Creative Zen 32 GB Portable Media Player (Black) | List Price: $299.99
Discount Price: $274.99
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Brand: Creative Labs
Binding: Electronics
Warranty: 1 year warranty
Features: - Enjoy all of your media on a device that's about the width of a credit card
- Watch 120 hours of videos, enjoy up to 8,000 of your favorite songs, or share hundreds of photos with your friends
- 2.5-inch TFT color display with 320 x 240-pixel resolution and support for up to 16.7 million colors
- Clock and alarm function, volume restriction, eight equalizer settings, and a USB hard drive mode
- Weighs 2.1 ounces and measures 3.26 x 2.16 x .44 inches (W x H x D)
Enjoy it a lot, wish it started up faster [Posted on 2008-08-09]
I love the capacity, I like the interface, and I don't mind the separation of the SD card from the internal memory.
I do not like the slow startup time. It is ridiculous at times. If I am able to anticipate using the player though, I just start it up a few minutes before I want to use it. It starts decently fast if it has been on within the last 30 minutes or so. Another trick I use if is to turn it on and leave it plugged into my USB hub all night. That lets it start up fast in the morning and it is fully charged.
The ONE thing I do regret about this is that a few weeks after I bought this they released the new Zen X-Fi Creative Zen X-Fi 32 GB Video MP3 Player with Wireless LAN and Built-In Speaker (Black). I was torn between returning the player and using the credit to get the new one, but the new features are not very necessary to me.
All in all, great sound quality, good storage capacity, decent battery life (I average around 16 - 18 hours), and an amazing screen make for a good MP3 player. Not perfect, but I like it a lot.
Powerful iPod alternative, could be perfect if tweaked [Posted on 2008-08-15]
Admittedly, to begin with I was a bit anti-iPod. After all my family members have purchased Creative mp3 players (the Vision M and Vision W) I too wanted the freedom to enjoy a player with more options and less branding.
Creative's newest player, simply "Zen", lived up to my expectations and then some.
On the positive side, light as a feather, small and compact, GREAT storage for its size (32 GB with no HDD? YES Expandability? YES), amazing sound quality, beautiful colors in both still pictures and video, pretty good quality voice recording (helpful in recording lectures, though works better sitting up close obviously), customizable FM radio (even worked great picking up FM stations internationally on my recent trip abroad), good Equalizer...and best of all for me, works with my PC player of choice, Windows Media Player.
On the negative side, as a WMP user, I found the options in sorting and playback a bit lacking. It isn't a database powerhorse that can sort music by ratings, language, sub-genre, Folder, etc. compared to the huge list of sorting options available in Windows Media Player, where I can play a desired set of songs without even making a playlist using those sorts. However, playlists are fairly easy to make on your computer (a bit more tedious to do on the player) so planning for your listening/workout/whatever experience that way is one option.
Also, compared to previous ZENs, no A/C adapter charger comes with the player, meaning you have to charge it through USB by default, which didn't help for my trip abroad without computer access... In addition, by default it does not come with a cable or jack to output video to a monitor, an option I greatly enjoyed in the Vision M and W players. Finally, the buttons do feel a bit cheap to touch, though I haven't had a problem with them yet. And although the image quality is amazing, it's very easy to collect dirt or smear oil stains onto the player, so a protective casing is very much recommended.
I still highly recommend this player for those looking for an iPod alternative. For those looking for a bit more of a versatile alternative, maybe check out the older ZEN Vision models (though W is out of production) if you're willing to compensate the lightweight and small size for those other options.
So near and yet so far.... [Posted on 2008-08-15]
When this player works, it is very hard to beat. Compact size, easy navigation, user-configurable menus, and excellent graphics and sound, as well as accomodating SDHC cards up to at least 16GB, are great features, but.... mine had the white screen of death when I received it, and, though it would be normal for several hours at a time, would eventually get the white screen again, and be unusable for unpredictable amounts of time.
So, despite the fact that this is a very good player, when it works, it has serious problems that Creative, IMHO. should have addressed before continuing to sell it. If they are replacing all their older HD players with flash players, and the Zen 32GB is their flagship, why not get it working right instead of putting the burden of return, repair or replacement on us, their customers? Creative forums mention that the "white screen of death" is a hardware problem that affects about 1% of Zen players, not a problem that can be fixed by firmware updates.
And here the problems really began. I emailed Amazon to get a replacement, and, after a few days of runaround, was told that they would give me a refund instead, and that I could buy one for the same price from "BuyNow Incorporated". I had never heard of this company, and could find no info about them online. Today, Clicking on their name on Amazon's page, I see they say they have 97% positive reviews for the last 30 days as well as for their lifetime.
I bought the player from them, and they turned out to be Buy.com, a company that some sources online say is owned by Amazon, and that has the disinction of receiving some of the worst online reviews of any company I have ever seen. ResellerRatings.com gives them a 6 month rating of 2.41 out of 10 and a lifetime rating of 4.27. Buy.com say that their goal is to be the "best place to buy on the internet" but in fact they make no pretense of providing any customer service at all. They respond infrequently and very inadequately to emails, and, as far as I could determine after ten days of searching, do not even have a telephone number to call for support. Today I read on another site that 800-800-0800 is their customer service number, but I have not confirmed this.
Why should I put up with doing business with a company that won't even talk to me after I buy a $240 item from them ?
They shipped my player using UPS Mail Innovations, which is about the worst free shipping "service" that I have ever seen. My package has been sitting for three days in Springfield, Ma. without moving. I bought it 8/7, it was shipped 8/9, and today is 8/15! Almost all the reviews of UPS Mail Innovations report the same kind of thing - long delays in shipping and delivery, poor tracking information, etc. Avoid this company at all costs, and if you are getting free shipping, make sure it is via a reliable carrier like UPS or USPS.
As far as BuyNow Incorporated / Buy.com. and UPS Mail Innovations, I would not recommend them to my worst enemy. Amazon should be ashamed of having such companies as partners or associates, and especially ashamed of trying to foist off Buy.com as "BuyNow Incorporated" a nasty little piece of deliberate deception.
In light of the awful reviews of this company online, and my confirming personal experience, I am now afraid to do business with them. I am most likely going to cancel this order and buy from another source. I would only buy the Zen with an extended warranty, but I shudder to think of the problems that I might encounter if I needed and tried to get warranty service from Buy.com.
I have so far been a slow learner, but now I am going to change my way of doing business online. After days and weeks of poor service and slow delivery times, from this and other "bargain" online stores, I realize that I would much rather pay 10% to 20% more for a product brought from a trustworthy, reliable, and honest company, than to try to "save money" by using companies that have no interest in customer satisfaction or service, and whose idea of "customer service" is to employ some poor devils in Sri Lanka, Manila, or Bombay who barely speak English, and train them to say how "sorry" they are for the inconvenience that I have experienced. But who cannot, or will not, do anything to help me.
I do want to make it clear that my experience in buying direct from Amazon.com has been excellent. Shipping has been fast, and customer service, though far from perfect, has been adequate.
Great Replacement for My Toshiba Gigabeat S 30GB [Posted on 2008-08-17]
After two flawless years of service, my Toshiba Gigabeat S 30GB went through the laundry. Even after all that it still tries to start up, but the hard drive is toast. I was crushed to find out you can no longer buy a Gigabeat S. Why Toshiba would discontinue such a great product is a mystery to me.
After a few days of research, I realized the 32 GB Zen was the closest I was going to get to replacing my old friend. I ordered it and am glad I did. It's a great product that offers more features than the Gigabeat and is about 20% smaller as well as being lighter.
The controls are very intuitive. I was operating it right out of the box without needing to read first. It does everything the Gigabeat did, and also has a calendar feature, clock radio type alarm, voice recorder and more. It also has an SD slot in case 32 gigs isn't enough. The FM radio setting works great, and is a must have for any mp3 player I will ever own. Reception is good and the Zen has an auto-scan feature for finding your station presets that the Gigabeat did not have.
The only con I can think of is the scroll speed through the tunes. The Gigabeat had a fast scroll mode that I'll miss. If you fill up the 32 gig flash drive with tunes, that feature is needed, IMO.
I've seen negative comments about the included earbuds in other reviews. They really aren't that bad. They have a bit of pseudo-bass, but I've heard worse. I plugged my studio grade Sennheiser 280s and they didn't sound much better.
Overall, a great product. I would definitely buy another if this one ever goes through the laundry.
Not As Good As It Seems [Posted on 2008-08-19]
I do not own this product but a friend of mine does. This worked great as a mp3 player but the video aspect of this device (what it is marketed as) is subpar. It does not accept all formats in its conversion and worst of all when you can get something to convert there is a time lapse between the video and the sound.
My friend bought this because he travels a lot and wanted to watch movies on flights. With a long Video (over 30 min) the sound gets about 1 second off for every 30 mins or video. You may not notice it at first but by the end of the movie you will be tearing your hair out in frustration.
The picture viewer is one of the finer aspects of the Zen. It works well for showing off your pictures and the slideshow viewer works pretty good. You can also use it as a giant flash drive if you want to.
I am giving this device a 2 out of 5 stars because even though it works well as a picture viewer and mp3 player you can buy other creative products that do the same thing for $200 less. The fact that the video does not sync up with the audio and the poor file format support makes it not as good as its predecessor the Zen Vision W.
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