Customer Reviews

Creative Zen Micro 6 GB MP3 Player Silver

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(35)

 

 

NOTE: this review is for the 5gb player. I wrote this lengthy review for that model, and it didn't show up and I can't re-submit it now. DARN thing! All the specs should be the same though.

I've been behind the times using the same portable CD player for the last 6 or 7 years... so this was really a BIG step up for me. Hopefully this review will be helpful if you have never owned an mp3 player before....
I have no idea how this compares to the ipod, but here is a list of the lesser known features of the zen micro:

PROS
+++ It tells you the number of tracks, albums & playlists uploaded. Total Mb & Mb remaining.
+++ FM radio.
+++ Removable battery & micro hard disc.
+++ If you're halfway through a song (or paused) & you shut it down (or it shuts down after being inactive for a while, IT RESUMES WHERE IT LEFT OFF in the middle of a song when your turn it back on again!! :-)
+++ You can change the idle shutdown time, backlight time, contrast, touchpad sensitivity, language (there are 15 languages installed!!)
+++ sleep timer
+++ You can personalise (configure) menus, much like with mobile phones.
+++ PLAY MODES: normal, repeat track, repeat all, shuffle, shuffle repeat & track once.
+++ You can find songs by albums, artists, genre, playlist
+++ DJ menu: album of the day, random play all, most popular & rarely heard tracks.
+++ There are 10 bookmarks, which I have absolutely no idea how to use, but it must be put onto this list anyway. ;-)
+++ 12/24hr time, alarm, calendar, date (several date formats and you can even choose between the following separators: space, dot, dash, slash)
+++ Variable microphone sensitivity.
+++ Organiser; tasks + contact lists. (synchronised with creative sync manager)
+++ Smart volume + Equaliser (numerous modes: Off, custom, acoustic, classical, disco, jazz, new age, pop, rock, or vocal)
+++ master reset. :-0
+++ track name, title & artist on LCD display.+ battery indication, and various other on-screen icons while a song is playing, such as EQ & repeat modes.
+++ Gives the length of a song as a bar graph so you can tell the progress of the song...
+++ A lot of stuff in the box: remote control, belt clip & cradle, pouch, usb cable, charger, earphones, software (easy enough to figure out).....
+++ Last but not least: a cool blue glow + white backlit screen!!!
+++ There ISN'T a one second delay between playing each song.
+++ My zen micro hasn't crashed on me yet (and I have been sucessful in crashing every computer product known to man, eg: my Ericsson T39m phone several times!)

CONS:
--- The touch pad can be annoying sometimes. So you either have to hold it by the edges when playing a song or put it on hold mode, otherwise your palm will set off a whole bunch of menus.
It's okay when you're using it though.

--- You can't hear any music while fast-forwarding through a song. I am used to being able to go by ear while doing this, but you can't do that with this thing. Maybe a future firmware upgrade will fix this issue? Please??! Creative???!!

--- I walked all around sydney and couldn't find this in *ANY* shop. So I had to buy it online. All the photos of the zen on the 'net are front on.... and I didn't realise until I opened the box that the back & sides of the zen micro were coloured WHITE!!! ARRRRGHHHH! I hate white! Aaaahhh well, I suppose I'll get used to it soon enough.

--- I find the lowest volume setting isn't all that low. I can still hear songs well in a fairly quiet room during the daytime. At 3:00am I think this might be just a tad louder than I would have liked. [This is with panasonic earbuds though]

--- You have to first aportion (partition) the HDD to be used as an extrenal flash drive. Available sizes are: 128, 256, 512Mb, 1, 2Gb. You should be able to just use whatever is available. This isn't a big problem though.

--- Earbuds are too thick for my ears. Wearing them is like stuffing a peanut lengthwise in your ear. It pulls your earlobes out.

--- There is practically zero information (on how to use the menus) in the instruction manual.

I've been using the Zen Micro 6GB for about 3 weeks now. I spent some time before the purchase with a ZM and an equivalent iPOD. I chose the ZM for a number of reasons. Both are fine players, but here is what sent me to the ZM.

Design
ZM is sturdy, with an easy to read screen. Similar case volume to IP but thicker and shorter so feels more compact. I can nearly hide ZM inside my fist. (I have big hands). Case is very smooth. Replaceable battery is a huge advantage over IP. But, design is not as MOMA artsy as IP.

Battery Life
The first few charge/discharge cycles with the ZM were short, about 4-6 hours. But after that I started getting 10 hours at full volume, 12 at normal human volumes. Seems the battery likes to be conditioned a little. Do a couple of full charge and then fully discharge before recharging cycles.

