Creative Zen Stone Plus 2 GB met my criteria (Creative Zen Stone Plus 2 GB)

Member Name: geoffcampos

Product:	Creative Zen Stone Plus 2 GB
Date:	19/02/09 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, compatible, small, excellent battery life

Disadvantages: slow boot speed, seek a bit fiddly

This little jukebox perfectly met my criteria:

1. Cheap
2. Enough space to hold a few files and audio books
3. Small enough to put in shirt pocket/hang from lanyard
4. Works like a memory stick/drag'n'drop
5. Blind/tactile controls
6. Radio

1. Cheap

I bought it in 2007 for less than £40 (from Amazon). That price to meet my criteria is a bargain.

2. Capacity

2GB is easily enough, I don't feel the need to carry my entire music collection about with me and I'm frequently sitting in front of a PC so I typically choose what I want to listen to on a daily/weekly basis. There's easily enough space to fit an audio book or a week's commute worth of podcasts. The battery life is outstanding, so there's ample power to listen to an entire book.

3. Small

It's so small and light that I can literally wear it. I've dropped it umpteen times and it seems indestructable - and so cheap I'm not too bothered if I broke it anyway. Don't feel it in a shirt pocket, could just hand from my ears.

4. Drag and drop

I exclusively use open source software e.g. I don't use Apple or Microsoft products so I needed to have a player that plugs into any computer and appears like a disk. This does - I can just drag and drop files or have any program monitor it for changes.

5. Controls

It's easy to feel the controls so I can skip, pause etc. through my shirt pocket - no need to get it out to look at it.

6. Radio

The radio works well, I get crystal clear BBC reception even with a short headphones cable.

Criticisms

There are other features but I don't use them. Generally, it fits my purpose very well. Small annoyances worth mentioning (for balance):

* When a file is being played, the on-screen navigation is sluggish. I feel that if it were instantaneous, it would be a joy to use but then, that can be levelled at any electronic device.

* It could be even more blind/finger friendly e.g. I have to use the headphone plug and the central navigation wheel depression to target the volume buttons - easily done but I feel soaks up more of my neurons than is necessary.

* Lanyard attachment loop too small. No reason it couldn't span the player. This is a common issue with miniaturised devices - controls, functions shrunken unnecessarily.

* Boot time is a bit slow. Again, it would be great if it could switch on instantly.

* Seeking a bit tedious - especially with big files e.g. audio books. Even without an analogue control like the ipod click wheel, I feel this could be better. I don't need to do it often so not a big issue.

Summary: For the price, it's a quality bit of miniaturisation

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