Amazon.com Product Description

Palm-sized and pocket-friendly, Creative's Zen Touch digital music player is a treat for your eyes as well as your ears. And--with features like touch-sensitive scroll, industry leading 24-hour battery life, super light weight (under half a pound with battery), and a staggering 20 GB/10,000 song capacity (64 kbps WMA)--the tiny unit leaves little room for wondering if it's the right digital music player for you.

The touch-sensitive pad makes finding your music effortless.

The Zen Touch model HD0014 is compatible with many digital music file types, including MP3 and WMA (Windows Media Audio) music files, and its super-fast USB 2.0 PC interface loads your music from computer to player in record time. Use the player's alphabetic search function to locate music by song, album, or artist, scrolling quickly and easily through your library with the thumb driven up/down scrolling touch pad while viewing your playlists and song selections on the Zen Touch's large blue EL (electroluminescent) backlit LCD. You can create and customize your playlists on-the-fly, or listen to any song in random order at the touch of a single top-panel button making it a very easy to use unit.

You can choose bewteen the Zen's 4-band custom equalizer with preset EQ curves or the long list of preset EQ settings to help you tailor the sound to your preference or environment. If you're delving into the world of digital music for the first time, the supplied Creative Mediasource software readily converts your CDs to MP3s or WMAs, while Creative's AudioSync software seamlessly updates the Zen Touch with any music you've recently added to your PC at the touch of a button. Creative Explorer (also included) permits drag-and-drop transfers for data files to and from the Zen Touch enabling it to act like a very large capacity jump drive if needed.

What's in the Box
Creative Zen Touch Player, a pair of stereo earphones, an AC power adapter, a travel pouch, a USB 2.0 cable, an installation CD-ROM, and a quick-start guide. ... Read more

Features

• 20 GB storage lets you bring up to 10,000 WMA songs (64 kbps) or 5000 MP3 songs (128 kbps) everywhere you go
• Create and customize playlists on-the-go, unique Search Function locates any song, album or artist
• Load a song a second with ultra fast USB 2.0 port, compatible with USB 1.1 too
• AudioSync lets you seamlessly update your Creative Zen Touch with your latest music on your PC at the touch of a button
• Compatible with Windows 98SE, Me, 2000, and XP

Product Description

plays MP3 and WMA files * built-in FM tuner with 32 station presets * built-in microphone (1GB holds approximately 64 hours of mono voice recordings) * up to 15 hours playback with included "AAA" alkaline battery * 1GB embedded memory holds approximately 16 hours of music at 128 Kbps; 32 hours of music at 64 Kbps * ... Read more

Features

• Built-in microphone for easy voice recording
• Transfers music via USB 2.0; compatible with Windows 98SE, 2000, Me, XP
• Powered by 1 AAA battery; provides up to 15 hours of continuous play
• 1 GB holds up to 32 hours WMA or 16 hours MP3 music -- weighs just 1.1 ounces
• Built-in FM and FM recorder with 32 presets

Reviews (27)

Good device, but n200 is slightly better
Please read the positive and negative qualities of this player at my Creative n200 review, because, both TX FM and n200 are exactly the same in most respects, except ;

MOST IMPORTANT REASON, I PREFER N200 over TX FM
a) creative tx fm may offer you the benefit of directly connecting to your laptop or pc, without a cable (very good feature), BUT it does not offer line in port, so no recording from external sources like walkman, cd player, mic, etc. Although, both the models (n200 and tx fm) have internal mics. So, I prefer the n200 anytime over TX FM.

b) create tx fm is slightly bigger and slightly heavier.

If you don't want to goto my n200 to get the full picture, I shall give you a brief rundown of the TX FMs positives and negatives.

+1) Excellent sound
+2) Very poratble
+3) Connects to the Windows XP OS without any additional software
+4) Appears to be fairly energy efficient
+5) Removable AAA batteries is a great boon
+6) You could use it for a jog or workout without worrying about damaging the player
+7) Arm band and case are quite cool.
negatives
-1) Can't switch to the next song without automatically stopping the current song. most hard drive mp3 players allow you to scroll through songs while playing the current feature.
-2) This one offers voice recording, but no line-in recording. That's a shame and a deal breaker for me.

I returned this player, and got myself a shiny n200. Go get one for yourself too.

But wait, if you could live with slightly bigger size, and dont need to run your player on AAA batteries or use it for workout, then please check out CREATIVE MICRO first. Otherwise, I bet you, you will be pefectly happy with the n200 or TX FM.

A nifty little device for the price
I have had this MP3 for a few days and I like it quite a lot but it does have some little quirks that take a little getting-used-to. A lot of excellent reviews have covered most of the ground about the player.
I did quite a lot of research and settled on this one largely as the best intersection of price and features (the 1 GB flash drive being a huge plus). Plus you are not tied to iTunes/AAC format etc. With this player you have access to all the other online music (stores).

Pros:
- 1 GB Flash memory player, so unlike a hard drive player you can use it while jogging w/o any fear of damage.
- Drag and drop of files is extremely convenient. Windows immediately recognizes it as a drive and you can easily create folders and move files around. I found the software provided to be quite redundant especially if you use some other audio software. As another reviewer pointed out, it is rather large compared to say a thumb drive and so it might be cumbersome to fit into a USB port especially if your other ports are occupied. You might be better off with a USB hub or cable.
- It is surprisingly small (about the size of a jumbo pack of chewing gum) and light (~62 grams/ 2.2 oz).
- An arm band is also provided which is a nice touch.
- Sound quality is excellent and the equalizer is good.

Cons:
- One of the primary reasons I selected this player was because of its the FM radio capability. I must say that the biggest disappointment with the Creative MuVo was the poor reception on the mp3 player. It didnt pick up many stations (I live in a metropolitan area) and the reception was really poor. Almost immediately fades out in most places indoors and the static in certain places becomes unbearable. I must admit I kind of expected it to work in the subway (a bit of a stretch but like some cellphones do) for my commute but I was sorely disappointed !!
- I would agree with quite a few of the reviewers and say that you really need to get better headphones. The earbuds are HUGE and very uncomfortable. The sound is ok but its a pain (literally).
- The inability to shuffle play is a bit irritating especially if you have songs in a single folder.
- The toggle switch is a bit tricky (I am still afraid of breaking it by not handling it gently enough) and moving around the menus is not very smooth. For example, if you are in FM mode and you want to sample other stations, it is difficult to move to a station that is not a preset.
You have to get used to holding the on/off switch for a few seconds before it turns off.

Overall, I think this is a great MP3 player and packs quite a punch in a small package. I hope a firmware update is all that it takes to get a shuffle feature. That in itself would earn 1/2 a star. An improved FM receiver would give it my full vote.For the price and the features it is hard to beat. AND it looks great which is always a plus !!

Most reasonable for the size and price.
I am pretty pleased with my new mp3 player. I originally bought a Rio Forge 128 with expandable card slot (up to 1 G). I couldn't get the card to show up on my computer but it died after 5 days so I didn't have to worry about it anyway. Here's the lowdown.

Pros-Great radio (presets), small size, easy and fast filetransfer(drag and drop), easy to convert files into different formats, sound quality is very good, the player remembers exactly where you left off(in the middle of the song), it's fairly lightweight.

Cons- I have to unplug other USB plugs to plug in my player (it's too wide to fit in one hole). You can't create playlists on player itself, only for listening on the computer.

The player allows you to either shuffle folders only or the whole music collection. I was able to separate jazz and rock music by creating a folder labeled jazz and and one for rock and then shuffle folder. I haven't discovered another way to separate the two.Overall, I am pleased with this purchase.

Great lil Device
The Creative MuVo TX FM was purchased for me as a birthday gift. I knew this was what I was getting and I did a lot of research on which player I wanted. In the end the Muvo had the fearures I wanted and I am really pleased. You do have to do some searching to get to the features that you want, but other then that its great. It sounds great and the music encoding is easy and very user friendly.

The best I've used
I first bought an iPod shuffle, thinking it was just the ticket. It was very nice, portable, and convenient, though it had a few less features. I quickly discovered that iTunes was the only way to manage your songs which was a bit of a pain. Then I discovered that with the shuffle only ONE computer can manage the songs. This was very unpleasant, as I take it back and forth between home and work, and ruined the advantage of having such a convenient interface and size.

I looked at the Creative N200 which was very nice, and I liked the line-in feature. It is also quite a bit smaller than this model. I just didn't like having to tote a USB cable with the special smaller connector on one end everywhere.

