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| Home >> Handheld & PDA Reviews: Creative Zen 16 GB Portable Media Player (Black) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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User Submitted Creative Zen 16 GB Portable Media Player (Black) Reviews (cont...)Date: 2008-11-26 really enjoyable, capable player I've owned this (8 gig model) for a bit over a year and have used it heavily. A few fairly minor cons and a raft of important pros: ++++pros *good looks *acceptably quick power-on *solid manufacture (doesn't at all feel hollow or cheap) *has survived one drop from waist-height to tile floor (yikes) *8gb model is so roomy that it's difficult to overflow with music (different story for vids) *highly configurable menu (lets you remove items you don't want to see, change order of those you leave) *skinnable (you can put your own image as the wallpaper) *bright screen (see cons, haha... can be used as a nightlight, no joke) *great battery life (20 hrs or so without excessive browsing songs and with display @ 10%) *almost limitless memory expansion via SDHC card (though see cons) *easy to navigate (max of about four levels) *quick search by first letter (scroll through quickly) *reset button doesn't clear your stuff...just fixes hangs (see cons) *has radio (decent enough reception using your headphone cable as the antenna) *doesn't necessitate buying into the whole itunes proprietary nonsense ---- cons *black shows every smudge and fingerprint. if you're OCD about this, don't... just don't. if that's nbd for you, fine. *does play movies and does so well, but unless you have hours and hours to convert size and format, fuggetaboutit *sometimes gets hung (reset button to the rescue) *SDHC card is treated as separate memory with separate browsing *cannot play a song while charging (though very occasionally that has worked; usually though it stops play) *window scratches fairly easily (e.g. don't throw in pocket with keys) *perhaps the biggest gripe: its bundled software is not exactly likeable (it works but i am irked by it), and doesn't work at all in xp/64 (fine in 32-bit environment, but the unit can be browsed to and loaded via windows explorer) *occasional song corruption occurs if you don't use the installed software (fix is to delete the song and re-add using the sw or the wmp11 mtp update) *screen is really bright -- only goes in 10% increments, and 10% is still really bright at night, yow *only recharging option is USB, which necessitates the purchase of 12v accessory if you want to charge in car, for instance, or 120v accessory if you don't have a computer handy +++ final verdict despite a list of cons, most are minor for me and easily overlooked. most of the pros shine, or at least glow. i'm giving it 4 stars **** but not 5. a 5-star product would surpass all expectations and really blow me away. this is highly recommendable and if a few quirks (say, ahem, software, and the annoying separation of main memory from SDHC cards) were banished, i think this would go into the 5-star realm. still, a very nice unit, one that i use happily and friends and family ooh and aah about. Date: 2008-11-26 IPODs doesn't have FM radio.. My fiance got this for me on my bday. I like it at first until it freezes on me several times. I had to reset after it happens and then it erases all my downloads. Downloading your stuff to this is slower than the IPOD. I still like it because the fact it has FM radio which I can switch to when all my downloads sounds boring. Pictures, music, movies, etc looks better than the IPOD I had. I just wish it doesn't freezes a lot when I'm in a hurry for work.... Date: 2008-11-25 don't bother cheap flimsy and NO mfr support Don't waste your time I ordered one and it was dead on arrival which is OK but Creative doesn't offer a web address for support-all you get is some generic FAQs which are not really very helpful. After owning iPods and iRiver products I am not surprised the unit did not work-it was cheap and flimsy and even if it did work it probably would have failed sooner rather than later. I gave it one star because the system would not accept a no star review! Date: 2008-11-24 Good player, with only one [so far] show-stopper The only thing that I don't like about it is that it forgets where the audio track was paused if I watch a video (or where the video was paused if I pause and play a song), or after an off-on-off cycle without playing anything prior to turning it off the second time. - The screen is bright and contrast is good - It works in Linux (use Gnomad, or the MTP plugin for Rhythmbox) - Very light - It is easy to "scroll" inside a track, just keep the rewind button pressed and it will increase the step if you hold it longer Another important detail is the label you see when you open the package: { WARNING: Handling this product may expose you to chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other rproductive harm. } People from Creative commented as follows: { Our apologies, that passage was inadvertently placed into the Zen documentation. There are no cables in the Zen package that contain any traces of lead that would fall under California's Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986. } Date: 2008-11-23 Good buy! I'm practical. Don't necessarily have to have the best. Just the functions I need and not be terribly complicated. This is my first MP3 player and for what I wanted it for and the price at the time, it was and is perfect. Had it for 3 months and it delivers as expected. No problems.
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