What can I say, I love this gadget!! This is the first mp3 player I have owned and I was one of the many waiting for its eventual, slightly late release into the UK. Being a novice to the mp3 arena, I spent a bit of time researching which player would suit my needs and this was by far the best looking and most reasonably priced of the lot. I bought mine through Play.com for £95, but it is available elsewhere - Amazon, Firebox, or Creative themselves to name three others.
The 2 Gb version comes in black with green accent or white with green accent. (It also currently comes in a limited edition pink version in support of the National Breast Cancer Foundation). It stores music, photos and short videos and has an FM radio as well as acting as a data storage device. It has a large colour screen that can be rotated to be viewed from 4 angles with clear text. And the whole thing is about the same size as a Zippo lighter.
It comes with just the basics to start working - software, leads and a bizarre velour drawstring bag which was clearly not designed for this model.
The music quality is fantastic to my ears. I use the earphones that were included and don't feel any desire to replace them, although Creative do have a range of earphones to purchase separately for the more discerning listener.
There are just three main navigation controls which are great for neatness, but this means that they each have a number of different functions, and this takes some time to get used to. The small size of the controls is actually not a problem and I find them easy to use. With no acceleration, it could be a bit tiresome scrolling through long lists to find a specific track, however if you arrange your music well, and make good use of the software, it is easy to learn how to manage this.
The battery is inbuilt and is said to have a life of around 15 hours. I haven't tested this, but it seems to just play and play, so I would guess it comes close.
The finish is very shiny, which looks great, but I felt for safety I should get a skin to helps protect the player from scratches and small knocks. The rubberised version I got has done its job for me, but again there are a number of different versions to be bought, including leather. I'm not a rugged type so I can't say how it reacts to a lot of severe movement, however it's been fine with me in the gym and for general use when I'm travelling.
The only real drawbacks that I have found so far are the difficulty in obtaining accessories, and charging the battery when you are nowhere near your PC.
You are supplied with a lead to charge the battery but only through the PC that you loaded the software to. It can take some time to charge fully so ideally a separate mains charger would be ideal. However you need to be very careful that anything you buy will be compatible with this particular model. My experience is that unless you buy an original Creative Labs product, you are taking a gamble that it will work.
This is still a new product and it's not an iPod, so the choice of accessories is limited and as with the chargers, you need to be very careful of compatibility.
Despite this, I am really pleased with my Zen V Plus. It looks fabulous, is tiny enough to take anywhere and has enough playback to see you through any long journey - just make sure you have a way of charging at the other end unless you plan to take your PC with you!!
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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
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Nov 24th, 2006
(Dec 2nd, 2006)
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