Creative Zen 8 GB Portable Media Player (Black)

It is an average product for many users, but for me it is a realy good product in terms of quality and price.

Great player, easy to use. And no Big Brother i-Tunes constantly looking over my shoulder!

This is my 2nd Creative-brand player. My first model was an MP3 player/radio. I upgraded to the Zen 8 because I needed more memory for my music collection and wanted a video player, as well. The Zen 8 has not disappointed. Sound and video quality are outstanding. The player's button controls are easy to use and logical (helpful if you're not into reading directions). The 8 GB memory provides ample storage. (I have seven episodes of The Office loaded and they fill less than half of the player's capacity.)Transferring music and videos is easy because of the intuitive Creative software, USB cable and SD card slot. (I have had good results with affordable Transcend cards.) The player has decent battery life and is easily recharged by plugging into your PC's USB port. I also purchased the Creative clear, hard-plastic case to protect the Zen from scratches. The Zen 8 is compatible with portable video files from Amazon Unbox when you download directly to the player. For the price, the Zen 8 is a jewel of a player.

I hesitated buying this product because I'd read numerous reports online of it's shortcomings: the hardware was dodgy, the conversion software was clunky and unintuitive, it had a mediocre radio, and I should always have a paperclip on hand to hit the reset button.

Despite these qualms, I finally broke down and purchased it after determining I wanted something a bit...more...than my 8GB Sansa Clip (a wonderful MP3 player for the price, BTW). I also got a pretty good deal online at Wally-World with a free case and shipping, so that made up my mind for me.

Well, I haven't had this player for more than a day but I had to write a quick rundown. Hopefully, the hardware issues will never rear their heads. But as of now - color me impressed!

First off I need to comment on the sound quality. I feel that it sounds better than my Sansa Clip did (a player with a highly-regarded sound quality). My music is very clear and everything is articulated. The bass resonates well, and high sounds (such as cymbals or bells in an orchestra) sound clean and crisp. The overall sound is very full. I should note I'm using Koss in-ear buds that I bought for $20 at Wal-Mart, not the prepackaged earbuds Creative made. They felt cheap, and were uncomfortable enough that I discarded them immediately.

The player itself is about the size of a credit card, with a matte-black back and a shiny plastic top cover and buttons. The buttons all have a nice solid, positive click to them. However, its obviously a fingerprint and scratch magnet, so a case and/or screen protector is recommended. Most of the player is dominated by the 2.5" screen which shows the prepackaged images and videos beautifully. It's quite vivid with rich colors. Again, a screen protector looks to be a necessity.

The UI (user interface) is actually quite intuitive. I have not needed to consult the instructions for the basic functions such as playing music or navigating menus. For long song lists, there is a handy sidebar that lets you search through the alphabet, and brings up the media that starts with that letter. It sounds odd the way I'm typing it, but it works beautifully.

There is a handy back button, which helps. I know you can customize the menu to remove or add functions that you wish to be there, which is a nice touch. There is also a shortcut button, and you can program that button to do a number of things.

At first I was skittish because I'd read that the player had no dedicated volume button(s), something I like. THIS IS NOT TRUE! The middle of the player has a square button surrounding a center button. Clicking the Square button up and down during song playback brings the volume up and down. And this little device gets quite loud, BTW! I haven't taken it above level four on a scale that goes to 25.

The FM radio utilizes your headphone cord as an antennae, so mileage may vary. I found during the auto preset programming the ZEN was fairly sensitive, and picked up even the anemic college radio station the next city over. The stations all have a graphic showing signal strength, but even with only one bar lit, the sound and reception are great. Not bad!

It's too bad the SD card doesn't automatically integrate into the library. Selecting it from the menu while listening to music brings any song you're listening to to a halt. Unnecessary, IMHO. Maybe Creative will see the light and fix this in a firmware update?

The packaged software is a bit bloated. I like to use either Windows Media Player 11 or simple drag and drop to get media on my players. However, the included software does do a couple of things well: 1)It searches iTunes and converts whatever non-DRM songs you have there to the ZEN easily. 2)It has it's own video converter for easily putting moving images on your player. The latter can be avoided if you don't want the whole download by searching online for free converters. Some work quite well.

Another cool thing - it came with a software trial for Audible.com. I got one free audiobook, and then deleted the account. A nice bonus for me, but if your really in to audiobooks then that offer plus the player's expandible SD card should be heaven sent.

In conclusion, at this early time the ZEN is an impressive device with a GIANT, CLEAR sound. The customizable UI is cool, too. Now if I can avoid the hardware failures and 'white screen of death' (Google it to get details), I'll be very happy.

I bought this player because of it's numerous great features at a very appealing price.

However, I can only give this product 2 stars because of all of the software/connection issues I keep encountering. After two weeks of owning this product and attempting to load 6.5 Gb of my music, I have been completely unsuccessful for the following reasons:

1. The player locks up when connected via USB and I have to reset it.

2. The player constantly connects and disconnects via USB, not allowing me to stay connected long enough to transfer anything or syncronize through the provided software via drag and drop.

3. The player tells me it's out of space even though it has 4.5-5 Gb still available (this is when it usually locks up or disconnects).

I do have the latest firmware and have followed the steps listed on Creative's site to correct errors, but nothing has helped.

To be fair, this product does have some strong points as well:

1. The FM radio works great.

2. The SD card feature is nice to have.

3. What little music I have been able to hear out of it sounds very good.

I am considering returning this product and buying something else, but I want to give it another week to see if it finally decides to cooperate. As an FYI, I have encountered the exact same problems with Vista x64, Windows XP, and a Mac.