 |
Creative Zen Touch 20 GB MP3 Player
By: Creative Labs Average Rating: 4.0 Total Reviews: 325
More Information
 On: 2008-01-03
I bought this as a gift for my husband 2 years ago. For the money, the value of this mp3 player is great. He has downloaded so many tracks because of the high memory and is still loading 2 years later. He has never had a problem with it and uses it all the time. I would recommend buying a cover for it as it is vunerable if dropped as all mp3 players are. It took him a little while to figure out how to download songs because hes not very computer savvy, but now he does it with ease.
 On: 2007-11-08
I purchased the Zen Touch 20GB about 2 yrs ago. I liked it becuase it had a large hardrive with large screen, but felt it was bulky and heavy compared to other iPods. After 1 1/2, the screen froze so I had to take the cover off to unhook the cable connected to harddrive to unfreeze the screen. I had to do this several times to make it work. It is probably going to the trash since the scroll pad does not work anymore. I wondering if this is even fixable or does Creative take back the player and fix it for you although the screw at the bottom of the player has been tampered with? I purchase the Apple Nano about 1 year ago and happy with it becuase it thin, light, and it has color screen. In my opinion I recommend Apple rather than Creative.
On: 2007-07-19
My Zen was a gift two Christmas ago (2005). It was easy to set up and start using, has enough memory, has never glitched or frozen on me, never had trouble loading songs on it. My only wish is that there was a program I could purchase to load music as does I Tunes or Napester.
On: 2007-01-10
This sounded like a good deal when i bought it a year ago. now today i am on here getting ready to buy a new one becuse the touch pad in mine has decided that it dose not want to work and the buttons are not working this is a peice of junk and i would not reccomend it to anyone. of course if u think it is a good thing then here are a few good things.
Pros-
1.Holds alot of music
2.Long Battery life
3.Good Sound
Cons-
Buttons Wear Out
The Screen Gets Dust Under It Making It Hard To Read
The Touch Pad is Sentive even on low
It Eventualy Kicks hte bucket it seems like after a yea by most standards
 On: 2006-12-07
I purchased this Creative mp3 player a year ago and it worked fine for over that year with only one time freezing. Over the last month I noticed that it would constantly freeze, lock up at random times, and change to random songs.
All I wanted was something that would play my music without problems and have simple seemless interface with the music program (for me windows media 10). This is not the idea with this mp3 player. It would sometimes not be detected by the computer even though the drivers were installed! Also the user interface is totally out of wak, same with the touch pad which in one touch can go though many songs at a time. A definate 2 thumbs down and i MEAN IT! I would rather get an ipod that would work and last me for at least 2-3 years. I guess that this product was not made to fuction past one year of operation. Dont kid me, I loved it when I first got it but it has been a total migraine lately, expecially with all the happy people around me with ipods that work. This is in no way a good item. Which brings me to my main point. Go get an ipod!
On: 2006-11-08
I had this unit for about 1 year now I hardley used it, I just took on my trip and I discovered the lock button broke for no apparant reason. I am buying IPOD, if I am going to spend couple of hundred $ at least I am going to buy the industry standard, not wanabe!
On: 2006-10-18
After owning a Creative Zen Touch 20gb MP3 Player for exactly one year now, I have found it to have constantly been getting worse since the day I powered it on for the first time. I would not exactly say that is a good purchase for either a) durability, b) the long-term buyer, c) simplicity. Here are the reasons why it is an unreliable purchase:
Touch Pad: This is WAY too sensitive. Slide your thumb too fast and you will skip over 30-40 songs on your playlist.
Dust: The screen gets dust stuck in between the protective layer of the screen and the screen itself, making for irritating little black dots on the screen when the backlight is on
Sound: Very bad bass. Again, I can hear little pops when listening to bass-heavy songs all the time (even at low volume). Distracting and extremely irritating when it comes to listening.
Random: This is by far the most pointless part of this entire MP3 player. Accidently pushing it means queueing all of your tracks up and shuffling them up, ruining your current playlist and forcing you to go through six menus of stuff just to turn it off. I actually threw my Zen at my cat because it was acting so stupid.
Degradability: After owning a Zen Touch for 1 year now, I have noticed a big difference in the buttons on the player (namely the Prev-Track, Play/Pause, and Forward-Track buttons). Sometimes pushing the Forward button ends up you pausing the track, and pushing the Play/Pause button will restart the track, or skip a track. This gets really frustrating especially when you just want to change the track and continue what you are doing quickly.
Fast-Forward/Rewind: This can be a pain doing because most of the time you will just restart the track or skip to the next track rather than fast-forwarding or rewinding. Very lame.
Hold Button: The hold button (locks all buttons and the backlight so they do not function) is very very picky about where it has to be before it will lock/unlock your Zen. The button also gets very stubborn and wont move (see the definition of a mule for a better explanation).
Firmware: Your Zens battery must have at least 80% life left in it or your computer will not detect your Zen when it is connected to the USB 2.0 cable supplied with it. Even when it does detect it, it takes around 10 seconds per song (pretty painful to transfer 100+ CDs in my home collection) to transfer to the Zen.
Battery: 24 hour battery? Only at 64kbps, which sounds utterly horrible. The usual encoding I use is 128kbps, which the battery lasts around 9-10 hours or so before dying.
Stability: Frequently my Zen CRASHES after transferring songs to it, and will have to take a painful 30 minutes out of my life to fix all 15GB of songs on it.
Software: The Zen comes with an excessive amount of software that half of is completely useless or has the same function in the Creative MediaOrganizer software. Nomad Jukebox Explorer?? Should this be Zen Touch Explorer? :-/
Interface: Notice that it is exactly the same as the interface used in the Dell DJ. Unoriginal.
Playlists: They do not update the original playlist when you add more songs to one or remove them from one. You have to spend 5 minutes typing in 15 characters just to save over your old one (contributed to by the touch pad).
The good parts of it?
- Well, its easy to use.
- Excellent sound (except bad bass)
- Its great for throwing at people (no joke, it HURTS)
My suggestion is to go search for a Zen Vision:M, and purchase that instead of this. Half of these problems are fixed in the Vision:M, and it is both thinner, and has A LOT more features than this.
In conclusion, this is NOT a good alternative to the iPod, but the Zen Vision:M, however, is definitely worth taking a peek before taking a juicy bite out of the apple that is your wallet.
On: 2006-09-15
This Machine was excellent, for a while. For the first 6 to 8 months i owned the machine, it worked great, it did exactly what i wanted, and it worked with my pc.
then at about 9 months, it all went downhill. The touch pad, works about 10 % of the time, if im lucky. The buttons rarely do what they are marked to do, and the tech support was no help at all. And if you are an OS X user, forget about it. Overall, if you are going to buy this mp3 player, pay the extra couple bucks and get an ipod that is more reliable, holds more songs, has a better batery life, and is easier to use. I would not recomend this product to anyone!
On: 2006-08-12
i got my creative as a present and have been using it for about a year. i thought i would have tons of songs, but my 400 are like a pinprick to a 20GB player, and its really really easy to use, even while driving (which i dont recommend anyway, b/c its obviously still a little distracting). plus, the creative mediasource organizer is really user friendly. i usually just play one of my playlist (which are simple to make - i have about 10) or hit the random button to mix it up a little. id really recommend it to anyone who wants all their music at their fingertips.
by: Anonymous On: 2006-08-10
I got my zen eight months ago and I love it. Its very easy to load files with the included software and it has been useful for me to record my tapes and vynil records to MP3.
The player is easy to navigate and I havnt had any trouble with the touch pad. I read online reviews before purchasing and many said that something went wrong within six months, but Ive had mine for eight and its been smooth sailing. I dropped it once and there was no damage.
If there is one problem with the product, its the case, which isnt very useful except for storing it while not in use. The padding is worderful for protecting the player, but you cant see the screen or utilize the buttons. You almost have to dump the paler out so you dont accidentally turn it off- you have to grasp it by the power button to remove it otherwise. The belt clip is sturdy, but the player is a tad heavy, so hanging it on your person is a gamble, plus, with the case the unit is pretty bulky- I wouldnt recommend running with it.
The headphones where too big to stay in my ears (I have very small ears) so I just use my old sony earbuds.
The accessories could use some work, but overall, Im happy with the product.
On: 2006-08-08
Ive had the 40GB version of this player for about 3 months now. Mostly, I agree with the previous reviewers, its a great player.
The reviewer who was frustrated by the "3 bar" battery indicator should read the manual, however. It states that 3 bars is fully charged, 2 bars is 60% full, 1 bar is 30% full, and no bars (battery outline only) is 10% full.
Im consistently getting 18-20 hours of use per charge. I typically have it set in shuffle mode, select a genre and play for 4-6 hours at a time. I suspect that more frequent pushing of buttons would use up battery power faster.
Sound quality (going through Sennheiser CX300s) is excellent. Im listening to albums Ive had for years, and hearing new things - making out lyrics, hearing background instruments, picking up subtleties Ive never heard before.
The only (minor) gripe I have is the touch-sensitive bar. Ive tried the various settings, but I still frequently overshoot once or twice when scrolling with it. However, I think this is a minor annoyance with an otherwise excellent MP3 player.
On: 2006-07-27
Had my zen just over a year. Moved house and discovered that half the buttons no longer work.
I always had the problem that when I would hit skip track, 50% of the time it would pause instead.
Very disappointing after a great start.
On: 2006-07-25
I bought the Zen Touch in August 2005, so its approaching a year old. In that time, I have had no problems with it. It only froze 2-3 times, but I was able to immediately reset. Im up to around 6,000 songs and use it every day. The battery life is awesome and the sound is also great.
My only complaints are actually not with the player itself, but with the lack of available accessories. I was able to get a car charger from Creative, but there are very few places that have cases, etc.
Again, it meets all my needs as a great sounding, dependable player. Definitely glad I bought it over the overpriced, overhyped I-Pods
On: 2006-07-15
At first it was good. The sound was great and I really liked the touchpad. After about a month however, the touchpad started messing up. When I wanted to scroll up it would scroll down. At first if I applied pres sure it would scroll up, but eventually all it would do is scroll down. After a few months or so, everything started messing up. I had to press really hard just to skip to a new song. When I pressed play it would skip to a new song. The capacity was cool, the interface and the drag and drop system worked well, but the flaws definately outshined the strengths. Definately dont drop the player, it isnt durable enough to withstand any impact. Dont try to open it up to fix it, because the screws are so small that it is virtually impossible not to strip them. After you strip them your pretty much flucked.
If you want a player that will last you 6-7 months, and after the first month flaw up and be almost impossible to use... THIS IS THE PLAYER FOR YOU. Personally though, I rather flush the product down the toilet like Henry Hills wife in goodfellas than pay another $250.
On: 2006-06-28
I purchased this player the end of May 2005. The sound was great and I was able to download a good portion of my cd collection, over 1000 songs. It is better if the songs are downloaded in wma format it gives you more space.
I used it mostly on my commute to work and while I was sitting at my desk.
It broke two weeks after use. Once I received it back from the company it broke three more times. The reset button jammed and would not clear.
The last time it broke it was no longer under warranty. Therefore, I was told they would replace it only if I paid for a new or a refurbish player. I also looked the company up on the Better Business Bureaus website there were 49 complaints against the company within a 36 month period.
In the twelve months that I have owned it I was able to use it approximately 6-7 months.
This was my experience it might not happen to anyone else. The extended service plan was not offered when I purchased my player. If you are willing to invest the $200+ purchase the service plan.
Also, the first time I sent my player in for repair it was under warranty they asked for a fee of $24.95 because they said parts were not covered under the warranty. Make sure you know what is covered under the extended service plan that is offered.
On: 2006-06-06
We bought the creative touch (40 gb) and an ipod video 30gb (recently). Also purchased the muvo and the toshiba gigabeat. The gigabeat died within a few days. The muvo is great for a flash player. But the ipod has some real problems.
The creative is better than the ipod for us because of file sharing and file backups. The ipod will attach to ONE COMPUTER ONLY and it KNOWS if you try to get it to work with another. This caused us a lot of grief when we switched computers. Then the new computer we attached it to died and getting the music back off of the ipod was a real pain. If you are able to even get the files back off the ipod (it doesnt like to go that direction, apparently) it still will lose a lot of the tag info in the music library. (Wanna type all that in by hand?) Plus, since Apples music file format is proprietary, we cant share files from the ipod to other players. (Does not play well with others! :-)
The creative players do not have any of these problems. They will work on ANY new computer and accept imports of a variety of file formats. You can make as many backups of your music library on as many hard drives on as many computers as you like.
Another difference is the sound quality and volume output. Creative players drive headphones with higher impedances and also have superior sound. Also, creative players have EQ settings that actually work! They sound very different, but the ipod EQ settings pretty much all sound the same. Furthermore, the creative players have custom EQ settings available if you dont like the presets that come with the player.
The ipod is more attractive and a bit smaller than the creative, but such things dont concern me since Im looking for the highest quality sound I can get. Unfortunately, few mp3 players on the market today are really audiophile quality, and the ones that are are only available in Korea. Apparently the US market is more concerned with "features" and "style".
There are a few problems with the creative software. It has some bugs but is easy to use. The ipods software is also easy to use. Both interfaces are easy to use, but the creative touch can sometimes be too sensitive. It does have a sensitivity setting that helps a bit with that.
The creative would be much better if it had a line out instead of just the regular headphone jack. I would be happier also if it could handle lossless compression formats, too, but this is not a major concern.
What player a person buys really depends on their priorities. I have no need to watch videos on a portable player (Although creative has a video player, too). Im looking for non-proprietary file formats and good sound quality. Ive seen a lot of my friends with ipods suffer the consequences of having the single computer attachment problem and proprietary file format issues. That can be a very serious problem. I understand there are third party software programs out there that may help some of these issues, but it still is a very suboptimal situation to have to deal with.
Overall Im quite happy with this player.
On: 2006-06-02
Most reviews are by users who have used the zen touch for a short period of time. I have owned by zen touch for about a year and a half. At first, I loved the machine--I could treat it like a hard drive, use windows file types, transfer from machine to machine, etc. However, I have had some MAJOR problems lately:
1. The scroll function doesnt always work. When I try to scroll up, it scrolls down.
2. Some of the buttons dont do what they are supposed to. I press play, and it skips to the next track. I press skip to the next track, and it pauses. Huh?
And, most of all, I left it to charge one day and upon returning, it WOULDNT TURN ON. After scouring the help boards and emailing creative, I was told the machine was busted. Great. The warranty is, of course, expired, and theres nothing I can do. The tech support was horrible, and as much as I like a lot of the features, these problems are bad ones. I plan never to buy a creative product again.
On: 2006-05-25
I dont know for sure about this product, but I have the misfortune of owning a Creative Nomad Zen Xtra. The OS failed after a very short time (less than a year of use). After days and MANY hours of trying to reload, Creative customer service tells me "The problem you described indicates your unit may require repair or replacement." Im replacing it, but NOT with a Creative product. If youre read this, consider yourself warned.
 On: 2006-05-23
I have owned a Zen Touch since early 2005 and it has never given me any problems. Two weeks ago I foolishly upgraded to version 2 firmware and now I have a Zen Touch that causes Creatives apps, Winamp, Notmad Explorer and Windows Media Player (versions 10 and 11) to crash whenever they try and access it. The firmware upgrade went fine with no problems, I installed the latest driver and versions of the Creative apps - Mediasource and Explorer, no good. Reformatted the drive, no good. Read all the Creative website Knowledge Base articles and tried recovery steps, no good. After nearly two weeks of total frustration I emailed Creative and explained the situation. Their response was that my Touch was out of warrenty so Tango Sierra. Their firmware totalled my Touch and that is the best they can do? And I am not the only one having major problems with Zen firmware upgrades - check out Creatives discussion forums and also notmadness.net. I also bought my daughter a Zen Sleek from Amazon a few weeks ago, she has hit exactly the same problem. Yesterday we shipped it back for a refund and will buy her a Nano instead, at least iPods are reliable even if they dont have the facilities Creatives players do. Moral: If you buy a Creative player, DO NOT upgrade anything unless you have absolutely no choice.
On: 2006-05-09
At first a worthy purchase. The battery life would often last me for almost 24 hours, depending on how long I let it charge, never really paying attention to how long it may of been plugged in, but later being surprised it was still playing...
For the past week it was a little iffy, the power button would stick so I couldnt turn it on one day or off the next. Simply plugging it in or letting the batter die seemed to help for a day or two, until today, when frustrated I magically solved the problem. I ricoched it off of a concrete wall and let sparkling metal drip from the cracked side, so though its somewhat heavy and appears durable concrete seems to be its kryptonite. So, my advice if youre thinking of purchasing this, either dont and scroll through your other options, or douse about 300 dollars in gasoline and watch it burn in a steel drum or old coffee can while you sit back and enjoy a cold beer with freinds and think of better things you could of bought with the money thats now ashes blowing in a possible easterly wind.
On: 2006-05-06
I bought this mp3 player one year and four month ago. It still working fine, the audio is really good and I still have space for songs. The battery also works fine, it takes three or four days till it needs to reload. The only complain about it, is about the software it uses, it is very limited; and also, is really difficult to manage the touch pad (Ive tried the apple touch pad and is better). Finally, the ok button is having some problems, when I press it, some times the random button is activated.
If I could choose, I would buy it again, the price is very good and I love the way it sounds. I recommend it!!
On: 2006-05-02
This is one of the nice products from Creative. Since there were good reviews and ranking given for this Zen Touch, i went for it . I am greatly satisfied except for a few expectations that went unfufilled.
Pros:
a) Audio Quality - Nice
b) Vertical Scrolling pad - Awesome
c) Battery Life - Good
d) Plug point Charger and Wrapper comes with the package . Whereas in Ipods, thats not the case and you need to purchase them seperately.
e) Huge Memory of 20 GB
Cons:
a) Definitely heavier and bulkier than similar players in this category. When you consider travelling by public means, Ipod Nano gets a better mark here.
b) FM Radio is not in-built and you need to purchase a transmitter seperately.
c) Voice Recorder Feature is missing. Generally many creative players have FM and Voice Recorder facility in-built.
d) Maximum Volume can be higher. When travelling in noisy conditions, volume had to kept at 20+ when the max volume level is 25.
e) Player Shutdown feature is not user-friendly.
f) Battery indicator could have been given more levels. when it shows a single point, you never know whether it stands for 2 hrs or 4 hrs or half an hour.
g) As you keep loading more and more songs, there is a clear delay time or lag during song retrieval .
h) Every thing has to be done thro the media organizer software installed in PC (Creating Playlists, editing artist data etc...). All that can be done in the player is to play/pause and scroll thro songs.
i) This is regarding Player compatibility with certain Operating System.In Many of the previous versions of Windows (Before XP), only Zen Touchs own driver works if you try connecting the player to PC. i have win 2000 and 98. Since i had misplaced the CD (driver for this player) ,tried with other creative drivers (from site, from the driver CD given for Zen Micro , Mu-Vo etc.) But did not work. But in Win XP, any similar creative driver (Zen Series) works.
Inspite of these improvement areas,its definitely a worthy competitor to the Ipods.
On: 2006-04-23
Its simple -- Good sound, easy to use, good price. It is a little heavier than some other players. Ive had mine for about 3 months now and we are living happily ever after.
On: 2006-04-18
I bought the Creative Zen Touch 20 GB MP3 Player for my daughter as a Christmas present. It worked fine until the screen developed a big black spot right in the middle of it. It looks like its burned. I called technical support (405-742-6622) and had to wait for about 20 minutes before someone finally answered. This clown told me I had to pay them $10 for tech support. I told him I just wanted an RMA# so I could return it, I didnt need to go through any nonsense. He told me my 1 year warranty wasnt going to cover replacing a defective screen and that I had to return it with $25 and that the repair department would probably charge me $100 to replace it. These guys suck! This is a $200 MP3 player thats going to cost $100 to fix a defective part.
On: 2006-04-13
Ive had this player for about a year now and i love it. If your looking for a serious MP3 player with serious battery life and space then get this player. It looks very nice and performs great too. The only problem i would say is the size of the player. Its a bit bulky but it still fits in a pocket easily. I suggest it to everyone.
On: 2006-03-24
I am not at all happy with this product. We purchased one for our teen who, at first was quite pleased with it.....for the three months it worked! One day it just locked up.Creative was very nice, sent us a new one which worked for about four months.We returned it, recieved another unit which promptly broke. The fourth one they sent us just went to electronics heaven, after only three months.It wont even turn on. We arent talking about giving this to a gorilla who abused it to death. We are talking about a sixteen year old who is very careful with her things. In my opinion, its just a piece of junk. It looks nice, sounds great,until it quits on you.It quits with no warning, just stops working. Ive had cheap transistor radios that lasted longer! Also, be aware, they only warranty these things from the original purchase, so the latest piece of junk they sent us is no longer warrantied even though it is essentially brand new.Dont waste your money on this one.
On: 2006-03-22
This player sounds great, looks great, and its far more versatile with file transfers than the iPod-- you can transfer files from the device to a computer (so long as they arent protected) as well as store non-audio files. The device shows up in My Computer which is a huge plus. (Still doesnt work exactly like a HD but close enough)
Battery life is also superb. Not sure if it lives quite up to the 24-hour mark but I keep mine in my car hooked up to my head unit, and I drive about an hour each day, and it can easily last me 7-10 days without a recharge (remember, this is playing it at max volume all the time, and also I sometimes leave it on when I park the car at night, so using it as a standard portable player will yield much better life). Even with my above-average power demands, I still get really solid battery life out of it.
Two annoying things: first, the touchpad. Apples definitely got the Creative beat on this part. Youll get used to it after a bit, but it can be a pain selecting just the right item. Secondly, I dont know who came up with this awful idea, but the Random button is incredibly annoying. Press the wrong button by mistake and your song stops, your list is cleared out, and you start hearing a random song from your library. From there you have to pause the song, go back to the main menu, change your Play Mode back to Normal, re-select the stuff you were listening to. Ugh. Maybe some people like the Random button but there should be a way to disable it for the 99% of us who find it a nuisance.
Overall, I recommend this player, just dont give up right away, get used to its quirks and youll love it.
On: 2006-03-19
This is a wonderful MP3 player, I have one for each of our boys. They use this product everyday!! If needed I would order this one again.
thank you
cjahoda
by: Anonymous On: 2006-03-17
When I first receive this item, it was already broken and wouldnt turn on. Nevertheless, after unsuccesfully trying various ways of restoring any errors I contacted creative labs about the problem. After exchanging a few comments with Creatives staff they told me to send the product to their headquaters for fixing. Today, two weeks later Im enjoying a fully functional zen touch!
Now I will talk a bit about the player itself (I will try not to repeat any previously stated comments). In my opinion, the sound quality of this product is way superior to that of any ipod on market. It might be true that the toch pad is harder to mannage than an ipods, but the music transfer is extremely simple and quick. By the way, for those of you who use a p2p or filesharing program to download your music, there is absolutely no problem when you transfer music to your zen.
I THINK THIS IS A TRULY GREAT PRODUCT THAT FAR SURPASSES THE IPOD!
On: 2006-03-13
This is a great MP3 player for those who dont want to spend $350+ on an iPod for the same amount of storage space. Granted it doesnt play videos and show pictures but it has the same folder system as an iPod does. Very easily compatible with Windows and Windows Media Player. I use it with a Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter in my car and I havent listened to the radio since I bought it. I highly recommend this MP3 player to anyone!
On: 2006-03-13
I have ownd this product for about 2 months now. It has great storage capibility. I not only use it as a mp3 player but and a back up disk for my compy. At first i had problems with my subscription music not playing on it, but that was quickly resolved by a firmware upgrade from the creative site. The sound quality is great. The ear buds are a little wierd one cord coming from the main cord were they split is way longer than the other. The bigest problem i have had with this MP3 player is it freezes when i am sinking it with my compy somtimes. Its real easy to reset and you dont lose any music when you do so.
On: 2006-03-11
I like this thing alot, me and 3 of my friends went on a sweet road trip from Columbus Ohio to cedar point back to columbus then to tampa bay Fl. My friends i-pod broke about 30 min into the trip and my creative zen touch 20g was the work horse of our music pleasure for the entire trip. Very easy to navigate, add and delete songs, make playlists, and the batter life is alot more than i pod, plus its cheaper. Finally it has a harder shell so if u drop it you dont have to worry. The only con is that it does not dub as a refrigerator...
On: 2006-03-10
This MP3 player is a top of the line product. Very easy to use, auto shut off/ power save fuction. Battery can be charged through USB port and cable. Creative is a superior brand. In a nut shell, here are some of the reasons you should consider the Creative Zen touch. Software is very fast, and easy to navigate, scroll pad makes scrolling simple(can be turned on or off). Friends in the retail business tell me very few people bring it back with complaits. If you purchase this 20GB MP3 player, you will be satisfied! You can download podcasts of shows like Rick and Bubba or Mancows Morning Madhouse. Or load music, like Aerosmith, and sound files smoothly. Purchase yours today from AMAZON.COM! Stay in it!
On: 2006-03-07
Amazingly, two Creative Products have died on me due to power problems. Both within a month! First it was the Muvo Micro 256MB, then now this product.
I didnt learn from my first experience and gave Creative another shot. Maybe I just got unlucky with the Muvo. But after having problems with zen, I just cannot keep quiet anymore.
My brother really took care of his zen (It was a birthday gift). Even the film covering the LCD is still on it. He knew well enough to avoid exposing it to frequent shocks after I constantly reminded him it might be sensitive because it uses a harddrive. Yet, it still died. THe PC first recognized it as a defective device, then when it was reconnected to computer, the pc couldnt recognize it anymore. The power light remains on however the screen remained off. No matter how long or how many times the power button is pressed, the light wouldnt turn off. It was neither on or off. We couldnt really figure out what it was.
I suggest to STAY AWAY from CREATIVE products. Its not worth the risk. Id rather get a refund for an ipod (Im not much of an ipod fan) than get this replace by the same brand.
On: 2006-03-05
Already having most my music collection compressed as WMAs, I looked and looked (and looked!) for a WMA and Windows Media Player compatible device that was as easy to use as the Ipod. There simply arent any. But this is as close as you can get. Very easy to learn, touch-pad is NO problem and it syncs with WMP in an instant. If the screen were a bit brighter it would get 5 stars.
Provided headphone fidelity is quite good, but the cord is too heavy so it falls out of your ear all the time. So plan on new headphones.
On: 2006-02-27
The Creative Zen Touch offers the same features and the same quality at a much better price than a comparable Ipod. Unless you just want to be trendy there is no reason to spend the extra money.
I have been using the Zen Touch for about two months and have had no problems with the unit or the software. The unit has a good solid feeling and I mastered the controls in about five minutes. I may have to tap the touch pad twice to get to the album I want, but that is my biggest complaint.
The sound from the unit is a definite plus, clear and plenty of volume. I listen to a wide variety of music and dont notice any difference from CD quality, with the furnished earbuds. I rip CDs instead of downloading and the software works better than WMP 10 for this purpose. I have over one hundred CDs on the unit and it isnt half full.
I give it a five for excellent performance and easy operation. This unit provides quality for a good price. Im happy with the money spent and am glad that I bought this player.
On: 2006-02-23
I loved this MP3 player until today. It was gorgeous, spacious, and sounded good; but as all good things it had a darker side. After barely 9 months of light duty service to Mark Anthony, the Zen Touch have abandoned me. The face buttons of the player do no longer work. The side buttons (on/off, volume) and the touch pad still works fine, but the face buttons have given up the will to serve. I have misplaced my receipt, so it looks like I am a completely SOL on this one. If you buy this MP3 player, or any other for that matter, make sure to keep your receipt in a safe place. Also consider paying some extra bucks for extended warranty as it is most likely worth it. Zen Touch R.I.P.
On: 2006-02-23
Got this for Christmas. When I tried to use it, it would only play from one side of the headphones. Thought it was the headphones, so we tried it in the car. Same Problem! It started with jiggling the plug a little would catch the connection and both sides would play. After a month, jiggling didnt work anymore. Contacted Amazon and was told they could issue a refund, because the supplier didnt have anymore. Not sure why they are selling something they dont have. But I did return it and in the process of getting my money back. After some research this sounds like a typical problem with Creative players. Id by another brand next time!
On: 2006-02-17
I have been using this MP3 player for over a month now and I love it. The slide is NOT difficult to select one song with. I have some music on it, but mostly sermons that I download from www.ucg.org. It is very easy to use and the price is wonderful too.
On: 2006-02-17
I got this mp3 player for Christmas and it is so much better than the ipod and any other mp3 player out there, ive seen a lot of them. The sound quality is excellent and although the headphones that comes with it arent that great, they still deliver better sound than an ipod. The only bad thing about this player is that its kinda bulky, but I dont use it for exercising so it doesnt really matter. Its a very simple concept of downloading songs. If you have songs already on your computer you can just drag and drop them into the creative zen program in seconds. I listen to it about 5 hours a day and I only have to charge it about once a week, it really does last for 24 hours. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a great sound quality, simplicity, and pure enjoyment of music;however if you want an mp3 player to go to the gym with, you are probably better off with a smaller, more compact player.
On: 2006-02-17
Im happy with my purchase. The sound quality is great, its easy to use for the most part. The touch scroll in the center is very very sensitive, so you have to practice scrolling up and down so you dont skip songs... It can be a little frustrating... The CD that comes with the mp3 player installs a 2.0 USB driver that allows fast upload to the mp3 player. Overall though, Im glad I bought this product.
On: 2006-02-16
Ive only had this player for a short time, but I like it. I bought it as a replacement for an older Creative Nomad Jukebox that I purchased nearly five years ago. (Yes, I was an early adopter.) I was surprised at how much smaller and fancier the players are now. Apple really raised the bar with the iPod, and Creative has responded with some impressive players.
But, without further ado, let me tell you the single worst thing about this player: The "Random" Button. Someone at Creative thought it would be a good idea to add a button that does the following:
1) Stops playing whatever youre listening to
2) Deletes the current playlist
3) Creates a new playlist that contains EVERY song loaded on the player
4) Put the player in shuffle mode
5) Start playing random tracks.
They also decided that this button should be right on the front of the player, right next to all the commonly used buttons like Play, Next, Back, and Menu. It is far too easy to accidentally hit this button. On the first day I had it, I hit it three times. Awful. Who even wants that feature?
Im hoping that Creative is getting sufficient feedback to make them consider issuing a firmware update to allow users to disable or reprogram the Random button. If it wasnt for that, Id give this player 5 stars.
On: 2006-02-15
Ive owned this player for a year and a half, and its still going strong. I love the interface, and 20GB is plenty of storage for me. The dedicated volume buttons are an unexpected bonus, too. The stock earbuds arent very good, but I replaced them with Sennheiser MX400s and I am pleased. The battery life (24hrs) is absolutely stellar. Buy this player, you wont be disappointed!
On: 2006-02-14
..I had this device for 6months and the headphone jack suddenly shorted out. No sound is coming through the headphones. at first i thought it was the headphones but later found out that it was the device. Besides that this is a great mp3 for a great price. the sound is amazing. alot of people complain that it is to thick (compared to the new ipod video it is enormus). however it is very durable. I droup this device multiple times and it has yet to crack. The software is excellent. far better than the ipods. You dont have to convert the songs to any other format. just transfer them straight from your computer to the device. it takes about 2seconds to put a song on (very fast). this is a great mp3 player, however it is outdated, we are now in the age of colored players. but if none of that matters to you and if the size doesnt matter to you. I highly reccomend this product.
On: 2006-02-11
Hello all, I am thinking about returning my iPod (it has long period of time when it doesnt turn on) and get a new MP3 player. I have read thru some of the reviews here and find them helpful. Few questions I have though: 1. Can you move files from the player to your PC or does it only work from PC to player? 2. One person commented that after 18 months the divice freezes up, anyone else who have it for this time or longer have similar problem?...Thx in advance for those who answer.
by: Anonymous On: 2006-02-10
If your looking for an mp3 with great sound with a large capacity (20 gb) and the purpose is to listen to music (not show it off) then for its price its the best product available. the music playback is very good with both mp3 and wma .Theyre 4 customizable EQ .max voulme 25 but round 20 its good.(and i like loud music).Its even compatible with windows 98 se .It comes with a leather case although no cut outs for controls and buttons .it charges quickly in 4 hours. the software is easyyyyyy to use .i mean cmon u 1. insert the cd in your pc cd rom follow the instructions 2. open application 3.open the folder where ur mp3s are stored and load mp3 4. edit id tag to show proper info artist, album,genre,etc and transfer file to player ..Ur finished .i am very satisfied with this product .Yes no color screen ,no video playback ,no picture,not as thin as an ipod but WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF AN MP3 PLAYER TO PLAY MUSIC.......also excelent battery time and great price this is a good investment. dont get me wrong i have used the ipod and its also a great device but i dont need video or color or pictures and im not willing to pay 300 dollars for an mp3
On: 2006-02-10
I love the software that comes with this player, I love the compatibility of this player. There isnt much about this player that I dont like. It is a very solid device with solid construction. I have a few problems though. 1) The keypad is very sensitive. After you get used to it, it inst to bad. 2) The unit is somewhat heavy. 3) The headphones suck.
I recommend making the best investment you can after getting this player. Please please please get new headphones. The Sony MDR-EX81LP headphones for only 30$ at buy.com or here possibly. These headphones might be 15$ out of your price range, but the Zens solid construction combined with these professional grade head phones is heavenly.
On: 2006-02-06
Anybody who wants an mp3 player, but doesnt want to buy an iPod should take a good look at the Creative Zen Touch. I got mine back in September 2005 and have been more than happy with the purchase. I had been waiting to get one when they hit $200, but I ended up caving and getting the 40GB version for $300, because it came with a $50 Best Buy gift card.
I was wary of getting an iPod for a few reasons, most notably because of the battery life and the proprietary nature of iTunes. The Creative Zen avoids these problems entirely. The battery claims to last 24 hours--Im not sure if it does, but it at least lasts 22 (great for long car rides). The software, too, is fantastic. Its unobtrusive, easy-to-use and transfers files onto the Zen quickly. With the click of one button, you essentially drag-and-drop your mp3s onto the Zen.
The only two drawbacks might be the lack of a scroll wheel (instead having a "scroll line" or whatever) and the size. Admittedly, a scroll wheel would be better, but the scroll line works just fine. At first, it was a little too sensitive for my taste, so I changed the setting (which is easy to do).
As for the size, I had a few friends point out that it was "kind of big" when I first showed it to them. Compared to other players, yes, it is bigger, but to say its "big" is an exaggeration. Its barely the size of a pack of cigarettes and not much weightier--the perfect size for a handheld device, IMO. Still, this might be a dealbreaker for some people. But if youre wondering if this will fit in your pocket, theres no need to worry. Itll fit easily. (Also note that the extra size is largely due to the extra battery life, so you can have it one way or the other, I guess.)
In all, the drawbacks are minor, at best, but the advantages over the competition are many. Battery life, price, capacity, menu, the "random" button, sound quality, no iTunes, and compatability make this mp3 player an all-around winner, and, in my book, *the* one to get. With 380 albums already on my Zen (most at 256kbps!), I still have 13GB to spare. Unless I break it, I dont think Ill be looking to buy another mp3 player any time soon.
On: 2006-02-06
I purchased the product on a Tuesday and by Friday the hard drive was frozen solid. I returned and got my money back. End of story.
On: 2006-02-04
Two obligatory disclosures before I begin my laudatory praise of the Creative Zen MP3 player. First, I own the 40GB Creative Zen Touch player, not the 20GB, although the features are quite the same on both. Second, I am not an expert on the technical side of MP3 players. Thus, my review is from the vantage point of the "regular" user. Now, on to the business at hand.
If youve read the reviews below, you will note that many of them are written by folks dissatisfied with the ipod that defected to the Creative Zen camp. Well, you can add another to that list! I recieved an ipod for Christmas from a well-intentioned girlfriend. While I hate to return gifts, I was quite unsatisfied with the ipod for a few reasons. First, the ipod is incompatible with too many music download sites (the most popular of which is Napster). Instead, Apple does a good job at locking users into itunes and other "approved" webistes. Similarly, the ipod does not operate on a standard USB port (using a port exclusive to the ipod.) Thus, any attempts to hook the ipod up to another device must be done with a cable bought from Apple designed specifically for this proprietary port (at an inflated price, of course!) [I have since heard that ipod has remedied this problem, but I have yet to see it.]
After doing a few weeks worth of shopping homework, I decided to follow what was almost unanimous advice: if you are unsatisfied with an ipod, you MUST look at Creative Labs! I did and I do not regret it.
In contrast to the ipod, this machine is compatible with EVERY SINGLE downloading website and service I have seen. And like every other MP3 player on earth, excepting the ipod, it uses a standard USB port, making attempts to hook it up to external devices no longer a proprietary endeavor!
Some other advantages: in my opinion, the ipod was TOO small (being about the size of a credit card and the thickness of a pencil). Instead of holding the ipod in my hand, it seemed like I held it between two fingers! This also means that the ipod is much more fragile and prone to breakage. The Creative Zen player, by contrast, is about the size of a bigger cell phone, making it, in my judgment, easier and more comfortable to hold.
As I often use my Zen player for audiobooks, I must say that this is a great player for that purpose. If one stops in the middle of a track, the player remembers not only what track on which you stopped, but WHERE you stopped on that track (even after turning the machine off for hours, or switching to another album and coming back to the original one). Also the volume levels and EQ settings prove great for audioboooks.
