I must say that I really did not like this product, at all. I had so many problems with transferring music, and also many with the device itself, but those were largely due to my own carelessness with dropping it multiple times. So, to the creative zen's credit, it is built like a tank and probably can sustain a lot more damage than other media players. Rest assured, I am much more careful with my ipod 80 gb, and have purchased a plastic case for it.
Let me first go over the positives of this device:
It has a great battery life. Whilst not quite the 24 hours that the advertisements suggest, it will last well over 12, which is much better than the ipod.
The sound quality is pretty good, even with standard headphones.
It resists falls really well. I dropped it about ten times from a height of several feet onto harder surfaces before the navigation started malfunctioning. Eventually all I was able to do was press random, and this took a lot of pressure, but I still was able to listen to music to the very end. This was my fault and I recommend that you be more careful with your device than I was.
The interface is also easy to use, and being able to delete music right on the player is an advantage over the ipod.
But it goes downhill from here.
Now, let me start with the first time I bought a creative zen. I actually bought two, not one. The first one absolutely refused to transfer music and the software was really confusing, so I returned it for being defective and exchanged it for a new one. To my relief, I was able to transfer one thousand songs to it, but I had not selected my whole library (at the time, only 3500 songs) because I wanted to test it out.
Well, this was a big mistake on my part, because it would be the last time ever that I would be able to transfer music to it. I even tried with my sister's creative to temporarily use it because mine was nearly dysfunctional (she had not used hers much, therefore it was in much better condition than mine which I had used quite irresponsibly). We tried to call customer service about the problem, but they for the most part were unresponsive and didn't really offer any useful advice into helping solve the problem.
I honestly don't know if I just operated the program wrong, but with something like transferring music, the controls should be easy to figure out. I typically like complexity, but not in something like this. I just want my songs on my device, and that's about it. This device and the software that came with it did not give me this at all. I gave my creative away a few months ago to get an Ipod. Even when my device was working perfectly, brand new, before I had even dropped it once, the troubles had commenced. If someone is very computer savvy and can tolerate long periods of attempting to get this to work, then I would recommend it because of the battery life and resistance to falls, but for anyone else, I would not. I assume that there is a way to get it to work, but it probably takes a lot of exacting maneuvers within the software, something that thoroughly confused me despite reading the manual over and over. I even installed drivers over and over again, and the results were no different. This device did work with windows media player though, and if it had easily synced and worked with it every time, it would be great. It also froze from time to time, which was annoying, but the reset was easy and this was not a HUGE problem.
The bottom line: Get an ipod instead if you want to avoid the hassle, but get a hard plastic case as they damage pretty easily. They only work with itunes, too. However, the itunes software and sync system is very, very easy to use and you will not have to deal with any of these problems.
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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
It does look quite stylish, but I think I Still prefer the look of the ipod, and by the sounds of things it doesn't live up to expectations either. Well reviewed.
This Brand New replacement battery is equivalent to your original battery. Manufactured ... more
with top quality cells using the most up-to-date technology to give a long lasting charge with no memory effect.All our Batteries conform to ISO9001, RoHS and CE certification. All our prices include VAT and you will receive a VAT invoice.CodeCS-RE02SLTypeLithium-PolymerVoltage3.7 Capacity1700mAhWarranty12 MonthsEquivalent Battery Codes :DAA-BA0004
Postage & Packaging:£2.99 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days......
Sep 30th, 2007
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