Not perfect, but better...
Written: Jul 28 '03
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Pros: Great sound, good battery life, vastly improved user interface
Cons: same crummy software
The Bottom Line: If you can ignore the bad customer service, this is a terrific device.
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| tidetracker's Full Review: Creative Technology Nomad Jukebox (20 GB) MP3 Play... |
I purchased a Creative Nomad III 20Gb player as a replacement for a previous generation model (the original Nomad 20Gb) when that product finally developed problems.
To my delight, the Nomad III is a vastly improved product, when compared to the earlier generation product. It's smaller and ligthter, and the proprietary battery delivers much longer play time than did the NiMH AA cells of the previous edition. The scrolling function wheel simplifies the selection of albums or tracks. The built-in customizable sound capability allowed me to give the product a much needed bass boost. The inclusion of IEEE 1394 (FireWire) makes file transfers substantially quicker.
Unfortunately, there was no comparable improvement in the support software. Creative's 'Play Center' still emphasizes the slick graphic screen metaphor, which does nothing to simplify or enhance transferring songs... instead, it just makes it worse. The drivers crash fairly frequently, especially if ANY other tasks are running on the computer at the time.
A few other criticisms: the battery, while providing long life, is a proprietary design, and they want 50 bucks for a spare... way too much money. Also, the external power adaptor is +5 volts, rather than +12 volts, which means you can't use an inexpensive generic cigarette lighter cord to power the thing. Finally, the volume control is still a digital function... when are manufacturers going to learn that a plain old knurled knob volume control is MUCH easier to use?
Lastly, let me join other reviewers in skewering Creative for their customer service... or total lack thereof. Phone calls? Forget it, unless you want to wait on hold for an hour or more. Email? Try it... but expect to wait a week for a reply, and more likely than not, the reply will contain just some pre-canned procedural advice that will lead you to believe that they didn't actually READ your email in the first place. Frankly, Creative should be ashamed of themselves... and they're ruining an otherwise very good product by their lack of decent support.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 329
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Epinions.com ID:
tidetracker
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Location: Stoughton, MA
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Engineer, consultant, sailor, motorcyclist, guitar player
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