This model is like the N200, a bit larger, and no line-in, but has a standard USB plug, so it can be used just like the little flash drives. It is _very_ convenient, and works as a flash drive very well. I love the drag and drop feature with the files, it is _much_ better than "playlists" and being locked to a vendor-specific management program like iTunes. It means you can walk up to any computer and suck MP3s to it without having to install some program. The sound is great, the FM tuner works wonderfully, and the interface is very good. Overall this is just what I wanted. Another advantage is it is driven by a AAA battery, rather than some specialized battery you have to return the unit to have replaces (ala iPod).

Very cool.. Wish it was a bit smaller, but when I'm in the market for a new one years from now, I'm sure they'll have shrunk.. I just hope they work as well and use usb-mass storage. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

The Zen Micro digital music player from Creative Labs packs an incredible 5 GB of storage capacity into a shell small enough to sit comfortably in your jeans pocket. It also rides nicely in your hand, with a palm-fitting profile and thumb-friendly front-panel controls. It's a bit shorter than an Apple iPod Mini, yet its rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides 12 hours of continuous playback--50 percent more than iPod Mini's. The Zen Micro is compatible not merely with MP3s and WAV files, but with WMA as well. Toss in USB 2.0 connectivity and you're looking at one spiffy portable music player.

But playing isn't all the Zen Micro does. You can use it to receive FM radio (with 32 station presets to keep your favorites at the ready), and to record, either from the radio or from live sources such as voice dictation or lectures using the Zen Micro's built-in condenser microphone.

Trimmed in a luminescent blue glow and with easily visible backlit buttons, this stylish black player holds up to 1,250 songs (83 hours) at 128 kbps or 2,500 songs (166 hours) at lower-fidelity 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)--that's a solid week's worth of music listening, never playing the same song twice. Compatibility with Microsoft's WMA compressed-audio format grants access to over 2 million downloadable songs offered promotionally or for sale online.

Perhaps the Zen Micro's coolest attribute is its DJ feature, which will shuffle not only all the songs you've loaded or all the songs in a given album, but also, at your discretion, only the tracks you listen to most, or only those you rarely hear, taking the work out of selecting your favorites or hunting out all the music you're still getting to know.

Zen Micro's rechargeable battery is easy to replace.

For navigation, the device features a vertical, linear touchpad designed to make searching through songs or playlists easy, quick, and fun. The unit's blue, 160 x 104-pixel, electroluminescent LCD shows key functions and song details at a glance, and you can even customize the main menu to keep right at your fingertips the features that matter most to you.

Another of the Zen Micro's handy features is its personal organizer. You'll never forget an important anniversary with the onboard calendar, and it also includes a to-do list and a contacts list, all of which sync seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook (Outlook thus required for use of these features). In addition, the device offers a sleep timer and alarm so you can drift off to sleep to the strains of one playlist and wake to a completely different one.

The Zen Micro's removable battery is easy to swap with another fully charged battery (additional batteries sold separately), extending your listening by a half-day per swap.

What's in the Box
The Zen Micro player, stereo earbud headphones, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, an AC/DC power adapter, a USB 2.0 cable, a belt clip, a stand, a stylish cloth pouch, an installation CD, a quick-start guide, and Creative MediaSource software. ... Read more

Features

• Micro-sized 5 GB digital-music player stores up to 1,250 songs at 128 kbpsor 2,500 songs at 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)
• Vertical touch pad simplifies navigation; body is curved to fit your hand
• FM radio with 32 station presets for listening and recording; 10-hour voice recording through built-in microphone
• 12 hours continuous playtime using the supplied rechargeable lithium-ion battery; extend your listening using multiple batteries (sold separately)
• Includes headphones, a belt clip, a stand, and an AC/DC power adapter

Features

• 60 GB storage lets you bring up to 16,000 WMA songs (80 kbps) or MP3 songs (128 kbps) everywhere you go
• Use AudioSync to synchronize your music on your player with your PC at work, school and home or on the road
• Load a song a second with ultra fast USB 2.0 port, compatible with USB 1.1 too
• Removable, high-capacity Li-ion battery -- up to 14 hrs continuous playback per charge
• Compatible with Microsoft Windows 98 SE, Me, 2000, and XP

Reviews (50)

Truthfully...
The Nomad Zen Xtra is simply put, much better than the iPod.

Face it, you're essentially purchasing a glorified sound card and hard drive hybrid. In the hard drive arena, what matters is size: Nomad Wins. As for the sound card aspect, Creative Labs entire business is SOUND, they're responsible for the industry standard Sound Blaster line. The iPod gets trampled by the Nomad in the sound quality department.

Creative Mediasource, the program bundled with the player, is not as difficult to learn as other reviewers have mentioned. In fact, I didn't find it difficult to learn at all. It installed without any problems, and within minutes after rebooting I had set my preferences and begun to rip my huge CD collection. I was pleasantly surprised by the speed achieved by my piddly USB 1.1 connection; unless you're hooked on crystal meth, you won't be disappointed with the USB transfer speeds.

Any other problems are extremely minute. There's no remote control? Stop whining and dare to actually touch the product you purchased. The controls are difficult to use with one hand? Quit fiddling with the other one for a couple of seconds to use your Nomad, and you'll do just fine. Can't transfer files named using nonstandard characters? Rename them, you won't die, and they'll sound just as good.

Death to Apple!

Great player!
First of all, I want to address all of the complaints about the software. Yes, the media source software is not that great, however if you look a little more closely in your "My Computer" window, you will notice a new Icon called "Nomad Explorer."

Nomad Explorer is the drag-and-drop feature that everyone seems to be looking for. This is fully integrated with Windows Explorer, and it is already included! This is the only way that I have been transferring music. It is very easy to transfer files, and also makes it easy to fine tune your ID3 tags by right clicking on whole groups of files to easily adjust genre, artist name, or album name.

For the price and the storage capacity, the Zen Xtra is an amazing product. I have a large collection of live shows that I wanted to be able to keep at a high quality bit rate and take where ever I go. 60 GB lets me do that.

The only complaints that I have so far are that you need the disc to install the device on another computer. I'd like to be able to plug it in to any computer and have it ready to transfer files, especially as a data storage drive. I also replaced the earphones. I would like it to support lossless files such as flac and shn. I am hoping this can be added with a firmware upgrade in the future (you can easily upgrade via their website).

I would absolutely recommend the Zen Xtra to anyone interested in a great jukebox with a huge hard drive, great sound, and low price.

Best
If your tyring to compare this or an ipod, defintally go for this, It can hold up to more songs than you know, great features, great quality and long lasting battery.

Its a five next to the Ipod
As of the year 2004 and your looking for a jukebox you can play with I highly recommend this product.Its more attractive than your girlfriend or boyfriend. BIG storage, fast transfer, palm size,amazing suround sound with many different soundmodes,14 hr battery life, and many many many more features.The software it comes with easy and organized.The earbuds it comes with is awesome,fits me perfectly and again it sounds great, best sound quality earbuds produced. At times I transfer about 500 or more mp3's and it takes like 7-12 minutes and I have a SLOW computer.Only thing you should be AWARE of that all recharchable batteries-if charging while being used or over charging or charging when there is plenty left can damage it and it will slim the battery life down in half.One last thing-since the faceplate is deattachable, CREATIVE LABS should design alteranative faceplates.RED,BLUE,GREEN...ANd DOnt Drop it,its like any other baby or jukebox, it can die.

Total Trash
I bought one of these and it worked olny ok i had trouble with importing tracks + at tis point the thing is usless at 6 mo old.
This unit has not been dropped my most major problem occured when I had decided to fix my id3 tags which the player uses for its catalog, so i removed the MP3s with the supplied software and reloaded the same MP3s with correct id3 tages and now you cannot hear the vocals and some portions of the music.
Creatives responce was to want to charge me to send it to them to look at and from my understanding I am not the olny person with this problem, buy another brand player do yourself a favor.
Befor this problem player had great sound ... Read more

Features

• 30 GB storage lets you bring up to 8,000 WMA songs (80 kbps) or MP3 songs (128 kbps) everywhere you go
• Use AudioSync to synchronize your music on your player with your PC at work, school and home or on the road
• Load a song a second with ultra fast USB 2.0 port, compatible with USB 1.1 too
• Removable, high-capacity Li-ion battery -- up to 14 hrs continuous playback per charge
• Compatible with Microsoft Windows 98 SE, Me, 2000, and XP

Reviews (16)

Great value - excellent sound
I am very happy with my Jukebox Zen Xtra 30 GB Player. I converted all my mp3 files to wma, keep my backup files from my laptop and desktop and still have loads of room. The sound quality is excellent even when listening to 64kbps wma files. If you are looking for an excellent machine and don't need the portability of an ipod - buy this unit.

Good, but not perfect
I have a Nomad for about 8 months now. On the whole, I am glad I bought it, but it has its pros and cons.
Pros:
1)More memory for the money, compared to any other brand that I saw.
2)Easy to add music.
3)Controls can be operated with gloves on (very important, as I walk for fitness, all year.)
4)Unlike the Ipod, battery can be replaced by the consumer.
5)Backlit screen is easy to read.
6)Good battery life.
Cons:
1)Included case is poorly designed- no viewing window and a belt clip that falls off your belt. (I bought a small camera case, to use instead.)
2)Included ear buds were not comfortable for me (a problem with most jukeboxes)
3)A bit bigger that the Ipod.

In short, it's a good product but could be impproved upon.

None Better
Creative Jukebox Zen players are awesome. Creative Labs are constantly improving their players with software updates on their website, if you happen to have a glitch. I have not had any problems with mine , but go to their website about once every few months(as I own several Creative Labs Products) just to see if there are any driver updates(a good idea for any software driven device). You already have a usb cable to connect you to your computer, so upgrading the drivers is easy.

Perfectly adequate
All the Zen Nomads are perfectly fine. I purchased mine because I didn't want ot pay the Ipod premium.

The nomad works, has great sound, but has a semi clunky interface. The big bug is: that it accidently turns itself on. So you're on trip and you open your nomad only to find the battery is almost dead. Kind of annoying.

The best birthday present I've ever gotten!
When I asked my husband to get me a small MP3 player for my birthday so I could listen to music while doing cleaning and walking, I had no idea he'd buy me such an expensive and wonderful model. I never owned an MP3 player before, so I was a bit intimidated to say the least. The little bitty earphones they come with just don't work for me, so I use Sony headphones with an extra long cord. The "holder" for it isn't the best either, but at least it protects the screen from being scratched or damaged. The one major thing I didn't like about this was the non-existence of a paper manual. I'd much rather have a paper manual to look at while I'm working with something than to have to go back and forth on computer screens. I suppose you could print the pages you need....

So... if you buy another set of headphones, think the holder is OK, and don't mind online manuals.. this is a great product. ... Read more

Features

• Incredibly thin! Sleekest design to fit perfectly in your pocket, on yourbackpack, in your armband.
• Directly record music from your cd player or other audiosource with Line in
• Built in voice recorder Record up to 16hrs of lectures or quick notes.
• USB 2.0 USB 2.0 for faster music transfer
• Sports armband and carrying case with belt clip. With skip-free playback and sports armband, the MuVo MicroN200 is perfect for the active lifestyle

Amazon.com Product Description

The Zen Micro digital music player from Creative Labs packs an incredible 5 GB of storage capacity into a shell small enough to sit comfortably in your jeans pocket. It also rides nicely in your hand, with a palm-fitting profile and thumb-friendly front-panel controls. It's a bit shorter than an Apple iPod Mini, yet its rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides 12 hours of continuous playback--50 percent more than iPod Mini's. The Zen Micro is compatible not merely with MP3s and WAV files, but with WMA as well. Toss in USB 2.0 connectivity and you're looking at one spiffy portable music player.

But playing isn't all the Zen Micro does. You can use it to receive FM radio (with 32 station presets to keep your favorites at the ready), and to record, either from the radio or from live sources such as voice dictation or lectures using the Zen Micro's built-in condenser microphone.

Trimmed in a luminescent blue glow and with easily visible backlit buttons, this stylish dark blue player holds up to 1,250 songs (83 hours) at 128 kbps or 2,500 songs (166 hours) at lower-fidelity 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)--that's a solid week's worth of music listening, never playing the same song twice. Compatibility with Microsoft's WMA compressed-audio format grants access to over 2 million downloadable songs offered promotionally or for sale online.

Perhaps the Zen Micro's coolest attribute is its DJ feature, which will shuffle not only all the songs you've loaded or all the songs in a given album, but also, at your discretion, only the tracks you listen to most, or only those you rarely hear, taking the work out of selecting your favorites or hunting out all the music you're still getting to know.

Zen Micro's rechargeable battery is easy to replace.

For navigation, the device features a vertical, linear touchpad designed to make searching through songs or playlists easy, quick, and fun. The unit's blue, 160 x 104-pixel, electroluminescent LCD shows key functions and song details at a glance, and you can even customize the main menu to keep right at your fingertips the features that matter most to you.

Another of the Zen Micro's handy features is its personal organizer. You'll never forget an important anniversary with the onboard calendar, and it also includes a to-do list and a contacts list, all of which sync seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook (Outlook thus required for use of these features). In addition, the device offers a sleep timer and alarm so you can drift off to sleep to the strains of one playlist and wake to a completely different one.

The Zen Micro's removable battery is easy to swap with another fully charged battery (additional batteries sold separately), extending your listening by a half-day per swap.

What's in the Box
The Zen Micro player, stereo earbud headphones, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, an AC/DC power adapter, a USB 2.0 cable, a belt clip, a stand, a stylish cloth pouch, an installation CD, a quick-start guide, and Creative MediaSource software. ... Read more

Features

• Micro-sized 5 GB digital-music player stores up to 1,250 songs at 128 kbpsor 2,500 songs at 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)
• Vertical touch pad simplifies navigation; body is curved to fit your hand
• FM radio with 32 station presets for listening and recording; 10-hour voice recording through built-in microphone
• 12 hours continuous playtime using the supplied rechargeable lithium-ion battery; extend your listening using multiple batteries (sold separately)
• Includes headphones, a belt clip, a stand, and an AC/DC power adapter

Features

• 40 GB storage lets you bring up to 10,000 WMA songs (80 kbps) or MP3 songs (128 kbps) everywhere you go
• Use AudioSync to synchronize your music on your player with your PC at work, school and home or on the road
• Load a song a second with ultra fast USB 2.0 port, compatible with USB 1.1 too
• Removable, high-capacity Li-ion battery -- up to 14 hrs continuous playback per charge
• Compatible with Microsoft Windows 98 SE, Me, 2000, and XP

Reviews (6)

Cheaper and More Versatile than iPod.
So you want to buy an MP3 player? Well if you don't have enough cash for an iPod and/or a general mistrust of Apple products, this player is for you. The Nomad has some definite advantages over the iPod that far outweigh its drawbacks.

First, it has a massive amount of storage at roughly half the cost of the comparable iPod. The 40GB version I have is capable of holding 4000 minutes of music. Secondly, the Nomad can hold both music and Data files, so if you need to transport a few documents between home and work, this player can also do that job for you. Thirdly, music can be copied off of the Nomad as well as loaded to. The iPod only allows the user to load music onto the device (Apple's attempt to prevent indiscriminant copying). With the Nomad, you can effectively use your player as a backup for your music. Finally, the computer interface is very simple and familiar to the Windows user. The Nomad shows up like a hard drive in Windows Explorer, and you simply drag and drop music into the player.

The drawbacks of this device are few, but notable. First, the interface is nowhere near as nice as an iPod. They use a series of buttons and a clumsy wheel. It's not flashy and neat like the iPod, but I don't want to pay double just for a neat interface. If you simply must have that touchy-feely interface, Creative Labs is coming out with a Nomad Zen touch fairly soon. Secondly, the EAX sound features are utterly worthless. Unless you want to hear what your music will sound like in a church or a stadium, you wont use this feature. Finally, the organization of songs on the player could use a little tweaking. Everything is sorted by the ID tag of the MP3 file. iPod does the same thing, but I would expect something a little better from Creative labs, like being able to use folders to organize music.

So to recap:

PROS:
-Huge storage capacity at half the cost of an iPod
-Holds both data and music
-Can copy files to and from device (unlike iPod which is unidirectional)
-Simple explorer interface for moving music to/from device

CONS:
-Unimaginative control interface (will be solved when Nomad Zen Touch comes out)
-EAX audio features are useless
-File organization leaves a bit to be desired.

It's a nice paperweight...
I'll keep this short and sweet. I've had the Zen Xtra 40GB for about a month. I'm returning it tomorrow (hopefully) to get an iPod.

Pros:
- Plenty of space
- 1/2 the cost of a 40GB iPod

Cons:
- User interface is difficult to use; jog dial isn't very easy to manipulate
- Poorly designed software (buggy and doesn't work 50% of the time)
- EAX sound field manipulation is garbage - don't use it
- Can't use it as an external hard drive w/o extra drivers
- Bigger than shirt pocket
- Sync capability is practically useless and error-prone (200 of my files wouldn't sync thru Creative's driver)

The only redeeming thing about the Zen is a third-party shareware product called Notmad Explorer which is great - but unfortunately it uses the Creative driver and the Zen itself, so it's not much better.

Great product, great value
I had been putting off getting a digital music player in the hopes that prices would drop. I finally decided to get the Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra 40GB, which was decidedly cheaper than comparable products from Apple, HP and iRiver.

