Creative ZEN Nano Plus 1 GB

The Creative Zen Nano Plus 512 mb .

< Background to purchase : >

After many a year ( well two anyway ) , I decided to get with the times , ditch the portable CD player and move forward with the purchase of an MP3 player .
I looked at many ( the iPod Nano amongst others - sadly cost & availability said no ) , but in the end kept going back to the first MP3 player that really caught my eye and which was both affordable and from a well respected manufacturer - the Creative Zen Nano Plus - yet it shares he same Nano name as its main competitor , but was on the market way before Apples might player was unleashed .

< Available memory sizes : >

The Nano Plus comes in three flash memory sizes , namely 256 mb , 512 mb and 1 gig . The average price for these is £40 , £60 and £80 respectively . Not limited by the cost , I plumped for the mid range 512mb version , which can hold around 128* MP3's or 256* WMA tracks - more than enough for me - why want to hold 1000+ tracks on an MP3 player , it'll take a year to listen to them all , let alone find a particular track...

< The physical bit... : >

The Nano Plus comes in two colours , namely black or white , with the white predominantly set aside for the 1 gig version . The dimensions are (WxDxH) - 3.4 cm ; 1.3 cm ; 6.6 cm . and without its AAA battery and headphones , weighs a mere 22 g. ( 34 g with battery ) .

< Characteristics : >

A built-in lcd screen ( 3cm * 1 cm ) , that can display 2 lines of text , with blue background light ( strangely enough the lower priced 256 mb model has is the only one with multiple backlight choices ) . The backlight can be set to stay on either 3 , 5 , 10 or 15 seconds or permenntly off and is automatically lit ( if not set to off ) upon accessing the player functions such as fast forward. Contrast can also be adjusted for improved readability . Additionally , the diplay can be flipped to allow reading whichever way you hold the Mp3 player . The display is easy to read , and where a track title is longer than the display ( 18 characters ) , it will scroll the title to enable complete reading. In standard playback mode the upper line displays track running time , battery level and equaliser mode , while the lower ( slightly smaller txt ) displays the track artist / title information ( see additional photo )
Voice / data storage capacities - the unit has a built-in condenser micraphone to enable voice recording. You can also record from the FM broadcast . Data storage would be via the fast USB2 connection to you computer .
It supports MP3 , WMA and WMA Digital Rights Management files ( unlike many MP3 players allowing you to save DRM files ) and supports drag and drop from your computer allowing for easy transferring of files . When connected to a PC computer it simply shows up as an external hard disc , which can be opened and files moved / renamed / deleted at will . Tracks can be placed in its memory singulary or as a folder ( a folder would hold a whole album ) . You can then choose to play all tracks / single track / single folder / all folders ; either in order or randomly ; and even play once , repeat once , repeat continually - so much choice !

* No doubt you want to know how many tracks can be stored on the Nano Plus - this question however is very much like how long s a pice of string ( depends where it is cut ! ) .To acheive near CD quality playback you will need to encode MP3 files at minimum 128Kbps. At this ratio 1mb of memory equals approx. 1 minute of music, therefore the 512mb Nano Plus will store four hours worth of CD quality Mp3 files. 128Kbps is the most common bitrate for encoding music. If you encoded your music at 64Kbps you would be able to store 2minutes of music to 1mb of memory * 8 hours on my 512 mb version ) . the higher the bitrate the better the quality. WMA compressed files are on a par to 64kps Mp3 quality . Simply by mixing encoding qualities / file types / data files etc , will affect just how many tracks you can store .

The Mp3 player runs on a single AAA battery . Battery life is reported to be 18 hours , but the supplied Energizer battery lasted just over 24 hours - so no arguements here .
Binaural stereo in-ear headphones are also supplied , and it has to be said they provide excellent sound . These however can be easily replaced at your discretion with any headphones that have a 3,5mm jack . Furthermore the obligatory neck strap is also supplied .
Its predessessor the Zen Muvo had a direct connecting USB connector . The Nano plus however resorts to USB cable connector ( 1.5 mtr. cable supplied ) , which for me is better suited to my computer which has no front USB access .
Accesing the main functions is via a scroll wheel . Depress it to get into menu mode then turn forwards / backwards to select your required option . Once at the point push the wheel in again to further access commands / actions .It takes alittle getting used to , but you soon pick up the habit .The wheel is also used as fast forward / reverse track selector ( single up/back movement ) and fast forward / reverse of track in two second intervals .
Other than the scroll wheel , the only other exterior buttons for your use are the on/off button which also acts as play / pause and volume up and volume down buttons( with volume set from 0 to 25 ) .

< Unlike many Mp3 players this also has : >

1) FM radio tuner - with 32 user presets available .
2) Six equaliser settings , namely ; Normal , Jazz , Pop , Rock , Classic and user definable.
3) Direct line input ( via supplied lead ) - this allows for direct conversion of material from for example a portable cd player or even a casette player or record deck.
In all quite a comprehsive Mp3 player .

< In the box : >

Mp3 player , AAA battery , neck strap , headphones , manual , manual / software cd .
The manual is one of multiple language , and in essence tells you how to start using your Mp3 player and briefly describes the Mp3 players connections / buttons etc . It does not however cover in any depth how to access / use the many functions available. For this information you need to read the PDF files as supplied on the cd rom.I however passed over this and soon ( despite never owning / using one before ) worked out how to use this player .
The Nano Plus is plug and play , however the cd provided also includes Creative software to allow management of your Mp3 tracks as well transfer software - neither are required to use the player , but may be of use to someone . I myself do not use it .

< Overview >

The Creative Zen Nano Plus is sleek and ultra-portable . Small and thin in design, it is feature rich and will easily meet most peoples needs. Audio quality is exceptional ( flaws in tracks are easily noticed using the Nano Plus , that were missed when played back through the computer ) . Complete with a FM tuner, Voice/FM recording, and Line-In encoding for direct connection and recording from any audio source , you can also directly record your music from a CD player etc. - no computer needed , this is simply great ! Well worth looking at if your in the market .

Thanks for the read . Feel free to comment .

- Brian