Customer Reviews

Creative Zen Micro 5 GB MP3 Player Pink

5 star:		(213)
4 star:		(116)
3 star:		(45)
2 star:		(57)
1 star:		(92)

 

 

The Creative Zen Micro is no iPod killer. It is the iPod for the rest of us. Where Apple's product is stylish and fun to use, it has that unfortunate Apple characteristic of locking users into buying their music strictly from Apple. iTunes is a fine online music store, but there are many others and some (MSN and Musicmatch for example) are as deep in selection and easy to use. And the Creative Zen Micro gives us a player every bit as intuitive and stylish as the Apple product and the benefit of FM radio, Outlook synchronization and the use of every online music store other than iTunes.

Everyone knows that the Micro comes in an array of colors. Mine is silver. I like the blue glow and the shiny white case that compliment the silver face. Personally I think the black model looks best, but I didn't buy the unit for the color. I've seen a number of reviews of the Micro from people having trouble with the vertical touch pad. After two adjustments, I had no issues with that controller at all. It is more intuitive than running your finger in a circle. The touch pad and menus it opens are user adjustable. I was having trouble getting the Micro cursor to stop where I wanted when scrolling though the menu lists. I adjusted the touchpad sensitivity setting to low but that didn't help. I adjusted it to high and the problem was solved. It may seem counterintuitive to select high sensitivity to better control the touchpad. If you're having touchpad issues, try the high setting and see for yourself.

The Micro comes in with good quality ear buds, a hard shell case that accepts adapters to help it serve as a belt clip or a desk stand. There is also a carrying pouch, a USB 2.0 cord, universal AC adapter, and the removable, rechargeable battery. Other accessories are available from Creative. I am not a big fan of ear buds, but these are pretty good and the cord doubles as the FM radio antenna. I selected Auto Search and the Micro found strong signals for all of its 32 presets. I live in an area with lots of FM radio, so performance in other areas may vary.

Volume on the Micro is controlled by the touchpad, not a separate button. Some folks prefer a separate wheel for volume. It is more important to me that the volume reaches acceptable levels and is EQ adjustable. Both are true on the Micro. There are a number of EQ presets and a limited ability to customize adjustments.

You can create playlists on the fly which is a great feature of the Micro missing in many other MP3 players. It is also possible to create playlists on your computer using either the included Creative software or Windows Mediaplayer 10. I like the interface in WMP 10 better than the Creative software and the Micro syncs with WMP 10 flawlessly.

The Micro has a microphone for recording voice notes. Speak normally into this mic or you will get distorted sound. At normal speaking volumes, the quality was fine. You might be tempted to shout to such a tiny device, but don't.

Creative says the battery will play for 12 hours. Early buyers of the Micro are receiving an extra battery in the package, which is a great bonus. I charged the extra battery and keep it in the pouch to be handy when needed. I've not run a battery test where I drain the unit dry, but I probably won't get 12 hours anyway, because I set the backlight for bit longer than the default. I was pleased to learn that the Micro charges either from the AC adapter or via the USB cable when it is plugged in for syncing. That is a nice touch.

My unit is full with just over 1000 songs, far short of the 2500 claimed for the 5GB drive. This is my fault. The 2500 claim is based on using only WMA format songs recorded at 64kbps. I have a mix of WMA and MP3 files and I usually encode at a much higher rate. This is another reason the Zen Micro is the player for me. The original iPod and other devices are just too big. I don't have anywhere near 10,000 songs to carry around. I am pleased for those folks who do, but drives that big would be a waste of space for me. The 5GB units provide just enough room for me to carry around my digital collection. As the number of songs I own grows, I can always compress them to fit better on the Micro or become more selective about which tunes get synched.

Creative has a winner in the Zen Micro. I really believe this is the music player for the rest of us and, with some marketing behind it, it can do for the other online music stores what the iPod did for its brother iTunes. Thank goodness for choice.

