Portable Media Player Reviews

Tech Digest previews the new Vision W 30GB portable media player from Creative set to launch later in the month. 'It's a 30GB player with a 4.3" screen in a 16:9 format, which is good news for portable movie watchers. The Vision W plays MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4-SP, MJPEG, DivX 4 and 5 and XviD video formats, offering around 4.5 hours of video playback. And of course, it's a digital music player, with an FM radio if you feel you need your Terry Wogan fix. And for all your Napster punters (which includes myself), it's good for subscription downloads - so you can fill it on a Monday with the week's new releases.'

CNET [Asia] has reviewed the Creative Zen Neeon 2 (4GB) player. 'Based on the Zen Neeon, the Zen Neeon 2 is the second update to Creative's Neeon line since its debut in November 2005. Unlike the first Neeon which used a 5GB hard drive, the Zen Neeon 2 utilizes flash memory as a storage option. It comes in three flavors: 1GB (S$179 (US$113.88)), 2GB (S$239 (US$152.05)) and 4GB (S$319 (US$202.95)). By using flash, the Neeon 2 maintains a waifish 50g weightage and a svelte 81 x 42 x 12.5mm figure. The new form factor also makes the Zen Neeon 2 very slick; the metal backing and sloping lines on the front plastic face give it a lifestyle feel that's missing from the first Neeon.'

CNET reviews the new Zen Vision W (30GB) portable video player from Creative. 'The Zen Vision:W quickly brings Creative up to speed in the blossoming world of portable video. And how could it not, with its splendid 4.3-inch wide-screen display, intuitive control set, removable battery, and CompactFlash slot? Bulkier than the aging Zen Vision, this aggressively-priced 30GB ($299.99) or 60GB ($399.99) portable video player definitely marches to its own beat, forgoing the DVR functionality that makes the Archos 04 series and Cowon A2 so special. But with more sources of compatible video content becoming available via online stores and TiVo, should we care?

Brian Heater writing over at Laptop magazine has posted a review of the Creative Zen V Plus player. ‘The V Plus’ curvy, colorful design definitely sets it apart from the nano; it’s shorter and nearly as light as Apple’s icon (1.6 versus 1.5 ounces), but it’s noticeably thicker (0.3 versus 0.6 inches). Unfortunately, the plastic case has a bit of a Fisher-Price feel. The trim around the joystick and volume button comes in different colors, depending on the capacity. 1GB is orange, 2GB is green, and 4GB is blue. It’s only a small portion of the player, but this accent makes a big difference. The Zen V Plus’ body is protected with a scratch-resistant coating. This player isn’t nearly as scratch-prone as the nano, but we did start to see a few minor scuffs on the screen after only a few days of use.’

Michael Pereira has posted a review of the Xmod device from Creative which plugs in between an audio source and stereo speakers or pair of headphones and improves the audio quality of compressed music. 'After using the Xmod for the past few months I know it definitely makes improvements in my compressed files, but I wouldn't say the sound or experience is better than studio quality. The reason for that is, the studio recording is what the artist intended to put out. Take for example The White Stripes. A lot of their tracks were recorded using old equipment and because of this many of their songs have some sort of noise. Now, the Xmod could potentially clean up this noise, but that doesn't mean it's now better than studio quality. An art restorer working on the Sistine Chapel is not going to say his/her work will give you a better experience than Michelangelo's original. Neither should Creative when it comes to music.'

Trusted Reviews have published their review of the Creative Zen V Plus 8GB portable media player. 'Weighing a mere 43.5 grams and measuring 43.5 x 67 .5 x 15.9mm it’s very small too; as is the 128 x 128, 1.5in OLED display. Our review sample is the black and blue 8GB version, but the Zen V Plus series is also available in 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB capacities as well as a variety of different colour schemes based on a black or white casing with different colour ‘accents’. Alternatively there’s the Zen V, which is more or less identical but lacks FM radio and is only available in up to 4GB capacities.Format support is full of all the usual suspects, MP3, WMA and WMA DRM with support for music services using Microsoft’s PlayForSure platform. Regrettably there isn’t any support for OGG or any of the lossless formats that are becoming increasingly popular. Obviously, any Apple based format isn’t supported either but there is support for the Audible audiobook service.'

PC Magazine have published a review of the Creative ZEN Stone MP3 player. 'The Stone has rounded edges and a smooth and shiny surface that comes in black, red, greenish yellow, blue, white, and pink. It's about 2 by 1.2 inches and a third of an inch thick—slightly larger than the shuffle, but remains easily pocketable. Indeed, it is in my pocket and playing music as I write this, and it has yet to skip a track accidentally or pause itself despite the lack of a lock or hold button. The top spine of the unit, from left to right, has a 3.5-mm headphone jack, followed by a switch that chooses play modes and controls the Skip Folder function. To the right of the switch is a reset button for erasing content on the player, and on the front face is a small LED that uses a series of blinking green, red, or orange lights to inform you of battery life and player status.'