Boy, this thing is the best! I used to have to lug around all my CDs, but this thing stores my entire music library (THOUSANDS of CDs!). Navigation is easy; you can search by artist, album or genre, as well as create your own playlists. It has something called EAX which is supposed to be some sort of advanced sound technology, but I don't see much value in it. Supports both USB 1.1 and 2.0; I have 1.1 and it took about 48 hours to put about 8,000 songs on it from my computer. If you listen to it about 4 hours per day, you'll need to recharge the batteries about once every 5 days (do the math if you listen more or less than that).

In summary, I LOVE this thing! It has all the functionality that I need, and it is BY FAR the best value. There's no other product that can store 40GB of music for less than $300. P.S. I listen to it while programming at work, and I've found that jazz boosts my lines of code per hour and cuts down on the number of bugs! ;-)

gotta get a few more!
This is the answer to a few of my problems with music. As a DJ I have been carrying 2500 CDs to gigs, and it is pretty heavy to say the least, as well as taking up lots of space. This little drive has replaced a few cases easy, I have put in over 120 CD, and still have room to go. I am loading up with entire LP of deep cuts, as well as a few greatest hits type releases. A few more of these and I won't need a roady! The wheel button is pretty funky, but everything else is working fine.

Great product!
After using my Nomad Xtra for a week I can say that is all I wanted and more.
The sound is amazing, the unit's capacity is endless, it CANNOT be any easier to use. No manual is needed.
The Nomad Explorer is very efficient, you can drag files from your computer to the Nomad and viceversa, no copyright sillyness on this unit like the Ipod. Using my USB 1.0 it was fast enough.
The battery last a good ten hours. If you wanna plug it into your car's stereo, I don't recommend those radio FM transmitters cause there is always some interferince.
You can't go wrong with this thing, It cost a lot less that the Ipod but it's a LOT better. The only thing that lacks is in size, the Ipod is smaller but the Nomad is smal enough to fit my pocket.
This unit is so efficient that I took my 10GB of MP3 out of my PC into the Nomad and then erased all the MP3 from my computer, if I wanna burn a CD I know that I can transfer the files back to my PC with NO HASSLE. Try that with the IPOD. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

The Zen Micro digital music player from Creative Labs packs an incredible 5 GB of storage capacity into a shell small enough to sit comfortably in your jeans pocket. It also rides nicely in your hand, with a palm-fitting profile and thumb-friendly front-panel controls. It's a bit shorter than an Apple iPod Mini, yet its rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides 12 hours of continuous playback--50 percent more than iPod Mini's. The Zen Micro is compatible not merely with MP3s and WAV files, but with WMA as well. Toss in USB 2.0 connectivity and you're looking at one spiffy portable music player.

But playing isn't all the Zen Micro does. You can use it to receive FM radio (with 32 station presets to keep your favorites at the ready), and to record, either from the radio or from live sources such as voice dictation or lectures using the Zen Micro's built-in condenser microphone.

Trimmed in a luminescent blue glow and with easily visible backlit buttons, this stylish silver player holds up to 1,250 songs (83 hours) at 128 kbps or 2,500 songs (166 hours) at lower-fidelity 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)--that's a solid week's worth of music listening, never playing the same song twice. Compatibility with Microsoft's WMA compressed-audio format grants access to over 2 million downloadable songs offered promotionally or for sale online.

Perhaps the Zen Micro's coolest attribute is its DJ feature, which will shuffle not only all the songs you've loaded or all the songs in a given album, but, at your discretion, only the tracks you listen to most, or only those you rarely hear, taking the work out of selecting your favorites or hunting out all the music you're still getting to know.

Zen Micro's rechargeable battery is easy to replace.

For navigation, the device features a vertical, linear touchpad designed to make searching through songs or playlists easy, quick, and fun. The unit's blue, 160 x 104-pixel, electroluminescent LCD shows key functions and song details at a glance, and you can even customize the main menu to keep right at your fingertips the features that matter most to you.

Another of the Zen Micro's handy features is its personal organizer. You'll never forget an important anniversary with the onboard calendar, and it also includes a to-do list and a contacts list, all of which sync seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook (Outlook thus required for use of these features). In addition, the device offers a sleep timer and alarm so you can drift off to sleep to the strains of one playlist and wake to a completely different one.

The Zen Micro's removable battery is easy to swap with another fully charged battery (additional batteries sold separately), extending your listening by a half-day per swap.

What's in the Box
The Zen Micro player, stereo earbud headphones, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, an AC/DC power adapter, a USB 2.0 cable, a belt clip, a stand, a stylish cloth pouch, an installation CD, a quick-start guide, and Creative MediaSource software. ... Read more

Features

• Micro-sized 5 GB digital-music player stores up to 1,250 songs at 128 kbpsor 2,500 songs at 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)
• Vertical touch pad simplifies navigation; body is curved to fit your hand
• FM radio with 32 station presets for listening and recording; 10-hour voice recording through built-in microphone
• 12 hours continuous playtime using the supplied rechargeable lithium-ion battery; extend your listening using multiple batteries (sold separately)
• Includes headphones, a belt clip, a stand, and an AC/DC power adapter

Amazon.com Product Description

Creative's Muvo TX FM makes it a breeze to take your favorite music with you wherever you to--to the office, to the gym, or on a rollerblading expedition. The size of a small USB flash memory drive, the Muvo TX FM weighs just 1.1 ounces with the single AAA battery inserted into the battery pack. This multiformat player is compatible with both MP3 and WMA files, and it also includes an FM tuner and the capability to record music directly from the radio. It also includes a built-in microphone for recording short voice notes or long lectures. You can also use the Muvo TX FM as a mass storage USB drive, enabling you to carry important documents and presentations.

The 256 MB internal flash memory will store up to 8 hours of WMA files at 64 kbps or up to 4 hours of MP3 music at 128 kbps; it will also store up to 16 hours of voice recordings. With support for WMA, MuVo Micro N200 offers you access to the widest selection of music download services on the Internet, including Best Buy MusicNow, Buy Music, Musicmatch, and Napster.

It's powered by 1 AAA battery that provides up to 15 hours of continuous play. With super-fast USB 2.0 connectivity and simple drag-and-drop transfer without software, the Muvo TX FM accepts music files as quickly as a song per second. The 96 x 32-pixel blue backlit LCD displays file information, and you can scroll through folders, playlists, or individual songs. You can customize playback with a five-band graphic equalizer with four equalization presets, as well as environmental settings for pop, rock, jazz or classical.

What's in the Box
This package includes the 256 MB Muvo TX FM digital audio player), earbuds, 15-inch velcro armband, carrying case with beltclip, and CD-ROM with Creative MediaSource music management software. MediaSource is an easy-to-use application for ripping CDs, organizing entire digital music collections, and easily transferring MP3 and WMA files. ... Read more

Features

• Easy to use - no cables or software needed
• FM radio and recorder
• Built-in Mic for 16hrs Voice Recording
• USB 2.0 for super fast music transfer
• Sport arm band and belt clip included

Reviews (7)

Awesome, Easy to Navigate, Best Value
Super pleased with purchase- best value, small, sturdy, super easy to navigate- and drag and drop...sound wual is awesome- perfect for gym, comfortable arm band.

Would be cool if they made it with the M port, but it's still cool. Creative labs by far the best brand out there for players.

Awesome and Easy
When this came in the mail I was very excited but worried it would we hard to set-up. But it has really good instructions that make it very easy. The sound is great and I love that you can buy the battary part in other colors too. The sound is really good too.

Great product with some flaws
Background:

This is my first mp3 player. I have played around with my friend's iPOD and iPOD mini before so I have some experience with digital music players.

What I liked:

- Great value: Keep in mind that you are not just buy a 256 MB mp3 player. THe Muvo TX FM is also a USB hard drive, a voice recorder, and a FM radio. This was what made me buy the Muvo despite cheaper, comparable 256 MB mp3 players being on the market.

- Great sound: The Muvo delievers a really nice sound and I find it indistinguishable from an iPOD.

- Great headphones: The included headphones are very good and delivers a good range of sound. As an experiment I tried out a cheap $1.99 headphone and there is just no comparison.

- Good battery life: 14 hr on an AAA battery. More if you listen to the radio a lot.

- Accessories: You also get a protective cover/belt clip and an armband for exercise. The same cannot be said for other mp3 players.

What I didn't like:

- Earphone design: The earphones unfortunately don't fit my ears very well (I have small ears) and the left earphone has a tendency to fall out when I'm moving around.

- Inability to skip to the middle of a song. The Muvo only allows you to play a song from the beginning. There is no provision for to to skip into the middle of the song.

