o0o Click Click o0o (Creative Zen Micro 5 GB)

Member Name: popnfresh15

Product:	Creative Zen Micro 5 GB
Date:	01/06/06 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small, easy-ish to use, large storage capacity, good sound quality

Disadvantages: The annoying clicky sound, had to return it after finding it was faulty, battery life

It really annoyed me when about 5 months after buying this product that a 6GB version came out at around the same price.

To be frank, this product sits on a shelf gathering dust in my room. The low battery life really ticked me off, as I would sit down to get on with some work at home with a bit of music on my Zen Micro to listen to and then NOTHING. I find that despite charging the darn thing two days ago my battery has run out. This began to get annoying and so now I just use my computer to listen to the music that was on there.

I had to return this after ONE DAY when I found that the whole memory, through no fault of my own, kept wiping when I turned it off. I did get a replacement from the retailer fairly hassle-free, though.

One of the buttons on the replacement was stuck, though. I never could be bothered to get ANOTHER replacement and then put all the music on it again, so to this day on the rare occasion I dare charge it up for an hour's worth of use I cannot pause the track. I have really lost the will to try with it.

There is also a distinctive clicking sound when you press any of the buttons, originally alarming but now simply irritating. I'm not sure if this is supposed to happen, but it does.

However, there are some good points about the Zen Micro, one being its size. I like my gadgets small and could never stand that Nokia Brick, as it came to be known. I originally bought it because I cannot stand the iPod, as I think it is really unattractive and quite frankly a weird shape.

The storage capacity is great, I have about 1500 tracks on there and almost 1.5Gb free, after some space is taken for menus etc., which is another thing. The menus are simple and easy to use and navigate to find the track you want. I like this as I am not a technical person and still find this easy to use.

The sound quality is good and can be relied upon, and its clarity really shocked me. I was used to slightly muffled cassettes and CDs, but the mp3 format was introduced to me via this gadget and I would never go back. I like the fact that you no longer need to carry 50 CDs with you, only this little device, as all the music is stored on there.

I would only recommend this if you only want to use it occassionally and not for jogging, as if you do then it might break due to its HDD (hard disk drive) with small moving parts inside.

Summary: I wouldn't recommend this, it never really has been 'perfect'. Or even close to...

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Ease of use:
Features:
Sound quality:
Download speed: