Zen touch? been out for a while now

[Bigwill]

I'm really comtemplating on getting a Zen touch.
I'm not an audiophile, but I can still tell the difference between good quality and bad quality. Any lossless support is unnecessary for me. Gapless isnt a huge deal, as long as it doesnt take like 15 seconds to load a new song. I want something EZ to use, probably not an Ipod. I would've gotten a Karma if it didnt scare me away with it's hard drive issues.

Can anyone with a Zen touch tell me about their experience? How durable and long lasting is it? any outstanding flaws? design errors? does it have anything like a headphone jack problem or static issue?

Based on my preferences, is there anything else I should consider? Nothing humongously big, or I would just get an NJB3.

for $237 I think the Zen Touch comes quite cheap. Or is there an even better deal?

 

[karmypolitics]

I read that in many ways it's a step backwards compared to Creative's previous players. probably the most notable omission is the playlist function, which I heard has been neutered. It does look pretty though

 

[doomlordis]

i have had one for a couple of months and really like it, i had a iriver h120 for a day (awful thing , why the good reviews? it sounded good but too many crap things like no real shuffle, had to update song database evrytime you add songs = hastle) anyways the touch sounds as good, looks good , made of aluminium - its gets real cold! its functions seem fine to me , you can shuffle genre, artist , albums etc all songs at the touch of a button. the touch pad is really very good, very quick and makes more sense than the ipods wheel (apart from 1st gen mechanical wheel - that rocked!). Creative have promised a firmware upgrade in october and from what i hear they can add a lot in these - no real flaws, check that all your buttons work ok, my ok button was dodgy on mine so got it replaced , no static and headphone socket seems solid with no movement - overall 8.5/10

 

[Bigwill]

What was so good that was removed? is it possible to firmware it in?