... then this might intrigue you greatly. The hook with this MP3 player, distinguishing it from the others, is clearly going to be the OS applications it provides. Finally, someone has figured out that building some smarts into the player will help it compete with iPods.

The latest craze for MP3 manufacturers is the 5Gb microdrive, a 25% boost from the 4Gb ones supplied by Hitachi. At this point, the Rio Carbon is 5Gb (along with a host of South Korean manufacturers), and eventually the iPod will get a "free" upgrade to 5Gb as the 4Gb trickle down to nothing. Then what? What compels you to choose one over the other?

It has to be the UI and user experience. The Carbon is nice but offers no improvement to the near-perfect iPod experience. The scroll wheel is not an Apple innovation, but it took Apple to put it on their MP3 player for the obvious to become clear to the industry. So tack on a scroll wheel and... you still have to compete against the intuitive OS-based application that an iPod offers the user.

It's easy to find songs, organize songs, and also carry some essentials and diversions. The iPod gets it right, the Carbon doesn't. Today, the Creative Zen Micro proves it, too, gets it right.

Better for the Zen Micro is Outlook compatibility. This makes the Zen Micro the first choice for MP3 owners with a Windows-based system. I'm not professing to be a consumer-survey corporation, but I don't know *anyone* with an iTunes account. However, I do know about a dozen people with well over 4000 MP3s each. What device would I recommend?

Well, if size matters, and you like the idea of a lime-green or bright yellow device, then I'd have to go with a Creative Zen Micro. Creative has excellent music software, a very responsive tech support group (they are quick on firmware updates, and make them publicly available), and usually a good array of accessories. The Zen Micro is no exception: in addition to the case, it comes with a neck strap, and has all of the necessary cables for syncing and charging. The extra spare battery is just a neat bonus.

If I could, I'd trade-up on my Creative Muvo2 and snag a Zen Micro tomorrow.

****
I gave up a ton of positive reviews to add this addendum. I do not work for Creative; I had a chance to play with a review copy in-depth, as others have (See Engadget, Gizmodo, or c|net as examples). Just because Amazon doesn't have it to sell doesn't mean the product is unavailable for review. Please judge any review you read -- in any medium, be it here or newspapers or magazines -- by its own merits.
****

Fred

I'm going to begin with a basic review and then as an addenum address some of the complaints on the board.

Looking for an mp3 player I was looking for (in order of priority):

1) Audio Fidelity
2) Compatibility with music subscription services
3) Build Quality
4) Portability (including batterly life)
5) Interface
6)Maintenance Costs (i.e. easily replacable, cheap battery)

With this in mind, I was led to the Zen Micro. I know creative creates great sound cards (I've had 2 of them) and I had also read that creative had the among the best fidelity of all audio players. Testing with a friend's zen micro and another's ipod, I noticed a clear difference in quality between the two using the same songs encoded at the same bitrate. I am, however, an audiophile, so many people may not notice the difference. Ipods tend to have weaker bass and less clarity.

Zen micro also had the features I was looking for that the ipod didn't: (compatability with subscription serviecs, not having to use system--resource-hogging i-tunes, and being able to transfer files between computers). The FM tuner and voice recording didn't really play into my account, but they work fine: the FM tuner is a bit weak, and I get a little static listening to NPR, but its not gruesomely bad either (what do you expect out of such a tiny device without an antenna?). The recording is ok too but the fidelity is really meant for note taking not recording a concert or anything.

The build quality of this thing seems pretty good as well. The back is a clear, white plastic which I find to be very cool looking. Unlike the ipod, it will not scratch easily and has a nice glossy finish to it. The front seems to be a thin anodized aluminum faceplate (the screen is a whole in the faceplate, and on top of the plate is a thick layer wich borders the player and also forms the screen). The text quality is very good and is about 10 font for characters and 8 or 6 font for time remaining and track number. I've read reports about the zen taking hard knocks and still working and I believe them (at least everything other than the headphone jack seems solid).

This thing is extremely protable. It is about 3.8 ounces which is slightly heavier than the ipod mini and the nano, and it is thicker as well but I find that to be great because it cradles more easily into my hand (the back is curved). It is light enough so that I don't notice it while exercising using my arm-band at the gym (in terms of weight).

I've had no problems with the interface either. Its intuitive and yes, its pretty similar to the ipod's, but I've read that ipod jacked creative's interface in the first place anyways. Instead of a wheel you have an up-down touch sensitive scroll which is used for volume control and scrolling. Tapping it lightly selects things. It is very intuitive and I got use to the sensitivity (which you can adjust) in a few minutes. It has a very cool backlight as well making it easy to use at night. In addition, it can be used in your pocket without a problem. The controls are the only metallic part of the player exposed (the rest is covered in plastic) so its easy to find, and there are 2 small ridges (like the 1-side of a die) that stick up and help identify where the buttons are by touch.

The battery life is about 11 hours on mine without constant adjustment (I tested it) and about 8 hours with constant adjustment (which usually happens with me).

The battery is removable and can be purchased cheaply on ebay which is a plus.

Now to respond to the caveats:

Ok, there's a lot of variance in the reviews for the Zen Micro so here are a few quick things I would like to point out.

Anyone that insults the Zen Micro and then tells you to buy an ipod (especially a 20 gig one) seem to me to be an ipod fanboy trying to turn you away from a good product or is clueless about mp3 players. The zen micro is not competing really with ipods, its features put it in a different niche. The normal ipod was just too big for me and I didn't need to have 20 gigs with me at a time. Also the mediocre audio fidelity was a big turn-off to me.

Yes, there is a headphone problem, but noone is certain how really prevalent it is. Forums are a terrible way to tell because you're getting a self-selecting group of people. If yours breaks, of course you're gonna go whine about it online. If it doesn't, you just continue on doing what you've been doing and don't even know such boards exist so a board full of complaining people may not mean the player is bad.

That being said, the headphone problem does seem to be a systematic flaw (at least among those that expereince it) that occurs in because the headphone jack is apparently not soldered on very tight. Anecdotal evidence says that newer models are soldered on tighter, but noone knows for sure (not enough time to test). If you know how to solder components you can fix it but void your warranty. I don't think its that big of a problem, I talked to a local cambridge soundworks guy who said he never had any problems with the zen micro and that noone has returned it because of a headphone jack problem. If you're really worried, I suggest you get Amazon's replacement plan rather than Creative's extended warranty. Creative will send you a refurbished unit if yours gets broken, which begs the question, why is it refurbished in the first place? With Amazon they will send you a new one, which is a better deal. THey will also be likely faster than Creative which has like 1 month turnaround times (no, I don't work for amazon; this is what careful research has shown me).

To solve the headphone jack problem, do not leave your headphones plugged in while in not in use (this also saves battery life), and do not put it in your pocket or anywhere else where it can collide into things. This should not be hard as you should most likely have a belt clip or whatnot to protect your investment anyways. Get headphones with a 90 degree jack to limit torque as well.

Small things you might want to know:

The organizer does what it says, display downloaded outlook tasks. There is up to a three second lag between songs sometimes on shuffle. This is due to the harddrive in the device moving from one section of the disk to another. For songs immediately after another its not as noticable. There is usually about a 1 second average lag between songs when fowarding.

Thats about it, I just got my purchase and am glad I got it, its a cool little device that had all the features I wanted + some nice bonuses. I'm a little worried about the headphone problem but I know how to solder and I am extra careful with my player so I feel safe. I'm certainly glad I got it over an ipod, the sound quality is enough to push the micro far and beyond the ipod to me.

Hope I've been of help.



EDIT: I've owned this thing for 5 months now and still no headphone jack problem. I even stopped worrying about it after the first month and just left my headphones jacked in and still no headphone jack problem. Some dust got underneat the plastic at the edges but I used a business card and just scraped the dust out. I've even used it to record lectures (be sure to listen to the recording after a few seconds to make sure you're getting good sound).

Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase and would buy it again.

I would give this 4.75 stars if possible, but 5 was too much. Overall, however, this is most likely going to be the next big iPod killer.

The pros for this product are many. First, it has a removable battery. The batteries are rechargeable, and it doesn't take a multitude of people to change the battery. The back slides off of it, and there is a place for the battery. Plain and simple, but much better than the iPod mini's battery, which has had records of bad battery life and expensive removals.

For another thing, another reivewer commented on the touch-screen buttons and how they are bad. This is not necessarily true, however. The older iPod 20/40 GB models also had touch screens, yet nobody complained. Touch screens are not always completely sensitive to everything, as the person makes it sound. When you touch the buttons it responds, and while sometimes it may respond to other items, its not very often.

Personally, I think that the Zen Micro looks nicer than the iPod mini. The thickness was somewhat annoying, but its only something minor. The Zen Micro has 10 different colors, and all look very sharp. iPod mini's colors are limited, and the Micro's colors aren't only brighter, but the buttons light up nicely for a good touch.

I never liked the iPod's touch wheel, as it was used for too many things. Volume, song scrolling, playlist selection, etc were all too much. Many times I held the middle button down to get a song to a playlist, yet it instead misread the usage and played multiple songs. Little things such as this led me to the iPod's death in my heart.

The 5 GB storage is also nice. It holds a good 1500+ more songs (as advertised), but is not too much. I've had two iPod Mini's (one stolen, one just broken), and on each i was running out of storage space within a month or two. Yes, you can delete songs from it, but it is not something they come out and tell you. I could not even find it in the user's manual.

The Zen Micro is also much easier to use with Windows. The format that everything is set up in was mostly designed for Windows users, as opposed to the masses of people with Windows and Apple-designed iPods. Again, minor, but the small things make all the difference.

Creative Labs' Zen Micro is a great little mp3 player, and it could lead to the downfall of iPod Mini's. Probably not, but I'll be hoping.

I have owned a Zen Micro for about a week and absolutely love it. I used to own a 20GB Zen before this and bought this 'cause my wife began to use my player. When i bought it, i did not have high expectations of it but now that i'm using it, i realize how its much better than my previous player. Why ?
Size : The tiny size is perfect for just keeping it in your pocket whether you're listening to music or not. Anything bigger and you'll want to carry it around only when you plan to listen to music. This one, just have it on your person at all times. You won't even feel it
User interface : Using it is a joy. The touch pad interface is really cool and has just the right amount of senstivity
Sound Quality : The sound quality of this device is amazing. I have listened to the iPod in the Apple store (with their Bose headphones) and the sound of the Zen Micro is noticeably much better. I have a bunch of classical music in MP3 format that i never really appreciated before 'cause it sounded pretty flat in my previous MP3 player. Now i'm listening to it with a new-found enjoyment
Volume : You can really crank this thing up. The volume increments are from 1 to 25 and 16 is pretty loud. Go figure...
FM Radio : Its nice to have an FM radio in the player. I use it rarely but every once in a while when you want to hear the news or want to tune in to that TV program in your gym, this comes in handy
Recording : The idea of being able to record FM radio is pretty cool. Also having a microphone in the player for you to record memos makes it much more useful. Haven't used this stuff but i'm glad its there
Removable battery : Such a basic, necessary feature. Don't know why anyone would buy another product which forces them to pay big bucks after the battery stops holding charge like it used to in a year or two.
Software : When it comes to installing software on my computer i'm a minimalist. So i was happy to learn that all i had to do for the Zen Micro, is install the USB driver and then when you connect it, i was able to use Windows Media Player 10 to transfer MP3s and view the files on my Micro. The Micro also has a feature where you can reserve some of the 5 GB space to show up as a removable drive when you plug it into a computer. That does not require any drivers. However that space cannot be used to play music.

Now for the flaws (I found i can live with them without loving my player any less)
FM Radio reception : Not so good. Will only catch stations with a strong signal
Battery life : This one is tricky. Apparently you can drain your battery pretty quickly if you do some things wrong. For example if you shutdown the player without pausing the currently playing song, it saps a lot of battery. Also if you spend a lot of time fooling around in the menus (which you will the first few days you have your new toy), the battery will only last 3 hours. But once you get past the 'new toy' phase and remember to pause before shutdown you can get respectable life out of it - at least 7 hours. For iPod users maybe this is not a flaw, but my older 20GB Zen gives me at least 15 to 16 hours.

Every few years I crawl out into the electronic world, in search of a new MP3 player to replace the horribly inadequate one I currently own. This year, it seems that I choose my timing perfectly, having discovered the awesome device that is the Zen Micro.

Of all the players that I have owned in the past (6 of them), all of them have had drawbacks and problems. Although some came close to perfection, none of them left me completely happy with their performance. To me, the key elements that must be present in an MP3 player are as follows:

-Fast transference of songs to player
-Well-designed computer-side interface
-Easy menu navigation and well-designed control scheme
-Good sound (duh)
-Reasonable battery time (~6 Hours)

That's it? You ask, yup. That's it. I know this list is horribly unreasonable, which is why it amazes me how many players lack some of these basic features. Slow file transfers, menus that take ages to cycle through, and poor battery life plague many of the players that are currently available, but not the Zen Micro. My list of "nice to have" features is a little longer, but it also contains nothing unreasonable: backlit screen, removable battery, FM Radio feature, ID3 Tag line support, lots of storage.

Everything that I have listed above, the Zen has, and more. The menus are easy to scroll through; they are laid out naturally, and make sense. The computer interface is 90% good, only losing points due to the fact that "Creative" branding is all over the place within it. Songs transfer lightning fast, and the two batteries that came in my box give me 24 hours of listen time. On the fly play list creation, address book, removable storage drive capabilities, sound recorder, the list goes on people, this thing is literally so chalked full of goodies, it was like Halloween all over again. So far I have used all of the above-mentioned features, and find them well designed, and easy to understand.

Not everything in this world is 100% good though, and the Zen does have a few drawbacks. While transferring songs to the player, the interface has crashed a few times (4-5 times in a 4-5 hour period) normally this would cause me major concern, but it appears that this bug is reproducible, which leads me to believe that Creative will fix it with a patched version shortly (or maybe it's just my computer). Another thing I don't like is that some of the features take 1-2 seconds to load up. These are limited to the voice recorder, address book, and such. I will be using the player 99% of the time as an MP3 device, so these small pauses are entirely bearable, for the added features just to be available. Really that's all I can find wrong with it, it took some major bouncing around to get a song to skip (there is a hard drive within), and I don't forsee jogging (wich I plan to do with it tonight) to cause any problems whatsoever (if it does, I'll update this).

That's it for now, what are you doing still reading this, click the "Add to Cart" button already!

I got this player back in november 2004, when it just came out. I used to own an iPod mini, but wasn't very satisfied with it; the Zen Micro exceeds it in many areas. I use the Zen Micro primarily for commuting to/from school. So far it has been durable and fairly resistant to scratching.

To see the basic specs, visit www.Creative.com

- SIZE & APPEARANCE
The whole player fits comfortably and securely in my palm, and is very light. It is shorter than the ipod mini but thicker. Headphone jack, lock button, and USB/Charger are all on the top. The secreen and font are extremely easy to see. When backlight comes on, the buttons and a cool decorative outer frame on the front lights up in blue. I just love the way this looks, especially at night.

- FEATURES
5 GB of space, and can also be used as a removable storage drive; but it only lets you store a max of 2 GB of removable storage for some reason.
Built in FM radio. But has bad reception. It's good to have incase you wanna listen to the radio for news or something, but there's a lotta static. Could be because I live in NYC.
Built in voice recorder is decent. I tried recording my professor's lecture once and it came out pretty well. You can upload recordings to your PC.
Removable battery is an excellent feature and one that I cannot live without.

- BATTERY POWER
One of the Zen Micro's finest features is the removable/replacable battery. When I bought mine it came with 1 extra battery, but I don't think they have that promotion anymore. (A battery is around I think 30 U.S. dollars). A battery can be fully charged in less than 4 hours. I've noticed that leaving the battery in the player during non usage sucks up power, so I just remove it at night and put it back in the morning when I need it; the small battery can be conveniently slided in/out.
This way, the battery, when fully charged, runs ~9 hours at ~80% volume with no backlight (the backlight is pretty but I don't need it when I commute during daytime). With backlight turned on, battery life is reduced by 10-30% depending on how many seconds you set it to stay on and how often you make it light up.

- INTERFACE
The menus are easy to get into; and you can customize the functions that are displayed on the main menu for easy access. For example, I have "Randomly Play All" and "Removable Storage Mode" on the main menu because I use those frequently. On the other hand, I took off "Planner" from the main menu because I don't have a need for that.
There are no buttons - all the play controls are on a touch sensitive pad. Therefore when you put it into your pocket or bag, it's important to switch on the lock; but it's a very convenient button to flip. When I first bought it it was very annoying because I was constantly pressing the wrong buttons; but now I've gotten better at using it and it's not a problem anymore.
The various preset EQ's and playlist options are typical of most mp3 players so I'm not gonna go into that. The software for managing songs or transferring files is quite easy to use.

- SOUND QUALITY
A++. Very sharp and clear and deep. I've never used the earphones that came in the box because I already had very good 40 dollar earphones, so I don't know how good the stock ones are; I've heard they're so-so. One of the reasons I got rid of my old ipod mini is because I wasn't satisfied with the sould quality; the Zen Micro in my opinion is a little better.
As is the case with all mp3 players including the iPod Mini, the bass is not strong enough. I think this is because good bass needs a powerful battery - something these kinds of players don't have. However, the quality is superb so the bass factor can be overlooked.



The Zen Micro is a counter-part to the iPod Mini. I don't think Creative is doing a good enough job of marketing their little product. Maybe 1% of my friends has ever heard of it. The Zen Micro can definitely steal lots of market shares from Apple if people knew how good it is. Unfortunately, today's society is full of trend-whores who value hipness above all else. Consider the comparison between Zen Micro and iPod Mini:
-Zen has longer batter life
-Zen has replacable battery, the Mini does not
-Zen has 1 more GB than Mini
-Zen looks cooler
-Zen is smaller
-Mini gets jacked a lot, especially here in NYC
-Prices are nearly identical.

I wholeheartedly recommend the Creative Zen Micro to anyone who's looking to buy a mp3 player in the ~5 GB range.

The Zen Micro is a great little player. I have had the silver Zen Micro for almost 5 days. Its a big step up from the flash player I was using before. Its a nice small package and great design. Its a little wider than the I-Pod and feels slightly heavier. The case is very solid, and the front face is seamless. Sound quality is excellent, although I did replace the earbuds with the Sony Ex71SL earbuds, which are really, really good and much more comfortable. Navigation and controls work very well. I still think the I-POD scroll wheel works a little better than the straight line slide control on the Zen, but the difference is not that great. The volume was very easy to adjust, even during work-outs. It took a little time to figure out how to create a playlist from the music library, but its easy once I figured out the sequence, and the menu lets you select songs by genre, artist or song name. The Zen Micro also allows you to create and save on the fly playlists, or you can create them with the Media Source sfotware. Its great that there are so many ways to download music vs. being tied to i-Tunes as with the i-POD. The included software makes it very easy to transfer files to the player, and I was able to use either Windows Explorer, the Creative Media software or Musicmatch to transfer files (I was not able to synch with Napster). I did find that about 4 to 6 out of the 200 songs I downloaded did not transfer for some reason when I used either the Creative Media Source software or MusicMatch. So far the battery life is less than 12 hours, but the early editions of the Micro shipped with two batteries. It could be that by turning the backlight off or adjusting the controls less frequently the battery life will be much longer. Overall this is a fantastic player so far. I'm very impressed with the quality for something that was just launched last week.

