I purchased the unit about two years ago, for £180, which at the time was good value for money, and at the beginning I was pleased on the most part.
14 hours battery life was superb, more than enough for one listening session or car journey. Also, its ease of use is awesome - from any screen or situation on the console, you can change volume, change track, play or pause. This is one of the key reasons why I chose this over the iPod - everytime you wanted to change volume, you had to go music, now playing etc and would have been a huge hassle. However, with the Creative Zen, I could change anything and everything in my pocket.
Another great feature on this MP3 player, apart from the good value for the money, was EAX audio - the ability to play the songs at varied speeds and in different situations - ie at half speed in a concert hall or 1.5 speed in the bathroom. Two years ago I paid £180 for the unit.
However, after the first few months, I started to realise the disadvantages of the machine, and the mistake I made of purchasing it.
For starters, it is a rather large machine. Although it has a very large 30 GB hard drive, capable of storing roughly 15,000 WMA or 8,000 MP3, it was a huge machine, and sometimes I would struggle to fit it in some of my jean pockets.
Also, now everytime I started up the machine after being on charge, it would freeze, causing an inconvience everytime by having to remove the battery every time to take it off the freeze.
Then, after 6 months, my machine broke, sent it back and got a second machine. I am now on my third machine. They are so temperamental and also the customer service was poor - I was so angry that my model kept failing to delvier the high standards it supposedly set. I also kept requesting to speak to their superiors to make a complaint, and I only received contact information on the 6th time of asking.
Overall, there are more important disadvantages than advantages. For sound quality, memory and ease of use there is no better machine on the market. However, if you want a small, sleek, sylish, reliable machine with good customer service, you must avoid this at all cost.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
(+) Av Output to plug to a TV, built-in speakers, easy to use. Come with very good earphones (-) Does not come with power supply (easy to charge from the PC though), av cable is sold separately
Advantages: Huge storage compared to similar priced players, Easy navigation, Excellent battery, plays wma's & mp3's Disadvantages: Problems uploading music
Advantages: Small, looks great, really easy to operate, great video and music playback Disadvantages: Doesn't come with mains charger, marks easily, battery life not that good
needle202 18.08.2006 (18.08.2006)
·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Apple iPod 30GB
Sep 25th, 2006
(Nov 2nd, 2006)
helpful by (100%):
