Zen Touch - Worth the money! (Creative Zen Touch 20 GB)

Member Name: ff2k

Product:	Creative Zen Touch 20 GB
Date:	10/06/05 (484 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Large Capacity, Superb Battery life, Great Price

Disadvantages: Nomad Software Poor, Touchpad takes time to get used to, Design isnt too sleek

I purchased a Creative Zen Touch from the internet a couple of months ago, and it has proved to be a great MP3 player. It has a nice design with a 'brushed metal' feel around the edges, and a smooth feel in the center. I purchased the 20GB version, which offers a huge capacity for storing music, and files as well.

[CAPACITY vs PRICE]
Compared to Apple's iPod, the Creative Zen Touch offers more space for the money you pay. For example, I purchased the Zen touch for about £150, while at that time, the iPod 20GB version was available for about £200. This price difference is one main aspect that sets the iPod and the Zen Touch apart.

[DESIGN]
Many users may prefer the design of the iPod, which is shiny and sleek, and more publicly recognised. The Zen Touch uses a 'touch pad' while the iPod uses a 'touch/click wheel' or whatever you wish to call it, but the Zen basically involves moving up and down, while the iPod involves rotating in circles. It's a matter of preference, really. The Zen has quite a few buttons, for total control over the device. It also has a lock switch, so buttons aren't accidentally pressed while carrying it around, and also has a USB 2.0 mini socket which connects to the computer. It also features other common things such as audio-out (obviously) and an extension socket for a remote control or radio, or other various addons.

[BATTERY]
The Creative Zen's main strong point is its large battery life of 24 hours stated continuous play, while the iPod has 8 hours stated battery life for the 3rd generation, and 10 hours stated for the 1st and 2nd generation. From personal experience I can say that I have managed about 20 hours continuous play with the Zen touch, which puts it way ahead of the iPod in this aspect.

[SOFTWARE]
The Zen currently (although may be fixed in a future firmware update) requires users to install the Nomad drivers and software to be able to transfer files to and from the device. This may be of some inconvenience to some users, but the software does not take up much space, or inhibit the computer in any way. Also, the Zen Touch comes with Creative Mediasource software, a nice media player that can be easily installed.

[SOUND QUALITY]
The Zen Touch was developed by Creative, a lead designer and manufacturer of many popular sound cards and speakers, therefore you can expect the sound quality to be quite good. The earphones provided are not of excellent quality though, and they could have been a lot better, but the Zen does offer a 4-band EQ and a high output quality, for use with better earphones possibly or output to a Hi-fi system.

Overall, the Zen Touch offers a lot for its price, and I would highly recommend it to potential buyers. There is also a 40GB and 60GB version, however finding enough music to fill up such a huge space will be hard for many users.

Summary: