Finally, an MP3 player I can justify purchasing!
Written: Feb 21 '03 (Updated Feb 21 '03)
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Pros: High storage capacity; Small; Light; Durable; Cheap; Made by a company specializing in audio hardware.
Cons: Software package; Menu system can be confusing and difficult to navigate; Somewhat weak literature.
The Bottom Line: This MP3 player was meant to store vast amounts of music and play it back with super quality. The Zen does just that at a very justifiable price.
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| ww_dagger's Full Review: Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox Zen (20 GB) MP3 Player |
Preface:
I’ve been collecting MP3’s for as long as they have been in existence. I have a collection of 60 gigs on my desktop PC. I came very close to buying the Nomad Jukebox MP3 player when it first came out, but it was too large to really carry around jogging, and the storage capacity was too low and I didn’t feel like hacking it to replace the hard drive with my own larger store bought laptop drive. iPod was soon available, but for the prices Apple was asking for it (and still is) I could practically buy another car! The very day the Zen was announced by Creative I almost leapt for joy. I ordered mine immediately and told my wife it was an early Christmas present. It arrived via UPS in a plain brown cardboard box (OEM style). I expected a nice colorful retail box, but it’s only packaging. I plugged it in to start charging the battery like the quick start instructions advised and began installing the included software package. I’m not going to go over every single feature the Zen offers, as you can do that at Creative’s website. I will however go over some of the Pros and Cons that stood out for me personally.
Positives:
Firmware updates: Creative Labs, being a leader in the PC music audio industry has done well on firmware updates available off their website. I have installed two updates so far, which have been very simple and quick to do. Although they have only adjusted minor things, it’s nice to see the company is on top of things.
Engineering: OK, first of all, the Zen is larger than the iPod. And a Mini-DV tape cassette is larger than a Micro-DV tape cassette. If you have seen the two side by side, you would realize that it really is NOT a very significant size difference. Were talking a couple of millimeters here people, I really honestly can not think of a single thing that I would be limited, denied, or stripped of because my Zen is barley noticeably larger than the iPod. I would certainly not place any weight on the size difference in making a buying decision between the two.
Storage capacity: The Zen has a 20 gig drive of which I have filled about 75% of with my favorite MP3 selections. I don’t really like the rest of my collection enough to listen to it on my Zen. Choosing from a list of almost 3000 songs is good enough for now.
Durability: This thing is durable! I was using an elliptical exercise machine at my local 24-hour fitness while listening to my Zen. It was propped up on the display shelf of the machine like usual because the carrying case that it came with just sucks with it’s weak Velcro strap (I wish it was a clip), but on this day, my headphone cord got caught on the handlebar and yanked my Zen off the machine, crashing into the fast moving foot pedals, bouncing around like a steel ball in a pinball machine, and finally cart wheeling onto the gym floor about 10 feet away. About 20 people turned to look at the noise and the embarrassment set in. I quickly recovered my Zen, hopped back on the elliptical machine plugged in my headphones, only to realize that it had died! The LED was blank. I tried to power it up several times to no avail. I thought this was the end of my handy new Zen and cursed myself for being so careless. When I got home, I remembered that somewhere in the instruction manual it talked about the reset button. I pushed it in and tried powering it up one last time… and Walla! My Zen booted up like normal and everything was working again. I’m not sure what happened, but after taking a fall like that and not even getting a scratch while still working 100% deserves some commendation.
Audio quality and features: Top notch. You will find about every feature that any given CD player or walkman supplies, including Creative’s EAX effects. I really like that it has a digital equalizer that I can customize the sound of my music with. The bass could use a little more strength (for my taste), but that can be fixed with the equalizer.
Negatives:
Software Package: I must say that I’m disappointed with Creative’s file transfer software, their Play Center program to be specific. It often freezes up on me when doing certain tasks and nothing on my PC ever freezes up except that. It’s also an attempt to simplify a simple task causing an oversimplification which in turn actually made it somewhat confusing and restricted to work with. I really don’t like it at all, but then I don’t really like the way Creative does any of their software programs, from soundcard menus to volume controls, and I’ll just leave my opinion at that.
Heat: When I first started transferring 12 gigs of MP3 files in one shot (using supplied power adapter) to my Zen through a fire wire cable, I noticed the unit became very very warm, almost hot. At around 10 gigs the transfer locked up with the Zen and I had to hit the reset button to get it working again. I let it cool off and continued the file transfer from where it locked up.
Display: LED display and font size are on the small side. It is also difficult at times to see the lettering if it’s bright outside or you are getting a reflection off of something, regardless of what setting you adjust the LED contrast at.
Headphones: The included headphones were decent but don’t do the Zen justice. I would suggest that you invest in a high quality pair of earphones.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 299.00
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Epinions.com ID:
ww_dagger
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Location: Vancouver, WA USA
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 0 members
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