Audio Quality
Playing compressed music on audiophile systems is a waste. So I used Sennhesier PX100s (which I think sound much better than the Senn PX200's - but that's another review), OEM Toyota Car Audio and Tivoli Model One Radio. Although I restricted the ZM to only 128kbps WMA, to my ears, the ZM was noticeably better, with greater presence, better dynamic range and more accurate transients. This was true whether direct link via miniplug, cassette adaptor (SONY adaptor -lower noise) or FM broadcast (Belkin Tunecast II - lower noise better signal more options). Some of the quality difference may have been the different encoding schemes used by IP and ZM rather than the players themselves.

Capacity
Virtually identical. I have nearly 50 hours of 128kbps WMA music and the ZM is only half full. ADVICE - Like all hard drives, both IP and ZM minidrives need some free space to perform housekeeping and other duties. I don't recommend filling either an IP or ZM drive to 100% capacity.

Accessories.
IP wins hands down in number and variety of accessories. Colored covers, bags, pouches, plastic overlays, lights and more. For me, if it doesn't improve the playing experience, I'm not interested. Anything beyond that is a fashion issue. (Think $2000 car with $5,000 worth of trim, wheels and chrome.) You may have other priorities. At a minimum, get a good car charger, wall charger and remote. Both IP and ZM have excellent products available. However, I prefer the standard USB power/PC interface of ZM over the unique IP connections because I've been trapped in proprietary connectors and formats too many times before.

Music Download
Although the iTunes site had a great selection of music, I didn't like iTunes for Windows client or being essentially locked into the iTunes site. I liked the ability to use lots of places to download music for ZM. Creative Organizer software was usable for me without reading the instructions.

Controls
Had no problem with the touchpad controls on ZM even at medium sensitivity. But my notebook PC uses a touchpad and I'm very comfortable with a control interface that does not provide tactile feedback. IP wheel gives you that feedback. ZM alternative response is their wired remote which provides tactile feedback in a more traditional way.

Suggested ZM Product Improvements (Are you listening Creative?)

1) Silicone Cases - I use BoxWave Flexiskin because it makes the case less slippery and allows me to cover the white back of the case with a color. (My ZM is Black on Black).
2) Hard Cases - Look at the sweet Altoids hacks people have created. The demand is there.
3) Wireless remote - Who needs more wires in their life?
4) A Dock - The interfaces are all on the top, so invert the unit in the dock. A simple firmware mod would allow the screen to invert when docked. Dock is much better than loose wires on the counter.
5) Electronic Manuals as Adobe documents are okay, but format them for 8.5x11 paper so we can print them out if we wish. Leaving them formatted as 7x4 because the summary instructions are like that is wasteful.

I'm very happy with the product and feel I made the right choice for me. Your experience and opinion may vary. Enjoy!!

I've had the 4GB version of this player for more than 4 months and I'm very happy with it. I use it on an average 5 hours a day I hook it up to my Belkin FM transmitter in the car or to my Logitech 2.1 Speakers at home, I rarely use it with the earbuds, though they are much better than the ones you normally get with other mp3 players.

The Look & Feel:
I have the black one and the contrasting neon blue on the buttons add a very nice ambience. The light pulsates when you are charging it almost as if it were breathing. The player itself is tiny , it gets a bit bulky when you put it in the hardcase, which you need to do if you don't want to get scrathes on the back(its a nice looking back too ). It feels tiny in the hand without it. The stand that comes with it is very usefult to prop it up on the desk. The belt clip however is not very useful if you move around a lot. The blue backlit LCD looks really neat and is easy to read. The touch controls took a little getting used to but now I wouldn't change it for the scroll wheel.
The touch buttons are textured so that your finger sdon't slip which was very thoughtful.

Reliability & Build

I dropped the player once from about 4 ft, and it fell hard, but kept on playing. The hardcase they give with it must work well.
It feels solid and not flimsy like the carbon.

Sound

I'm no audiophile but I was amazed by the clarity the player had, it was much better than the sound card on my Computer and louder too. I have had the ipod mini and it performs on the level with my sound card but the micro beats it outright.
Best of all the WMAs(I have a lot of them) sound great.

Utility
Its got a huge list of features including an FM Recorder a Calender and contacts list. Its not convinient to enter name of course but synchronise it with outlook and it becomes a gem of a address book. The songs recorded with FM are as good as the original signal. The interface takes 2 secs after you press record to show up but its actually started recording at the moment you press record.

Software
The software that comes along with it is not very intuitive but once you are used to it,it does the job well. Creating and modifying playlists is easy and clean.

