TCC-2k7
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2003
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I'll try to make this short, sweet, and easy on the techno-babble.
Size: The Zen is bigger than the iPod (any generation), though not by all that much. It's a bit heavier as well. That said, it's still very small and compact (maybe the size of an audio cassette case), and hardly the "brick" many make it out to be. It fit very easily in the front pocket of my jeans, and while I doubt I'll ever forget it's there, it never became an annoying factor while I moved around.
Design: The front and back of the Zen are brushed aluminum, with the plastic/rubber border a dark blue. Overall, it's a sexy looking device. I personally prefer the look to the pure white front of the iPod. The Zen also feels very solid in your hand. I've heard it comapred to a tank; frankly, that's not too far off. While I don't recommend throwing it down your stairs, I think the Zen will take a fair bit of abuse without failure. There is a small thumb wheel used for scrolling, and buttons border the middle edge of the player. The buttons feel a bit stiff (the power one in particular), but overall, acceptable. The thumb wheel works well enough, if you're right handed. If you're a lefty, I'm afraid you're out of luck, since this device is clearly designed for right-handed folk.
Sound: The sound on the Zen really depends on your source MP3. Those I encoded myself (320kbps, CBR), sounded superb. MP3s downloaded from the Internet, however, especially 128kbps, sounded less impressive. They had a harsher, less vibrant sound, with the lower bit-rate really showing its ugly head. That said, the amp on the Zen did a bang-up job of powering my Senn PX200s all by itself, and with my own higher quality MP3s, I was treated to truly great sound.
OS & Software: The Zen's onboard navigation OS is simple enough, and once you get the hang of the thumb scroll wheel, it's a breeze to move through; the ability to create a playlist as you go and then save it is also a small, but very nice feature. The Creative PC software is less straightforward. However, with a little bit of patience, I found it to be better than I had expected (from what others had said, I was expecting an awful, buggy mess). After ten minutes of simply messing around, I was in complete control of the software, and able to do whatever I needed to quickly and efficiently. The transfers with USB 2.0 were brisk, as were the CD ripping speeds (the quality very good also; I couldn't tell the difference between 320kbps LAME MP3s and 320kbps Creative MP3s). The program has also been very stable on my computer, and I have yet to witness any crashes. It may not be the best software ever written, but it certainly is usable, and MUCH better than MusicMatch Jukebox. Those inclined to play with the Creative software will find themselves well rewarded.
Personal Notes: The screen could be bigger. While artist and song title scrolling helps, the album listings don't scroll, and as a result, it can be difficult to figure out just what CD you're looking at should an album have multiple discs. Scrolling titles or a bigger screen would help to no end. Also, while the transition between songs when left alone is nearly seemless (ie, one song finishes and the next begins), active changing of the track takes a second or two (about the same as with a CD) as the hard drive spins up. A larger buffer might have helped to mask this spin up time a bit more; as it is, it's not an issue, just noticeable. The Zen can also generate just a little bit of heat. If you're in a warm weather climate, I don't recommend putting it in a pant pocket; the heat of your sweat plus the Zen's heat could become uncomfortable. The battery performance was good; I never fully ran the battery down, but it went a full 9 hours straight, and still had juice left. Creative's 14 hours per charge battery life might not be too far off the truth.
Overall, Creative clearly paid attention to what worked in the iPod, and put much thought into the Zen. It shows, as the Zen is a high quality MP3 player, with a lot of features (including a variety of EAX audio settings, though I turned them all off to try and get as clear a sound as possible for review purposes); the full list of features can be found at www.nomadworld.com. I can't compare the sound quality of the Zen with the iPod, as I don't own both, but I can say that the Zen (with good, high quality MP3s) has the potential to sound wonderful. With a $300 USD price tag giving you 20GB (compared to the $300 iPod giving you 10GB), and the possibly to expand that if you're brave enough (the Zen uses standard 2.5inch laptop hard-drives, which is why it's slightly bigger than the iPod), Creative has created a great little gizmo, and in my opinion, it was worth every dollar I spent on it.
Size: The Zen is bigger than the iPod (any generation), though not by all that much. It's a bit heavier as well. That said, it's still very small and compact (maybe the size of an audio cassette case), and hardly the "brick" many make it out to be. It fit very easily in the front pocket of my jeans, and while I doubt I'll ever forget it's there, it never became an annoying factor while I moved around.
Design: The front and back of the Zen are brushed aluminum, with the plastic/rubber border a dark blue. Overall, it's a sexy looking device. I personally prefer the look to the pure white front of the iPod. The Zen also feels very solid in your hand. I've heard it comapred to a tank; frankly, that's not too far off. While I don't recommend throwing it down your stairs, I think the Zen will take a fair bit of abuse without failure. There is a small thumb wheel used for scrolling, and buttons border the middle edge of the player. The buttons feel a bit stiff (the power one in particular), but overall, acceptable. The thumb wheel works well enough, if you're right handed. If you're a lefty, I'm afraid you're out of luck, since this device is clearly designed for right-handed folk.
Sound: The sound on the Zen really depends on your source MP3. Those I encoded myself (320kbps, CBR), sounded superb. MP3s downloaded from the Internet, however, especially 128kbps, sounded less impressive. They had a harsher, less vibrant sound, with the lower bit-rate really showing its ugly head. That said, the amp on the Zen did a bang-up job of powering my Senn PX200s all by itself, and with my own higher quality MP3s, I was treated to truly great sound.
OS & Software: The Zen's onboard navigation OS is simple enough, and once you get the hang of the thumb scroll wheel, it's a breeze to move through; the ability to create a playlist as you go and then save it is also a small, but very nice feature. The Creative PC software is less straightforward. However, with a little bit of patience, I found it to be better than I had expected (from what others had said, I was expecting an awful, buggy mess). After ten minutes of simply messing around, I was in complete control of the software, and able to do whatever I needed to quickly and efficiently. The transfers with USB 2.0 were brisk, as were the CD ripping speeds (the quality very good also; I couldn't tell the difference between 320kbps LAME MP3s and 320kbps Creative MP3s). The program has also been very stable on my computer, and I have yet to witness any crashes. It may not be the best software ever written, but it certainly is usable, and MUCH better than MusicMatch Jukebox. Those inclined to play with the Creative software will find themselves well rewarded.
Personal Notes: The screen could be bigger. While artist and song title scrolling helps, the album listings don't scroll, and as a result, it can be difficult to figure out just what CD you're looking at should an album have multiple discs. Scrolling titles or a bigger screen would help to no end. Also, while the transition between songs when left alone is nearly seemless (ie, one song finishes and the next begins), active changing of the track takes a second or two (about the same as with a CD) as the hard drive spins up. A larger buffer might have helped to mask this spin up time a bit more; as it is, it's not an issue, just noticeable. The Zen can also generate just a little bit of heat. If you're in a warm weather climate, I don't recommend putting it in a pant pocket; the heat of your sweat plus the Zen's heat could become uncomfortable. The battery performance was good; I never fully ran the battery down, but it went a full 9 hours straight, and still had juice left. Creative's 14 hours per charge battery life might not be too far off the truth.
Overall, Creative clearly paid attention to what worked in the iPod, and put much thought into the Zen. It shows, as the Zen is a high quality MP3 player, with a lot of features (including a variety of EAX audio settings, though I turned them all off to try and get as clear a sound as possible for review purposes); the full list of features can be found at www.nomadworld.com. I can't compare the sound quality of the Zen with the iPod, as I don't own both, but I can say that the Zen (with good, high quality MP3s) has the potential to sound wonderful. With a $300 USD price tag giving you 20GB (compared to the $300 iPod giving you 10GB), and the possibly to expand that if you're brave enough (the Zen uses standard 2.5inch laptop hard-drives, which is why it's slightly bigger than the iPod), Creative has created a great little gizmo, and in my opinion, it was worth every dollar I spent on it.
