Customer Reviews:
 nice but complicated and heavy October 7, 2008
My first impression was that this is too big to carry around the world. But at 2.5 ounces it's not that bad. And it has a heavy, smooth, rounded, tactile quality that reminds me of a worry stone, so I like it.
It was totally easy to set up. But then I was confronted with a complex menu system that was anything but intuitive. In trying to do something simple like change the volume, I would bump myself out of music into Audible books. Very annoying. But I read the user guide and I'm happier now.
One annoying thing is that it lumps Audible books in with music tracks and random play will send you into Audible, which can wreck a mood to have a deep voice suddenly reading "Horton hears a Who" (one of their sample books).
But the FM radio works fine, the sound quality is good, and the price was right. I miss my Sansa Clip with its pretty pink color, tiny size, obvious controls. But it didn't provide enough volume to overcome airplane noise, and sometimes the headphones had a loose connection.
 Excellent Player with Poor Quality Control October 7, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this player a couple of weeks ago, just to take it out of the box and find a nice big scratch on the screen. It was easy enough to exchange, but the second player I received had a broken "back" button. Once again, the product was easily exchanged for a player with 3 dead pixels on the screen --> exchanged again. After receiving my fourth Zen, now with 2 dead pixels, I finally settled.
Now don't get me wrong, I love this little device. For the money, it's the best darn MP3/video player there is and I love all the features. I just wish the quality control was a bit better.
 Does what the IPOD should October 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My 2 Ipod's broke for no real good reason, so I made the change. Not having a lot of money after the Ipod scandal for a 3rd MP3 player was a blessing as I would have gone to another IPOD... Initial reaction after a week - WOW! Easy to add music and very good sound. Added photos of my son as well as one video with ease. The quality is there all around. I will never buy another IPOD as the Zen is what the IPOD should be. I suggest you get a protective cover for the screen as well as a clip for carrying ease while at the gym or walking. I bought a 4.00 case that does the trick :-)
Creative "Zen" 16GB October 5, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I will start out by saying that I LOVE my creative zen. Also I will say that a week or two ago I would have sold it for 1/2 the price. read on to find out why.
I did TONS of research before deciding on and buying my zen. I wanted something that's easy to navigate, can use lots of formats, had a good amount of storage, good audio quality, and affordable.
Pro's:
--I find the zen very easy to navigate. very user friendly.
--16gb is ALOT of space, I had thought that each movie might take up 1 or 2gb's, but actually they range from 300mb to about 600mb depending on the length.
--battery life is very good, you can watch 2 full length movies without recharging.
--the screen is very clear, very nice to watch on, I have no problem watching movies on it.
--setup of playlists and slideshows for pictures is pretty straight forward. I set a picture as my background quite easily.
Con's.
--you will have to buy more stuff to go with your zen. (or at least I did). It only came with a (very) short usb cord for charging, and no ac charger or screen covers or anything. I ended up buying a case for it, screen protectors, charger, new earphones (the ones that come with have very good sounds but are quite uncomfortable after a short time). also a program to convert movies (more later) In all, I spent about 100.00 more than the cost of the zen itself by the time I was done. It would be nice to know this going into it. It could be a killer for some.
--The creative zen doesn't play movies longer than about 20 minutes very well in avi format, which is standard for most programs that convert them for the zen. over about 20-30minutes the audio gets out of sync with the video. it starts out fine, but gets worse as teh movie goes on and can be up to 2seconds off at the end of the movie.
--It took me well over 60 hours of research and trial to find that the only way to get around this is to find a program that will convert the movie into .wmv format. I finally found 2 or 3 programs that would do this with just a click instead of a long drawn out manual process, but it was painfull research and would be nice if someone would have just told you.
my zen
creative zen 16gb 138.00
case/charger 12.00
screen protectors 10.00
program to convert dvd's 30.00
new earphones 60.00
Now if you don't want to use the zen for long movie watching (was one of the main reasons I bought it). and want to download stuff from the internet and such, it might be much less painless. and cheaper. if you don't use it often, (or have differently shaped ears than myself perhaps) maybe the earphones work great for you. In the end it is a great thing for me, but it was a very painful process figuring out all the tricks, and could have been made alot easier with some help from someone and some heads up. It was a huge pain having to try literally 15+ programs to find one that converted movies correctly and actually worked. And again, the extra expense of the converting program and extra's might hamper some peoples interest in it.
Just wanted to put this out in case it helped anyone.
thanks
love my zen! October 3, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
At 47 years old and not big on tech products, I wanted to buy my first mp3 player to play thru my new car radio. I also wanted the capability to watch videos to break up long plane rides. The zen met all of my needs. I also love the fm radio and have all my vacation pictures loaded as well. As a "novice" in the mp3 player arena, I was worried that it would be too complicated-not so! The software works excellent and downloading and managing my files has been a breeze. I think the price for this product is excellent for what you get, expecially when you compare it to the zune. I really enjoy the great sound and the screen clarity exceeded my expectation. I highly recommend this product!!
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