Meet My Workout Partner
Written: Aug 16 '02 (Updated Aug 16 '02)
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Pros: Plays music, fairly compact, not a battery killer.
Cons: None. I'm as surprised as you are.
The Bottom Line: Small, spacious, inexpensive and easy on the battery use - what more do you want from your MP3 player? Jet packs? Vibrating add-ons? You so krayzee.
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| danwalker's Full Review: Creative Technology Nomad II (32 MB) MP3 Player |
As both a music AND gadget geek, my MP3 player is a close companion. It walks with me to work, it takes the long, boring trip on the bus out to Kanata with me to visit my nephew Jack, and it keeps me going when I want to give up before my 30 minutes are up on the cycling machine at the Y. (If I could think of the model of cycle I ride at the gym, I'd write an epinion on it. I'd say it was pretty good, reasonably comfortable, but the foot straps are always difficult to pull off, and the seat wobbles a bit.)
I owned a Diamond Rio PMP300 a few years ago, and that was a fine player, but it couldn't stand up to the constant use (abuse, even) that I demand of my devices. So I picked up the Creative Nomad IIc, and I have to tell you - this is a nice piece of work.
Having purchased my Nomad for about $200 Canadian in January 2002, I have given it a pretty thorough workout this past half-year. It meets my expectations, and then some.
64 megs are on board, which isn't bad... sure, it's not the multi-gig hard drive that some MP3 players are sporting these days, but who needs to carry around all that music anyway? I've added the maximum external memory card that you can use, another 128 megs, and can fit about fifty songs encoded at 128mHz in there. Plenty of music for everyday life, it says here.
The machine requires one AA battery, and each battery yields perhaps eight to ten hours of life with my rechargeables, ten to twelve with those Energizer super-mega-awesome batteries, you know, the all-silver ones. (I can't remember what they're called, but they're worth the extra two bucks.)
My Nomad came with some software that installed with no problems on Windows XP. It's called the Creative Playcenter 2, and it's not bad - certainly better than that terrible Musicmatch bloatware that seems to be the industry standard for transferring files to devices like MP3 players. The Nomad connects using a USB cord that is provided in the package, which makes uploading files a fairly speedy thing, especially compared to the clunky old serial cord I had to use with my Rio.
Oh, and it also came with some goofy headphones, the behind-the-head kind, that don't even sound all that great. Plan on picking up a better set, so that people don't beat you up for using the ones that came with.
In summary, then: my Creative Nomad IIc is durable enough for everyday use, is small enough to fit in my pocket for when I ride the cycling machines at the gym, holds enough music to keep me entertained for several hours, and respects batteries enough to use them up gently. It completely rocks, and I would definitely recommend it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150
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Epinions.com ID:
danwalker
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Member: Dan Walker
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 7 members
About Me:
24 year old internet marketer and net nerd in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
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