I bought an IPod 20GB for my son this Christmas and decided to get the Zen Micro at the same time for myself. So I've become familiar with both products. Both my son and I am happy with our MP3 players.

The advantages of the IPod is the 20GB of hard drive space compared to 5GB over the Zen Micro. However, compared to the IPod Mini (a more fair comparison), the Mini only has 4GB. The two biggest advantages of the IPod are the Click Wheel and the overall design. The design of the IPod is pure "zen." It is a perfect balance between design and technology. The interface for the Zen Micro is very good, but the IPod is just pure perfection.

The killer problem with the IPod is that it is very proprietary. Apple slams Microsoft for its monopolistic practices, but IPod and ITunes are very proprietary. You basically better forget managing your collection of music on more than one computer. With IPod/ITunes you are pretty-much restricted to one PC to purchase and manage songs. The IPod also locks you down to ITunes, whereas the Creative Zen Micro lets you use just about anything you want to manage your songs. I chose to use Windows Media Player 10 to manage and Sync songs to my Zen Micro instead of Creative's own software (which is actually pretty good). Another problem with the IPod is the non-removable battery. The Zen Micro came with two removable/rechargeable batteries.

A few tips: upgrade to the latest 1.x firmware as soon as you get the Zen Micro. It is very stable compared to the 2.x firmware (that allows you to be compatible with the Plays For Sure Media Transfer Protocol). The MTP will be an important standard but the 2.x firmware from Creative is still a little too buggy. Using the 1.01.03 firmware is ROCK solid with WMP 10 and USB 2.0 transfers. I've had my Zen Micro for a month now and it has never locked-up on me.

All told, the Zen Micro has many more features compared to the IPod Mini: FM Radio, Recorder (off of radio or live), Calendar and Task List sync with Microsoft Outlook. To me, the sound quality is better than the IPod. The included ear buds are very good, surprisingly so. They are a little big and those with smaller ears may have some difficulty in keeping them in. I bought a pair of Sony 51 ear buds for $40 and they are terrific.

You cannot go wrong with the Zen Micro. It is a great little device. Just make sure you have a working USB 2.0 connection in your computer and you update the firmware.

Ok... I think I've owned and returned about every MP3 player on the market (ok, slight exaggeration). I had the iLo (a Walmart brand of Go Video's Rave MP3 player... Great screen but only 256MB and serious firmware issues when using an expansion card over 512 MB), Creative Zen Xtra (unaccessable controls that are on the side of the unit and the hardest screen to read, especially in the car), a Philips MP3 player I got at Walmart (doesn't support downloaded music...why bother???) and the Rio Carbon. I really fell in love with the Rio Carbon, since the screen was soo legible in the car (white background with black letters), the key pad on the front lit up to be able to see where the keys are in the car, and the sound was great. But since Rio dropped the ball on releasing a firmware update to use Napster-To-Go (subscription-based music service, where you "rent" songs for an extra $5 a month on top of the $9.99 normal Napster service), and the problems with some headphones "buzzing", a week ago I decided to try the Creative Zen Micro...

THANK GOODNESS I DID!!!!

This is a great little MP3 player. Many others have listed the usual features of this player, so I won't bore you with those. I will, however, tell you the pros and cons of why I'm goning to keep this player over the others...

PROS:
1. ALL OF THE CONTROLS ARE ON THE FRONT OF THE PLAYER, AND THEY ALL LIGHT UP--- may not seem like something important, but I use my MP3 player mostly in the car, and having the menu, play/pause, forward, back, and volume controls on the front of the player, and having them all be backlit, makes it sooo easy navigate while in the car. Try using the scroll wheel on the top right-hand corner on the Rio Carbon to scroll down to "Van Halen" while going 70 mph on the highway...you might not make it past "Journey" before wrecking. Since the Creative Zen Micro uses the Vertical Scroll Bar, you can use one finger to scroll up and down... very nice touch!