There are 2 things that need fixing
First is the battery life. It will run for 6 hrs without problems with medium usage of the buttons.
Second might be a problem I might have with my PC but not too sure, when the player is connected on the USB and I start playing on it and also using the windows explorer, it sometimes pauses by itself and tries to synchronise with the PC during play, which is a bit irritating.

When trying to decide what new mp3 player to purchase, I was very torn between the Ipod Mini and the Zen Micro. In the end it came down to one thing: bang for your buck. In order for Mac to reduce the price of the 5 gig Mini to about $199, they stopped including a charger in the package. The Mini will still charge while hooked up to your PC, but if you plan on going anywhere for a day or two and will not have access to your computer, you're out of luck. Now you can shell out the extra $40 bucks for a charger, or you can use the $40 to purchase the Zen Micro (as in, there is less than a $40 difference in price, the Zen being more expensive.), which not only includes a charger, but an extra gig of space (about 200 songs) for a total of 6 gigs of space, a hard case to protect from the inevitable butter-fingers moments, and two attatchments for the hard case which enable the Zen to either clip to a belt or stand upright on a flat surface, such as a desk or table. The Zen also comes with software that makes it exceptionally easy to add or remove music from your player and/or your PC music library. The software also manages your entire music library, allowing you to burn and copy cd's, create playlists for use on your pc, etc. And, finally, the Zen comes in a greater variety of colors than does the Mini, which is an added bonus. So, which sounds like the better buy to you?

I loved this thing for a total of... oh, about ten months. It really works well, that is, when it is working. I love Creative's mp3 players, but the Micro has a few problems.

The software used to upload music (Creative Mediasource Organizer) wasn't that great, but I got used to it after about two weeks. The problem with it is that it, many times, will not recognize the player being connected, even when the micro is turned on.

The sound quality is great. Although I've heard of many people having issues with the headphone jack, mine worked fine. However, I wasn't using Creative's headphones, so that may have been a problem too.

The way the player works is the problem that I have with this. When it's working, it's fantastic! When it's not working... well, it really doesn't work. Mine had this "wonderful" habit of freezing during songs, while trying to turn it off, and while scrolling through menus. The problem was easily fixed by removing the battery for a few seconds and then popping it back in, but do I REALLY want to have to do that every time I use my mp3 player? There are other mp3 players that will not make me work just to listen to some music.

Just a few days ago, I dropped my Zen Micro. It was NOT a long drop (about one and a half feet) and ever since then, it has stopped working. So, it turns out that this product that I thought was very sturdy actually is quite fragile.

I think I will be purchasing a Zen Vision: M. It won the Best of CES 2006 for best mp3 and portable video, and best in show. I also hear that it does not have as many problems as the Micro does.

I opened up my zen micro and I thought it was AMAZING. It is small, light weight, cool touchpad, and I thought it was perfect. I had read the reviews about how after a few months of use the headphone jack would kind of give out, and you would only be able to hear one frequency. I thought that I would be careful enough, and this problem wouldn't happen to mine. WRONG. I was so careful with my player. I had it in a case, I carried it carefully, I didn't put in my pockets, I never dropped it, etc. 5 months after having it, the headphone jack went bad, and now I have to jiggle it to find the perfect position so that I can hear. Its not the headphones, I replaced those and still had the same problem. Then a couple months after the headphone jack initially went bad, the player started acting really annoying. It would randomly turn on, and I would go to use it and the battery would be dead because it had been playing while I was away. ANNOYING! Then, it got so bad, that it would randomly turn on, I would turn it off, then it would turn on again, and so on. Now, I have to take the battery out just to turn it off, and I keep it out until I'm ready to use it. What a HASSLE. I figured out that it has something to do with the headphone jack, which is right next to the on off switch. I think inside the player, the headphone jack is rubbing up against the on off switch which causes it to turn on. So, taking the headphones out of it when its not being used does help a little, but thats kind of annoying to have to do, and I think it losens the jack even more, which in turn, makes it worse when you want to listen to it. This player also locks up every once in a while, which means you have to take the battery out, put it back in, and wait for it to do its thing and get back to normal. You can definitely get a much better player for just a few bucks more, and I would definitely recommend doing so. I wouldn't base your decision on the reviews by the people who just got their Zen Micro a few days ago, or even a few weeks ago, because as I said, its a pretty good player the first couple months. Don't buy this player!

In the box you find the Zen Micro, a carrying bag, a CD-ROM with all the needed software, a belt clip to carry the device + charging module, USB cable, two li-ion batteries and 2 headphones from Creative.

After buying this player the first thing I did was charging it until the battery was full. This went easy by using included adapter. A full-charge took about 2.5 hours.

Before you can download your MP3s to the Creative Zen Micro you will need to install the included software from Creative. Without this software you will not be able to transfer any date to your Zen. This is somewhat a drawback of this device.

