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Creative ZEN 16GB MP3 Player | 
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| Brand: Creative
Category: CE
List Price: £129.99
Buy New: £89.99
You Save: £40.00 (31%)
New (6) from £89.99
Rating:  66 reviews
Media: Electronics
Fragile: No
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 0.4 x 2.1 x 3.3
MPN: 70PF216100115
Model: 70PF216100115
EAN: 5390660143878
Release Date: September 29, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New FM Radio Genuine Manufactures Product, with Full Creative UK Warranty.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 61 more reviews...
 Creative ZEN is an iPOD Killer! January 26, 2008
Iain M. Maxwell (Edinburgh)
58 out of 59 found this review helpful
This is an amazing MP3 player that is much better than the equivalent iPod Nano for so many different reasons:
1. Sound Quality: To be fair to iPod, the Zen is just as good in this department as both devices have excellent sound quality.
2. Video Quality: The Zen display is excellent with crystal clear images and is just large enough to allow you to become immersed in the TV-Show or Movie that you are watching. Much better than the iPod for image quality and size. The only downside is that movies need to be trans-coded to play on the player with either the application Creative provide or a Third Party tool which does take a long time. But the range of support for different video formats is good and again better than the iPods.
3. Extra Features: The Microphone, FM Radio & Organiser are all nice touches although I have never used the organiser on any of Creative's products. Since the iPod doesn't have a Microphone or Radio the Zen wins again even though the iPod does have games, which I have no interest in.
4. Photos: Both devices display your photos adequately but again the Zen wins due to its larger clearer display.
5. Expandability: The iPod has no expansion capability but the Zen has the SD slot which can also take SDHC cards. I personally have a 8Gb SDHC card in my player (giving me a total of 24Gb of space) and it is an excellent feature that allows you to fill up this great player with more media. Some people do not like the fact that it doesn't integrate the content on the SD card with the players own internal memory in the UI but to be honest it's no big deal given the expandability that you get!
6. Looks & Build Quality: Even though I am a long time Creative fan I have to admit that Apple have always produced great looking devices, Creative aren't far short with this sexy looking player. The iPod also wins in the build department as some might complain about the Zen's flimsy controls and lightweight plastic case but so far I've found the Zen to be quite sturdy as I've dropped it several times until I got a decent skin for it.
7. Use-ability: Both devices are very easy to use with excellent menu navigation to your media. Although the iPod has the still innovative slider the Zen does just as good a job but without the gimmick.
8. Size & Weight: The Zen is the same size as a credit card but almost 10mm thick but it's still really small. It's also really light which is great for sport. The iPod is smaller and slimmer but given that both are so small I prefer the Zen as you get the bigger screen.
As you can see the Zen is a great player and a worthy adversary to the iPod nano, if not in fact a better choice on the whole for your portable media player.
Also get your player upgraded to the latest firmware (1.20.02e) and you can copy from the SD card to the Zen's internal memory.
Finally, a real bug-bear of mine about this player had been the lack of remote control for it when you are running or in the gym. The remote I had for my old Microphoto didn't work with it. But on a recent trip to Singapore I went to the Creative shop and they provided me with a remote which looks exactly like the one they have for the Microphoto. It's part number is DAA-WR0006 for those of you who need this feature.
Another excellent iPod kickin' player from Creative!
The Perfect MP3 Player? November 2, 2007
S. Marshall
26 out of 27 found this review helpful
I have been searching for some time now for the 'perfect' MP3 player. I found the Zen Vision was too big, I didn't like the controls on the Zen Micro and I couldn't live with the poor sound quality of the iPod Nano.
I have been using this player for a week now and I find the sound quality is *very* good (with Shure SE420 earphones). I can get a very good selection of MP3s at 256kbits/s on 16GB and I have added a 8GB SD card for videos.
The player is a good size and weight and fits very nicely into a shirt pocket.
My only complaint so far is that I would like more control over the playlist editing under the media explorer.
I think Creative have done a very good job with the ZEN.
