Advantages: Small, great looks, compatible with most formats
Disadvantages: Touch screen a little to fiddly

...?' or 'Have you done your report on the new pricing model yet?' - When could I use a portable mp3 player? So with that resounding conclusion that a personal music player was a gadget I really didn't need, why did I buy the Creative Zen Micro? I'll answer that later, just in case you are interested, did my gadget heart beat my mind into submission for a £140 gadget? In this review I have two parts, general info about music players and then a review of the Creative Zen. I have tried to cover all of the questions someone might have about a portable music player. If you are new to media players you should spend some time learning about the major differences in players. It will help you make a better informed decision before you buy. If you already are up to speed with music players and just want to know what's different about the Creative Zen... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Fits in your pocket, Display Screen
Disadvantages: Sensitive Touch Pad

...My search for MP3's began on Ciao and I read around a variety of reviews and asked the reviewers some questions which I needed answering. The most important question for me was 'How can I play this in my car?' but more about that later. I visited Curry's and had a look at a few but was really impressed with the chunky little Zen Micro thingy that fitted comfortably into the palm of your hand. This was the one! After searching the internet for decent prices I went onto the Creative website and actually ended up purchasing the little beast through one of their approved stores, and at the cheapest price I had seen as well, thumbs up from me. The player cost me £135 delivered which I though was a fair price. For those of you who don't know an MP3 player allows you, with a range of software (depending on the type of player) to take... Read review

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Advantages: high in functionalty
Disadvantages: uncomfortable and pointless

...CIAO REVIEW 25/10/07 - Creative ZEN V Series Armband Pack MP3 Player - ** MP3 Accessories - Armband and belt clip** A specialised belt/armband catered for the V series and V plus MP3 Player >ZEN a creative introduction< Welcome to planet ZEN, no it's not a hairdressing salon, but a revolutionary name for PMP - Portable Media Players designed by Creative. - Creative was founded in Singapore - in 1981, if you view or have seen their corporate branding it is oriental looking. These guys had a vision in the 1980's originally with sound, and speakers and cards for the PC market. Most will remember that Creative is more known for it's incredibly successful Sound Blaster components for the PC. In recent years Creative have modelled themselves on a few house-hold brands from the West, so that sales in the Western world would increase... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Walking Radio
Disadvantages: volume: see below

...The Zen Micro MP3 Player in my opinion is great. With its vertical touch pad it makes navigation very easy and it is perfectly designed to fit comfortably into your hand with its auper cool curves. It has got 32 FM radio stations you can listen to and record..great! The built in microphone is another really cool feature that this MP3 Player has as you can use this to voice record for up to 10 hours long. wow! You can use the 2.0 USB lead that comes with this MP3 Player to attatch it to your computer and download all your favorite songs. The rechargable Lithium-ion battery that also comes with it is very handy as this will give you continious listening / playtime of 12 hours. This 6 MB MP3 Player will hold 1500 about 99 hours worth of your most favorite songs of 128kbps and a massive 3000 about 198 hours worth of your favorite songs... Read review

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Advantages: Much cheaper than an iPod. Intuitive menu system. Charges Quickly. Plays different audio formats.
Disadvantages: A bit clunkier than the iPod. Menu system isn't quite as pretty as the iPod's

...I think that in this day and age, everyone has been taken in by iPod's high budget advertising scheme and come to believe that iPods are the ONLY mp3 players available, whereas this is far from the truth. Through my own experience with the Zen NX (30Gb) I've never found an mp3 player which is better value for money. I've had mine for almost 3 years now, and it's still performing great. However, think about this, I bought it almost THREE years ago, for just over £200, and it's a 30Gb mp3 player. Go have a look at Apple's prices and see if they can even compete with that nowadays! I'll be honest - it is noticeably clunkier than the iPod, and it's hard drive based, so it's not one to go out jogging with or you'll wreck the drive. But it sounds great (The EAX is an awesome feature) The battery drains slightly quicker with EAX on... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Sound quality, size,look
Disadvantages: Small joystick, no mains charger

...I had been looking for a long while for an mp3 player before I decided on this one after a lot of people had said very favourable things about Creatives products. Size: When I got the Zen V plus It was smaller than I had imagined it to be, It's palm sized but for me that was an advantage. it is also very light so very easy to use on the go. Ease of use The software that came with it was very easy to load and use on my computer and it came with what I felt a basic instruction manual. Very easy to use and easy to manage the files on the mp3 player. The mp3 player itself has a very easy to use menu and you can find the song you want fairly easy as you can choose either by all music, artist, song title or type of genre. The way that the songs are stored in the genres section is a bit confusing as some just are not in the right... Read review

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Advantages: Very light, good features, reliable, good run time
Disadvantages: Small memory,

...The Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB White is a small, compact and stylish mp3 player. It is originally available in white, but can be bought in 10 different colours. These colours include the very popular red, green, yellow, blue, black and pink. It measures just over 1 cm in depth (thickness), 6.6 cm in length and 3.4 cm in width making it a very slim mp3 player. It weighs just 34 g, which is virtually nothing and is a very big advantage as it is so light you will not even be able to notice that you are carrying anything at all. This can also be a disadvantage as you may leave the mp3 player in your pocket (without earphones) and it may drop and you will surely not even notice. Creative say they are giving you 1 GB of internal flash memory, but in actual fact it is under 1 GB. 993 MB of internal memory is provided, which is not a lot... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful