scorpian007
100+ Head-Fier
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Here's my take on the Zen Micro.
Initial impressions were good, the packaging was very nice, improved from Creatives previous packaging on the Zen Xtra and Zen Touch. The box contents included the main unit, a wall charger, a usb cable, a software CD, and a quick start guide. Installation of the software went smoothly, I inserted the battery and charged the player up via USB. The wall charger had an american plug but this was detachable so you can change if you go overseas, ingenius. It's also an international charger supporting 110-240v so you don't need to worry about step down transformers or anything like that.
One thing I have to comment on is the size of the unit itself, its TINY. The pictures don't do it any justice, this thing is very small. If you've held an iPod Mini, you'll know how small it is, this is actually smaller, but a bit wider (because of the removable battery).
After charging, I uploaded 4.5Gb of music onto the player using Creative Media Source with no problems at all. I edited the Custom EQ settings to suit my preference and tested a few songs using my Sony MDR-EX71's. The sound coming out of this tiny little player was amazing. It was as good as my Zen Touch, which as you know has excellent sound quality. Sound was extremely clean, the bass is very nice as well as the treble and mid sections. So soundwise, this player is an absolute winner, but what about interface? I can safely say that they've improved the interface over the Zen Touch's. The Zen Touch had an easy interface but this is even easier, finding albums, queuing music, creating playlists is a breeze. Everything is laid out nicely in the menu's so it wont become a chore to find something.
The touch pad on the Zen Micro is similar to that of the Zen Touch's, but it still took me about 2 minutes to get used to it (even after mastering the Zen Touch's touchpad). In fact, all the touch buttons are extremely nice and respond well to your finger movements.
Customising the main menu is a great little touch, lets you personalise it to suit yourself. I find it extremely handy to have a shortcut to the Date/Time and all my contacts at a click. Syncing with the PC couldn't be easier, especially contacts, to-do and calender. You create all your tasks, contacts, etc in Outlook and use the Sync manager to sync it to the player and it's extremely easy.
The DJ mode is kinda cool, it has a play count of each track played and then has options to play the most played or least played songs. There are more options in this mode like playing the "Album of the Day", which I haven't quite figured out what it is, but seems like a random album out of the playlist, but very well could be the most played (I'm not sure, haven't used it enough to know).
The Removable Disk option is great for those who want to store data on the player but do not want to carry around a driver disk. You can set up a partition on the player to act as this and set the size, then when you connect it to Windows, it will detect as a removable disk. Extremely handy for people who want to carry data around.
FM Radio isnt bad, it uses the headphones as the aerial. It highly depends on the area you live in but the reception was fairly good here (Canberra). Voice recording is nice too with the built in microphone, and a nice little option is there to record from the FM Radio
I can't comment on battery life because the battery still has 3 bars and I've used it for about 3 hours using 192-320Kbit VBR files. Seems like it will live upto it's 10-12Hr claim.
The LCD screen is extremely clear, the resolution is about twice as high as on the iPod Mini so the text is very easy to read and very clear.
Now for the bling bling factor, this player looks amazing. The blue glow surrounding the player and the white backlight on the LCD look great against the black surface, this is the best looking player I have seen yet. A nice touch is that the player pulsates while its charging, it looks awesome.
Coming to the end of the review so I'll comment on accessories. It comes with a cradle which you can use to have the player sit upright on the desk but this cradle can also be a pouch too if you use the other attachment with it. The supplied earphones are good for stock earphones, but if you're an audiophile then you'll be after something better. There is an option to buy the wired remote, but it isn't for sale yet, I'll probably get it when it is, shouldnt cost more than $40. It also came with a little cloth pouch, a bit like the ones that come with Sony earphones and minidisc players, its not bad but I can't see myself using it.
I think that just about covers it all, the player is so rich with features its amazing how it can be so cheap compared to the competition. If you're after a small, portable player, then I highly recommend the Zen Micro.
If anyone has questions about it feel free to ask on here or PM me.
