Don't be a PODder. Get Creative! (Creative Zen Touch 40 GB)

Member Name: miles_muso

Product:	Creative Zen Touch 40 GB
Date:	22/11/06 (151 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent sound quality. Excellent battery life. Native mp3 and WMA support.

Disadvantages: Heavy. Not as 'cool' as an iPod (if that's your thang)

I've owned Creative mp3 players for about 3 years, starting with the Zen Jukebox (still working well) and now the 40Gb version of the Zen Touch. Now, controversial though it may be, I'm going to state that the Creative way of doing things is better than the iPod way of doing things. Sure, iPod has the 'name' and the cool looks, but you have to use iTunes software with an iPod and, if you want to use WMAs (Windows Media audio files), iTunes won't allow it. Also, if you just want to copy some tracks from an iPod to another mp3 player, iTunes makes it very difficult. It's all down to Apple's use of the AAC format, which encodes audio in a totally different way to the mp3 format and makes it hard to convert for use in other applications, other that iTunes.

No such problems with the Zen. The accompanying software (Creative MediaSource) allows you to rip a CD in either WMA or mp3 format and write it to either your hard drive, the Zen, or both. The files are clearly stored for later use, and you're free to transfer them where you will. Much better!

As for as the player itself:

Sound quality
The sound quality is excellent and, for those of you with a technical understanding, the signal-to-noise ratio is probably the best on any mp3 player to date (meaning there's very little audio noise caused by the player itself - you're getting almost 100% pure track coming through the headphones.) Furthermore, the headroom is between 90 and 100db, meaning that there's no distortion being added when you turn it to the maximum volume (imagine 'headroom' as the speed available in a fast car - a Ferrari driven at 70mph will be performing more than comfortably with loads of headroom before it starts complaining. wheras a clapped-out old banger can still do 70mph but would be rattling away and not performing smoothly.) The volume can be increased to 'painfully loud' without cracking up, although you'd be wise to invest in some high-quality headphones if you intend to listen at very loud levels all the time, as the Creative headphones are merely 'OK'.

Operation and Navigation
Rather than using a touch-wheel, as in the iPod, the Zen uses a 1-inch long vertical touchpad in the centre of the player. If you want to scroll through a list, you just stroke the pad up or down (for short scrolls) or keep your finger at the top or bottom of the pad to 'fast forward' or 'rewind' through the list. Then you just need to hit the OK button, or if you want to you can douple-tap the touchpad instead (I use the OK button, as it's faster in practice.) All the other functions (on/off, play, volume up/down) have their own dedicated buttons which are logically laid out and very intuitive to use.

Protection
The case provided is very tough-looking, and certainly when I spilled a Diet Coke over the case, none of it got into the actual player (phew!) However, it's hard to operate the player from inside the case, so bear this in mind if you want to use it in the gym or for going jogging (instead, just create a playlist and leave it running - simple enough!)

Battery Life
The Zen uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery which, they claim, will run for 24 hours. Just before writing this review I actually tried it out by fully cahrging and letting it run. 26 hours later, it's still going strong. Admittedly, I haven't left the backlight on for all that time and I haven't been constantly pressing play or scrolling through the menus (which can all drain the battery more than just by playing), but I have no reason to doubt that it will last a day under normal playing conditions.

Style
Each to their own, but I like the styling. It's quite chunky and fairly heavy, but that smacks of quality to me. I even like the fact that it's NOT an iPod, as people often come up to me and ask what model it is, and inevitably end up listening to it. When they hear the difference in quality between my Zen and their iPod, they often skulk away in shame. Hooray for my side!

If your 15-year-old nephew simply MUST have an iPod for Christmas, then don't buy this. But if you want to listen to your mp3s with superior quality, get your credit card out.

Summary: A superior-quality mp3 player.

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