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Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox Zen NX 20 GB Digital Audio Player
By: Creative Labs       Average Rating: 3.5     Total Reviews: 31
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Five years and counting....     On: 2006-05-09

Dont know what all the negative reviews are about. Ive had my Nomad mp3 player for five years now, and its NEVER quit on me. Ive never had a problem with it, period.
I love the fact that I can plug it into my computer and transfer song files, create playlists, and fix it up just for my use. Since its got a huge memory, I use it as a backup for the songs on my computers hard drive, just in case the computer conks, which it has! Got a new computer, and since I had all my songs on the Nomad, I just did a quick transfer, and voila!
I wouldnt give up my Nomad for an Ipod ever.

the biggest let down     On: 2005-08-21

When i got this mp3 I thought i was getting a great substitute for an I pod because I pods are kind of expensive. Also I wanted to get an mp3 I would have for at least 2 years (that was cut short). When I was riding my bike 8/20/05 (3 months after i bought it) the mp3 all of a sudden stoped working. When the battery gets low a screen pops up that says that it has a low battery. That is what I thought happend but, if the screen popped up the player wouldnt have shut off. About 3 hours later I brought the mp3 home to see what went wrong. When i turned it on the screen fizzled out. Well tech support said to put a paperclip in the reset button. After putting the paper clip in the reset button 10 times the mp3 would not return to normal. So I took it as a loss and now I am getting an I pod. DONT GET THIS MP3 YOU WILL HAVE IT FOR 3 OR 4 MONTHS AT BEST.
Not a fan of harddrive based players     On: 2005-02-18

Ive had a couple of nomads and theyve all died
on me. The last one was the NX. It only lasted
a couple of days and croaked.
Excellent sound, does what it's supposed to do     On: 2004-12-10

I bought a refurbished one of these off of eBay directly from Creative Labs. It only had a 30 day warranty, so once it ran out, I took out the 20GB hard drive that came with it and put in a 40GB one. I also got a second LiIon battery for it for under $20 on ebay.

The player does what its supposed to do -- play back MP3 files in high fidelity sound. The Zen NX has a nice headphone amp and drives studio-style headphones without problem. The EAX DSP settings do a nice job with EQing sound and also normalizing volume when you have it on shuffle. It also has virtually gapless playback -- this is, for me, a must. The included software is actually halfway decent. I use Red Chair Softwares Notmad Explorer -- far better.

Complaints: no included car adapter, job dial feels a bit flimsy, no firmware support for Audible files (although you can get around it -- do a search on www.nomadness.net), making playlists without the computer is bothersome. The included earbuds are low-fi, get a set of Koss PortaPros or something similar.

Now, this being said, this player is good enough that the complaints are not enough to drop the rating below 4 stars. YMMV.
Too heavy and difficult to operate     On: 2004-10-07

I bought one in September 2003, it worked fine for a while, then I had to throw it away. It froze, and there was no way to bring it back to life, couldnt use it even as a storage device. Its heavy, the buttons are placed in awkward places and the menu is really hard to read. The aluminium face plate also breaks loose easily. The software can be a bit cumbersome. I wouldnt buy one again. And I hate to say that i bought an G4 iPod 20GB, and it works perfectly, the firmware is easy to use and the device is light and easy to operate. I am happy with mu iPod.
Poor Support, Don't Waste your Time     On: 2004-06-02

We purchased the Nomad Zen DAP at Christmas 2003, by May of this year its hard drive needs to be replaced. It only comes with a 90 day warranty, so we have to shell out $108.00 to get it repaired. Creative must really stand by their workmanship if they will only warrant their products for 90 days. You would be better off with a iPOD or Archos 6000. I have one each of those for years and they still function well full of music. Creative should hide their heads, and their products. What a waste of money !!
A Truly Fantastic Product     On: 2004-02-08

After quite a bit of research, and reviewing some of my friends HD players (Archos, iPod, iRiver), I decided to purchase the Nomad Zen NX. In some ways, this was a matter of deduction, for it was only the Nomad Zen NX that met my all, and I do mean ALL, of my wants in an HD player. These wants of mine were a player that:

1) Had a large, detailed, high-resolution display
2) WAS ABLE TO SCROLL EASILY!
3) Was able to store many data types
4) Was small and durable
5) I could use to store/back up other files
6) Didnt dent my wallet

