Creative Zen 4GB Unbiased Review

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PRODUCT REPORT

The Creative Zen was designed to help you bring your music with you, wherever you go.

With a 2.5 inch TFT color display and a nice 320x240 resolution, the Creative Zen is also capable of playing back videos and displaying your favorite photos in up to 16.7 million colors.

iTunes Plus tracks from the iTunes store are supported, as well as subscription and pay-per-download services. If this is not enough, you can subscribe to other services such as Yahoo Music Unlimited and Napster To Go.

The Creative Zen also has a clock/alarm functions, a FM radio and supports USB hard drive mode, for easy file copying. Synchronization with Microsoft Outlook is possible and allows the Zen to display your contacts, calendars and tasks.

Creative offers a standard 1 year warranty.

More details below...

FEEDBACK & REVIEWS

Rating:

"This is an all around solid MP3 Player"
Portion of actual user comment on amazon.com

"Simply a wonderful masterpiece"
Portion of actual user comment on cnet.com

"Overall a very nice toy with plenty of storage"
Portion of actual user comment on amazon.com

Users are generally very pleased with the Creative Zen. They praise its good looks along with its magnificent 2.5 inch screen and mention it has very good viewing angles.

For best results, users recommend replacing the stock headphones as soon as possible. The built in FM radio has good reception and while stations with good signal come in stereo, those with weaker signal are only mono.

The SD card slot available on the Creative Zen allows users to increase its capacity and store different kinds of music on different cards. This is a big selling point for most users, beside its screen.

Users are dissatisfied with Creative Customer Service and Tech support and point out that getting a replacement unit is very difficult, as well as long wait times on the phone and repair costs that are larger than the original price of the player.

Firmware updates seem to have solved most problems encountered while using the Creative Zen. Long battery life is very important to users and the Creative Zen does not dissapoint when it comes to this.

The over all opinion is that the Creative Zen is a very good flash based Mp3 player, with excellent sound, a great screen and very good battery life. However, Creative Customer Service remains a problem, if the unit malfunctions.

Available here...

PRODUCT DETAILS

Company Info:

Creative Technology Limited is a listed manufacturer of computer multimedia products based in Singapore, where the firm was founded and now under the executive direction of Sim Wong Hoo on July 1, 1981. It has more than 5,000 employees worldwide. The American subsidiary of the company is known as Creative Labs, Inc..

They are located in Milpitas, California.

Product features:

Product Type - MP3 Player

Connectivity - USB 2.0

Memory - 4GB

Dimensions WxDxH - 3.26" x 2.16" x 0.44"

Clock and alarm function

Technical Details:

Model Number: ZEN4GBBK

Capacity: 4 gigabytes

Color: Black

Port Type: USB 2.0 Cable

Battery life: 25 hours continuous audio playback

Display: 2.5-inch TFT display (320 x 240 pixels)

Expandable Memory Type: SD

Supported Audio Format: MP3, WMA, non-protected AAC, WAV and Audible 2,3 and 4

Supported Photo Format: JPEG and (with transcoding - GIF, TIFF, PNG and BMP)

Supported Video Format: MJPEG, WMV9 and (with transcoding - MPEG1 and 2, MPEG4-SP, DivX 4 and 5 and XviD)

Tuner: FM Radio

FM Frequency: 87.5 - 108.0

Features: Album art, voice recorder, clock and alarm, 8 EQ settings

Weight: 2.1 ounces

Dimensions: 3.26 x 2.16 x .44 inches (length x height x depth)