Overall: 9.5/10
Initial impressions were good, the packaging was very nice, improved from Creatives previous packaging on the Zen Xtra and Zen Touch. The box contents included the main unit, a wall charger, a usb cable, a software CD, and a quick start guide. Installation of the software went smoothly, I inserted the battery and charged the player up via USB. The wall charger had an american plug but this was detachable so you can change if you go overseas, ingenius. It's also an international charger supporting 110-240v so you don't need to worry about step down transformers or anything like that.
One thing I have to comment on is the size of the unit itself, its TINY. The pictures don't do it any justice, this thing is very small. If you've held an iPod Mini, you'll know how small it is, this is actually smaller, but a bit wider (because of the removable battery).
After charging, I uploaded 4.5Gb of music onto the player using Creative Media Source with no problems at all. I edited the Custom EQ settings to suit my preference and tested a few songs using my Sony MDR-EX71's. The sound coming out of this tiny little player was amazing. It was as good as my Zen Touch, which as you know has excellent sound quality. Sound was extremely clean, the bass is very nice as well as the treble and mid sections. So soundwise, this player is an absolute winner, but what about interface? I can safely say that they've improved the interface over the Zen Touch's. The Zen Touch had an easy interface but this is even easier, finding albums, queuing music, creating playlists is a breeze. Everything is laid out nicely in the menu's so it wont become a chore to find something.
The touch pad on the Zen Micro is similar to that of the Zen Touch's, but it still took me about 2 minutes to get used to it (even after mastering the Zen Touch's touchpad). In fact, all the touch buttons are extremely nice and respond well to your finger movements.
Customising the main menu is a great little touch, lets you personalise it to suit yourself. I find it extremely handy to have a shortcut to the Date/Time and all my contacts at a click. Syncing with the PC couldn't be easier, especially contacts, to-do and calender. You create all your tasks, contacts, etc in Outlook and use the Sync manager to sync it to the player and it's extremely easy.
The DJ mode is kinda cool, it has a play count of each track played and then has options to play the most played or least played songs. There are more options in this mode like playing the "Album of the Day", which I haven't quite figured out what it is, but seems like a random album out of the playlist, but very well could be the most played (I'm not sure, haven't used it enough to know).
The Removable Disk option is great for those who want to store data on the player but do not want to carry around a driver disk. You can set up a partition on the player to act as this and set the size, then when you connect it to Windows, it will detect as a removable disk. Extremely handy for people who want to carry data around.
FM Radio isnt bad, it uses the headphones as the aerial. It highly depends on the area you live in but the reception was fairly good here (Canberra). Voice recording is nice too with the built in microphone, and a nice little option is there to record from the FM Radio
I can't comment on battery life because the battery still has 3 bars and I've used it for about 3 hours using 192-320Kbit VBR files. Seems like it will live upto it's 10-12Hr claim.
The LCD screen is extremely clear, the resolution is about twice as high as on the iPod Mini so the text is very easy to read and very clear.
Now for the bling bling factor, this player looks amazing. The blue glow surrounding the player and the white backlight on the LCD look great against the black surface, this is the best looking player I have seen yet. A nice touch is that the player pulsates while its charging, it looks awesome.
Coming to the end of the review so I'll comment on accessories. It comes with a cradle which you can use to have the player sit upright on the desk but this cradle can also be a pouch too if you use the other attachment with it. The supplied earphones are good for stock earphones, but if you're an audiophile then you'll be after something better. There is an option to buy the wired remote, but it isn't for sale yet, I'll probably get it when it is, shouldnt cost more than $40. It also came with a little cloth pouch, a bit like the ones that come with Sony earphones and minidisc players, its not bad but I can't see myself using it.
I think that just about covers it all, the player is so rich with features its amazing how it can be so cheap compared to the competition. If you're after a small, portable player, then I highly recommend the Zen Micro.
If anyone has questions about it feel free to ask on here or PM me.
Overall: 9.5/10
