Friday, February 01, 2008

Product review: Creative Zen 4/8/16/32GB portable media player

Remember when we just had “mp3 players”?  Now we’ve got “portable media players”, and one of the newest is the Zen by Creative.  It comes in a number of memory sizes, hence the rather unruly product description of “4/8/16/32GB”.  To add to the pandemonium, Creative has been making mp3 and media players for years, and all those older products have the word “Zen” in them too.  For example, you can still buy the “Zen Stone” and “Zen Vision”, so I guess it was the bad decision department which suggested naming the newest product just “Zen”.  It’s not an issue if you just own the product and all is well, but it becomes a huge ball of confusion when you go online to look for cases, screen protectors, and even tech support for your product.  Type “Creative Zen” into a search engine and you’ll end up with a lot of things which aren’t your new portable media player.

While I obviously have an issue with the product name, I like a lot of things about the product itself.  I’ve listened to iPod products, like the Shuffle and the newest iPod Touch, and the Creative has amazing sound.  While the included earbuds are adequate, I stepped up to the Creative EP-630 earbuds for about $30 at Amazon.com, and the sound was fabulous.  I listened to songs I hadn’t heard since I’d played them on LPs back in the 1970s, and heard sounds and background layers in the music which I’d never known were there.  It was a wonderful experience.  When one of my cats chewed through the Creative EP-630s, I took another step up the earbud ladder, this time to the Sennheiser CX300-B.  Again I heard an improvement in the sound, proving that the Creative Zen is offering top-notch audio if you use the right tools to listen to it.  I eventually learned that a cat can bite through the cord of the Sennheiser CX300-B, too, but that’s a story for another day.  (I’m now seriously in the market for a paid of chain maille earbuds if someone can hook me up).

The Creative Zen allows you to listen to audio (music and books, for example), store photos, listen to FM radio, record voice memos, and sync with Outlook.  What makes it a “portable media player” is that it also allows you to store and view movies and videos on the 2 inch screen.  I didn’t have much luck trying to rip my own DVD movies onto the player (thanks to the DVD Copy Control Association), but I was able to download some fun TV shows and movies using the “Amazon Unboxed” feature at Amazon.com.  The video is bright and crisp, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching an episode of “30 Rock”, as well as an hour-long comedy special featuring Kathy Griffin.  It’s no substitute for a 62” plasma TV set, but it’s a nice diversion if you have a lot of time to kill, say, riding a bus or sitting on an airplane.  You can also add your own videos, and videos you’ve downloaded from the Internet.

I wanted to write about the Zen because as much as I love it (and use it every day), it’s been extremely buggy and temperamental.  I’m even on my second Zen, after sending the first one back for a common problem where the screen goes white and loses video.  Even though my current Zen is better-behaved, it still locks up every time I charge it, requiring a hard reboot.  Many issues have been fixed with firmware updates, but just as many quirks remain.  Creative offers a customer support forum which is full of Zen owners, like me, who love their product but who wish it would work more reliably.  Every few months I quietly glance at ads for products like the Sansa Live portable media player, wondering what it might be like to own something less temperamental. 

So, that’s a brief overview of my time with a Creative Zen portable media player.  It’s got some wonderful features, works well with subscription services like “Rhapsody to Go”, and it’s light and sleek to carry around.  Audio is amazing, and you’ll have fun watching videos on it, too.  Just cross your fingers that you don’t get a buggy player, or one with a screen malfunction, or one with another issue which will require return or exchange.  Despite my love of the Zen, it’s tough to recommend a product with so much potential for disappointment and frustration.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 02/01 at 06:00 AM
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