A review of the Creative Zen Stone (1GB, black) MP3 player has been posted over at CNET. 'Measuring 2.1 inches by 1.3 inches by 0.4 inch, the Zen Stone is noticeably larger than the iPod Shuffle, and it lacks the handy clip found on the Apple player. Instead, there's a lanyard loop built into the left edge. You'll have to supply your own lanyard, though; Creative merely supplies some standard earbuds and a syncing cable. However, I was happy to see that the Stone syncs via a standard mini-USB port found on the bottom edge of the device. The top side houses the reset hole, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a playback switch. The latter lets you switch between shuffle and repeat modes and includes a function called "Folder Skip," a handy navigational feature to be discussed in more detail shortly.'

A review of the new Creative Zen Stone portable audio player has been posted over at Anything But iPod. 'The Zen Stone is coated in a hard, smooth plastic giving it the feel of a nicely polished river rock. The plastic is the same material found on the Zen V Plus and is fairly scratch resistant; it will scratch but not easily under typical use. It is pleasant to hold in your hand and lends to a very useable design - small but not too small to use for bigger hands.A nice touch added to the left side of the player is a place to connect a lanyard for wearing around your neck. The standard USB plug is found on the bottom with the headphone jack located on the top. On the left face of the player is an LED that will indicate the status of the player and the battery level with various flashing sequences and LED colors.'

Trusted Reviews have published their review of the Creative Zen Stone 1GB MP3 player. ‘Measuring 53.7 x 35.3 x 12.8mm, and weighing a mere 18.5g, Creative has certainly hit the nail on the head design wise. Dare I say it looks better than the Shuffle? I do dare, it does look better. Shiny coloured plastic is always a good look, and though Creative sent us the dourer black version the Zen Stone is available in a variety of bright and uplifting colours. Crucially, the shiny plastic is also pleasingly scratch resistant so your Stone won't look like an actual stone after a few days in your pocket.’

Pocket-Lint have published their review of the Creative Zen V Plus MP3 player. ‘Small, glossy and lacking few buttons, the Zen V Plus is an easy to use MP3 player that comes in either a 4Gb, 2Gb or 1Gb models.You'll know which one you've got instantly by the colour coding in the design; the 4GB model comes in a glossy black with blue accents, the 2GB model in glossy black with green accents, and the 1GB model in glossy black with orange accents. Using the device's small but simple joystick is aided by an additional two buttons - play/pause and back on the front of the unit, while a volume control, record button and lock button can be found on the sides. The top offers a USB connection and 3.5 mm headphone jack as well as line-in.’

A review of the Creative Zen Stone MP3 player has been posted over at The Register. ‘The Zen Stone is more of a pebble really, weighing in at a tiny 24g. The fact then that it’s actually a little larger than the Shuffle really shouldn’t bother you – it’s still extremely wee, but not so small as to be unmanageable for anyone with above-pixie-sized digits. The device comes with the absolute bare essentials; headphones, USB lead, start-up leaflet. There are some accessories coming on the market like armbands and keychain cases, and whether you want to bulk-it up is down to individual taste, but for us one of the key selling points of the Zen Stone is its portability…and price, coming in at only £20.’

Pocket-Lint have published their review of the Creative Zen Stone MP3 player 'Twice the size of the metal shuffle (it’s roughly equivalent of two shuffle's side by side) the Creative Zen Stone is available in six glossy colours (black, white, red, blue, pink and green) and as you can imagine by the name, has rounded corners so it looks like a pebble or stone. At first glance the two players are virtually identical, however on closer inspection there are differences. The Zen doesn't for example have a clip that allows you to attach it to your clothes when out on a jog, however it does have a USB socket so you don't have to worry about a docking station when it comes to charging or transferring files.'

Personal Computer World have published their review of the Creative Zen Stone MP3 player. 'A simple directional pad on the front allows you to adjust volume, skip and search and pause and play. It’s responsive enough and the depressed design makes it fairly easy to use by touch. On the top of the unit is a flick switch that adds a little more functionality by allowing you to move forwards through your collection an album at a time. You can also randomise playback to mix things up a bit; an extremely worthwhile addition for a player of this type.'

Pocket-Lint have published a review of the new Creative Zen Stone Plus MP3 player. ‘It seems like only days ago that Creative announced the launch of its iPod Shuffle killer the Zen Stone, but that aside, Creative have surprisingly launched a follow up; the Zen Stone Plus. So what's the difference and should you be sitting up and paying attention? The most major upgrade is the addition of a round blue OLED display for at-a-glance track and feature selection even though the size of the player hasn't increased.’

A review of the Creative Zen Stone MP3 player has been posted over at IT Reviews. 'A simple directional pad forms the bulk of controls on the front of the player, allowing you to adjust volume, skip and browse tracks and play and pause. Interestingly you're given an extra bit of control over your music to make up for the lack of a display: a top-mounted slider switch allows you to skip through your collection one album at a time, or alternatively enable a shuffle mode to randomise your playlist. As you'd probably guess, there's not a lot else to say about the operation of the player itself, but we're pleased to say that sound quality is very good, and it's certainly loud enough to drown out traffic and background noise wherever you might be using it.'

Trusted Reviews have published their review of the Creative Zen Stone Plus MP3 player. 'At 2GB it has twice as much memory as the Shuffle – enough for around 500 MP3 tracks at 128kbit/sec. It has a microphone (the Shuffle doesn't), so you can use it as an impromptu dictaphone. It has a standard mini-USB connection, so you don't have to carry the daft little docking station around with you as you do with the Shuffle, and with the stubby USB cable that comes in the box, you can simply drag-and-drop music files to it, rather than being force to use proprietary software. It has an FM tuner built in and even a stopwatch. And the Zen Stone Plus is also cheaper than its aluminium-clad rival too. Though the price typically comes in around 50 quid - the same ball park as Apple's diminutive clip-on player – you can get one for as little as £39.'

PC Magazine have published their review of the Creative ZEN Stone Plus MP3 player. 'The design of the Stone Plus is similar to the original Stone's. The most noticeable change: where the ZEN logo was on the last iteration is now a circular, 0.75 inch OLED. The right side of the front face houses a similar control wheel to that of the older Stone—volume controls and skipping buttons surround a central Enter button (the central button on the original was for play/pause).

A review of the Creative Zen Stone MP3 player has been posted over at EpiZenter.net. ‘Like many of Creative’s previous Zen players (e.g. Zen V Plus), the Stone is a cute and curvaceous little device. As the name would indicate, the player is smooth and rounded like a polished stone. Due in part to the lack of a screen, the Stone has a very minimalistic look to it. Its simple, yet appealing design goes perfect with the Zen namesake. T he layout of the player is also pretty straightforward. You’ll find the headphone jack, mode switch, and reset button at the top of the player, and the mini-USB port at the bottom. One thing missing from the Zen Stone, that its competitor has is a built-in clip.’

CNET have published their review of the Creative Zen Stone Plus (2GB, black) MP3 player. 'At first glance, it appears that the tiny (3/4-inch), round screen is the only thing distinguishing the Zen Stone Plus from its Plus-less sibling. Indeed, the players are the same size (2.1 inches wide by 1.3 inches tall by 0.4 inch deep) and nearly the same weight (at 0.74 ounce, the Plus has 0.09 ounce on the Stone), and they come in the same six colors: black, blue, green, pink, red, and white. They both have a lanyard loop built into the left edge, a standard mini USB port and reset hole on the bottom side, and a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack on the top.

A review of the Creative Zen Vision W 30GB portable media player has been posted over at Trusted Reviews. 'Around the edges you'll find a CompactFlash (CF) card slot good for type I and II cards, a mini-USB socket for file transfer and charging, a docking port for the optional cradle, an analogue AV out, DC input, headphone socket and further controls on the top edge for volume and on/off/hold. But with so many smaller players now offering video playback, and Archos’ fifth generation players imminent, does the Zen do enough? On the face of it, it would certainly seem so. It has a widescreen, where the latest Archos players do not. And at a smidgen over £200 for the 30GB version, it seems to be pretty good value too.'

The new "credit card" sized ZEN multimedia player from Creative weighs 65g and has the capacity to carry up to 16GB of storage.

