Reach a Zen-like State (Creative Zen V Plus 2 GB)

Member Name: samueltyler

Product:	Creative Zen V Plus 2 GB
Date:	24/07/07 (739 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheaper than ipod, more features

Disadvantages: More complicated to get the best out of it

There comes a time in everyman’s life that he has to finally move with the times. No longer can you hop down to your local music shop and buy a Vinyl record, a tape or even a CD… Music is now all about MP3s and the ability to get your music off the internet at a reduced price. The fact is that a whole generation of kids don’t actually pay for their music at all and download it illegally for free. Personally I was not interested in downloading new tracks, but getting a device that would allow me to transfer all my CDs easily into one space. So when my first dooyoo Amazon voucher arrived I was inspired to buy a Creative Labs Zen 2.0.

Why a Zen?

After much deliberation I decided on the Zen rather than the more famous I Pod because I noticed the price was a lot cheaper and I have never been one to follow the trendy crowd. However, it seems that the reviews would suggest I bought the right product anyway as the Zen has been getting raves.

Pretty?

Although not the attractive white that has sold a million I Pods the Zen is a pretty thing in its own right. It has the base colour of black and a trim that comes in a variety of tones to suit the user – I choose an electric green! It’s compact and easily fits into your pocket and the button are handy to press to change tracks or change the volume.

Size Matters?

The Zen comes in a variety of capacities from 1GB up to 4GB (anything higher and you have to go up to Creative Labs next range of MP3 players). I decided that with around 100 CDs I would need the 2GB device. However, after transferring the first 40 or so albums I soon realised that I had saved money, but not given myself enough space. It’s important that if you are going to buy a MP3 player that you get one that is large enough to suit your needs. Mine is slightly too small so I had to delete some less popular albums to make space for the regular Podcasts that I download from the internet.

Show me the interface

Like any new gadget you receive, some people will take to it like a duck to water whilst others will flounder like a vampire in a bath of holy water. As someone who is pretty techno savvy I found the interface on the Zen to be very intuitive. There is an option to look at your music and you can search via album, artist or song. There is also an option to listen to individual albums via shuffle or straight through. The shuffle function is really good if you want to listen to random tracks from your collection. The Zen also takes note of your favourite tracks; least heard tracks and compiles an album of the day for you. This is great for someone like me who listens to the same 10 songs if allowed – this forced me to appreciate my collection. The only bugbear that I had with the interface was its penchant for automatically switching on shuffle. You have to dig down quite far to switch it off and that’s vital if you are trying to listen to an audio book.

As this is the + model it should also be noted that you can watch mini TV shows or movies on the player. The screen is very clear and I was able to see the free adverts that came with it easily. However, I personally can not see the point of wanting to watch anything on a tiny screen and have found the function useless – but it does give the music player a larger screen. For people that are interested in watching video on their MP3 player this does the job, but is severely limited by its 2GB size.

Interaction with my computer

An area that the Zen has come under fire for is how it interacts with your home PC. Unlike the I Pod there is no ready made I Tunes for it to plug straight into. To get the most out of your Zen you will have to do a little bit more work. The player comes with a CD that will install all the software that you will need for it to work. Some people have found that this software does not work on their PCs, I found no such issue and as long as you have a recently bought PC, 2004-, you should be fine too.

The main two pieces of software that I use is the software that allows you to rip music to your player and the Podcast subscriber. Both of these pieces of software are very easy to use and are great. The CD ripper is fantastic as it allows you to burn the CD to your computer hard drive, MP3 player or both. The ability to burn straight to your MP3 player only is a great asset and not available to other players. The Podcast subscriber links you to a website that has 1000s of casts, just choose the ones you are interested in and every time you plug in your MP3 player the latest episodes are downloaded – fantastic. I actually listen to these casts a lot more than my music.

There are a couple of issues with the software that will cause a problem to people not that familiar with computers. This is not an Apple product and therefore will not work with I Tunes directly. This sometimes effects downloading off internet websites as they are sometimes I Tunes only.


Summary

Do I recommend Creative Lab’s Zen 2GB? Definitely; especially to people who know a little more about computers and want to get more value for their money. I found that the price, functionality and software were all superior to the more popular brand. However, for people that do not know that much about computers the added hassle of working to get your downloads may not be worth the £20 saved and enhanced features. I would also suggest that people go for the slightly larger 4GB model as I found that 2GB was not enough. Overall, a great player at a decent price that is aimed at the PC user rather than layman. (4 out of 5)


Maker: Creative Labs
Price: amazon uk - £65.66
play.com - £79.99

Summary: A MP3 player for the more techno savvy users

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