The last advantage I would like to highlight is that of cost. My ipod (a 10 gigger) cost $200, the Creative Zen 40 gigger cost only about $100 more. And this, before taking into account the Zens inclusion of a charger and carrying case (both of which must be bought seperately for the ipod)!
Instead of using their money on flashy advertising first and the product second (as Apple does), Creative Labs seems quite devoted to their product first and rely more on "word of mouth" advertising, a move that seems to be working well for them. No, the Zen player is not as flashy looking or as trendy as the ipod, but it is simply a better all around player made by a better company.
The only reasons I can think of that one would buy an ipod over a Creative Zen player is (a) peer pressure to buy the "cool" machine, or (b) an overconcern with a flashy cosmetic appearance. If these two things do not concern you, get the superior player; get a Creative Zen Touch player!
On: 2006-02-01
A very nice player. I had a Creative Zen Xtra before and blew out a head phone jack. This one seems to be less fragile in that the hard drive in the last player would quit any time it was dropped (I know. Dont drop it!) But this is used by my 14 year old who drops it sometimes. Fortunately she was always able to fix it by whacking it on the corner with the heel of her hand. Made me cringe but it worked every time.
The Zen Touch is smaller than the Xtra but has the same features. We are very happy with it.
Creative has it down. I wouldnt hesitate to buy any of their players. It would be nice if you didnt need to install software. The other MP3 players that we have (a Sandisk used by my 10 year old and an Archos PMA430 used by me) dont require any software, but rather look like a standard storage device when connected by USB. So I gave it 4 stars for that reason. Otherwise its fabulous!
On: 2006-01-29
Before buying my Zen Touch I read some mixed reviews about the Zen Touch on Amazon. I purchased it anyway thinking that the problems described would not happen to me. Ive had my player for 18 months and I am very, very disappointed. Not only does it freeze up with great regularity, but now the scrolling touch pad has completely broken, rendering the player useless. Go onto Creatives website discussion forum and you will see that the touch pad malfunction and other problems are alarmingly common.
Think very hard before you buy this. I wish I had spent my money on an I-Pod.
On: 2006-01-25
I love the player, the carrying holster is kinda flimsy, I have had the player drop twice on me, but there is an easy fix for this, I bought a little strip of velcro and used it to hold the player in place over top like a little buckle, works great matches the case color and the best part is that it holds the player in no matter how hard I shake it...
On: 2006-01-24
So Ive had my creative zen touch for a little less than a month now, and everything was going great--I transfered music almost instantly, my computer had no horriffic side effects, and the battery life was amazing. And then about four days ago, the program that comes with the device just stopped working. The error message is too vague to be of any help, the Creative website (which was generally extremely helpful) has been down for three days, and neither reinstalling the software or restarting my computer has helped any.
Really, if it had never happened, I think I wouldve given this baby a five. The device itself is amazing--scrolling can be a bit frustrating at times, but you get used to it, you can adjust the EQ levels manually, and for those who, like me, generally listen to it for extended periods of time, the different listening options (shuffle etc. etc. etc.) are more than enoguh. Granted, it doesnt have any bells or whistles or stupid crap like that--there are no games, you cant look at photos, and you cant add video--but this is a music player, not a computer.
So, in conclusion, if you actually want a portable music player for music, this is a fine choice. However, just...watch yourself with the software. The websites generally good for patches/help etc., but lately its done me absolutely no good.
On: 2006-01-23
Alright. I have owned my Creative Zen Touch for about a year now. And im pretty happy with it. Its not real sleak or stylish, its not very light compared to the newer ones out there. But it does what its meant to do. Navigation is easy. Even the touch pad works well. It take a bit of getting used to though. The button set ups are easy enough. The battery life is excellent. I can play it 10 hours straigh and not even lose a bar. I would say, it has a battery life in the 20s. Transfer of music is easy. Sound quality is great. I have it hooked up to my car stereo and i have few complaints. Over all.. a good mp3 player for the money.
My only regrets, are that there are very few accessories for it. The shuffle feature doesnt really work the greatest.If you add for example; a Foo Fighters album to your now playing list, then you add, Pearl Jam, and then Red Hot Chilli peppers. And put it on shuffle. It will sometimes play 3 or 4 songs from one artist in a row, before shuffling to a different artist. Somtimes you wont even hear the artist you picked, until almost all the songs are done playing. Also making playlists and deleting songs from the player itself are a pain in the butt. If you are playing a song, and you want to delete it.. you cant simply delete it from the "now playing" You have to exit your songs, and search for them manually, then delete them. Those are my nitpicking negative comments. But when i simply want to hear a certain artist, song, or just put my entire collection on random.. it work just fine. Cant be perfect after all.
On: 2006-01-20
This is great MP3. The downside is its a bit big and a bit thick but it is so easy to transfer files. Just drag the file over and drop. Ive only had it for 3 days and i have 119 songs all at around 150-200 kbps range and it sounds great. The headphones that come with it are anooying though because the right is longer than the left and you have to put it around your neck so they even out. All in all its good mp3 player if you have a small budget
pros:great quality sound, easy interface, battery life is 24 hours, the vertical touchpad is better than he clickwheel, plus you get a black case that clips on to your pants for portability
cons: looks like a white brick, very thick. (half the size of a 20.oz coke can)screen scratches way to easily
On: 2006-01-16
I love this player. I owned an RCA lyra 20 gb player before this and thought that all mp3 players just froze up 3 times a day and drained their battery in 2 hours. When that player just randomly stopped working months ago, I bought the creative zen based on the high amazon reviews. It is easy to understand and operate, the touch pad is simple once you get used to it. 20 gb of storage is a great deal for the price compared to the ipod or anything else on the market. Its only frozen twice since i bought it. I bring it to work and listen to it all day and the battery barely needs recharging. You can take this player on vacation for a week and not even bring the charger with you. If you shut it off, it will pick up on the exact song you were listening to when restarted. the random play option is great. The earbuds arent even that bad. For a hard disk player, it is compact, lightweight, and transports easily. The thing is durable and can take a lot of abuse. Even the earbuds arent too bad. The only drawback is the software which is slow and awkward to use with windows. I wish I could just open the disk drive in windows and play the songs from there, but the technology only allows you to play songs on their software which is painfully slow and not user friendly. Really though it only matters if you are planning on playing a lot of songs right through your computer. I just use the player and can deal with the software when necessary. Creative customer support is great and they have been extremely helpful unlike RCA who wouldnt even talk to me unless I paid them $50 for customer service. If you are not getting an ipod, this is definitely the player to get. If I could rank it 4 1/2 stars that would be more accurate. Definitely buy this, for my money it is the best player on the market right now.
On: 2006-01-11
Ive had my Creative Zen Touch (20 Giger) for about a month now and this thing if friggin awesome! First and foremost, the battery life is incredible (about 20 hours on mine - but my MP3s are all at 256 kbps and I use a big pair of cans for headphones so thats probably why Im not getting the 24 hour battery life). The interface is very comfortable to me and I like the scroll bar much better than that circle thing on the ipod (its just the way my brain works). The sound is beautifully clear and the output is very powerful (unlike other MP3 players). The ear buds you get with it are OK, but I would recommend using high-end headphones to due this player justice (ear buds are generally crappy anyway). It has a nice EQ - nothin fancy but it does a good job. I dont bother with the "MediaSource" software that comes with it, I just use the "Zen Touch Media Explorer" thats free at the Creative Labs web site and organizes from the MP3s ID3-Tags (make sure you also get the Firmware v2.11.01 update). The Firmware update also lets any PC running XP see it as a hard drive for any kind of data storage/transfer. For ripping I use "CDex" (it reads remote CDDB info and has the new Lame encoder built in), and I also use "ID3-TagIT" (both of them are free software). This thing is also very stable. Ive gone jogging with it (even though Creative Labs does not recommend it),bounced it around and dropped it by mistake and its never stopped or skipped at all. Ive heard people say its to big, but at about the size of a pack of smokes it doesnt bother me at all and its well worth it for the extra long battery life. I know the Creative Zen Sleek is slimmer and has an F. M. tuner, but I hate most of what they play on the radio anyway, and I prefer the Creative Zen Touchs longer battery life (the Creative Zen Sleek has about 14 hours). My only regret is that I didnt get the 40 GB version (did I mention my MP3s are encoded at 256 kbps?), but at about $80 higher in price it just wasnt in my budget. Im still looking for an MP3 player that supports "seamless" play for mixed CDs that have tracks blended together (you can still do this but you have to rip the whole CD as one MP3 and you cant skip between tracks), but since no MP3 player can do this yet (despite what "Rio" might claim), I guess I cant lower the rating for this annoyance that all MP3 players currently have. I would recommend this to anybody looking for an MP3 player.
On: 2006-01-07
Ive tried several different MP3 players and this is by-far the best one Ive used so far. A while back I used to have a 30gb (forget the brand) and it was slightly more bulky than the Zen Touch design, despite that it was great.
For the longest time I was stuck on thinking the Ipod was the best thing you could get. My friend brought over his Ipod Nano Christmas day and my computer isnt the fastest, and I couldnt get Itunes to work.. With that in mind, I had to choose something else.
The program provided with this play will support slow running systems and thats a major plus. Its easy to use and its nice to dump your music collection into.
The headphones arent the best, but thats no big deal.
If you got a slow computer and a big music collection, this is the player you want. Besides that, its about 100 dollars less than what the 30gb Ipod, but this player holds the same amount as that one.