During the installation one of the first things that happened was a crash. But I don't know whether it was just my PC or the software :p

I wanted to listen to my MP3s as quickly as possible because I was dying to test out my little MP3 player I just bought. The software from Creative looked a bit difficult at first because of all its different features.

You can do a lot with it but I wouldn't rate it as a very user-friendly program. The software allows you to listen to MP3s on your PC, upload them to your Zen Micro, burn a CD, watch movies and more..

A few minutes later I had transferred a fair amount of MP3s and I was ready to give it a go. I immediately noticed that the included earphones perform very well. The sound quality is very good and it the player delivers fine basses.

A lot of information is displayed on the LCD screen of this player. It tells you the songname, artist and from which CD the MP3 came. It also displays a counter. When used the players lights up blue - which is cool to see!

The menus of the Zen Micro are easy to use. You can scroll through your playlist by using the vertical touch pad. It's very sensitive but you are able to adjust this to your own needs. Confirming something needs to be done by gently ticking the touch pad.

There are also a few other buttons on this player. Above the touch pad - from left to right - the previous , play/pauze and next button. Under the touch pad there is a `go back' button on the left and a `menu options' button on the right.

On top of the player is the USB port, audio-output and a `key lock' button.

One of the other features of the Zen Micro is the ability to listen to FM-radio. This was one of the functions I like. The device is able to store up to 32 presets which you can give a custom name. The Zen Micro can also scan for radio stations with a good receivement but this function didn't work well. Some of the stations it picked still had a lot of noise.

Also included is a belt clip to carry the device while doing some sports for instance. You can also lock its keys by using the `key lock' button.

On top next to the USB port is also a small hole. This is the built-in micro which can be used to record conversations. I tested this from a close distance and from a few meters away.

The file that I recorded from a close distance was very clear and easy to understand. From a few meters away it was hard to understand because it was recorded way to silent.

Another additional feature of the Zen Micro is its calendar and its addressbook. But to use these you'll need to use Microsoft Outlook. Data can not be inserted on the device, you can only view data transferred from your PC.

Conclusion
The Zen Micro from Creative is an easy to use audio player but at first you need to get used to its touchpad interface. You slowly get the feeling for it it and then it will work flawless. The included software offers a lot of options but unfortunately you are forced to use it. Because of this you can't use the Zen Micro as an external HDD because other PCs will need the software from Creative to recognize the player. And lastly the audio quality from the Creative Zen Micro can be rated is being very high.

Update:: A new firmware update from Creative fixes one of the negative points I mentioned in this review. The new update allows you to transfer files directly to your device without needing to use the Creative software.

This mp3 player is awesome. I have nothing bad to say about it. The software is extremely easy to use. The only problem I have is trying to navigate the menu in the car (which I shouldn't be doing anyway) and really isn't the players fault I guess. One other thing is it only has a 3 bar battery monitor so when one bar is left you could have 10 mins or up to 8 hrs. Other than that though it is perfect. After using my brother's IPOD for a month prior to getting this, the Micro is preferable in many ways (most important to me is ease of use and it is considerably smaller).

Wow, I am often resistant to try new technology. I mean I had a several CD Players, computers, DVD players that play CDs...what did I need with a MP3 player? Well, I did and I finally took the plunge. I wanted one with plenty of memory. This was does. 6 Gig. Sheesh, I think my first computer barely had that! It's so small, fits in your palm. Easy to use touch controls, with slide control to scan the play lists. Quick touch volume adjustment. Easy to install and use. Out of the box you are charging in a minute. It charged quick. Less than three hours. The charge is still going on 9 hours now -- they say 12. Very readers display. Mine was white and red (which I ordered) but they come in black, blue, white, silver and purple.

This is loaded with so many features that I will still be experimenting with everything for days.

The software is a quick load. Once it's done, you plug in the player, and it opens the controls. I just did a Select All and dragged it to the Zen playlists and it downloaded them all very quick.

Absolutely, love all the features, up to 3000 songs, the ease, the richness of the music.

Worth every penny!

I was close to getting an iPod based on it's market presence. But on further research went for this unit instead, mainly because I've ripped a lot of music into WMA format on my PC and preferred not to have to redo that.

I am VERY pleased with this unit:

The setup is a piece of cake
Software is very good
Sound quality is excellent
It's tiny and light.
The controls on the unit are intuitive and easy to use.
Cool looking - blue glowing buttons.

I would have liked it to come with a belt clip or some sort of holder -- I'll have to get that as an accessory.

I'm not sure there's anything that jumps out as being superior to an iPod (a little more disk for the money, but not much difference).

But if you have a wma collection, this is a no brainer.