I had to buy a new mp3 player after having my old one stolen. So I read some reviews on here and discovered the Creative LabsZen stone. My budget was only around £30- £50 and this came in at a very reasonable £30 a year ago.
The first thing that caught my eye about it was the size. It is absolutely tiny! It measures up at only 5x2.5x1cm. Definitely the smallest MP3 player I have ever come across. The only problem with it being so small is that there is no screen. So unfortunately it is not possible to search through a list of your music collection. However there is a button that allows you to skip forward a folder at a time. So you just need to save music in folders by artist or genre and then easily search through them until you get to the one you want to listen to.
The set up is really simple. Most of the buttons are arranged in a circle around the play button with there being skip forward/fast forward, skip back/rewind, volume up and volume down. Along the top of the player is a sliding switch that allows you to choose skip forward folder or to shuffle the tracks. They are all really easy to use but are positioned quite close together so it is possible to press the wrong button accidentally.
There is software for the player that you need to download from the manufacturers website, but for some reason I was unable to do this. I downloaded it two or three times and each time the file that saved was a different size but short of the 12.44 Mb full size. According to the website, this file contains creative media lite where you can download music onto the player, and a user guide as well as a volume limiter. However I have found that I don't really need this file, as it is possible to simply drag and drop music straight onto the player. The only thing I can't do is limit the volume but to me this isn't really a problem.
The listing for this product is for 1Gb storage but the one I have is actually twice that at 2Gb! So this means that I can store between 500 and 1000 tunes, which for me is plenty as it holds around 50 to 100 albums.
The battery life is around ten hours, which is enough to use it all day. There is a light that lets you know when you need to recharge. The only problem in regard to the battery is that you can only charge it with the supplied USB charger, so you need to use a computer to charge it, and there is no mains adapter available. To me this is only a small issue though, as I am usually at my computer for a while each day.
The player seems to be very durable. I have dropped it several times and there have been no problems at all with it since. In fact there doesn't seem to be as much as a scratch on it!
For such a small player the sound quality is really good. The music has a really clear sound and there is not much distortion even at loud volumes.
As I said earlier I purchased this product for only £30 a year ago, but have recently found it on sale online for as little as £13.99 plus £4.99 postage on Amazon. So this player is an absolute bargain and well worth consideration when buying a new MP3 player.
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(+) 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
The Creative Zen Stone Car and Home 2 in 1 Combo Charger with TipExchange is the essence ... more
of an all-in-one charging solution for all your travel needs. Designed to function as a high quality Rapid Car charger via a standard DC vehicle cigarette lighter...
Postage & Packaging: £4.06 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The Creative Zen Stone Car and Home 2 in 1 Combo Charger with TipExchange is the essence ... more
of an all-in-one charging solution for all your travel needs. Designed to function as a high quality Rapid Car charger via a standard DC vehicle cigarette lighter...
Postage & Packaging: £4.06 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Oct 4th, 2008
(Oct 10th, 2008)
exceptional by (4%):
very helpful by (96%):
