great, and it comes through in pure stereo. As usual, you will hear complaints about the earbuds. Most people replace their standard earbuds so I won't hold that against Creative.

The Zen Stone doesn't have larger storage options. For those needing more space, you will have to explore the Creative Zen, Sandisk Sansa or new iPod Nano. All of those units have higher price tags.
Creative Zen 4 GB (Black)
Creative Zen 8 GB (Black)
Creative Zen 16 GB (Black)
Sandisk SDMX4-4096 Sansa e260 4 GB MP3 Player with SD Expansion Slot
SanDisk SDMX4-8192 Sansa e280 8 GB MP3 Player (Black)
Apple 4 GB iPod nano AAC/MP3 Player Silver (3rd Generation)
Apple 8 GB iPod nano AAC/MP3 Player Black (3rd Generation)

This unit is ideal as a player and not for those who primarily want to use it for recording. The built-in microphone is nice for short reminders.

The price isn't a give-away, and the plastic case could be more durable. Still, this is a nice starter unit that can last you a while. Check it out. Enjoy!!!

I ordered three of these (in green) and NONE of them worked. They performed when plugged into the computer, but failed to hold a charge once disconnected from the PC. This was after the tech-support recommended "all night" charging.
By way of background, I'm fairly computer savvy, have a new PC based system, and spent hours on the phone with Creative tech support trying to fix the problems. Ultimately, I had to return the units.
Stay away.

I got this to replace an ipod shuffle that died right after the warranty expired. This definitely has more features than the Shuffle for a comparable price. However, nothing really stands out as being anything more than merely adequate.

The battery charging process is buggy, even with recent firmware updates applied. The battery indicator on the player differs from the one in the software. It takes multiple attempts to get a full charge on the player. I am only getting 6 hours at most of playback on a full charge. The manufacturer claims 9.5 hours of playback. This is a pretty major flaw.

Data transfer seems slow (40 minutes to sync 1.8 gig).

The controls and navigation could be better, the menus are not particularly user friendly. Navigation is hard because the buttons are not as responsive as they could be. After a few seconds, the screen shuts off (to save battery life) but that means that you need to hit a button to wake it up and then hit it again to get it to do anything. This means if you want to pause, skip a song, change the volume, etc... it takes two button pushes and it has to reactivate the screen.

The 'creative lite' software is so 'lite' it barely has any features at all, so I use Windows Media Player to manage my songs. Every time I plug in the player, I get a message that the date and time on the player does not match my computer, but when I click "yes" to set the player date and time, I end up getting the same message the next time.

On the plus side, this player holds twice as much as the 1 gig Ipod Shuffle, it has a screen, it has an equalizer, it has FM radio (a feature that I won't use), it has multiple play modes, etc... The sound quality and the ear buds are adequate, also.

This player meet my minimum needs but you may want to think twice if you need long battery life or 'one touch' navigation.

Tiny player-easy to sync. I compared this one to the Ipod-Shuffle (2nd generation) and this is a much better player for the money. Unlike the shuffle, you do not have to download extra software from Itunes to get it to work - it was just "plug-and-play" with Realplayer. Took 3 minutes to sync approx. 1.5Gb of music. It has a lanyard clip but does not come with a lanyard. Stone skins are available to help protect the player. Unlike the previous reviewer, I haven't had a problem charging the player or the computer recognizing it (USB issue?) Overall a great product from a great company at a great price!

I really like this little mp3 player. It's small, about the size of a box of tictacs. It's good to have an option that is small but still has a screen. I use mine for mostly audiobooks and it holds at least two novel sized books and quite a bit of music with room to spare. The only problem I've had with it is the menu can be hard to use when trying to seek a track but it's never been a huge problem just clunky. The software creative media lite is really simple to use for a non tech person like me.

great mp3 player at a great price.music clarity is far better than the ipod shuffle.creative rocks

I had this player for a week now and used it regularly. It comes in cool colors and really is light weight. Really easy navigation, but something is missing; you can't browse through your music files easily. You have to go through them one by one instead of going through a list of your music files. And it'd be great if you had choices for browsing; according to artist, group, or genre. ZEN lacks that, but it's a great player anyway. That, and, I have to say, nothing beats the sound quality of SONY. The sound quality on this player is good, but not as good as SONY.
If style is one of the most important things to you in a player, ZEN is great, but if more important to you is the sound quality, then opt for SONY players. This is a good player anyway.

Thank you so much for this wonderful machine. I had to replace my old one because it crashed and didn't know if I could get the same one. Thank you so much for helping me find one to replace it.

This has been a wonderful product and I only wish I could find one that is a 4GB like my old one.

Every time I plug the Stone Plus into the USB port to charge it, Windows Media Player automatically opens and starts playing one of my downloads. That is very aggravating. I just want to charge the player. I don't want to open Media Player and start playing something. The fact that there is apparently no way to control this means that I cannot recommend this player.

Item was dead on arrival. Neither seller nor manufacturer stood behind it. Total waste of money.