2. REMOVEABLE BATTERY THAT CHARGES USING USB MICRO PLUG--- since the battery life on these things is, in reality, about 6 hrs, having a removeable battery is nice to have. And it charges using the USB connection, but would be better if it had a wall/car charger that you plug the USB cable into, like on the Rio Carbon.

3. ACTUALLY WORKS WITH NAPSTER-TO-GO!!!!--- I had read horror stories about getting the firmware to upgrade properly, but I've had absolutely no problems with mine (my Mom got one too and she had no problems either). Its great having 1100 songs on my MP3 player. I only own 400 of them, but i get to rent essentially $700-worth of songs for an extra $5 a month. This is an Ipod-killer feature!

4. GREAT WEIGHT & CONTROLS FOR EXERCISING--- I've been walking with my Zen Micro, and it's nice to be able to control everything with my thumb. Also, the DJ feature is great for keeping the music fresh as you're working out/exercising, and so you dont have to keep finding the next song or album to play.

5. EASY TO READ SCREEN--- when in the car, it's imperative to be able to easily see the screen in a quick glance. This screen is essentially a very light blue backlight with dark, dark blue lettering, compared to earlier Creative screens that have dark blue backlight with a slightly darker blue lettering. Still not as nice as Rio Carbon's or Rave/iLo screens, but its vastly improved and easy to read. Too bad you can't set the backlight to stay on all the time (30 sec max). Oh, well, I can't have everything.

6. THE SOUND IS FANTASTIC--- it can get nice and loud, unlike some other players, and the sound quality is about the best I heard (could use a little more bass).

7. NEAT GLOWING FEATURE WHEN RECHARGING--- this was an unexpected feature that has no real usefulness, but it's quite cool. as it's charging the light behind the controls glows brighter, then dimmer...as if it's breathing. useless, but a neat surprise.

CONS:
1. HEADPHONE JACK IS THE MOST FRAGILE COMPONENT EVER MADE!!!--- as soon as I got my Zen Micro from Amazon.com, I downloaded a few songs and started playing it... stuck the headphones in the jack and.... no sound out of the right earpiece. Boy was I mad!!! Felt really screwed over by this product, but I informed Amazon.com and they sent me a new one overnite... THANKS AMAZON.COM!!! (Guess that's why you should buy from a reputable seller!!!) The new one has performed flawlessly, and my mom's has also. Be careful using a large-rimmed 1/8" plug while the player is in the plastic case... the rim hits the top part of the plastic case and torques the headphone jack, thus causing the solder connection to break. Use small plugs and don't put ANY force on the headphone plug/jack!!!! (I use a short headphone extension cable that has a small, 90-degree plug from Radio Shack that is taped to the side of my plastic protective case so it has no stress on the jack, can't be jerked (the tape takes the shock instead of the jack) and so I don't have to remove the plug from the jack, since I frequently change from headphones to FM transmitter in the car. It's worked great and hopefully this will prevent any future jack problems, but it's still rediculous that this is even a problem in the year 2005... How long has the headphone jack been in existence??? NO EXCUSE, CREATIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

For full disclosure, I am in NO way affiliated with any MP3 manufacturer, Amazon.com, nor Napster. Also, I have no ill will against Ipods, I just think being able to "rent" and try music is a great idea after years of having to buy $18 CDs for one or two good songs. I'm just a guy trying to find the "BEST" MP3 player out there that does what I want, and think, it should do.

I hope you enjoy whatever MP3 player you purchase. They all have their own great features and headaches, but the Creative Zen Micro satisfies what I want in a mini-jukebox style MP3 player. I hope my "real world" critique is helpful to you. Good luck!