Fantastic little player November 9, 2007
C. Thompson
28 out of 30 found this review helpful
Having had my Zen for a week or so, I thought I'd put my thoughts on it in a review, so here we are. Overall, the Zen is fantastic. Great sound quality with support for custom EQ, good battery life, crisp, bright screen and simple to use. Video (when converted correctly using the supplied Zen software) is sharp and plays without a hiccup, although you probably won't want to watch a movie on a 2.5" screen. Even the earphones that come with it are decent, which is a surprise considering most pack-in earphones are pretty shoddy.
My only gripes are that there's no AC charger supplied with the player, and with the Zen software. I've had some random crashes when using the software to transfer content to the device, so I've just gone down the route of using Windows Explorer which seems to work perfectly.
I've not had a chance to test out the SD expansion capabilities, but I do know that at present the content on the device is listed separately from the content held in the internal storage. Hopefully a future firmware update will remove the seams between content on the player itself and the SD card.
Anyway, if you're looking for a sleek, tiny MP3 player that has a great screen that can also be used for watching video, excellent sound quality and doesn't require iTunes, the Zen should be your first choice.
The perfect middle ground between nano size and larger capacity February 25, 2008
M. Scott
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I've had my Zen just over a month now, and I'm in love with the thing. It's my pride and joy, and a much better machine than the Zen Vision: M which I bought it to replace. Indeed, with the Zen I frequently feel like I've stumbled onto a great secret that the ipod generation have overlooked.
In terms of browsing and usability, the Zen's d-pad beats the clicking scroll bar of the Zen Vision: M hand-down. It's also great value for the capacity and potential. Indeed, with an mp3 player, you're usually forced go for either capacity or the novelty of a smaller physical size. This presents a great half way point between the two.
The Zen offers a 16gb player for around the same price as an 8GB Nano (I paid 129.99), and is further expandable via the SD card slot, which I've filled with a 17.99 8gb SD HC Memory Card. That makes it a nano-sized 24gb player for under 150.
Add a stylish-looking protective case ( 15 - with nifty magnetic fastening) and a further two 8gb SD HC SD cards which sit snugly in the SD card slits in the case - plus a travel power adaptor ( 10 - especially handy if you're planning on taking the Zen travelling) and a screen protector ( 5)... and you've suddenly got a compact, 40gb pocket-sized player with tons of accessories, for over 100 less than a 32gb ipod touch - a sum total of around 215.
The combination of screen protector and additional SD cards are valuable for a machine with such potent videoplaying capacity. Supporting the majority of formats and complete with a video converter for unsupported file types, the Zen delivers around 4 hours of video playtime.
Consider also the dictaphone function (ideal for me - I'm a journalist), outlook synchronisation (great for any office worker), photo slideshows and FM Radio, and this is a comprehensive and complete media machine.
Indeed, I'd say the Zen is a perfect middle ground between price, physical size, capacity and features. The Creative Zen Media Player software is also pretty nifty, with the only real drawback being that it doesn't offer a way to add album art to track metadata (I use Media Player for this instead).
There's also a 32gb version on the way soon, so those looking for an even higher capacity will be pleased - they'll be able to carry around up to 56gb of files with all of the add-ons mentioned above.
Love this! December 4, 2007
Rosie Dimont
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I've had my new Creative Zen 16GB player for a couple of weeks. I bought it as a replacement/upgrade for my Creative Zen Touch which I loved dearly. What I love about this player is that it is light weight, it looks sleek, and it plays my music and video very well, it is also very very easy to use. The battery life is ok, not as good as my Touch, but it's body so small in comparison that I wouldn't expect the battery life to be the same.
In terms of memory, I found that 20 GB was too much for me, 16GB is the maximum capacity that the player can initially have, but I like the addition of a separate memory card slot where extra cards can be inserted.
Another slight problem is keeping the screen clean, after sitting in my pocket for a significant amount of time it gets dirty and I'm wary of scratching it, however I'm buying a case for it so it should be fine in the long run.
I would highly recommend this little player as a great Christmas gift, it is a great alternative to an iPod, and I generally prefer Creative's in general (I have had an iPod, it died on me after a year and I've been very unsatisfied with Apple since then).
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