So I finally got my Zen Touch yesterday. Paid $220 total. Been playing with it non-stop since (other than sleeping). This is my 2nd Mp3 player purchase in one month. I bought the Creative Muvo2 4GB 2 weeks ago and didn't like it. That is not happening here. I am keeping the Zen Touch!
Zen Touch
REVIEW:
Size: width and length are about the same as ipod, but thicker and heavier than ipod 20gb. To me this is minor.
Battery Life: of course this is one of its biggest advantages over ipod. 7 hrs playing so far and battery indicator is still at full 3 bars! Several users on amazon reported the claimed 24hr to be true. A nice feature is that you can recharge the player in TWO ways - thru power cable or USB 2.0 cable.
Sound Quality: it sounds great with my Sennheiser 497 headphones. Creative's players have good reputation on sound. They make great sound cards afterall.
Touchpad and buttons: The touchpad is the most important button on it, very useful. It makes browsing large song list so much faster. I guess Creative took a lesson from ipod (too bad Apple didn't take lessions from others). A minor flaw is that it's very sensitive like other users reported. I lowered sentivity to Low (factory value is Medium). Now I'm getting used to it. Kinda like when you first use laptop touchpad. I have no complaints on other buttons.
Firmware: what can I say, i haven't found a flaw. You can play a specific album, artist, genre, or all tracks, or all tracks random play. You can also create/edit/delete playlists right on the player. You can add a song, album, artist, or a genre to a playlist. There are also common play modes like repeat and shuffle, etc. You can also permenently delete a song from the player without going thru PC.
There is multi-language support. My Chinese songs display on it without problem. It also supports several other languages.
There are 8 preset EQ settings. You can also customize your own 4-band EQ setting. You can also turn-off EQ circuit and that's what I use now.
Also, it supports WMA format which has smaller size than MP3.
Software: There are 2 applications: Nomad Explorer (required) and Creative MediaSource (optional). Once Nomad Explorer and driver are installed, Windows can recognize the player as an external drive. You can then copy and paste songs and data files to/from the player under Windows Explorer. You can also use Creative MediaSource and Windows Media Player 9 to transfer songs. I find that WMP9 is better than Creative MediaSource. So I uninstalled it and only use WMP9 now.
Free music!: It came preloaded with 60 classical tracks from Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Bach, etc.
CONS:
Of course it's not perfect, like any other players.
1. thicker and heavier than ipod, like I mentioned.
2. earphones look crappy, cheap and it's not comfortable. I plan to get a pair of earphones (maybe Sennheiser MX500).
3. the case included doesnt allow access to the buttons.
4. Touchpad is a little too sensitive.
5. Creative MediaSource software kinda sucks, but you don't have to use it (I use WMP9 instead).
6. Occasional freeze. Several users have mentioned it. I experienced it once in the first hour of use, but none after that. I don't think it's a big issue. Creative is aware of this, hopefully next firmware release will fix it.
Update: just found out WMP 10 is released! going to download it tonight.
Zen Touch
REVIEW:
Size: width and length are about the same as ipod, but thicker and heavier than ipod 20gb. To me this is minor.
Battery Life: of course this is one of its biggest advantages over ipod. 7 hrs playing so far and battery indicator is still at full 3 bars! Several users on amazon reported the claimed 24hr to be true. A nice feature is that you can recharge the player in TWO ways - thru power cable or USB 2.0 cable.
Sound Quality: it sounds great with my Sennheiser 497 headphones. Creative's players have good reputation on sound. They make great sound cards afterall.
Touchpad and buttons: The touchpad is the most important button on it, very useful. It makes browsing large song list so much faster. I guess Creative took a lesson from ipod (too bad Apple didn't take lessions from others). A minor flaw is that it's very sensitive like other users reported. I lowered sentivity to Low (factory value is Medium). Now I'm getting used to it. Kinda like when you first use laptop touchpad. I have no complaints on other buttons.
Firmware: what can I say, i haven't found a flaw. You can play a specific album, artist, genre, or all tracks, or all tracks random play. You can also create/edit/delete playlists right on the player. You can add a song, album, artist, or a genre to a playlist. There are also common play modes like repeat and shuffle, etc. You can also permenently delete a song from the player without going thru PC.
There is multi-language support. My Chinese songs display on it without problem. It also supports several other languages.
There are 8 preset EQ settings. You can also customize your own 4-band EQ setting. You can also turn-off EQ circuit and that's what I use now.
Also, it supports WMA format which has smaller size than MP3.
Software: There are 2 applications: Nomad Explorer (required) and Creative MediaSource (optional). Once Nomad Explorer and driver are installed, Windows can recognize the player as an external drive. You can then copy and paste songs and data files to/from the player under Windows Explorer. You can also use Creative MediaSource and Windows Media Player 9 to transfer songs. I find that WMP9 is better than Creative MediaSource. So I uninstalled it and only use WMP9 now.
Free music!: It came preloaded with 60 classical tracks from Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Bach, etc.
CONS:
Of course it's not perfect, like any other players.
1. thicker and heavier than ipod, like I mentioned.
2. earphones look crappy, cheap and it's not comfortable. I plan to get a pair of earphones (maybe Sennheiser MX500).
3. the case included doesnt allow access to the buttons.
4. Touchpad is a little too sensitive.
5. Creative MediaSource software kinda sucks, but you don't have to use it (I use WMP9 instead).
6. Occasional freeze. Several users have mentioned it. I experienced it once in the first hour of use, but none after that. I don't think it's a big issue. Creative is aware of this, hopefully next firmware release will fix it.
Update: just found out WMP 10 is released! going to download it tonight.
Facebook
Twitter