Features:
• Capacity: 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB's
• 2.5" display with 16.7 million colors (320 x 240)
• SD Expansion Slot (possible support for SDHC)
• Audio: MP3, WMA (and WMA-DRM), AAC (supports iTunes Plus tracks) and Audible
• Video: WMV, Divx, Xvid, MJPEG, and TIVO to Go
• FM tuner and Voice Recorder
• Battery Life: 25 hours of Audio, 5 hours for Video
• Dimensions: 55 x 83 x 11.3mm (65g)
• Pricing: $149, $199, $299 respectively

CNET Asia have published their "First take" on the new Creative Zen Digital Media Player (16GB). 'This Zen's biggest asset has to be its pocket-friendly dimensions. Possibly Creative's smallest portable media player to date, the unit measures just 55 x 83 x 11.3mm, giving it a footprint no larger than a credit card. At 65g, its weight is also a mere fraction of its Zen Vision predecessors. All in all, we felt the handy size of the Zen PMP makes it a breeze to carry around and this will undoubtedly be its strongest draw as a portable entertainment device to both genders. For such a tiny player, Creative has packed its PMP to the brim with features. In addition to music playback and FM radio, the Zen is compatible with various native video formats (including DivX, XviD and WMV9 codecs) and can also be used to view movies as well as photos on its bright 2.5-inch QVGA display.'

Trusted Reviews have published a "Hands on" preview of Creative's new Zen player. 'Creative claims that the 2.5in screen sports a true 16.7 million colours - a true 8-bit screen in a device this small is quite impressive, considering that many full size PC monitors only sport 6-bit panels. With a resolution of 320 x 240, the screen should be on a par with the majority of media based mobile phones available today. That said, the screen on the Zen did look surprisingly sharp and vivid, just as the screen in the Zen Vision M did. Obviously a 2.5in screen isn't gong to give you the best movie watching experience, but if you've considered watching video on an iPod, the Zen is offering you a potentially better solution in a far smaller package.'

Laptop Magazine have published their review of the new Creative Zen multimedia player. 'The credit card-sized Creative Zen is an attractive but somewhat cheap-feeling PMP with a glossy black face that quickly collects fingerprints. At 3.2 x 2.1 x 0.4 inches and 2.1 ounces, it's noticeably larger and heavier than Apple's latest iPod nano (2.8 x 2.1 x 0.3 inches and 1.7 ounces), but with the extra girth comes a larger screen (2.5 inches vs. 2 inches) that can display 16.7 million colors. Plus, you get an SD Card for loading additional content even after you've maxed out the onboard memory. We tested a 4GB model ($129), but the Zen is available in 8GB ($199) and 16GB ($249) versions.'

CNET have published their review of the new Creative Zen (4GB) MP3 player. ‘Despite its ample screen, the Zen is pleasantly compact. At just 3.3 inches by 2.1 inches by 0.4 inch, it's about 60 percent smaller than the Vision:M and it's definitely pocket-friendly. We're also pleased to note that Creative didn't skimp on the controls and has migrated completely to the user-friendly tactile variety. Main functions are handled by a four-way control square surrounding a center select button. This is flanked on the top by a back/contextual menu rocker and on the bottom by a shortcut and play/pause toggle. Sadly, there's no dedicated volume control, but the right edge of the Zen houses the ever-handy hold/power switch along with a standard mini-USB port and 3.5mm headphone jack. The reset and mic holes can be found on the bottom and top spines, respectively.’

Pocket Lint have published a review of the Creative Zen potable media player. 'Apple may rule the roost when it comes to the MP3 player market, but that hasn't stopped Creative Labs offering good player after good player as an alternative. Its latest, simply called the Creative Zen is a credit-card sized player ready to take on the nano. So does it? When Creative say credit-card sized, Creative really mean it. The little player (measuring just 55 x 83 x 12mm) boasts a 16.7 million colour 2.5-inch colour screen and will be available in models with 4, 8 or 16GB storage. Somehow amongst the screen, which is the same size as the Apple iPod, has a series of buttons down the side and an SD card slot for further expansion.'

Trusted Reviews have published their review of the Creative Zen 4GB digital media player. 'Once you've got your music and video onto the Zen, navigating through the attractive-looking menu system is very straightforward. The four way d-pad isn't as nice to use as the nano's click wheel, and the rest of the buttons' aren't instantly intuitive either thanks to the fact they have rather ambiguous symbols on them. However, after a short while you'll be flicking around from screen to screen and creating playlists on the fly without a second thought. One excellent feature common to this and other Creative players is index navigation: click right on the device's d-pad and you can then navigate by initial letter. This makes it a snip to navigate long lists quickly.'

Register Hardware have published a review of the Creative Zen portable media player. 'The Zen is a small, black rectangle with a 2.5in landscape-oriented screen that can display 16.7m colours. The front of the device is glossy and is mostly the screen, while the back is a matt-black metal with a pleasing logo dimple. The controls are found to the right of the screen. From the top down, there's a Back navigation button and a contextual-menu key. Next comes the square five-way controller for volume adjustment and track-skipping, then a Forward menu button and Play/Pause. The right-hand side of the player is home to the power button that doubles as the lock key. Below it sits a mini USB port and the headphone jack while. There's an SD card slot and a mic on top of the player.'