Creative Zen 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black)

Creative Zen 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black) Review

I did my research and wanted an MP3 player that did the following:

- Held my 20GB of music
- Allow me to playback music randomly, or randomly from a play list I've created in virtually any music software that supports syncing with the device
- Had flash memory so I could work out with it
- Had FM radio
- Could playback video well (for trips)
- Had an SD card slot for playing video from

This device meets and exceeds all my expectations! When it comes to MP3 players my experience has been an old 256MB iRiver I've used for running for years now and other people's iPods. This thing beats both of those out of the water! The only thing that makes me wary about this product was all the "white screen of death" complaints, but so far I have not seen any (maybe the newest firmware has fixed the problem?)

I love how you can name your radio presets, I could never remember what station corresponds to what frequency. Music playback was significantly better than my work computer, I have no complaints about that at all. The UI is very beautiful, and I enjoy seeing my album art on playback. The device is fairly easy to use, but I could see how some people could miss nice features if they didn't explore all the menus. One feature I've really come to like is the DJ playback mode of "Rarely Heard" which plays songs that have the lowest play count, never expected this from a portable MP3 player.

One major goal with an MP3 player is for me to have only two places where my music exists that can be synced: my PC and the MP3 player. One annoyance is that the MP3 player organizes the folders by artist instead of album, but it really doesn't impact anything. It took me a while to figure out that there are only a subset of MP3 genre's supported by the Zen, so don't expect the "genre" field to sync unless it's one that works with the player. Also you really need to make sure that your album art is consistent on your computer if you want it to display correctly on the device after a sync (recommend MediaMonkey for album art). I couldn't get the "rating" field to sync at all, apparently Winamp and this player use different values for that field so may have success depending on what program you use (I really don't care about setting the rating for every one of my 5000+ songs).

The only complaints I've had thus far is that the battery life doesn't last as long as advertised, if I use it at work all day long I have to charge it that night if I want to use it the next day. It's definitely long enough for me to use it during the day but I have to remember to charge it if I expect to use it a lot the next day. Also it froze up on me when I was deleting the album art that comes with the device, I'm not sure if that was my fault for what software I was using or the player's fault though. I'd recommend formatting the unit from the get-go unless you like all the music/videos/pictures they put on the unit (format menu available by holding the "PLAY/PAUSE" button and turning the unit on).

In summary do you research and do the math, what MP3 player gives you the most features for the money?

Creative Zen 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black) Feature

• Enjoy all your media on a device that's about the width of a credit card
• Watch 64 hours of videos, enjoy up to 4,000 of your favorite songs or share hundreds of photos with your friends
• 2.5-inch TFT color display with 320 x 240-pixel resolution and support for up to 16.7 million colors
• Clock and alarm function, volume restriction, eight equalizer settings, and a USB hard drive mode, SDHC support
• Weighs 2.1 ounces and measures 3.26 x 2.16 x .44 inches (W x H x D)

Creative Zen 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black) Overview

This credit card-sized Creative Zen has a stunning 2.5-inch color screen and is perfect for music, videos, and photos. Enjoy up to 500 MP3, WMA, or AAC songs; watch up to 70 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 player also is available in 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB, and 32 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 into life with 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 unprotected AAC format, so you can enjoy all of 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 also is 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 Creative Zen 2 GB player, earphones, USB 2.0 cable, installation CD, quick start guide

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

Creative Zen 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black) Specifications

This credit card-sized ZEN has a stunning 2.5" TFT color screen with 16.7 million color support that is perfect for viewing album art, videos and photos. Enjoy up to 500 MP3, WMA or AAC songs, watch up to 70 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. With SD cards to go, carry virtually unlimited amounts of your digital library anywhere you go. ZEN is the first Creative player to support 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 supports audio books from Audible too! In between your tunes, use the built-in FM radio to keep yourself up to date with world events, sports scores or traffic reports. Enjoy up to 30 hours of your songs or 5 hours of video on a single charge. That's over a full day of music! Or 10 episodes of Scrubs! Photo Format - JPEG and (with transcoding - GIF, TIFF, PNG and BMP) Organizer - Syncs with and views Microsoft Outlook Contacts, Calendar & Tasks FM radio with 32 presets Voice recorder Functions as an external hard drive Approximate Unit Dimensions - 3.26 (W) x 2.16 (H) x 0.44 (D) Approximate Unit Weight - 2.1 oz

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Dec 20, 2009 03:01:05