Nice Old Timer (Creative Zen Sleek Photo 20 GB)

Member Name: frenchboy88

Product:	Creative Zen Sleek Photo 20 GB
Date:	12/09/09 (14 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Decent hard drive, nice feel

Disadvantages: Getting old now, reliability issues

Well, me and my Creative Zen Photo have had what I like to call a "love-hate" relationship.

I've owned it now for around 5 years after buying it, I think, in 2005/06 for the princely sum of about £100 on special offer from Argos. At the time, this was significantly undercutting the iPod. Looks-wise, its quite nice to the touch as its made of nice plastic and brushed aluminium. By todays standards however its quite heavy and is a bit of a brick.

The 20GB storage space had proved to be more than enough to meet my needs. I enjoy my music, but I would not say I am a music "buff". I probably download about 5 albums per month. I still to this day have 8GB free on the player. Aside from music, the player can also store photos and other files as it can be switched to "external hard drive" mode - this is quite useful. However, as the screen is quite low resolution compared to recent players, photos are hard to see and appear pixelated. A good way to carry your collection around but not to show it off.

Reliability, well, this is a mixed bag. Although the player is still working, we have had our share of run ins. Sometimes it will enter "standby" mode, and wont return, so although I can hear the hard drive whirring inside, it refuses to turn the screen on. Sometimes when using it plugged into my CD Player in the car, it will refuse to work, and the controls will freeze up. So although working, its not 100% reliable.

Battery life is not great, it lasts probably 4-5 hours on a full charge, but this could be down to its age.

The software packaged with it is clunky and slow. I tend to synch with windows media player instead.

Overall, a decent player when it came out but getting on a bit now. However I won't be upgrading until this one dies - it has certainly outlived 2 of my sisters iPods!

Summary: Good at the time but getting old now

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