I found all of these in the Nomad Zen NX. Although the iPod looks really nice, and has a great display and a cool, innovative scroll wheel, the navigation wheel on the Nomad Zen works perfectly. I didnt want to have a player that used buttons to scroll because I felt that, after scrolling through 1k+ songs over an extended period of time, buttons would break down and malfunction. Also, the iPod does not allow you to store other files (e.g. movies, or picture) OR allow you take songs off of it (you need to download illegal software to do so and it voids the warrenty of the iPod). More to the point, the iPod is steeply priced, 300 dollars for 10 gigs of memory (at least, thats what its price was when I bought my Zen). The iRiver also carries a hefty price, although it does have many things that the Nomad has. I ended up purchasing my Nomad (20 gbs) for 270 (approx.) dollars, and I am totally happy with my purchase. As for the archos HD players, I dont like there display, and the OS that they come with is absolutely terrible.

If 4.5 stars were possible, I would choose that option, for the only drawback it has (and this may very well apply to all HD players) is that when you skip through a lot of songs quickly, the player lags for a second or two. I have found this only slightly annoying, however, and this minor con is vastly outweighed by the pros of this player. Buy with confidence!

Oh, and Ive dropped it quite a few times (however, only one of these times was my fault! =]) and the player still works perfectly.


This thing is excellent
by: Anonymous    On: 2004-02-06

OK, I bought this system a couple of months ago and it is great. It makes life so much easier to have all your music at your finger tips. The only reason I didnt give it five stars is because it has a tendency to jam up right after I download new music. Yes, a little annoying but easily fixed with the reset button and youre back in business. Plus it is pretty durable too. Ive dropped it a few times on hardwood flooring and nothing as aposed to my brother who dropped his iPod on the floor and it wouldnt work for half a week. In addition, you get a lot better value compared to the iPod; more memory for the buck or get less memory and save some money. It is a little bulkier but not to the point where it will actually bother anyone.

I do, however, want to mention one quick thing to any one who might be in my situation. I have a lot of dexterity problems due to a disability and if you have the same type of problem you might want to look closer at the iPod because the touchpad interface is easier to use than the wheel on the jukebox. But if that isnt a problem get this one its better and cheaper. You can use the money you save to buy more music.


Great Overall     On: 2004-02-04

i have had this since september, and since it came out in Augest it was very new when i bought it. this was an upgrade from the Nomad II that was extremely buggy. I LOVE THIS PLAYER. You will for sure hear many mixed reviews about his player, which all have, but really this is well worth the money. I am very hard to please but with this device there is very few flaws. 1) not nearly as small or sleek as iPod, but its not as big as people make it out to be. 2) Headphones are crap, veryminor problem, but hey theres very few. 3) extreme lack of acessories, only thing you can buy for this is a new battery 4)the case it comes with isnt great 5) no firewire support.
Pros
you can make a playlist from the player

its from a premier soundcard company so ofcourse the quality is outstanding

easy to use

14 hour battery life, and battery is user replaceable

aluminum case not easy to break

EAX feature is sweet

i have about 1000 songs and player acts like there are none loaded

if you want a rocksolid player that will last as long as you do, buy the zen, if you want a sleek design buy an iPod

also creative support speaks english


Way Better than the ipod
by: Anonymous    On: 2004-01-11

I have had the Zen Nx since christmas and at january 11, it is in perfectly good condition. The Interface is great and menu navigation can be achieved with one finger. It is small enogh to go in your pocket and the backlit display turns on automatically so you can use it just about anywhere. Plus, you can go to the manufacturers offical website (creative.com) and download software patches for it. And lastly-the great price-around 100 less than an ipod of the same capacity. This is a really great player and i have been almost totally happy with it-however here are the drawbacks.

*no remote

*no radio tuner

Those two things bug me a lot but even still this player is AWESOME


Extraordinary     On: 2004-01-09

I have uploaded more than 1000 songs and it still seems I have 75% of the hard disk still available! Vow! The music quality is very good, the menu is easy to access, the battery life is decent(at least 12 hours!) and the mp3 ripping program is very user friendly. I wanted to start ripping mp3s right away and I had no problems with it. Although the Ipod looks a little bit more fancier, this unit is better for $ for the memory and the battery life it offers. You can also have this Jukebox charge at the same time as your are uploading songs from your computer.
I would recommend this product without any reservation. Overall, I am very satisfied with it.
You can keep your F@#king Ipod     On: 2004-01-06

Pros:
Huge Space(I have all my cds, all my dads and all my brothers and i still have 13GB left
Small Price($180 less than 20 GB Ipod
Easy to use software(Rip Cds onto your Player with one button
Upgradable Firmware through website
Nice Interface
Removable battery (this is KEY. with the Ipod when the battery dies, and it will, after a couple hundred charges you have to send it to Apple.

Cons:
Larger than Ipod(Sill Fits in pocket)
Not Quite as sleek or pretty as Ipod (But I couldnt care less. ITS IN MY POCKET!)

Overall at $180 less than an Ipod, how can you go wrong
If you have windows, like me the ipod is a chore to configure


Hard drive failed in 5 days...     On: 2004-01-02

Gave this to my kid (15) for Xmas, and his hard drive failed on December 31st. And no, he wasnt jogging with it, and did not drop it....
Better bookshelf     On: 2003-12-26

Second update: I finally took the time to change the hard drive, and it works again. When they mean you cant exercise with it, they mean it. I would not even suggest walking with it. It has already been acting up again, and now I just walk around with it on my belt. I had to take the hard drive out in order to be able to reload the firmware this time, the buttons wouldnt work until I performed this operation.

This is an update. This thing lasted 10 months then died. Although it is a great player, was, when it worked, it did not last as long as it should have for the money. If you plan on being active with the thing, dont buy this one.

Just got one for xmas. I use it strictly for audiobooks. Have tried several MP3 players, but there was always a problem because the manufacturers dont have audiobooks in mind when they write the software for these things. This thing has some features I like specifically because I listen to books with it.

The basics... Two major features when listening to books, the way the thing sorts, and a resume feature for long segments. For sorting it allows you to use album or track number. It would be nice if these choices were expanded to file name or the segment title, maybe in a later firmware upgrade.

If a segment is playing and you shut off the unit, it will begin playing where it left off. Nice for those 45 - 60 minute segments. There is also a bookmark feature which you can set for each book, but these disappear if you access the thing to add, delete or change the content. Fast forwarding is very fast, another plus for those 60 minute segments.

One really nice feature for audiobook listeners is the advanced sound catagories it uses. I really like the time scale feature. You can speed up playback without the chipmunk distortion you would expect, basically making the narrator speak faster. Now I can listen as fast as I read!!

Browsing... It allows you to browse by Album, Artist, Genre or use a playlist, thats it. A folder browsing feature would be nice, but not necessary. I couldnt imagine having tons of music on here and dealing with it without folders.

The best thing about it which makes it so much better than the small players is the amount of data it holds. I no longer have to update it every other day when I finish a book. Once I have it loaded, which will take a while with 20GB of space, I dont have to worry about it for a while.

The bundled software is supposed to allow Windows file manager integration, but I couldnt get it to work. Using the Creative Organizer works and is simple enough, so I cant see paying for another program just to have the ease of drag and drop.
I love it!!!     On: 2003-12-20

Simply Wonderful...If you want a Mp3 player this is the one to get.
not very reliable
by: Anonymous    On: 2003-12-12

i got one three weeks ago.. It freezes sometimes and i have to reset it. Yesterday i download the new firmware online. after installed it, the player freezes at the logo everytime i turn it on, and i have to turn it off by removing the battery. I am gonna return it tommorrow.. i got it from circuity city not from amazon
don't buy this!
by: Anonymous    On: 2003-12-09

the software needed to post music from computer to the player is too complex, and transfers - when they are successful - are very slow. Every few songs I got an error and player wasnt recognized anymore by the software. Nothing a few "unplug/replug" cycles couldnt fix. Every few "unplug/replug" cycles the software was nice enough to shut itself down for me and I got to start all over again. After about 5 such software restarts (I had transferred all of about 30 titles, with a few thousand more to go), I realized what a piece of junk this really is and promptly returned it. Got a more expensive ipod and it works great. Buyer beware: you get what you pay for.
Amazing!     On: 2003-12-07

I love this mp3 player! It has just about all the features of an ipod with double the space for 50 bucks less! Its very easy to use once you learn how to upload songs to it.

Pros:
Just about everything!

Cons:
May be confusing to use to inexperienced computer users.


Best investment I ever made     On: 2003-12-02

After reading a few of the horror stories people had with the Zen NX, I decided to bite the bullet and buy it. Now, I wonder why I even doubted the product. I began using it the second I popped the battery in with no problems. It probably helps that I exhaustively read through the online Product Manual pdf Creative Lab supplies on their website before it arrived. The interface, therefore, was very easy to understand. I had no problems whatsoever getting my computer to communicate with the device, and the drag-drop interface of the file manager was very easy as well. They also included several classical music pieces on the jukebox so that before you even hook up your jukebox to the computer, you can sample how the music sounds. I was surprised to see how small it was, even after seeing people describe it as "bulky". Its about the same size as a pda, and I can easily slip it in my pocket. The earbud headphones are not so good, but I have some good headphones from my cd player, so I was okay. And it would have been nice if the Zen NX was detected as a hard drive, because that would make it alot easier to use it other places without software. But otherwise, I have no issues. I love everything about this player.
Great player, great price, kills the iPod!     On: 2003-11-23

My 2 cents..