On: 2006-01-05
I know nothing about MP3 players but my daughters 16 and 13 wanted one for Christmas. I did a lot of reading on MP3 players and found that this one was the best for my money. Amazon gave me the best deal I could find. My girls could easily use the players, their music down loaded fast, and they liked the fact that they could down load from many different places. The sound is great and my kids loved them.
I do have to say that one of the MP3 players we did have to reset all the time, so I e-mailed Amazon and they e-mailed me right away that a new player was on its way! Im so impressed with the customer service I have received from Amazon. They are GREAT!!! I will highly recommend ordering from Amazon to my friends and they now have a loyal customer in me!!
Thanks For everything.
On: 2006-01-04
hi there, i got this mp3 player off from yahoo for $179,so i was very ok with the price,ive had it so far and its plays great,the sound is outstanding,its a bit bulky yes,but i loose little things so the size is very okay to me .the battery life is really the test,i had it for 3 days straight playing and the life was still great,the touch pad can be icky but you can control the sensitivity in the settings,so that takes care of that,as for uploads i use media player and it works well for me,im so comfortable with it i havent even bothered using anything else,better stick with wat suits ya best huh?.....
so pls people stop the hatin,i based my decision to buy this playa on the reviews on amazon, i was almost going out of my mind looking for the right mp3,cos i definately didnt want an ipod,this is so much easier and less complicated,im yet to upload pictures of the player when i have the time,i would have loved to see more when i was shopping around,anyways people this is one of the best on the market wouldnt settle for anything else,okays
happy new year!!!!
On: 2006-01-04
I have had this player for over a year now, and have used most of the functions. First, I will address some of the problems other reviewers have. For playlists that do not play in the desired order, I have found the track number to be important. You have to order the track numbers the same as the order you want the songs to play, which should get around the playing only in alphabetical order or the artists. As for touchpad over-sensitivity, you can reduce the sensitivity in the "settings" menu, and then you just have to get used to it.
Cons first:
1. I have two very different types of music on the player, pop/rock and classical/opera, so I do not use the "random" button very often. Despite having about the same number of tracks in each genre (about 3000), the pop folder for some reason takes a lot longer to load up, up to 15 minutes.
2. a little bulky, even when it first came out in 2004, but this is not so much of a problem for me.
3. no remote control, FM radio, voice recorder. However, the program that comes with the player allows you to do voice recordings or transfer casette tapes in the digital MP3 format and then put it on the player.
4. the provided headphone is a little flimsy, though good sound quality. I had to get new headphones after 6 months.
5. With WMA playback, you start getting this occasional pop and scratch sounds after 5 minutes. So for classical music over 5 minutes long, it can get a little annoying. No problems with MP3 format. Not sure if this is because of the ripping program I use or the player.
Pros:
1. The provided program, in my opinion, is easier to use than any other programs I have used (I have tried several for other players), if you are just transfering music. Unlike the Ipod program and others, you can install the program to as many computers as you like and sync from all of them, because the player keeps all the information, and has no restriction of only one designated "home" computer! This also allows greater flexibility in managing your songs and playlists from any computer, plus using the player as a hard drive.
2. With Nomad Explorer installed, you can actually drag and drop any files, including songs, into the player.
3. Excellent sound quality, probably the best out there (I have tried several) especially with a good pair of headphones.
4. Long battery life. With MP3s, I can normally get at least 18 hours, and WMAs, at least 12, even after 1 year of use. It also charges quite quickly.
5. Very sturdy design. Ive dropped it a few times and it still runs perfectly.
6. International - Menu can be changed to many different languages (and I heard displays titles in different languages as well), and the charger can work with both 110 and 220 volts, which is convenient for someone who travels a lot.
On: 2006-01-02
As someone who bought the Creative Zen Touch after reading reviews here and noting its price, I think I can put the comments here in perspective. This is a pretty good player and a pretty good deal in comparison to most other players (though, dont buy this player here...you can get it cheaper by checking out Yahoo...wish I had known...), but there are more cons to it than just the "bulky" size and the touchpad (too sensitive for many of us, plus I just hate touchpads). The size is not even all that bothersome. So let me start with the real cons that affect some, not all, users...
Cons:
*The installation CD wouldnt work until I went to Creatives site and searched through the FAQs for a solution.
*Only after my free trial period was up did I realize this player does not work that well with Napster-To-Go. When you hook this player up to NTG, sometimes NTG doesnt even recognize it as a player thats compatible with NTG. Thats because, in all honesty, the player still isnt entirely compatible. When I was looking at the player, I noticed NTG listed the player under all of their compatibility categories...in other words, they contradicted themselves and claimed the player was compatible, was not compatible and would be compatible soon. I contacted them about this via e-mail, and, despite their promise of a 24-48 hour response, they never responded. So when I was able to get the software installed and NTG to recognize my player, NTG would transfer only so many streams. The first time, it got most artists from A-M. After visiting Creatives message boards and looking at posts from others who had the same problem and responses to that problem, I reformatted my players hard drive and proceeded once again. That time, I only got to some of P. After that, I would get error messages from NTG that my player stopped responding. As of yet, Ive found no fix for this.
*Now I use my player with Rhapsody To Go, but there are still times when the transfers fail for some inexplicable reason or the song appears to have loaded successfully but the track wont play on my player because theres no "license" for it. One time after receiving this message, the tracks started playing again--no clue what happened.
*I think this is the site where someone complained that you cant necessarily play songs in the order youd like, and thats correct. I do wish there were more play options. But the most annoying thing is when I click on "Random Play All," there are always tracks that are not included in the random playlist for whatever reason. Again, I went to Creatives forums, and it seems like this happens when the ID tag for a track doesnt have all the information the player wants it to, like an album title. After laboring through 1000+ tracks in an attempt to fix this problem, I got more of my tracks to show up in random but not all of them. So this is another problem I dont entirely know how to fix. And with the player not letting me play songs in an order Id like and my having so many tracks in the first place, random was really the next best option for me...and yet not all of my tracks will play in random...
*Speaking of the forums, it seems like they are your best bet for getting any kind of help on the many problems you could possibly encounter. Yet, a good number of the people "helping" on those forums seem to get really irritated that anyone has any kind of complaint. A lot of people think this player is perfect, and thats somewhat understandable to me now that Ive finally gotten used to it and have gotten all the songs I want loaded onto the player. But the player is, quite honestly, not perfect for a lot of people. Some players work for some people from day one, but the people on the forums cant see that and/or act like any problem you have is a minor one. It wasnt minor to me that I had just gotten the player but it froze and/or took an impossibly long time every time I tried to load songs on it from Napster.
*Other more minor cons include not having a FM player, the quality and comfort of the headphones that come with the player (not bad quality for how little the headphones are, but still not good enough...and the little earpieces keep falling out), not having a stop button, the time lag before subscription service tracks start playing, downloads/transfers from subscription services tend to skip, and having to do firmware upgrades which result in your losing all your tracks on the player. Also, transferring songs while the player is not charging seems to take a lot out of the battery...Oh, and the screen, after the blue light goes out, is not really good...after that point, its hard to see what youre listening to...
Pros:
*If you can get your hands on some decent headphones, the quality of this player is just like that of a really good CD player or a lap top/computer with decent speakers. Its really impressive. I am using some good Panasonic headphones with this player, and, despite the fact that the volume doesnt go as high as Id like on this player (I didnt include this as a con because it wouldnt be to most people--I just like really loud music), all songs sound very good.
*This is a good price. Before buying this player, I bought a Dell Pocket DJ at 5GB, which has a price of $199. I got this 20GB player for $215. I mentioned Yahoo before, and at the time of writing this you can actually get one of these through Yahoo for as low as $179. After the Dell didnt work out too well, I searched hurriedly for a cheap player to cover with, and the Zen Touch was the lowest I found.
*If you can get this thing to a point where its basically functioning, its pretty easy to use.
*Battery life is not bad, though Im not sure its actually 24 hours nonstop. I think its more like 15 hours, but thats not bad. It might depend on how many songs you have, the kpbs of the songs, etc. The only thing closest to proof that I have of this lasting less than 24 hours is one battery bar will go out after 4 or 5 hours...and there are only 3 bars, so...
*Theres a lot of space, especially for the cost. I have almost 1100 full-length songs on mine as I write with most songs either 128kbps wma, 128kbps mp3 or 192kbps mp3, and thats still only about 6GB taken up on my player. If youre a serious music lover, this is the player you want. If youre not, you honestly should probably pay less for less space...
As you can see, there are more cons than pros on my list. But I would say that after my experience with Dell and everything that Ive heard about ipods, this is probably one of the best mp3 players you could go with. Just get a warranty with it, because Ive also read on the forums of experiences where the players quit working within one year. But when the player is working, its a really cool thing.
On: 2006-01-01
A nice piece of equipment with good sound. Unfortunately the documentation is substandard and the technical support is a practical joke - its supposedly free for 60 days (not exactly generous is it?), but the catch is that its a long-distance number and only open during office hours - youd better be independently wealthy or have a very understanding boss.
The website claims to be award-winning or some such thing but the Knowledge Bases designation flatters itself - very little knowledge.
For the first two weeks I struggled to get it to record some of my favourite music. Constant problems with files not ripping or disappearing or being refused because they were apparently already on my pc. This wasnt the case and I got fed up of asking technical support for help. Theyd give me answers but never to the question Id actually asked.
So, my wife has had an Ipod for months with no problems. Guess what I wish Id bought?
On: 2006-01-01
I have 3 major problems with the operation of this unit:
1) Playlist music cannot be played in a desired sequence. Normally it plays music in alphabetical order by artists name OR randomly. The latest Creative software does not solve this problem.
