At first a great deal ~ poor construction
Written: Dec 01 '03 (Updated Nov 23 '05)
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Pros: Very chic, great sound quality, great price!
Cons: Software is restrictive, keypad is harder to navigate.
The Bottom Line: The new Zen Sleek gives the iPod a run for its money -- a great product at a great price!
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| Susan_K's Full Review: Creative Technology Nomad Jukebox Zen NX (20 GB) M... |
*UPDATE -- Nov. 23, 2005*
My husband decided it was time for me to have my own MP3 player so he purchased the Creative Nomad Zen Sleek for me last weekend. I was a bit skeptical about it at first, but seeing as my husband has not had any issues with his Zen Nomad for the past couple of years I agreed to get one.
The 20 GB Zen Sleek has a lot of great features which rivals the iPod, such as a radio, calendar, alarm, notebook and a recorder. It's extremely compact (about 1/3 the size of the original Zen) and is about the same size as the iPod & it has a very similar look -- very chic.
Of the 20 GB, my husband has downloaded approximately 1500 songs which leaves me w/almost 14 GB remaining. We were lucky and purchased the item for about $189 (special 1-day sale price), but the general sales price runs anywhere between $229 -- $249, depending on the type of sales the stores are having.
There are a couple of small disadvantages / challenges to this MP3 player:
1. The keypad is hyper-sensitive and it is very difficult to work or access the menu. You will need to adjust the touchpad sensitivity to low in order to use the scroll bar effectively.
2. The software for this player is significantly limiting vs. the original Zen Nomad -- it does not allow you to update of edit the Genre listing, which means you have you have to edit each song within the listing individually (it's a little time consuming).
3. We have not been able to figure out if we can print out a list of songs that have been loaded into this MP3 player like my husband is able to do with his Zen Nomad. This may be the result of having all of the additional features built into the newer "Sleek" model.
The battery life is approximately 8 -- 9 hours of play time before it needs to be recharged, which is fantastic! The earbuds have a pretty good sound quality to them (even my husband was surprised by it).
Overall, I have to say that the Creative Zen Sleek has turned my opinion of them into a positive one. It is a light-weight device which is moderately easy to operate, but the tone quality is fantastic. For the price, I think the Zen Sleek if a much better value than the iPod, and about $100 -- $200 less than an iPod w/the approximate number of gigabytes.
I am a true fan of this product now.
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My husband thought he had found an electronic gem with the Nomad Zen portable audio player. It was about $100 less than the iPod with an additional 10G of memory on it. It was sleek and easy to carry, had decent sound quality and was easy to navigate.
However, less than 6 months after he bought it, the unit has completely died on him without any warning. He had some issues trying to contact customer service over the past couple of days (they were either closed or asked him to call back when an available technician could speak with him. Unfortunately, we aren't sure if the problem lies with the battery or the internal circuitry.
If we can get the appropriate help from their Customer Service department (my husband wants to give them one more chance) and it's just a question of replacing the battery I think he'll be satisfied with that.
If there are other problems with the item and they can not help him save the thousands of songs (yes, I said thousands) he has already put into the machine I think he will feel like he's been ripped off ~ especially since the model he has is now discontinued by Creative Labs.
If you were to ask me if I thought the Nomad Zen was a great deal a couple of months ago, I would have said ABSOLUTELY without hesitation. After this past weekend's experiences I would have to say that I'm very disillusioned with the product (and it's hard to spend $200+ on an item that only lasts for 6 months).
I would strongly recommend looking into the iPod ~ even though it may cost more, you will have the name recognition and customer service to work with if/when anything happens to the item.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 190
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
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Epinions.com ID:
Susan_K
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Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reviews written: 18
Trusted by: 3 members
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