If you want a stylish player, get the iPod.

If you want a player that provides twice the hard drive capacity for half the price, get the Nomad Zen Nx.

If you want a white (blah) player that will show every sign of dirt and dust, get an iPod.

If you want a silver player that looks utilitarian, and like it can take a beating, get the Zen Nx.

I really do not mind the Mediasource software, except that I prefer not to use its CD ripping function, because it doesnt allow you to include the Track # in the filename. Theres plenty of freeware CD to MP3 rippers out there that dont hog resources like Mediasource does.

Other than that, the software functions just fine although a little slow for a P3 700Mhz PC.. If you look around the Internet, you can find a piece of software called Nomad Explorer, an official release written by Creative Labs, that will integrate with Windows Explorer and allows you to drag and drop your MP3s right from within Windows Explorer! Niiice.

The thing I love about this player the best, and what matters most to most people, is that it sounds absolutely GREAT. I encode most of my MP3/WMAs at 128-160kbps and both bitrates sound great.. My 192kbps sound even better, but 160kbps is pretty much all I need with this player.

EAX allows you to set preset EQ settings like Rock, Pop, Jazz, etc, or environmental settings like Auditorium, Concert Hall, Garage (most environmental settings make it sound like youre in a big restroom, in my opinion).. I use the custom 4 band equalizer, and it works great.. Beware though, with EAX enabled, your battery life will be cut in half! Luckily the battery charges in just two hours.

If you want a good pair of earclip headphones to go with this, pick up some Koss KSC-50 headphones.. They are full open air size headphones that clip to your ears, and theyre a LOT better than the ones that come with the Zen Nx.

One minor complaint about the Zen Nx, and that is, Creative seems to be pushing their Zen Xtra, even though they just released the Zen Nx in August! As great of a player as this model is, I hope they arent pushing it under the rug, in favor of a newer model with a bigger screen.

Another minor beef I have is the lack of FM tuner. True, I can buy a decent portable FM radio for under $20, but it surely would have been easy for Creative to have on built in, wouldnt it have?

The scroll wheel takes some getting used to. I cant say I like it for menu scrolling, but it does come in handy when scrolling thru 100+ artist/album names. It just does not feel precise, thats all.

If you want a great HD based player at a great price and dont mind slightly clunky included software, get this- its a steal.


Im Lovin'It!     On: 2003-11-22

I love my player...! Before I bought this item I knew what a Harddisk based mp3 player was like. I bought myself a Toshiba Mobilphile (5 gig.) in may 03. Unfortunately this player was stolen in Paris. After this I knew I wanted an harddisk based mp3 player again. After I read some reviews I decided to buy this one... and Im lovin it!
Sound quality is great!
Software is really easy to use.
I like the big (20 gig.) storage!

cons: Its not as small as ipod.


Definitly Worth It     On: 2003-11-16

Ok I have to start by saying Amazon was the slowest ship time ever.. 9 days to ship although ups shipped it in 2 days.(11 total). That "usually ships in 24 hours" is crap but i didnt deduct points from the product for that because its just magnificent. Im on XP Pro. The Device menu is nice easy to find anything you want.. Although you will need ID3 Tags somewhat filled out but it has mass ID3 change on the app.. took me about 4 hours to setup ID3 tags on about 2900 songs.. as far as pc-zen transfer I dont have usb 2 port so it was goin at usb 1.1 bout 7 seconds a song 7*2900/60/60 about 5.6 hrs but I started it went to bed.. woke up and no problems whatsoever. 290 albums loaded and ready to go.. sounds just as good as a cd player bought a car cassete adapter works good. although hard to change albums and drive so you may need a copilot or a good playlist setup. I paid 224$ for it prolly could have found it for 210$ but oh well. size is nice ipod is about 3/4th the size but oh well it still fits nicely in my poket and is way smaller than an mp3 player. the menu setup is nice mainly based on id3.
-My Music-
+Tracks
-All Tracks
+Artists
-ArtistName
--submenu(open)
<-Lists Albums by artist
+Albums
-All Albums

not exactly but sumthin like that..
theres a few other things like.