2) You CANNOT use Windows Media Player software to manage your music library and synch-to (download-to) the player. The Creative Media software is grossly inferior but MUST be used for this player.
3) The lastest version of the Creative Media software has eliminated the importing of Playlists that were not created by this (inferior) program. The previous version did allow playlist importing.
4) The touch control is ... well ... very touchy and often difficult. Compare this to the Iriver touch control which is much easier.
I am going to get rid of mine unit ... anyone interested?
On: 2005-12-31
Got it on Christmas... its the 29th... I turned it on... it froze. Messed with the battery... turns off. Turn it on... freezes. Get an iPod.
On: 2005-12-20
I actually won my Zen Touch in a raffle, and am so grateful that I did. I love it enough to be completly hooked on the MP3 world and the creative brand. However, when I bought my family MP3 players for Christmas, I stuck with Creative brands but got different models. Here are my reasons why:
For my sister I wanted a smaller player, and one that would allow live recording, so she can slip it in a tight jeans pocket and use it to supplement her note taking in college. Being a music professional I knew I have enough CDs and wav files to warrant the 20GB, but my sister would much rather have the smaller size.
For Mom I knew that the touch pad was something she was going to have difficulty with. I have difficulty with it. The menu is laid out sensibly and is easy to use, but I would much rather just have an up and down button.
So why stick with Creative? They have as long a track record of any other MP3 brand, and a good record at that. The price is much better than iPod, but the features and quality often seem to be better with Creative. I guess they have to be to stay competitive. My unit has survived being dropped, left in a hot car in Texas in August, and in the same freezing car in an ice storm. I use it in my elementary school work, and there are few things harder on any piece of hardware than being subjected to hundreds of excited curious children. Yet it chugs away without any problems. Its easily been compatible with the sound-dock offered through Cambridge, and my old CD to cassette adapter left over from an earlier music technology revolution. I bought a small camera case large enough to carry the player, a good pair of earphones (I cant stand the included ear buds), a car charger, and the cassette adapter, and the whole thing goes with me everywhere I go.
On: 2005-12-20
This player is easy to use, has a long battery life plus you can load your mp3s into it by simply dragging a dropping thru windows explorer. No need for special software like Ipod uses! and it uses generic accessories. It was my early Christmas present and I LOVE it. I also bought a pair of Bose head phones to go with it and the sound is much better than the top of the line Ipod. Fantastic!
On: 2005-12-15
Creative Zen Touch is the best (at least as I see it) MP3 player. It has all the same functionallity that Ipod but price is almost half what Ipod is charging. I paid for 20Gb version $170. It is awesome handsome player. I like it first of all for long battery life. Creative claims that it should last 24 hours. It is at least 10 hours more than Ipod. The case is extremly durable and cool looking. Sound quality is outstanding. The headphones that came with this player is a little on a large size so I am planning to purchase Shure E4C. The leather case that came with a player is not very functional as you cannot pause, skip track or adjust volume while player is in it. But I am always looking at a positive side and better to have some case when nothing at all (any new case for that player is cost in avarage $20 and this one comes already with one). So far, I loaded 10 CDs on it and I am being running playing it nonstop for the last 4 hours. I am astonished with this product, I am highly recommend it.
On: 2005-12-13
(...)
Here are the details:
Access your music without taking your player out of the bag! The convenient pocket clip secures your MP3 player to your belt, purse or backpack. The FM Wired Remote combines FM tuner capabilities, a built-in microphone, a cool blue backlit LCD, as well as the playback controls. Listen to or even record your favorite FM stations!
Features Include:
Blue Luminescent Backlit LCD
Built-in Microphone for Voice Recording
Radio Recording in Stereo
32 FM Preset Channels
Radio Frequency Autoscan
Text Display for Track information
Battery and EAX Indicator
Elapsed Time Counter
Clock
I hope this helps.
On: 2005-12-13
This is probably the best MP3/WMA player on the market. The player is easy to use and is compatable with both MP3 and WMA formats. The internal battery lasts for days. There isnt one thing that i would change about this item. The software included is a little confusing. I would recomend using Windows Media player instead. A huge benefit of this player is that it can also be used as an external hardrive. I use it to store over 2,000 song files along with thousand of picture files from my digital camera. Although you cant view the picture files on the player itself, you can plug the player into any PC to view them. If youre looking for a MP3/WMA player with great sound and hardrive capabilities then the Creative Zen Touch is for you!
On: 2005-12-11
This is the best mp3 player that I have found on the whole market!
On: 2005-12-11
i bought zen touch player a week before, its awesome, software is easy to install and use. very good battery life, the reason i gave it 4 because i like headphones instead of ear phones and this player comes with earphones, so after some time earphones starts hurting my ear. awesome quality sound, easy to use, no problem in using touch pad. It is $100 cheaper than iPod and does same thing. i highly recommend this product.
On: 2005-12-05
This is definitely a worthwhile buy for a person who wants an Ipod. Obviously it depends on what you find most important and least important in an MP3 player-- like some people would rather pay an extra 40 bucks for an Ipod, to make sure the player fits in their pocket.. But thats not so important to me, so the Creative Zen Touch was a more worthwhile decision.
Also, the Ipod has its own special accessories (like Igo, Itrip, etc.) but the Creative can work just as well, just with more generic stuff. (So, it will save you a lot more money in the long run.)
On: 2005-12-02
Last Christmas I bought this for myself because I really wanted an mp3 player and after doing some online research, this one proved to be the best deal for me. The thing I, as well as everyone else, love is the battery life. For me, the battery lasts about 22-24 hrs. I use it at work (I work in a loud print shop) and I only have to charge it every 3 days.
The only thing that was a negative were the earplugs that came with it. As soon as I took them out and tried to untangle them, they broke. Which, I guess isnt a real huge loss since they probably werent the best quality earplugs anyways.
And the scroll menu can be a little sensitive sometimes.
Other than that, a great little device.
On: 2005-12-02
Hi, I have just got this player today and am yet figuring out things to do. However, for a buyer, who has not seen the player yet, I beleive this review would be useful.
The interface is pretty easy to use and browse through. Its as easy as in any other player. The advantage over the Ipod are as follows:
1) Cheaper...
2) Equivalent quality of music
3) Volume buttons, return Buttons and Menu buttons for easy scrolling.
4) Random button: Though it seems really nice to have adn useful, its difficult(serpentine task) to undo the setting. But atleast a setting you would hope for.
5) Battery life is better : Have not had an Ipod, but heard from people that it has upto 14 hours. Mine gives around 20 hours.
6)Headphones are better than the Ipod: personal Experience
7) Ease of copying songs: Simple drag and drop of files does all u want.
Disadvantages.
1) looks: Ipod looks sleaker, This player is thicker
2) weight: Heavier : But this should nt matter too much since you would and cannot go joggin with this device.
3) Scroll feature: The vertical scroll in the Zen touch does not match upto the scroll in Ipod.
So much for now.. Will add in more in both sections ocne i explore my player. Wish me happy researching with my New Zen Touch.. As of now.. Kudos to Creative :))
On: 2005-11-28
This is by far one of the best mp3 players on the market. Ive had my player for a little over 5 months, and it works great.
The battery life is tremendous. After months of abuse, I still get about 20-21 hours of life with 1 charge. Amazing. Friends who have had their iPods for about a year (Christmas presents) are already experiencing battery life reduction, from 12 hours to 7 at the MOST. So in about a years time, theyve seen the battery life shrink by almost 50%. And this isnt only 1 or 2 incidents, I can name about 10-12 people who wish there battery life lasted half as long as a Zen Touchs.
What stopped this from getting 5 stars are two little quirks I have with the machine.
First, the random button is an extremely stupid button. It should not be a button at all. If you hit it accidentally, it will immediately switch to a random song. To undo this is a 4 step process in order to return to what you were already listening to.
Secondly, the method of transfering songs to the player is extremrely confusing at first. The included software gives no instructions on how to get songs to your player. After a lot of trial and error, I found that Windows Media Player 10 is the best method to do so. But the time of my life I spent trying to figure out Creatives (uneccessary) software takes this player down 1 star.
Overall, Im extremely satisfied. Unlike other reviews, I didnt find the Touch-Pad too sensitive at all. Like any product, it took some time getting used to.
If you want an easy to use device to strictly plays your music and not break the bank paying for it, I highly recommend investing in the Zen Touch. Its definitely worth it.
On: 2005-11-27
I have loved this Mp3 player. The sound is fantastic. The software is decent, but not great. The playlists are easy to organize and the screen display is great.
My chief complaint, and this is a REALLY big one, is that there is no support for the Creative ZenTouch on audible.com. I have a membership to Audible, and I am unable to listen to any of my audible content on this Mp3 player. This is more the fault of Audible than creative, but I wish I had known about it before I put this player on my wish list. I would have definitely asked for a different model.
by: Anonymous On: 2005-11-26
I just got it today and it is awesome!
It holds a ton of songs looks great! It comes with a case and other stuff that the Ipod doesnt have.
This is the right Mp3 player to get!
On: 2005-11-24
I absolutely love my Zen Touch!!!!!!! My husband and I both have one, and neither of us have had issues. I dont mind the touch pad, contrary to other reviewers.
One thing I cant stand: the software! Its absurd! I cant believe other reviewers said it was user-friendly.
Ive compared the Zen Touch to my sisters Ipod, and I think I got a better deal and much better sound quality.
Wont be my last Zen purchase!