- Case design: The USB part of the Muvo (the black part) is very thick. This means that it can't be plugged into any recessed USB ports. This is not a problem if you have a desktop or a USB hub. Unfortunately, many laptops (including my Sony Vaio) have USB ports recessed into the case with an overhang. This makes it impossible to plug in the Muvo and requires you to buy a USB hub or an extension cable. Before you buy this product, try the following: take a usb cable and grab it with your pinkie flat on top of the plastic connector just behind the metal part. Attempt to insert the cable into an availabe port. If you can do it and not jam your finger, you are fine. Otherwise, you'll need an extension cable or hub.

Worth every penny!
I have been using this mp3 player almost everyday. It works great the battery power lasts longer than what they claim so that's really nice. The controls are easy and the players is really compact. It also works as a hard drive sometimes I use it as one. Only negative comment that I have is when scrolling through FM stations if you accidently hold the scroller longer than 2 or 3 seconds then it will scroll through all the FM radio stations in your area. I strongly recommend people buy this product.

Better than getting a pricey, fragile, and huge iPod
Unless you have a lot of songs you just HAVE TO put on a player--it doesn't seem necessary--just get one of these guys, they work great and I've had a Creative Labs mp3 player before and they're sturdy. ... Read more

Features

• 5-band user programmable equalizer with 5 preset sound modes: Jazz, Rock, Classic, Dance & Latin
• Compliance with ID3 tags - Plays bit-rates up to 320 kbps & VBR for MP3
• Smart Play functions: Normal, Repeat & Shuffle
• Solid state construction with no moving parts
• Voice Recorder

Reviews (43)

Big time Value for Money
Since I'm only 15 and don't have a saturday job or anything, this Nex ia (I got the + model) did exactly what I wanted for a mere £59.00 I bought the player with 4 batteries and a charger and Sennheiser earbuds and the sound quality is AMAZING. I bought the player off www.advancedmp3players.co.uk and the service was great. Because my cashflow is very limited i found this to be a complete bargain and I conveniently already owned a 128mb Cf card for my digital camera. There was a problem with the joystick 'up' but I sent it back and the replacement was fine. Overall, I think this Mp3 player is the best value for money possible and the sound quality is just so much better than i expected off such a cheap product.

Pros: Looks soooooooo sweeeet!!, Easy to transfer mp3s and WMA files, good inline remote, incredible sound, feels solid ( i like my technology to feel like it has some substance and is not made of polystyrene) and perfectly weighted, amazing value
Cons: Poor software (I don't see the point), Manual included is not full comprehensive, have to download the PDf off the cd to read all the instructions, unreliable joystick, awful FM radio.

Good player, a few flaws
The player is pretty good in general. The sound quality is excellent, fairly easy to use. The firmare was a bit buggy but Frontier Labs now has an upgrade on their site. I just downloaded it and it offers a few fixes. Hopefully, they improved on a generally good product. Among the flaws are the memory card door that just wouldn't stay closed, the battery indicator that is virtuallty useless - the player goes dead with the indicator showing the battery 75% full. And absence of a belt clip on the pouch. The download time through a USB port is pretty long, but then I have a 512 meg CF card that takes 10-15 min to fill. I bought a CF card PCMCIA laptop adapter which is much faster for loading files. The player also doubles as a protable storage device - you can drag and drop any files on it. Also, a bit bulky for jogging.
Overall, very versatile device with great basic functionality and sound quality. CF cards now come up to 1 Gig, giving plenty of storage on an industry standard memory card.

Great value for mony
I can't quite agree with the other reviews of NEXIA. Mine player functions as I had expected. It plays MP3, great sound, FM works ok, Recording is clear, LCD is large and informative. The battery life is adequate, about 10 hours. For less than $100, I think its great value for money.

Great sound & simple to use
I bought this NEX IA over other MP3 players because it uses Compact Flash memory cards which I have plenty of. At first I was a little hesitant,but after I got it, I did not regret. The sound just blew me away. It was loud and the sound is crisp and clear. I listen to a lot of jazz and its important that the higher and lower end of the sound spectrum is clear and loud. This the NEX IA delivers convincingly. Its little larger than I wanted but its really no big deal as I can leave it in my pocket. The jog dial is easy to use and with the remote I never really need to take it out of my pocket. Overall, I highly recommend this player. Easy to use, inexpensive and great sound.

Nice player. Non-existent support.
This is a pretty nice MP3 player, unless you need service. The FM reception is awful, but I knew that from reading other reviews before I bought mine. The MP3 player is quite nice. It sounds good, is easy to connect to the computer, and takes Compact Flash, which is rare in an MP3 player.

Then the CF card that came with it went bad. I've sent email and left voice-mail at least 8 times over the last month, and I haven't heard a word in response. I consider myself lucky that it's just the CF card, since I can replace that quite easily myself (which I've done). If the player itself were to break during the warranty period, I'd be completely out of luck.

I'll buy from a company that stands behind their products next time. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

The Zen Micro digital music player from Creative Labs packs an incredible 5 GB of storage capacity into a shell small enough to sit comfortably in your jeans pocket. It also rides nicely in your hand, with a palm-fitting profile and thumb-friendly front-panel controls. It's a bit shorter than an Apple iPod Mini, yet its rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides 12 hours of continuous playback--50 percent more than iPod Mini's. The Zen Micro is compatible note merely with MP3s and WAV files, but with WMA as well. Toss in USB 2.0 connectivity and you're looking at one spiffy portable music player.

But playing isn't all the Zen Micro does. You can use it to receive FM radio (with 32 station presets to keep your favorites at the ready), and to record, either from the radio or from live sources such as dictation or lectures using the built-in condenser microphone.

Trimmed in a luminescent blue glow and with easily visible backlit buttons, this stylish pink player holds up to 1,250 songs (83 hours) at 128 kbps or 2,500 songs (166 hours) at lower-fidelity 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)--that's a solid week's worth of music listening, never playing the same song twice. Compatibility with Microsoft's WMA compressed-audio format grants access to over 2 million downloadable songs offered promotionally or for sale online.

Perhaps the Zen Micro's coolest attribute is its DJ feature, which will shuffle not only all the songs you've loaded or all the songs on a given album, but, at your discretion, only the tracks you listen to most or only the ones you rarely hear, taking the work out of selecting your favorites or hunting out all the music you're still getting to know.

Zen Micro's rechargeable battery is easy to replace.

For navigation, the device features a vertical, linear touchpad designed to make searching through songs or playlists easy, quick, and fun. The unit's blue, 160 x 104-pixel, electroluminescent LCD shows key functions and song details at a glance, and you can even customize the main menu to keep right at your fingertips the features that matter most to you.

Another of the Zen Micro's handy features is its personal organizer. You'll never forget an important anniversary with the onboard calendar, and it also includes a to-do list and a contacts list, all of which sync seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook (Outlook thus required for use of these features). In addition, the device offers a sleep timer and alarm so you can drift off to sleep to the strains of one playlist and wake to a completely different one.

The Zen Micro's removable battery is easy to swap with another fully charged battery (additional batteries sold separately), extending your listening by a half-day per swap.

What's in the Box
The Zen Micro player, stereo earbud headphones, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, an AC/DC power adapter, a USB 2.0 cable, a belt clip, a stand, a stylish cloth pouch, an installation CD, a quick-start guide, and Creative MediaSource software. ... Read more

Features

• Micro-sized 5 GB digital-music player stores up to 1,250 songs at 128 kbpsor 2,500 songs at 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)
• Vertical touch pad simplifies navigation; body is curved to fit your hand
• FM radio with 32 station presets for listening and recording; 10-hour voice recording through built-in microphone
• 12 hours continuous playtime using the supplied rechargeable lithium-ion battery; extend your listening using multiple batteries (sold separately)
• Includes headphones, a belt clip, a stand, and an AC/DC power adapter

Features

• 5-band user programmable equalizer with 5 preset sound modes: Jazz, Rock, Classic, Dance & Latin
• Compliance with ID3 tags - Plays bit-rates up to 320 kbps & VBR for MP3
• Smart Play functions: Normal, Repeat & Shuffle
• Solid state construction with no moving parts
• Uses Removable CompactFlash or Microdrive Memory Cards

Reviews (43)

Big time Value for Money
Since I'm only 15 and don't have a saturday job or anything, this Nex ia (I got the + model) did exactly what I wanted for a mere £59.00 I bought the player with 4 batteries and a charger and Sennheiser earbuds and the sound quality is AMAZING. I bought the player off www.advancedmp3players.co.uk and the service was great. Because my cashflow is very limited i found this to be a complete bargain and I conveniently already owned a 128mb Cf card for my digital camera. There was a problem with the joystick 'up' but I sent it back and the replacement was fine. Overall, I think this Mp3 player is the best value for money possible and the sound quality is just so much better than i expected off such a cheap product.

Pros: Looks soooooooo sweeeet!!, Easy to transfer mp3s and WMA files, good inline remote, incredible sound, feels solid ( i like my technology to feel like it has some substance and is not made of polystyrene) and perfectly weighted, amazing value
Cons: Poor software (I don't see the point), Manual included is not full comprehensive, have to download the PDf off the cd to read all the instructions, unreliable joystick, awful FM radio.

Good player, a few flaws
The player is pretty good in general. The sound quality is excellent, fairly easy to use. The firmare was a bit buggy but Frontier Labs now has an upgrade on their site. I just downloaded it and it offers a few fixes. Hopefully, they improved on a generally good product. Among the flaws are the memory card door that just wouldn't stay closed, the battery indicator that is virtuallty useless - the player goes dead with the indicator showing the battery 75% full. And absence of a belt clip on the pouch. The download time through a USB port is pretty long, but then I have a 512 meg CF card that takes 10-15 min to fill. I bought a CF card PCMCIA laptop adapter which is much faster for loading files. The player also doubles as a protable storage device - you can drag and drop any files on it. Also, a bit bulky for jogging.
Overall, very versatile device with great basic functionality and sound quality. CF cards now come up to 1 Gig, giving plenty of storage on an industry standard memory card.

Great value for mony
I can't quite agree with the other reviews of NEXIA. Mine player functions as I had expected. It plays MP3, great sound, FM works ok, Recording is clear, LCD is large and informative. The battery life is adequate, about 10 hours. For less than $100, I think its great value for money.

Great sound & simple to use
I bought this NEX IA over other MP3 players because it uses Compact Flash memory cards which I have plenty of. At first I was a little hesitant,but after I got it, I did not regret. The sound just blew me away. It was loud and the sound is crisp and clear. I listen to a lot of jazz and its important that the higher and lower end of the sound spectrum is clear and loud. This the NEX IA delivers convincingly. Its little larger than I wanted but its really no big deal as I can leave it in my pocket. The jog dial is easy to use and with the remote I never really need to take it out of my pocket. Overall, I highly recommend this player. Easy to use, inexpensive and great sound.

Nice player. Non-existent support.
This is a pretty nice MP3 player, unless you need service. The FM reception is awful, but I knew that from reading other reviews before I bought mine. The MP3 player is quite nice. It sounds good, is easy to connect to the computer, and takes Compact Flash, which is rare in an MP3 player.

Then the CF card that came with it went bad. I've sent email and left voice-mail at least 8 times over the last month, and I haven't heard a word in response. I consider myself lucky that it's just the CF card, since I can replace that quite easily myself (which I've done). If the player itself were to break during the warranty period, I'd be completely out of luck.

I'll buy from a company that stands behind their products next time. ... Read more

Product Description

You will never be without your favorite music with ZEN MICRO. Squeezed into its micro-sized casing is the capacity to store an astounding 2, 500 songs on its hard drive, and it keeps your music going for up to 12 hours on a single battery charge with its removable, rechargeable Li-ion battery.There's no need to go round in circles with the ZEN MICRO's intuitive Vertical Touch Pad. Designed to let you easily navigate through your music, you can be sure to find any song or data file with ease.Shuffle your songs or albums with the DJ feature, or tune in to the latest songs on the pop charts with the radio. Whatever you're listening to, enjoy the superior sound quality and clarity of a hi-fi that fits easily in your pocket.Not only does it play music, the ZEN MICRO helps you keep your life organized too. The mini-organizer consists of a calendar, an address book and a to-do-list. Keep track of all your business appointments or classes. Sync up your Microsoft Outlook email addresses, calendar notes in your home or office PCs with ZEN MICRO. Need to record lectures, business meetings, or just love the sound of your voice? The built-in microphone lets you to create and store voice memos with the built-in voice recorder. ... Read more

Features

• Vertical touch pad simplifies navigation; body is curved to fit your hand
• FM radio with 32 station presets for listening and recording; 10-hour voice recording through built-in microphone
• 12 hours continuous playtime using the supplied rechargeable lithium-ion battery; extend your listening using multiple batteries (sold separately)
• Includes earphones
• Micro-sized 6 GB digital-music player holds 3000 songs at 64 Kbps WMA or 1500 songs at 128 Kbps MP3

Reviews (4)

Sad Day
I was looking forward to this product so much!! But, I was let down...a lot.It looked great when I got it out of the box, and sounded beautiful for the full 15 minutes it worked.I turned it off, and then couldn't get it to turn on again--ever. I called the company and asked them about it, they were nice, but couldn't solve the problem so they told me to send it back in--which meant it would be at least another 2 weeks before I could get the replacement.I opted to return it instead and get my money back.I'm now looking at the Iriver, but I may buy another Zen Micro, but this time I'll be buying it at a store so if it dies on me again, I won't have to wait 2 weeks for a new one.

Why I Decided to Buy A Zen Micro Instead of An iPOD
I've been using the Zen Micro 6GB for about 3 weeks now. I spent some time before the purchase with a ZM and an equivalent iPOD. I chose the ZM for a number of reasons. Both are fine players, but here is what sent me to the ZM.

Design
ZM is sturdy, with an easy to read screen. Similar case volume to IP but thicker and shorter so feels more compact. I can nearly hide ZM inside my fist. (I have big hands). Case is very smooth. Replaceable battery is a huge advantage over IP. But, design is not as MOMA artsy as IP.

Battery Life
The first few charge/discharge cycles with the ZM were short, about 4-6hours. But after that I started getting 10 hours at full volume, 12 at normal human volumes. Seems the battery likes to be conditioned a little. Do a couple of full charge and then fully discharge before recharging cycles.

Audio Quality
Playing compressed music on audiophile systems is a waste. So I used Sennhesier PX100s (which I think sound much better than the Senn PX200's - but that's another review), OEM Toyota Car Audio and Tivoli Model One Radio. Although I restricted the ZM to only 128kbps WMA, to my ears, the ZM was noticeably better, with greater presence, better dynamic range and more accurate transients. This was true whether direct link via miniplug, cassette adaptor (SONY adaptor -lower noise) or FM broadcast (Belkin Tunecast II - lower noise better signal more options). Some of the quality difference may have been the different encoding schemes used by IP and ZM rather than the players themselves.

Capacity
Virtually identical. I have nearly 50 hours of 128kbps WMA music and the ZM is only half full. ADVICE - Like all hard drives, both IP and ZM minidrives need some free space to perform housekeeping and other duties. I don't recommend filling either an IP or ZM drive to 100% capacity.

Accessories.
IP wins hands down in number and variety of accessories. Colored covers, bags, pouches, plastic overlays, lights and more. For me, if it doesn't improve the playing experience, I'm not interested. Anything beyond that is a fashion issue. (Think $2000 car with $5,000 worth of trim, wheels and chrome.) You may have other priorities. At a minimum, get a good car charger, wall charger and remote. Both IP and ZM have excellent products available. However, I prefer the standard USB power/PC interface of ZM over the unique IP connections because I've been trapped in proprietary connectors and formats too many times before.

Music Download
Although the iTunes site had a great selection of music, I didn't like iTunes for Windows client or being essentially locked into the iTunes site. I liked the ability to use lots of places to download music for ZM. Creative Organizer software was usable for me without reading the instructions.

Controls
Had no problem with the touchpad controls on ZM even at medium sensitivity. But my notebook PC uses a touchpad and I'm very comfortable with a control interface that does not provide tactile feedback. IP wheel gives you that feedback. ZM alternative response is their wired remote which provides tactile feedback in a more traditional way.

Suggested ZM Product Improvements (Are you listening Creative?)

1) Silicone Cases - I use BoxWave Flexiskin because it makes the case less slippery and allows me to cover the white back of the case with a color. (My ZM is Black on Black).
2) Hard Cases - Look at the sweet Altoids hacks people have created. The demand is there.
3) Wireless remote - Who needs more wires in their life?
4) A Dock - The interfaces are all on the top, so invert the unit in the dock. A simple firmware mod would allow the screen to invert when docked. Dock is much better than loose wires on the counter.
5) Electronic Manuals as Adobe documents are okay, but format them for 8.5x11 paper so we can print them out if we wish. Leaving them formatted as 7x4 because the summary instructions are like that is wasteful.

I'm very happy with the product and feel I made the right choice for me. Your experience and opinion may vary. Enjoy!!

Nice is an understatement
I've had the 4GB version of thisplayer for more than 4 months and I'm very happy with it. I use it on an average 5 hours a day I hook it up to my Belkin FM transmitter in the car or to my Logitech 2.1 Speakers at home, I rarely use it with the earbuds, though they are much better than the ones you normally get with other mp3 players.

