Great Sound w/a few annoyances; For the $$$, Perfect!
Written: Dec 22 '03
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Pros: Great sound quality, good design. Easy to use, difficult to fill up. It's a winner!
Cons: Shuffle doesn't shuffle exclusively; Switching playlists is difficult
The Bottom Line: I use the Zen almost every day, with nothing but great things to say about it. Just a few minor software fixes would make this the perfect MP3 player.
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| ooglek's Full Review: Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox Zen (20 GB) MP3 Player |
My wife got me some Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones for Christmas; while I thought they were cool, I decided it was time to get a hard drive based MP3 player instead.
The Research
At the time, there was the 20GB Ipod for $500, a few Creative choices, and the New Nomad Jukebox Zen, with the approximate size and features of the Ipod for $350, with a $50 rebate on top of that. But was it as good as the Ipod?
It came down to the fact that I didn't use a Mac, that the additional $150 didn't get me more features, and that the sound quality was reported as better than the Ipod. That was what sold me.
Initial Reactions
I had played with a friends' Ipod, and I have to say it was nice and light. Didn't like the wheel though, and the battery was unreplacable if it died or broke. Out of the box, the Zen was nice looking, a bit heavier and a bit larger than the Ipod, but the thumbwheel on the right side of the unit is much better than the Ipod wheel (in my opinion). The thumbwheel (with an OS upgrade) moves through your list faster if you move the thumbwheel fast. If you move it slowly, it just goes one item at a time. Nice feature. The backlight on-time is customizable (the amount of time the light is on when you hit any key), and the sound as reported really was very good.
Over Time...
I've had the unit for almost a year now, and here are the things I still love and hate about it.
Features I Love
It comes with a case that has a lot of methods to attach it to yourself. This came in handy a lot at the gym, on the road, etc. I love the fact that the sound quality is good, that it plays VBR and CBR MP3s flawlessly. I have only had to "reboot" or reset it 3 times in the year with no data loss. I can find music quickly and easily, as it is sorted by ID3 tag by Genre (ID3V2 tags work), Artist, Title and Album (not by Year though). I can add a song, an artist or a whole album to the existing playlist. I can even make my own playlists on the device itself with no external PC. Moving from track to track is easy and fairly fast, as it pre-loads a few tracks in its internal memory.
Features That Annoy
Shuffle isn't really shuffle -- it picks a random song from your playlist, but it doesn't exclude songs its played recently, so you may here the same song twice in an hour even if you have 50 hours worth of music in your playlist. Sometimes on boot up there is a small vertical stripe that is displayed, but it usually goes away when the music starts playing; that may have something to do with the device being in cold temperatures. Switching playlists is a pain since you have to delete the existing playlist, then load the new one.
Deep (and final) Thoughts
I've filled the sucker with all my music (over 200 CDs) and it still has 12GB of free space. Works like a charm, battery lasts 10 hours (8 with EAX enabled) on a full charge, you can charge it via USB (when it is off), and it's pretty darn small. All in all, great device. I would recommend the USB 2.0 option, though I don't believe it has Firewire, which this unit does.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 349
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
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Epinions.com ID:
ooglek
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Location: Falls Church, VA
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
I'm just a geek. I love electronics and the Internet and my wife.
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