Time Display
Surrent Song Display with good info..

Things i wish it had..

menu navigate is fine exept kinda hard to press the scroll navigator to select items

Stop button..not needed but pause/change track will show it as stoped

would have been nice if it had folder layout since thats how my music was sorted but no matter now.

back light button.. back light comes on for a few seconds when the navigate wheel is moved wish there was a diff way to turn it on and posibly keep it on..

but pros outway the cons and i really beleave its a better deal than ipod..


Millions of years of evolution has led to this!!!     On: 2003-11-10

Ive never written a review and Ive bought from Amazon for years. I am so happy over my ZEN NX that I have to let everyone know. Ive downloaded close to 300 CDs and still have over 4 gig left! The sound is amazing. The interface could not be easier. Files are listed by ARTIST, ALBUM, GENRE, PLAYLISTS and TRACKS. If I want to hear R.E.M. I can listen to "Out of Time" or one song or all 5 albums in order or in a shuffled order. If Im exercising I can click on Techno and listen to every techno song in the jukebox. Its true the headphones arent that great. The battery life isnt 14 hours. Did anyone mention the LEATHER carrying case? Its great but should have an opening so you could see the window. The aluminum face plate is ultra cool as is the green light. The scroll wheel is easy to figure out. The media source software is more than adequate. It downloads the track listings and then you copy the CDs. Who needs to pay $200 more for an iPOD?
Zen NX - Doesn't get any better than this!
by: Anonymous    On: 2003-11-01

Think positive! Software for this or any other gadget that is capapble of doing what this item is capapble of can be challenging as can be the controls on the NX, but a little patience is so-o-o rewarding.
One should keep in mind what we spent our money for - SOUND; thats been Creatives business from the git-go and the fact theyre able to do it at these prices makes for a hands down winner. Another point to consider is 20 vs 30 gigs: 20 gigs of MP3 tracks is virtually impossible to keep track of - 30 is absolute chaos. However, take your pick - the soundss the same - GREAT!
Wait till Creative figures out problems with software
by: Anonymous    On: 2003-10-20

Good player, but may be difficult for you to actually get it to connect to your computer. For what ever reason, the software simply refuses to install the correct driver onto my computer. I installed succesfully on my old second computer but with USB 1.0. With 1.0, it took all night to download my songs but it worked and I was happy. Now, a new problem, with USB 1.0, I am no longer able to download more music onto the player. When you connect the player, the software tries to catalog the players slongs and apparently, it takes too long to catalog the 15 GB of songs over a USB 1.0 connection and the software automatically shuts itself off after 1 minute and gives an error.

Also, if you have any problems with this player, good luck trying to actually contact customer service. After 3 weeks of trying, I have recieved no reply.

Make sure you buy this product with a service play, the 90 day warranty Creative offers is a joke.


Heading back to the store
by: Anonymous    On: 2003-10-20

Weird device-to-PC interface and horrible software make this a lousy player. Never mind that it looks good. Whether you read the following tale of horror or not, please do much more research before you buy; try to actually use one and sync music with it.

After a poor experience with an RCA Lyra 40 GB jukebox, I decided to give this Nomad Zen NX a try. First thing you notice is that it is not recognized as just another hard drive (like the RCA for example). You need a special piece of software to just browse the contents. Then one more app to manage the music and sync.

The latter is where the cruel joke started. I imported my music into the Creative software and started to sync. Sync was very slow on a USB 2.0 (where the RCA was very fast by comparison, so its not a USB problem). In addition, some songs would just show errors and could not be transferred, although they play just fine on the PC. After a few errors I supposedly stopped the sync from the PC. Upon successive plugging of the device onto the cable, the Zen would no longer be recognized. I went to the official website and downloaded different drivers to no avail. Then I read about a 3rd party app aptly named Notmad, which makes syncing with the Zen very easy, but is not free (has a cut down trial version). After 32321 reboots and getting the trial of Notmad, the Zen was recognized. Even by Creatives own software :) Funny thing is, no sync was possible whatsoever - every track would give an error.

After some reading online, I figured out that a clean reainstall of Windows XP and the Nomad software will probably help. Ahem, excuse me? I am not reinstalling everything on my PC to make this silly piece of plastic work in a semi-adequate way, nor am I willing to buy a 3rd party app to make me Notmad :) I bet the hardware is OK and the problem is in the OS drivers, but the whole package is still bad bad bad. And even if it were working as advertised, you cant just go to somebody elses PC and load files onto this as if it were a hard drive - you need to download special software from Creative first. Ha ha.