The Look & Feel:
I have the black one and the contrasting neon blue on the buttons add a very nice ambience. The light pulsates when you are charging it almost as if it were breathing. The player itself is tiny , it gets a bit bulky when you put it in the hardcase, which you need to do if you don't want to get scrathes on the back(its a nice looking back too ). It feels tiny in the hand without it. The stand that comes with it is very usefult to prop it up on the desk. The belt clip however is not very useful if you move around a lot. The blue backlit LCD looks really neat and is easy to read. The touch controls took a little getting used to but now I wouldn't change it for the scroll wheel.
The touch buttons are textured so that your finger sdon't slip which was very thoughtful.

Reliability & Build

I dropped the player once from about 4 ft, and it fell hard, but kept on playing. The hardcase they give with it must work well.
It feels solid and not flimsy like the carbon.

Sound

I'm no audiophile but I was amazed by the clarity the player had, it was much better than the sound card on my Computer and louder too. I have had the ipod mini and it performs on the level with my sound card but the micro beats it outright.
Best of all the WMAs(I have a lot of them) sound great.

Utility
Its got a huge list of features including an FM Recorder a Calender and contacts list. Its not convinient to enter name of course but synchronise it with outlook and it becomes a gem of a address book. The songs recorded with FM are as good as the original signal. The interface takes 2 secs after you press record to show up but its actually started recording at the moment you press record.

Software
The software that comes along with it is not very intuitive but once you are used to it,it does the job well. Creating and modifying playlists is easy and clean.

There are 2 things that need fixing
First is the battery life. It will run for 6 hrs without problems with medium usage of the buttons.
Second might be a problem I might have with my PC but not too sure, when the player is connected on the USB and I start playing on it and also using the windows explorer, it sometimes pauses by itself and tries to synchronise with the PC during play, which is a bit irritating.

.....AWESOME PRODUCT.....
NOTE: this review is for the 5gb player. I wrote this lengthy review for that model, and it didn't show up and I can't re-submit it now. DARN thing! All the specs should be the same though.

I've been behind the times using the same portable CD player for the last 6 or 7 years... so this was really a BIG step up for me. Hopefully this review will be helpful if you have never owned an mp3 player before....
I have no idea how this compares to the ipod, but here is a list of the lesser known features of the zen micro:

PROS
+++ It tells you the number of tracks, albums & playlists uploaded. Total Mb & Mb remaining.
+++ FM radio.
+++ Removable battery & micro hard disc.
+++ If you're halfway through a song (or paused) & you shut it down (or it shuts down after being inactive for a while, IT RESUMES WHERE IT LEFT OFF in the middle of a song when your turn it back on again!! :-)
+++ You can change the idle shutdown time, backlight time, contrast, touchpad sensitivity, language (there are 15 languages installed!!)
+++ sleep timer
+++ You can personalise (configure) menus, much like with mobile phones.
+++ PLAY MODES: normal, repeat track, repeat all, shuffle, shuffle repeat & track once.
+++ You can find songs by albums, artists, genre, playlist
+++ DJ menu: album of the day, random play all, most popular & rarely heard tracks.
+++ There are 10 bookmarks, which I have absolutely no idea how to use, but it must be put onto this list anyway. ;-)
+++ 12/24hr time, alarm, calendar, date (several date formats and you can even choose between the following separators: space, dot, dash, slash)
+++ Variable microphone sensitivity.
+++ Organiser; tasks + contact lists. (synchronised with creative sync manager)
+++ Smart volume + Equaliser (numerous modes: Off, custom, acoustic, classical, disco, jazz, new age, pop, rock, or vocal)
+++ master reset.:-0
+++ track name, title & artist on LCD display.+ battery indication, and various other on-screen icons while a song is playing, such as EQ & repeat modes.
+++ Gives the length of a song as a bar graph so you can tell the progress of the song...
+++ A lot of stuff in the box: remote control, belt clip & cradle, pouch, usb cable, charger, earphones, software (easy enough to figure out).....
+++ Last but not least: a cool blue glow + white backlit screen!!!
+++ There ISN'T a one second delay between playing each song.
+++ My zen micro hasn't crashed on me yet (and I have been sucessful in crashing every computer product known to man, eg: my Ericsson T39m phone several times!)

CONS:
--- The touch pad can be annoying sometimes. So you either have to hold it by the edges when playing a song or put it on hold mode, otherwise your palm will set off a whole bunch of menus.
It's okay when you're using it though.

--- You can't hear any music while fast-forwarding through a song. I am used to being able to go by ear while doing this, but you can't do that with this thing. Maybe a future firmware upgrade will fix this issue? Please??! Creative???!!

--- I walked all around sydney and couldn't find this in *ANY* shop. So I had to buy it online. All the photos of the zen on the 'net are front on.... and I didn't realise until I opened the box that the back & sides of the zen micro were coloured WHITE!!! ARRRRGHHHH! I hate white! Aaaahhh well, I suppose I'll get used to it soon enough.

--- I find the lowest volume setting isn't all that low. I can still hear songs well in a fairly quiet room during the daytime. At 3:00am I think this might be just a tad louder than I would have liked. [This is with panasonic earbuds though]

--- You have to first aportion (partition) the HDD to be used as an extrenal flash drive. Available sizes are: 128, 256, 512Mb, 1, 2Gb. You should be able to just use whatever is available. This isn't a big problem though.

--- Earbuds are too thick for my ears. Wearing them is like stuffing a peanut lengthwise in your ear. It pulls your earlobes out.

--- There is practically zero information (on how to use the menus) in the instruction manual. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

The Zen Micro digital music player from Creative Labs packs an incredible 5 GB of storage capacity into a shell small enough to sit comfortably in your jeans pocket. It also rides nicely in your hand, with a palm-fitting profile and thumb-friendly front-panel controls. It's a bit shorter than an Apple iPod Mini, yet its rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides 12 hours of continuous playback--50 percent more than iPod Mini's. The Zen Micro is compatible not merely with MP3s and WAV files, but with WMA as well. Toss in USB 2.0 connectivity and you're looking at one spiffy portable music player.

But playing isn't all the Zen Micro does. You can use it to receive FM radio (with 32 station presets to keep your favorites at the ready), and to record, either from the radio or from live sources such as voice dictation or lectures using the built-in condenser microphone.

Trimmed in a luminescent blue glow and with easily visible backlit buttons, this stylish orange player holds up to 1,250 songs (83 hours) at 128 kbps or 2,500 songs (166 hours) at lower-fidelity 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)--that's a solid week's worth of music listening, never playing the same song twice. Compatibility with Microsoft's WMA compressed-audio format grants access to over 2 million downloadable songs offered promotionally or for sale online.

Perhaps the Zen Micro's coolest attribute is its DJ feature, which will shuffle not only all the songs you've loaded or all the songs on a given album, but also, at your discretion, only the tracks you listen to most or the ones you rarely hear, taking the work out of selecting your favorites or hunting out all the music you're still getting to know.

Zen Micro's rechargeable battery is easy to replace.

For navigation, the device features a vertical, linear touchpad designed to make searching through songs or playlists easy, quick, and fun. The unit's blue, 160 x 104-pixel, electroluminescent LCD shows key functions and song details at a glance, and you can even customize the main menu to keep right at your fingertips the features that matter most to you.

Another of the Zen Micro's handy features is its personal organizer. You'll never forget an important anniversary with the onboard calendar, and it also includes a to-do list and a contacts list, all of which sync seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook (Outlook thus required for use of these features). Further, the device offers a sleep timer and alarm so you can drift off to sleep to the strains of one playlist and wake to a completely different one.

The Zen Micro's removable battery is easy to swap with another fully charged battery (additional batteries sold separately), extending your listening by a half-day per swap.

What's in the Box
The Zen Micro player, stereo earbud headphones, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, an AC/DC power adapter, a USB 2.0 cable, a belt clip, a stand, a stylish cloth pouch, an installation CD, a quick-start guide, and Creative MediaSource software. ... Read more

Features

• Micro-sized 5 GB digital-music player stores up to 1,250 songs at 128 kbpsor 2,500 songs at 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)
• Vertical touch pad simplifies navigation; body is curved to fit your hand
• FM radio with 32 station presets for listening and recording; 10-hour voice recording through built-in microphone
• 12 hours continuous playtime using the supplied rechargeable lithium-ion battery; extend your listening using multiple batteries (sold separately)
• Includes headphones, a belt clip, a stand, and an AC/DC power adapter

Features

• Watch up to 85 hours of movies, recorded TV or home videos
• Store and listen to over 9,000 songs
• Carry and enjoy tens of thoursands photos; Up to 7 hours of video and up to 22 hours of music
• Large, high resolution 3.8" TFT LCD Screen
• Removable rechargeable battery for up to 7 hours of video or 22 hours of music

Amazon.com Product Description

The Zen Micro digital music player from Creative Labs packs an incredible 5 GB of storage capacity into a shell small enough to sit comfortably in your jeans pocket. It also rides nicely in your hand, with a palm-fitting profile and thumb-friendly front-panel controls. It's a bit shorter than an Apple iPod Mini, yet its rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides 12 hours of continuous playback--50 percent more than iPod Mini's. The Zen Micro is compatible not merely with MP3s and WAV files, but with WMA as well. Toss in USB 2.0 connectivity and you're looking at one spiffy portable music player.

