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Creative Zen Touch 20 GB
by ajp4ever
Are you fed up hearing about Apple this and Apple that and the latest whizz bang gadget from......oh yes, Apple. It's i this and i that. It seems to be by adding an i onto just about anything it makes it an original idea! Anyway you get the point.
For a start I am not here to review ANY Apple products!
Today I am going to ... show you how there are products out there, just as good, if not better than the mighty Apple.
What we have here is the Creative Zen Touch 20 GB. This is simply a music player with the added benefit of a radio, no cameras, videos, TV, just good old fashioned music!
WHAT'S IN THE BOX?
Creative Zen Touch 20GB
USB Cable
Earbud Headphones
Fake Leather Carrying Case
User Manual
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Storage capacity: 20GB
Supported Audio Formats: MP3, WAV, WMA
Battery Run Time: Up to 24 hours
DIMENSIONS
Width: 6.85cm
Depth: 2.18cm
Height: 10.46cm
Weight: 199.86gm
CONNECTIVITY
Outputs: Headphone jack
Interfaces: USB 2.0
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
FM Radio
Auto Sync
Linear Touchpad
Advanced EQ presets
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
The Zen (I will call it that for now), is made from a swish looking metallic-alloy and has a glossy white body with the controls laid out very simply and intuitively and the finish is very durable, having barely a scratch on it, despite being in and out of numerous pockets, knocked against keys etc.
The big win for the Zen is the linear touchpad which is a stroke of genius and you will have mastered it in no time, allowing you to navigate your music collection (no matter how large) with ease.
The 160*104 pixel display is easy to read and displays plenty of information such as artist, track title, album info, EQ setting, play mode and elapsed time bar.
WHAT'S IT LIKE TO USE?
For starters, whatever your musicical tastes, with the Zen, the brilliant battery life lets you listen to your tunes for up to 24 hours and is one of the best on the market.
The Zen feels solid and durable in your hand and as I have alluded to previously the superb linear touchpad enables you to find any track in no time at all simply by sliding your thumb up and down on the touchpad. By hitting the ok button this enables you to select a song or album or alternatively you can set up the touchpad to tap it to select.
On either side of the Zen you have back, menu and random (shuffle) buttons on one side and play and back or forward buttons on the right.
This is one point where the Zen falls down as unless you have large hands, you will find it hard to operate the buttons one handed.
The left edge of the Zen has the volume and power buttons while on the opposite side is the power adapter connector.
Finally at the top of the player is the headphone and USB slots and also a hold switch.
IS IT EASY TO TRANSFER MY MUSIC?
Creative has simplified the transfer of your music with the autosync feature which syncs with Windows media player 10 and it also allows for the transfer of subscription based downloads that time out as well.
By the time you read this review Creative should have released a firmware upgrade which will allow the Zen to show up as a seperate drive on your PC, therefore making the transfer of files a whole lot easier and you should simply be able to drag and drop it from one file onto the player itself.
DOES IT SOUND ANY GOOD?
I was very impressed by the sound quality of the Zen and while the standard earbud headphones are good I have upgraded mine to a decent pair of Sony's but this is entirely personal preference. Part of the reason for the excellent sound is the signal-to-noise ratio of less than 97dB and the Zen can also produce excellent sound by being hooked up to your home stereo system.
VERDICT
A cracking MP3 player and radio which certainly gives the iPod a run for its money and is able to hold about 10000 songs and play them back in quality sound.
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Sony Walkman NW-A3000 20 GB
by MrMxyzptlk
I inherited this mp3 player two years ago, after my Creative Zen decided to break. My sister had just gotten an iPod, and had no need for it any more. It is flawed, but has served me well all the same.
People are constantly asking if it's some kind of newfangled smartphone, given that it looks nothing like the iPods that ... everyone rocks these days. Part of me is happy to be original and different with my Walkman, but I often do wish for the functionality of Apple's superior hardware.
The NW-A3000 comes in at 20GB, which is more than enough capacity for my needs, usually. Granted, every month or so I refresh my music on it, but for the most part it's a functional library. Where it falls short is in its more practical functionality. The software is a bit sluggish to respond, and there is a delay in moving to and through the menu options. This is a minor gripe, however, and more annoyingly, there does not seem to be any way to delete music off the Walkman without plugging it into a computer. This becomes an issue when I realise that I have the full discography of Glee on there, moments before plugging it into the speakers at a party. 'Shuffle All' be damned.
Also, when accessing the Walkman with a computer, you need specialised software to do so. Windows Media Player will add music to the player, but will not actually convert it to a playable format. In essence you're left with a full hard drive, but no music available. The software is free, but a bit of a hassle, especially if not using your own computer.
These are all manageable drawbacks given the disparity in price between the NW-A3000 and an iPod, but ensures that this Walkman feels particularly dated. The player is also quite heavy, but exercise is good for you.
At the end of the day, the hardware is ancient, by today's standards, but you knew that before reading this review. Still, it seems relatively shock-proof, and if you, like me, enjoy being challenged by your gadgets, this is a good match for you.
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Archos Gmini XS200 20 GB
by Fractal_Walsh
The Archos Gmini, for my requirements, is one of the best MP3 players on the market and is brilliant value for money.
That being said, I think it's really important to add the disclaimer "for my requirements" as the main things I love about my Archos may well be negatives to the Ipod lovers out ... there.
Owning a smart phone, all I really want from my music player is a simple system with the biggest possible memory size in the smallest possible package. I don't want to play solitaire on it, watch video clips and I really don't care about album art.
For me, the Gmini achieves just that. It's a simple, no frills design that packs 20 GB (approximately 5,000 songs) into a solid, impressively compact, little case small enough to put in any pocket. While being small it still has a strong, weighty feel to it that personally I really prefer to some of the lighter, flimsier cased players on the market.
The sound quality is good and the volume has more than enough power behind it.
The screen is a plain, LCD display, with a back light that activates on use.
Navigation is via a joystick which is much preferable to the unnecessary touch screens found on other high end players. One of the biggest negatives however, is that by the time you hit the 3,000 song mark scrolling through the artists can be quite time consuming and there is no decent quick scroll option.
With fewer features and a low detail display I have found that the battery lasts a really impressive amount of time before you have to plug it back in.
Upon connection the Archos acts as an external hard drive, meaning that you can access, add/remove and rename your music files via the standard files and folders set up that you use day in day out on your pc. This for me is a must. I have owned an ipod in the past and being of the opinion that itunes is a program of pure evil it is a massive breath of fresh air to be treated like a sane minded adult and be left to drag and drop files to your hearts content.
Also with no need for the installation of drivers or music management software, the Archos makes a perfect "plug in and go" player, meaning that while you're out you can easily connect to a friends pc, with a standard USB cable, and share music or use as an external hard drive with minimum fuss.
To summarise, the Archos Gmini is by no means a suitable alternative the ipod. If you want the features, the trendy design and high spec then I strongly suggest you spend the extra money and buy an ipod. On the other hand, if you want simplicity, good size to memory ratio and value for money then the Gmini is undoubtedly the one to buy.
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