Editorial Review:

Product Description:
ZEN puts a world of entertainment at your fingertips. This amazing, credit card-sized digital media player, with its incredible screen, is the ultimate choice when you want to enjoy your music, movies and photos, whether downloaded from your digital library or from web sites around the world. It also includes an SD card slot, so you can add extra memory or more entertainment whenever you want. If you're ready for a world of enjoyment, then you're ready for ZEN!

Amazon.com Product Description:
This credit-card-sized Zen has a stunning 2.5-inch color screen and is perfect for music, videos, and photos. Enjoy up to 8,000 MP3, WMA, or AAC songs; watch up to 120 hours of videos; and share hundreds of photos with your friends. Even expand your portable music, video, or photo collection by adding additional content through the convenient SD memory slot. The Zen player also is available in 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, and 16 GB capacities.

A razor sharp 2.5-inch display makes your photos and videos come to life. See the Zen in detail.

Small size, big features--all in the palm of your hand.

Add even more storage capacity via the SD card slot.

Credit Card-sized Player Supports 16.7 Million Colors
View your album art, videos, and photos on this 2.5-inch razor-sharp TFT display. Your favorite photos will burst to life in 16.7 million colors on the fresh new Zen patented user interface. The TFT display works under sunlight and allows everyone to watch your home videos and vacation slideshows from any angle.



Truly a Multimedia Player
Zen is the first Creative player to support the unprotected AAC format, so you can enjoy all your favorite CD tracks that you've ripped through iTunes software. Zen also supports iTunes Plus tracks from the iTunes store, in addition to MP3 and WMA music tracks. It is also compatible with music subscription services, such as Napster To Go and Rhapsody.



Zen also supports audio books from Audible.com. Download your favorite books to keep everyone entertained on long road trips or download daily news reports every morning and listen to the news during your morning commute.



Watch purchased or rented movies and TV shows from online services like Amazon Unbox. Share home videos. Or load your Tivo To Go recorded movies and TV shows.



Plus, share your collections of latest photos in 16.7 million colors. Instantly turn your slideshows into attention-grabbing multimedia extravaganzas by adding your favorite song to the slideshow.



Expandable Memory
Need more space? Add additional storage capacity with the built-in SD slot and easily play new music, videos or photos on your player. With SD cards to go, carry virtually unlimited amounts of your digital library, anywhere you go.



FM Radio
In between your tunes, use the built-in FM radio to keep yourself up to date with world events, sports scores, or traffic reports. Or tune in to the program airing on the gym's TV while running on the treadmill.



Battery Life
Enjoy up to 30 hours of your songs or 5 hours of video on a single charge--over a full day of music. Or 10 episodes of Scrubs!



What's in the Box
Zen player, earphones, USB 2.0 cable, installation CD, quick start guide.

A slick user interface makes it a snap to enjoy your media.

Accessories:
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Accessories:

• Belkin F8V234-WHT-APL Headphone Splitter
• iHome IHM4S Portable Speaker Case for iPod and MP3 Players
• Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter
• MACALLY IceTune Stereo Speaker and Charger
• Maxell P-13 Stereo FM Transmitter

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Related Items:
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Related Items:

• Creative Screen Protector for Zen (Clear)
• Creative Hard Plastic Case for Zen (Clear)
• Creative Leather Case for Zen (Black)
• Creative 3-In-1 Skin Pack for Creative Zen (Red/Blue/Black)
• Creative Zen Power Adapter
• see more

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Rating: - Not As Good As It Seems
I do not own this product but a friend of mine does. This worked great as a mp3 player but the video aspect of this device (what it is marketed as) is subpar. It does not accept all formats in its conversion and worst of all when you can get something to convert there is a time lapse between the video and the sound.

My friend bought this because he travels a lot and wanted to watch movies on flights. With a long Video (over 30 min) the sound gets about 1 second off for every 30 mins or video. You may not notice it at first but by the end of the movie you will be tearing your hair out in frustration.

The picture viewer is one of the finer aspects of the Zen. It works well for showing off your pictures and the slideshow viewer works pretty good. You can also use it as a giant flash drive if you want to.

