Customer Reviews:
 Awesome Better than IPOD November 17, 2006
11 out of 14 found this review helpful
I purchased this unit about 2 months ago and love it. The unit is tiny and much more durable than the ipod. It has a huge memory and works well with Media player. I would get this over an ipod anyday now!
 Not Ready for Prime Time? November 16, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought the 2 GB model because the 4 GB version wasn't available yet and it had the largest flash memory of any unit that works with my Napster-To-Go subscription, so it can store the largest number of songs and color photographs. The 4 GB version is identical except for the amount of installed flash memory.
Why did I choose a flash memory based MP3 player? Napster-To-Go compatible hard drive models with much larger storage capacity abound, but I figure they'll break prematurely because they use a hard drive that can't withstand much jogging, accidental bumping or dropping.
I bought two of these players plus the separately sold AC wall charger, and attached one of them to the wall charger for 6 hours, while I attached the other one to a USB port on my PC to charge it for 6 hours.
At the end of 6 hours, the unit attached to the PC was fine until I unplugged it, then it went comatose and would not even revive when the reset button was pushed several times. I had to exchange it for a replacement unit just two days after buying it.
The unit attached to the wall charger was fine, and I went on to load it up with music using my Napster-To-Go subscription. That was fine until 2 weeks later, when my wife charged it on a PC using the USB cable. After charging and disconnecting from the PC, it too went comatose.
This time I was able to revive it by pushing the reset button.
Then I took a look at the other unit, which had been charging on the AC wall charger. It had also gone comatose, and I was able to revive it by pushing its reset button.
The reset button is inside a tiny hole on the left edge of this unit. You can find it by following the thin groove that's below the screen all the way to the left edge of the unit, where you'll find it on the side. The picture in the manual does NOT accurately depict its location.
The hole leading to the reset button is very, very small. The instructions say to penetrate that hole with a pin.
I used the sharp end of a safety pin to do this. When the pin is inserted, it's quite easy to miss the reset button unless the pin is inserted at exactly the right angle. You'll know it's not at the right angle if you don't feel that you're pushing on a pad with a spring behind it when you reset the unit. That pad travels a short distance until it's stopped by a control surface inside the unit; that's when you know it has been reset.
The reset system should be redesigned so that it doesn't depend on the angle you insert the pin to work. I suspect that the first unit I returned could have been reset if I had known that you have to insert the pin at just the right angle to do it. Since I didn't know, my several attempts to reset it were not successful.
Resetting the unit is akin to rebooting a PC: it revives it when the internal software (called "firmware") has frozen by restarting the software. It does not erase your songs or photos.
Make no mistake: this MP3 player looks, feels and works beautifully. However, since the firmware is newly designed, it appears to have bugs relating to disconnecting it from USB or charger power that cause it to freeze, and the reset button is a little hard to use if you don't know about the things I described above that could cause you to be unable to reset it. You may just end up with a unit that's frozen and not be able to reset it.
It needs to be a little more user friendly than that. Hopefully a future firmware update will be available that will lower the occurrence of the unit locking up (freezing), especially when disconnecting from a USB port or AC charger after recharging it. As another user noted, the "safe disconnect" icon is often times not even in the system tray.
If you don't subscribe to Napster-To-Go, your options to get content for your MP3 player are to transfer your favorite songs from CDs you own to your hard disk ("ripping the songs"), or purchase songs one track or album at a time, at a price ranging from 88 to 99 cents per song from Napster, Rhapsody or WalMart.
You can also download books you want to listen to (such as best sellers and classics) or "podcasts" (your favorite newspapers read aloud, or your favorite radio programs like NPR) from a plethora of sites (like NetLibrary or Audible) that make these available, onto your computer's hard drive. Now you can listen to your music, audible books and podcasts over your PC loudspeakers while sitting at your PC.
Then you can transfer your songs, audible books and podcasts from the hard drive of your PC to your MP3 player(s). This enables you to take your MP3 player with you to enjoy listening in your car, in your office, while jogging or working out at the gym, while shopping, or at the pool or the beach to hear your music, audible books and podcasts anywhere.
Nice player...almost perfect. November 15, 2006
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
I bought this player a month ago. I saw the new Nano's and was about to buy one. I played with Itunes for a week and confirmed, that an Ipod wasn't for me. I went to Amazon to see what Creative had that was comparable to the Nano. I found the Zen V Plus.
I found it to be very versitile it did the things I do with a Mini Disc player but smaller and video. I don't like Sony's DRM so I rip in WMA. The fact that I could transfer 10x faster than Sony Mp3 player or Mini Disc and drop and drag kept me from returning it. The sound is tailorable but not great; but still very good for a Mp3 player. The video sucks; with my Palm pilot video files compress to small file sizes for playback not so with the Zen it uncompress so a file that takes up 75MB on a Palm pilot takes up 450MB on the Zen. In short not for video and the screen is pretty darn small. I will agree with other reviews on the plus and will not mention them so not to be redunant but I will point the the navigation/Music Mangement could be better. Findings songs can take some time if you have alot of songs on the Zen. If you want to listen to a group/artist/album that is all you listen to. Unlike other players once the album/group is over it will switch to another group/album, not so with the Zen. This something that could be improved on. For the most part the Zen V is very small and doesn't scratch or ding up like pervious players I own. As a Electrician and the player doesn't get in my way when I work. I still haven't got use to the 14-16 hour battery life and the 6 hour charge time. Sony devices charge within 2-3 hours and last for 25-50 hours on a single charge. The Zen in short is a hassle-free device and would highly recomend this unit to anyone.
Not Ready for Prime Time? November 13, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I bought the 2 GB model because the 4 GB version wasn't available yet and it had the largest flash memory of any unit that works with my Napster-To-Go subscription, so it can store the largest number of songs and color photographs. This is the V Plus version, so it sports an FM tuner and the ability to display videos as a bonus.
Why did I choose a flash memory based MP3 player? Napster-To-Go compatible hard drive models with much larger storage capacity abound, but I figure they'll break prematurely because they use a hard drive that can't withstand much jogging, accidental bumping or dropping.
I bought two of these players plus the separately sold AC wall charger, and attached one of them to the wall charger for 6 hours, while I attached the other one to a USB port on my PC to charge it for 6 hours.
At the end of 6 hours, the unit attached to the PC was fine until I unplugged it, then it went comatose and would not even revive when the reset button was pushed several times. I had to exchange it for a replacement unit just two days after buying it.
The unit attached to the wall charger was fine, and I went on to load it up with music using my Napster-To-Go subscription. That was fine until 2 weeks later, when my wife charged it on a PC using the USB cable. After charging and disconnecting from the PC, it too went comatose.
This time I was able to revive it by pushing the reset button.
Then I took a look at the other unit, which had been charging on the AC wall charger. It had also gone comatose, and I was able to revive it by pushing its reset button.
The reset button is inside a tiny hole on the left edge of this unit. You can find it by following the thin groove that's below the screen all the way to the left edge of the unit, where you'll find it on the side. The picture in the manual does NOT accurately depict its location.
The hole leading to the reset button is very, very small. The instructions say to penetrate that hole with a pin.
I used the sharp end of a safety pin to do this. When the pin is inserted, it's quite easy to miss the reset button unless the pin is inserted at exactly the right angle. You'll know it's not at the right angle if you don't feel that you're pushing on a pad with a spring behind it when you reset the unit. That pad travels a short distance until it's stopped by a control surface inside the unit; that's when you know it has been reset.
The reset system should be redesigned so that it doesn't depend on the angle you insert the pin to work. I suspect that the first unit I returned could have been reset if I had known that you have to insert the pin at just the right angle to do it. Since I didn't know, my several attempts to reset it were not successful.
Resetting the unit is akin to rebooting a PC: it revives it when the internal software (called "firmware") has frozen by restarting the software. It does not erase your songs or photos.
Make no mistake: this MP3 player looks, feels and works beautifully. However, since the firmware is newly designed, it appears to have bugs relating to disconnecting it from USB or charger power that cause it to freeze, and the reset button is a little hard to use if you don't know about the things I described above that could cause you to be unable to reset it. You may just end up with a unit that's frozen and not be able to reset it.
It needs to be a little more user friendly than that. Hopefully a future firmware update will be available that will lower the occurrence of the unit locking up (freezing), especially when disconnecting from a USB port or AC charger after recharging it. As another user noted, the "safe disconnect" icon is often times not even in the system tray.
