Creative ZEN V PLUS 1GB > Reviews (9)

The Zen V is in my opinion a much better alternative to the overhyped iPod. Considering that Creative is a company that specialises in sound technology and is the producer of sound cards, sound software (such as the Audio Blaster) and so on, it has a definite advantage over a company whose primary product is computers.

The player itself is a work of art. It is absolutely tiny, with an attractive sleek colour-coded design. The buttons are also rather cleverly arranged. The only disadvantage is perhaps the absence of a touch scroll pad present in larger Zen players as well as iPods, but the clever five-way navigation joystick compensates for that.

Once turned on, the player continues to impress. The colour screen can be customised with a different colour scheme as well as wallpapers that you can transfer from the computer, so if you want to have a photo of your loved one in the background at all times, you can. The library is organised in the standard way of most MP3 players, the menu lets you access functions such as Music Library as well as settings and organiser options such as Calendar and To-do list, which you can synchonise from the computer. You can also manage your playlists.

The library itself lets you play music by artist, album or genre, as well as just play all the songs (although it holds 500 on average, so you would have to go on a very long trip to listen to all of them). It also has a DJ function, which tracks your most played tracks, least played tracks and Random Play All.

The sound quality is amazing, even with the standard earpones that come with the player (let me remind you again that Creative specialise in sound technology). You can set a volume control that stops you from turning the volume up to a certain amount, as well as equalizer settings.

The only bad thing about the player is that you would need an up-to-date computer to be able to install it, as it requires a high-speed USB port to be able to charge and put files on the player. Installation of Windows Media Player 10 and Creative MediaSource Organiser. However, it is compatible with most computers.

On the whole, I would recommend this product to anyone who plans to buy it. As well as a source of hours of music, the player can be used as a storage device to transfer files between computers. Definitely a great purchase!