I am giving this device a 2 out of 5 stars because even though it works well as a picture viewer and mp3 player you can buy other creative products that do the same thing for $200 less. The fact that the video does not sync up with the audio and the poor file format support makes it not as good as its predecessor the Zen Vision W.

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Rating: - Great Replacement for My Toshiba Gigabeat S 30GB
After two flawless years of service, my Toshiba Gigabeat S 30GB went through the laundry. Even after all that it still tries to start up, but the hard drive is toast. I was crushed to find out you can no longer buy a Gigabeat S. Why Toshiba would discontinue such a great product is a mystery to me.

After a few days of research, I realized the 32 GB Zen was the closest I was going to get to replacing my old friend. I ordered it and am glad I did. It's a great product that offers more features than the Gigabeat and is about 20% smaller as well as being lighter.

The controls are very intuitive. I was operating it right out of the box without needing to read first. It does everything the Gigabeat did, and also has a calendar feature, clock radio type alarm, voice recorder and more. It also has an SD slot in case 32 gigs isn't enough. The FM radio setting works great, and is a must have for any mp3 player I will ever own. Reception is good and the Zen has an auto-scan feature for finding your station presets that the Gigabeat did not have.

The only con I can think of is the scroll speed through the tunes. The Gigabeat had a fast scroll mode that I'll miss. If you fill up the 32 gig flash drive with tunes, that feature is needed, IMO.

I've seen negative comments about the included earbuds in other reviews. They really aren't that bad. They have a bit of pseudo-bass, but I've heard worse. I plugged my studio grade Sennheiser 280s and they didn't sound much better.

Overall, a great product. I would definitely buy another if this one ever goes through the laundry.

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Rating: - So near and yet so far....
When this player works, it is very hard to beat. Compact size, easy navigation, user-configurable menus, and excellent graphics and sound, as well as accomodating SDHC cards up to at least 16GB, are great features, but.... mine had the white screen of death when I received it, and, though it would be normal for several hours at a time, would eventually get the white screen again, and be unusable for unpredictable amounts of time.

So, despite the fact that this is a very good player, when it works, it has serious problems that Creative, IMHO. should have addressed before continuing to sell it. If they are replacing all their older HD players with flash players, and the Zen 32GB is their flagship, why not get it working right instead of putting the burden of return, repair or replacement on us, their customers? Creative forums mention that the "white screen of death" is a hardware problem that affects about 1% of Zen players, not a problem that can be fixed by firmware updates.

And here the problems really began. I emailed Amazon to get a replacement, and, after a few days of runaround, was told that they would give me a refund instead, and that I could buy one for the same price from "BuyNow Incorporated". I had never heard of this company, and could find no info about them online. Today, Clicking on their name on Amazon's page, I see they say they have 97% positive reviews for the last 30 days as well as for their lifetime.

I bought the player from them, and they turned out to be Buy.com, a company that some sources online say is owned by Amazon, and that has the disinction of receiving some of the worst online reviews of any company I have ever seen. ResellerRatings.com gives them a 6 month rating of 2.41 out of 10 and a lifetime rating of 4.27. Buy.com say that their goal is to be the "best place to buy on the internet" but in fact they make no pretense of providing any customer service at all. They respond infrequently and very inadequately to emails, and, as far as I could determine after ten days of searching, do not even have a telephone number to call for support. Today I read on another site that 800-800-0800 is their customer service number, but I have not confirmed this.

Why should I put up with doing business with a company that won't even talk to me after I buy a $240 item from them ?

They shipped my player using UPS Mail Innovations, which is about the worst free shipping "service" that I have ever seen. My package has been sitting for three days in Springfield, Ma. without moving. I bought it 8/7, it was shipped 8/9, and today is 8/15! Almost all the reviews of UPS Mail Innovations report the same kind of thing - long delays in shipping and delivery, poor tracking information, etc. Avoid this company at all costs, and if you are getting free shipping, make sure it is via a reliable carrier like UPS or USPS.