If you don't subscribe to Napster-To-Go, your options to get content for your MP3 player are to transfer your favorite songs from CDs you own to your hard disk ("ripping the songs"), or purchase songs one track or album at a time, at a price ranging from 88 to 99 cents per song from Napster, Rhapsody or WalMart.
You can also download books you want to listen to (such as best sellers and classics) or "podcasts" (your favorite newspapers read aloud, or your favorite radio programs like NPR) from a plethora of sites (like NetLibrary or Audible) that make these available, onto your computer's hard drive. Now you can listen to your music, audible books and podcasts over your PC loudspeakers while sitting at your PC.
Then you can transfer your songs, audible books and podcasts from the hard drive of your PC to your MP3 player(s). This enables you to take your MP3 player with you to enjoy listening in your car, in your office, while jogging or working out at the gym, while shopping, or at the pool or the beach to hear your music, audible books and podcasts anywhere.
Small,sleek, not too cute, not too dull... November 7, 2006
291 out of 292 found this review helpful
In summary why I picked Zen V Plus:
-Good price/performance
-FM radio and voice recorder
-Small, scratch resistant and cool design
-Drag and drop capability
-Compability with different music stores
-Very easy and quick navigation
-Previous positive experience
If you want a more detailed comparison to IPOD-Nano and Sandisk Sansa C200 series, continue reading and scroll down, if not stop here and get back to what you were doing, or want to do or whatever... :-)
First off, this is my second Creative product in less than a year. No, no the old one is still good (ZEN Nano Plus) indeed the best one I've ever had, but I decided to go with something with color and a more navigation-friendly menu. I am not new to digital music.I've had a pleuthora of MP3 players within the last 5 years. Starting with a 32MB RCA (terrible), a 128MB Samsung (Good), a HD based Dell DJ(died on me,) two 6GB Apple Minis (one's Hard drive died, the other's click-wheel gave up), a Zen Nano Plus (excellent) and now this cool 4 GB Zen V-Plus. Before deciding on my new ZEN, I had two other serious considerations :
1) IPOD NANO - 4GB or 6GB :
Although I really loved the look and the price (not much above its competition)of the new IPOD NANO, I could not go with it because of previous (baaaad) experience and the required slavery to it's ITUNES software. It just is a pain in the neck when using my own MP3s (non i-tunes songs) and other music stores' products. Plus it did not have FM and voice recording, which are, I admit, pretty cool features.
2)Sandisk Sansa E250 (4GB) or E270 (6GB):
This was my clear favourite before actually going into a store and physically feeling it. Sandisk is the lead flash card memory manufacturer and its memories are really hi-Q.That and its clearly lowest price among peers made me consider this one more seriously. It had the voice recording and FM radio options and did not have the dreaded mandatory music software. Had even a bigger screen (1.8 inches) than Zen V Plus (1.5 inches). So why did Sandisk got eliminated? Easy:
i)Extremely hard to use click-wheel, even if one has small hands (I don't,I am 6'2" and 200lbs, so in my case a total "forget it"). The wheel is elevated from the surface very little, you accidentally hit other buttons while trying to operate.
ii)Overall size and design. Sandisk looks like a fatter and less slick IPOD Nano. It does not have the different (shorter,squarer, more compact) feel of the Zen V Plus.Bottom line it is bigger and bulkier than both.
iii)Icon based menu.That is a total no go for a small screen gadget. Just stick to line-based menu like all the previous and current IPods if your screen is less than 3 inches accross.
So, cheaper, equipped with features like the Zen V Plus, with a bigger screen and comparable battery life, The Sandisk Sansa still got eliminated.
After a month, what do I think about my Zen V Plus (4GB)?
PROS:
-Great size, look and feel.
-Great, optional very easy to use Creative software.
-100% Drag and drop compatible.
-Vibrant colors.
-Easy to navigate menu.
-Easy to use joystick and buttons (except one, see below in CONS)
-Decent battery life.
-Great FM receiver.
-Price
CONS
-Hard to see the screen (OLED's curse) under direct sunlight.
-Charging through USB (the only supplied cable) takes forever.
-The placement of the "back" button. It should be on the left of the "play/pause" button not below. When the unit is in your palm unless you have a hyperextending thumb, it is hard to press this button - though possible.
-Screen is not big enough for video viewing. Although video playback is seamless and vibrant, the size is just too small.Don't let the video capability be a deciding factor if you are inclined.
|