I am very disappointed by this player and will return it asap.


Doing That Thing You Do     On: 2003-10-19

I like this little doo-hickey. Its rather compact, especially when you compare it to the size of a CD player and even most palm pilots. It really is the simplest to use that I have ever seen. The program it gives with the player is rather difficult to figure out at first, due to the sparse instructions, but once you do it becomes a piece of cake and you will wonder why you did not understand it at first. Its really simple. Just get the names and then rip the CD. It works well. The buttons are strange at first, especially the scan control. You do get used to it. The USB really is plug and play. The usage is easy once you get the scroll down and enjoy.
not perfect, but close     On: 2003-09-15

two months ago, a friend of mine bought an iPod and lived to rue that day, as she couldnt get the software to work with her PC. she returned it a couple of weeks after having purchased it, after many hours on the phone with tech support for both her PC and for the iPod. yesterday, i bought myself a creative labs jukebox zen nx for half the price she paid for her iPod. score one for the Jukebox. i took it home, plugged it in, let it charge while i installed the software. this took maybe fifteen minutes. i have no IDEA how two computer professionals couldnt get this software to install.... im quite computer savvy, myself, for a 21 year old business student with no formal computer training. im no whiz, but the installation was in no way shape or form brain surgery. click next a handful of times, click finish, yay for you, its installed, just like any other program.
after getting the software installed, teaching myself to use it took a bit of time. the help files arent exactly expansive, and often seemed to have the answer to a question that wasnt *quite* what i needed to know. but i started this whole project at 8pm, and by 11pm i had all 400+ of my music files on the jukebox, two playlists already created, and was able to get good and drunk with my roommates while bragging about my new toy.
its the size, roughly, of a palm PDA. in fact, i just slid it into the leather case belonging to my now defunct handspring deluxe with no trouble.
im very impressed with this thing... no, its not the itty bittiest portable music player on the planet, but for the price and for the features, the size, weight and all are just right.
final word: a great player, easy install regardless of *what* a couple of challanged computer nerds think, software could stand to be a little more straightforward, but overall completely worth it.
Excellent Player, Great software     On: 2003-09-13

This is an excellent MP3 player. The sound quality as well as the features are way above average. I dont understand how software engineers could not get the software working. Does not speak well of their engineering skills. Trust me, if you have an iota of computer savvy, you will find this extremely easy to use. And oh yeah, its half the price of the IPOD- just a bit bulkier. Its time that these apple fanatics start to appreciate a good product instead of harping on the IPOD. The sound quality and the battery life (replaceable too and 14 hours on a single charge) way outweigh the IPOD. Dont take my word for it- go to a bestbuy and check it out...
Ah, replacable battary     On: 2003-09-07

This is a basic over all improvement from the last zen model. This is lighter (or atleast feels like it) has a replaceable battary (creative labs, feel like putting spare battaries and chargers out for sale?) The new software is taking me time to get used to... not that it really matters. I wish, though, that Creative Labs would start sending their drivers to Microsoft before they ship the products because its annoying for Win XP to say that the drivers arent certified... the drivers arent certified... Anywho, New looks, slightly altered menu system from the Zen 2.0... new software.
Possibly good product flawed by impossible software problems     On: 2003-09-06

I was really looking forward to trying the latest and greatest Nomad jukebox -- the Zen NX. Brand-spankin new, and a third generation design for Creative, I expected something pretty smooth to install on Windows, and with good features and sound quality. I ordered one directly from the Creative website and apparently received one out of the first big production releases.

Well, OK, the demos preloaded on the Zen sounded quite fine... and the features are quite impressive. I was convinced the unit had good sound, even though it is almost twice as big (bulk-wise) as the new iPod 2. Then came time to install the software. After *numerous* installs, uninstalls, reinstalls, trips to the website for help, tearing out of hair, etc, my wife and I decided to abandon the attempt to get this turkey working, and returned the unit to Creative for a refund. Mind you, we are both software engineering professionals, and this software install stumped us good!

We went out and got an Apple iPod 2 15GB unit instead. It took a little bit of wrangling to get the iPod to sync with MusicMatch, but once we got that going, everything worked flawlessly! By way of industrial design and "feel aesthetics" the Apple iPod is absolutely the best unit on the market bar none, and this is coming from an anti-Apple bigot! I say: buy the iPod and forget the rest until they learn to do what Apple has done: make a slick, small, highly functional, PRETTY unit that also has useable software!



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