As far as BuyNow Incorporated / Buy.com. and UPS Mail Innovations, I would not recommend them to my worst enemy. Amazon should be ashamed of having such companies as partners or associates, and especially ashamed of trying to foist off Buy.com as "BuyNow Incorporated" a nasty little piece of deliberate deception.

In light of the awful reviews of this company online, and my confirming personal experience, I am now afraid to do business with them. I am most likely going to cancel this order and buy from another source. I would only buy the Zen with an extended warranty, but I shudder to think of the problems that I might encounter if I needed and tried to get warranty service from Buy.com.

I have so far been a slow learner, but now I am going to change my way of doing business online. After days and weeks of poor service and slow delivery times, from this and other "bargain" online stores, I realize that I would much rather pay 10% to 20% more for a product brought from a trustworthy, reliable, and honest company, than to try to "save money" by using companies that have no interest in customer satisfaction or service, and whose idea of "customer service" is to employ some poor devils in Sri Lanka, Manila, or Bombay who barely speak English, and train them to say how "sorry" they are for the inconvenience that I have experienced. But who cannot, or will not, do anything to help me.

I do want to make it clear that my experience in buying direct from Amazon.com has been excellent. Shipping has been fast, and customer service, though far from perfect, has been adequate.

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Rating: - Powerful iPod alternative, could be perfect if tweaked
Admittedly, to begin with I was a bit anti-iPod. After all my family members have purchased Creative mp3 players (the Vision M and Vision W) I too wanted the freedom to enjoy a player with more options and less branding.

Creative's newest player, simply "Zen", lived up to my expectations and then some.

On the positive side, light as a feather, small and compact, GREAT storage for its size (32 GB with no HDD? YES Expandability? YES), amazing sound quality, beautiful colors in both still pictures and video, pretty good quality voice recording (helpful in recording lectures, though works better sitting up close obviously), customizable FM radio (even worked great picking up FM stations internationally on my recent trip abroad), good Equalizer...and best of all for me, works with my PC player of choice, Windows Media Player.

On the negative side, as a WMP user, I found the options in sorting and playback a bit lacking. It isn't a database powerhorse that can sort music by ratings, language, sub-genre, Folder, etc. compared to the huge list of sorting options available in Windows Media Player, where I can play a desired set of songs without even making a playlist using those sorts. However, playlists are fairly easy to make on your computer (a bit more tedious to do on the player) so planning for your listening/workout/whatever experience that way is one option.

Also, compared to previous ZENs, no A/C adapter charger comes with the player, meaning you have to charge it through USB by default, which didn't help for my trip abroad without computer access... In addition, by default it does not come with a cable or jack to output video to a monitor, an option I greatly enjoyed in the Vision M and W players. Finally, the buttons do feel a bit cheap to touch, though I haven't had a problem with them yet. And although the image quality is amazing, it's very easy to collect dirt or smear oil stains onto the player, so a protective casing is very much recommended.

I still highly recommend this player for those looking for an iPod alternative. For those looking for a bit more of a versatile alternative, maybe check out the older ZEN Vision models (though W is out of production) if you're willing to compensate the lightweight and small size for those other options.

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Rating: - Enjoy it a lot, wish it started up faster
I love the capacity, I like the interface, and I don't mind the separation of the SD card from the internal memory.
I do not like the slow startup time. It is ridiculous at times. If I am able to anticipate using the player though, I just start it up a few minutes before I want to use it. It starts decently fast if it has been on within the last 30 minutes or so. Another trick I use if is to turn it on and leave it plugged into my USB hub all night. That lets it start up fast in the morning and it is fully charged.
The ONE thing I do regret about this is that a few weeks after I bought this they released the new Zen X-Fi Creative Zen X-Fi 32 GB Video MP3 Player with Wireless LAN and Built-In Speaker (Black). I was torn between returning the player and using the credit to get the new one, but the new features are not very necessary to me.
All in all, great sound quality, good storage capacity, decent battery life (I average around 16 - 18 hours), and an amazing screen make for a good MP3 player. Not perfect, but I like it a lot.