But playing isn't all the Zen Micro does. You can use it to receive FM radio (with 32 station presets to keep your favorites at the ready), and to record, either from the radio or from live sources such as voice dictation or lectures using the Zen Micro's built-in condenser microphone.

Trimmed in a luminescent blue glow and with easily visible backlit buttons, this stylish red player holds up to 1,250 songs (83 hours) at 128 kbps or 2,500 songs (166 hours) at lower-fidelity 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)--that's a solid week's worth of music listening, never playing the same song twice. Compatibility with Microsoft's WMA compressed-audio format grants access to over 2 million downloadable songs offered promotionally or for sale online.

Perhaps the Zen Micro's coolest attribute is its DJ feature, which will shuffle not only all the songs you've loaded or all the songs in a given album, but also, at your discretion, only the tracks you listen to most, or only those you rarely hear, taking the work out of selecting your favorites or hunting out all the music you're still getting to know.

Zen Micro's rechargeable battery is easy to replace.

For navigation, the device features a vertical, linear touchpad designed to make searching through songs or playlists easy, quick, and fun. The unit's blue, 160 x 104-pixel, electroluminescent LCD shows key functions and song details at a glance, and you can even customize the main menu to keep right at your fingertips the features that matter most to you.

Another of the Zen Micro's handy features is its personal organizer. You'll never forget an important anniversary with the onboard calendar, and it also includes a to-do list and a contacts list, all of which sync seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook (Outlook thus required for use of these features). In addition, the device offers a sleep timer and alarm so you can drift off to sleep to the strains of one playlist and wake to a completely different one.

The Zen Micro's removable battery is easy to swap with another fully charged battery (additional batteries sold separately), extending your listening by a half-day per swap.

What's in the Box
The Zen Micro player, stereo earbud headphones, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, an AC/DC power adapter, a USB 2.0 cable, a belt clip, a stand, a stylish cloth pouch, an installation CD, a quick-start guide, and Creative MediaSource software. ... Read more

Features

• Micro-sized 5 GB digital-music player stores up to 1,250 songs at 128 kbpsor 2,500 songs at 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)
• Vertical touch pad simplifies navigation; body is curved to fit your hand
• FM radio with 32 station presets for listening and recording; 10-hour voice recording through built-in microphone
• 12 hours continuous playtime using the supplied rechargeable lithium-ion battery; extend your listening using multiple batteries (sold separately)
• Includes headphones, a belt clip, a stand, and an AC/DC power adapter

Amazon Product Description

Palm-sized and pocket-friendly, Creative's Zen Touch digital music player is a treat for your eyes as well as your ears. And--with features like touch-sensitive navigation, 24-hour battery life, light weight (under half a pound with battery), and a staggering 20 GB/10,000 song capacity (64 kbps WMA)--the tiny unit leaves little room for wondering if it's right for you.

Features Touch Pad Control for fast scrolling Up to 24 hours continuous playback Up to 97dB Signal-to-Noise Ratio - as good as expensive hi-fi systems! 40 GB hard drive holds up to 16,000 WMA or 10,000 MP3 songs Create and customize playlists on-the-go Unique search function locates any song, album or artist USB 2.0 for faster transfer 4-band custom equalizer and advanced EQ presets let you customizeyour music playback AudioSync lets you seamlessly update your Creative Zen Touch withyour latest music on your PC at the touch of a button FM radio, voice and FM recording via optional wired remote control(available separately)

The Zen Touch model HD0014 is compatible with both MP3 and WMA (Windows Media Audio) music files, and its super-fast USB 2.0 PC interface loads your music in record time. Use the player's search function to locate music by song, album, or artist, scrolling quickly and easily through your library with the handy touch pad while viewing your playlists and song selections on the Zen Touch's 160 x 104 blue EL (electroluminescent) backlit LCD. You can create and customize your playlists on-the-fly, or listen in random order at the touch of a top-panel button.

The unit's 4-band custom equalizer and preset EQ curves help you tailor the sound to your preference or environment. If you're delving into the world of digital music for the first time, supplied Creative Mediasource software readily converts your CDs to MP3s or WMAs, while Creative's AudioSync seamlessly updates the Zen Touch with your latest music on your PC at the touch of a button. Creative Explorer (also included) permits drag-and-drop transfers for data and music files to an from the Zen Touch.

What's in the Box
Creative Zen Touch Player, a pair of stereo earphones, an AC power adapter, a travel pouch, a USB 2.0 cable, an installation CD-ROM, and a quick-start guide. ... Read more

Features

• Touch pad control for fast scrolling
• 40 GB Holds 16,000 WMA / 10,000 MP3 Songs
• 24-hour battery life
• USB 2.0 for faster transfer speed
• Compatible with Windows 98SE, Me, 2000, XP

Amazon.com Product Description

The Zen Micro digital music player from Creative Labs packs an incredible 5 GB of storage capacity into a shell small enough to sit comfortably in your jeans pocket. It also rides nicely in your hand, with a palm-fitting profile and thumb-friendly front-panel controls. It's a bit shorter than an Apple iPod Mini, yet its rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides 12 hours of continuous playback--50 percent more than iPod Mini's. The Zen Micro is compatible not merely with MP3s and WAV files, but with WMA as well. Toss in USB 2.0 connectivity and you're looking at one spiffy portable music player.

But playing isn't all the Zen Micro does. You can use it to receive FM radio (with 32 station presets to keep your favorites at the ready), and to record, either from the radio or from live sources such as voice dictation or lectures using the Zen Micro's built-in condenser microphone.

Trimmed in a luminescent blue glow and with easily visible backlit buttons, this stylish white player holds up to 1,250 songs (83 hours) at 128 kbps or 2,500 songs (166 hours) at lower-fidelity 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)--that's a solid week's worth of music listening, never playing the same song twice. Compatibility with Microsoft's WMA compressed-audio format grants access to over 2 million downloadable songs offered promotionally or for sale online.

Perhaps the Zen Micro's coolest attribute is its DJ feature, which will shuffle not only all the songs you've loaded or all the songs in a given album, but also, at your discretion, only the tracks you listen to most, or only those rarely hear, taking the work out of selecting your favorites or hunting out all the music you're still getting to know.

Zen Micro's rechargeable battery is easy to replace.

For navigation, the device features a vertical, linear touchpad designed to make searching through songs or playlists easy, quick, and fun. The unit's blue, 160 x 104-pixel, electroluminescent LCD shows key functions and song details at a glance, and you can even customize the main menu to keep right at your fingertips the features that matter most to you.

Another of the Zen Micro's handy features is its personal organizer. You'll never forget an important anniversary with the onboard calendar, and it also includes a to-do list and a contacts list, all of which sync seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook (Outlook thus required for use of these features). In addition, the device offers a sleep timer and alarm so you can drift off to sleep to the strains of one playlist and wake to a completely different one.

The Zen Micro's removable battery is easy to swap with another fully charged battery (additional batteries sold separately), extending your listening by a half-day per swap.

What's in the Box
The Zen Micro player, stereo earbud headphones, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, an AC/DC power adapter, a USB 2.0 cable, a belt clip, a stand, a stylish cloth pouch, an installation CD, a quick-start guide, and Creative MediaSource software. ... Read more

Features

• Micro-sized 5 GB digital-music player stores up to 1,250 songs at 128 kbpsor 2,500 songs at 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)
• Vertical touch pad simplifies navigation; body is curved to fit your hand
• FM radio with 32 station presets for listening and recording; 10-hour voice recording through built-in microphone
• 12 hours continuous playtime using the supplied rechargeable lithium-ion battery; extend your listening using multiple batteries (sold separately)
• Includes headphones, a belt clip, a stand, and an AC/DC power adapter

Features

• Holds up to 16 hours WMA or 8 hours MP3 music
• Line-in connects directly from any audio source for music recording
• Built-in mic allows recording quick notes or lectures
• USB 2.0 connection transfers songs from your computer in seconds
• Compatible with Windows 98SE, 2000, Me, XP