Creative Zen V Plus 4 GB > Reviews > Perfect Zen

Author's product rating:   

Sound Quality	Excellent
Ease of Use	Very Easy
Look & Design	Excellent
Range of Features	Excellent
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Small, light, holds a decent amount of songs, clear screen
Disadvantages:	Doesn't come with a power adaptor

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I recently bought a Zen v plus 4gb from Amazon. It was only about £91. My husband has the Zen 20gb and loves it.

The Zen v plus 4gb holds around 2,000 according to the box, I haven't filled it up yet, i've only put 140 tracks on.

The small big button in the middle of the player easily navigates through the menus, then you have a back key and a pause/play key on the front. On the side of the player is the volumn control, record button, on/off/hold switch. At the top you have the USB input slot and the line in. At the bottome is the loop to put your lanyard in so you can hang it round your neck, beware of magpies though!

What's in the Box?

It comes with a short USB cable which is fine if you are using a laptop but if you are using a tower PC you might have to scramble around on the floor with your player.

Also in the box is the lanyard. I haven't bothered with this as Creative have provided a cute little velvet jewellery type bag to keep your new toy in.

Headphones are supplied but I found these very uncomfortable and they kept falling out because they were a bit too big for my little ears. I probably shouldn't say this but I like the ones that Sony Ericsson use on their walkman phones!

Included is a lead which goes from your Zen straight to you Stereo system so you can download tracks straight from CD/Tape/Vinyl without the need of a PC. (Line-in recording)

There is an instruction manual and set up disk. The set up is very fast and within minutes you can be downloading tracks from your computer.

You will notice that I haven't mentioned the AC power adaptor, this is because there isn't one. Creative have decided you only need charge your Zen via a computer and so when you plug in the USB lead it charges the Zen. This is all fine but what about if you are on holiday and do not take your computer with you? I bought one from an auction site and it's fine. You can buy direct from Creative, Pixmania, ebay.

The menus are easily navigated, you can choose to listen to a random selection of tunes you have put on your system or each artist, album, genre, as you would expect from an MP3 player.

The screen is pefectly clear, you would think that such a small device would have a rubbish screen but i've put a couple of photos on via the computer and they look great.

Sound quality is pefect, just as it sounds from it's original source.

When downloading songs you have to ensure the title of the track, artist and album are actually typed in because otherwise the Zen will clump everything into an "unknown" folder and it makes it long winded when searching for your favourite track.

I've read reports that sometimes the player can freeze for a few seconds whilst you are scrolling through the menu but I haven't had that yet!

You can download videos onto the player, though i'm not sure why i'd want to or how much memory it'd take up.

There is a radio on this little magic player (which is what the plus is for). Unfortunately it is not digital but it has a very good reception and is very easy to use.

There is a microphone so you can record your mates or whatever you want to, an organiser and something called removable disk which I haven't figured out yet. The clock feature also acts as an alarm.

Small, light and very entertaining, great value for money and holds enough songs to keep you busy on public transport. What more could you ask for? I would definitely recommend this to anyone considering an MP3 player for the first time.