On: 2005-11-22
So let me start out by saying that this was NOT my first choice in MP3 players. I bought the Sony HD5, and after a suprisingly painless download of the SOnic Stage music software, I began to import my Windows Media files and once that was done I transferred my music to the player. No problem. Boy was I wrong. I am sure by now most of the IPOD and SONY users have found out that once there music has been ripped from a cd it CANNOT be transferred to the IPOD or Sony HD5, because of copyright infringement(??). So half of my 20 gig harddrive MP3 player was filled with music. I have 20g of music and 10 gig of it could not be transferred. So I took the player back and got my money back. I then bought the Creative Zen 20g. Main selling point 20g WMA files, and price (about $219 IPOD $245 SONY $230). I Downloaded the Creative Music source and it automatically installed Windows Media Player 10. I plugged in my Zen touch and selected the music I wanted, and the music was transferred fast. I actually thought I didnt do it right because it went by so quickly.
The only problem I had with the item was I had to take the first one back because it froze up. This was an easy fix though. I got a new one went to the creative website downloaded the new updated firmware and software and no problems after that. So now every time I rip a cd to my computer and plug in my Zen I get asked if I want transfer new media. This is awesome considering that I am not that computer savvy.
POSITIVE
price, function, easy to use software and player, uses WMA
NEGATIVE
slightly bulky
So there you have it. I am not bashing IPOD or SONY. I do not know why the music will not transfer on these products. All I know is it transfers on Creative products. I hope this was helpful to you all.
On: 2005-11-20
My creative zen player came with virtually no instructions for its use. The online manual is very cryptic with primarily descriptions of the operations that this player can perform, but no instructions as to how to get it to perform these operations. Apparently this item is targeted for tech savvy folks who are presumed to know all about mp3 players and need no instructions. Ive had mine for over a month and have not figured out how to copy tunes from cds to the player. I would not recommend for folks who are not tech savvy.
On: 2005-11-12
Ive had my player for about a year now, and I love it. I was very very picky when I considered buying an MP3 player too. I was going to go with an iPod just because they get such good reviews, but Id used one before and I wasnt a fan of the controls, plus they were expensive, and they have that ridiculous headphone jack that is designed only to fit "apple compatible" headphones. What I initially liked about this one is its price, but I was skeptical because this 20gig player is the same price as a 5gig iPod.
After messing with one at a computer store I easily preffered the buttons and controls of this player over all of the other players in its price range. I even preffered this one over the creative micro, which I actually hated. Now that Ive owned this one for a year I love the random button on this thing, and the volume controls on the side. Its a lot easier to judge your volume by hitting a button than by toggeling on a touch pad in my opinion because you have more control. The random button is just conveniant. You dont have to go into any menus, or even take the thing out of your pocket. You just hit it and you instantly have your own radio station. Ill admit the buttons feel kind of cheap, but they hold up fine. I use this thing every single day and I havent had a single problem.
Another thing I liked was the indented, and small touch pad on this player. I broke my brothers iPod touch pad just by carrying it in my pocket without its case. Because this players touch pad is indented and smaller it doesnt come in as much contact with any surface which makes it safer to carry (even without a case). It is true that the touch pad is a bit touchy at first, but you can adjust the sensitivity, and it gets easier with use. Within the first month I could use it without a problem. Plus you can swith between whether you use the touch pad as just a slider or you can change it so that you can tap it to play songs or select songs instead of hitting the "ok" button (which is another easy/dummy proof function of this player).
The menu functions in this thing are a bit weird at first, but because the buttons are so simple it doesnt take a genious to figure it out. Its basically like a fold out menu. You can choose to listen by artist, album, genre or playlist. Say you want a particular song...you click on artist, it takes you to a list of all your artists (which also includes a "find" feature which works similiar to a cell phone address books alphabetical listings) then you click on the artist and a smaller menu pops up with a list of things like "find track" "find album" and other options. Then you hit "OK" on "find track" and you find your track. It may sound complicated, but I can do it while Im driving with ease, and Im not that good of a driver.
The one thing that is complicated is organizing your music in the creative music program. If your music is not organized in your player by genre, artist, or however you want it....this thing would be hard to use (as would any MP3 player). Ill admit it took me a few hours to correctly label the first thousand songs I put in this thing properly. The program does label them for you, but it has a very broad range of categories and sometimes theres no rhyme or reason for why certain artisits end up in certain categories. So its best if you do it manually. Which is easy. You just click on the genre, album title, song title, or artist name and type in what you want. It works very similiar to any word processing spreadsheet. One thing that I didnt like is that everything has to be spelled the same or it will show it as an entirely seperate heading in your player (EX: if you spell Aerosmith two different ways half your Aerosmith songs will end up under Aerosmith, and half will end up under Aerrosmith)
The battery life on this player is also something to brag about. The sad thing is that it doesnt even come close to living up to its advertised "24 hours." Id say the most Ive gotten out of it was 16-18, which is hard to even complain about. The upload speed is pretty fast too. The first day I got it I loaded close to 2,000 songs into it in about a half hour (after I spent 2 hours labeling all my songs correctly of course, but Im pretty picky).
If there is one thin I dont like its that when you are uploading songs it drains the battery at a much faster rate than normal. But thats just an annoyance. The headphones on this werent all that bad either. I used them for the first 6 months before I eventually upgraded, but I still use the old ones if Im listening to it while Im trying to sleep because they are incredibley small and flat (I can lay on my side and I cant even feel them in my ears)
Overall Im glad I was picky about choosing this player. I feel like I deffinately got the best player for the price, and even if this one broke tomorrow Id buy the exact same player. I havent had one problem in the year Ive had this (no headphone jack problems, no freeze ups, no memory malfunctions. I havent even had to use the reset button) and I literally use it everyday for at least an hour. Ive even dropped it a few times, and all it did was reset itself from the album I had selected to the random mode after the initial start up. But its been fine since.
Deffinately the best buy for the price, if not better than some of the players more expensive. Its even better than the Creative Micros. If youre thinking about buying anything under $200 Id recommend looking at this one first, and if youve got the money to buy something more expensive at least check this one out. You may be able to use that extra money to buy gas or something.
On: 2005-11-08
I would like to add my voice to the chorus of kudos for this fine product. It does what a player of this type is supposed to do, does it cheaper, with a longer battery life. I use mine as a jukebox. While I have downloaded some tracks from the internet (Napster, etc), and it works fine doing that, 99% of whats in the Zen Ive ripped from my CD collection (over 100 CDs, over 1200 tracks). The Zen and the software that comes with it are well designed and a pleasure to work with.
by: Anonymous On: 2005-10-31
answer me this,,,,could someone post a picture with all of it asserices it would be a big help
by: blindelectricray On: 2005-10-26
The *concept* of a hard disk walkman is fantastic. Ive owned cassette Walkmen, MP3 players, CD Walkmen, Minidiscs, and all seemed like a good idea at the time and but all I gave up on in short order as being just too high maintenance, too fiddly and too painful to use. Not the Zen Touch. (Though this comment applies as well to competition). Now, with the Zen Touch, I am back in touch with records I havent listened to for fifteen years. I feel young again. That by itself is worth four stars.
Ive not tried another brand of HD Walkman, but here are some of the things I really like about the Zen:
* It sounds fantastic. I tend to rip CDs to my PC at lossless quality, and let the Zen compress them down to whatever it can handle. Whatever it is, it sounds great, especically with hum-cancelling headphones.
* Like all Creative stuff, its the real deal. Creative make great soundcards, great speaker systems, and great walkmen. Good company.
*The Zen can play good old fashioned standard Windows media audio files. The IPod cant (well, WONT). It bugs me that Apple are still so stupid, or arrogant, that they think they can impose their proprietary format on the world. Theyll have to give this idea up, or theyll lose out in the IPod wars to competitors like Creative, just like they did in the PC wars to IBM. All my stuff (600+ CDs of it) is ripped in WMA Format: Im simply not going to convert that to ATRAC format just so I can have an IPod. My CD collection is the Mountain, Apple - youre Mohammed. Move. Mean time, Im sticking with the Zen.
*Battery life is great. I use mine to commute, and get weeks out of it.
*Its tough. I drop mine, scratch it, bump it, it kicks around in the bottom of my bag with my carkeys, about five biros, a mobile, a Blackberry and loose change and doesnt seem to mind a bit.
Here are the things I dont like so much (though on the balance the Zen gets a definite thumbs up):
* User interface isnt much chop. The touchpad is hypersensitive, even on the lowest setting. With 400+ CDs (and thousands of tracks) the interface needs to be spot on. It isnt. It would be great it it had a "explorer" style browser so you could go back and forward - once youve left one menu you basically have to go back to the top and scroll through to find another song, or even go back to one you had before. Painful.
* There is a "Random" button on the bottom left hand corner which puts the player into Shuffle Mode, in an easily bumpable place. Once bumped, its time consuming to undo the shuffle setting - you have to go through about three menus to do it. What I dont understand is *why* anyone would *ever* want to *randomly* play a collection of 4000 tracks at all, let alone why it would be so vital so as warrant its own button on the front of the player (when there isnt even room for a stop button!) It would be great if the buttons could be assignable or something, so it could at least be switched off from being a random button.
* In their wisdom, Creative have designed their own Media Player application to use with the Zen (its the same one that is bundled with the Soundblaster soundcard). They would have been better advised spending time making sure their player was compatible with the other ones on the market (such as I-Tunes, Real Player and Windows Media Player). I dont want to change my media player. The Zen works *ok* with Mindows Media Player, but not brilliantly.
* I cant for the life of me work out how to create playlists.
* The Zen doesnt take accept or display all the track information that Windows Media Player has to offer. With such a large capacity, the more information you have to sort by the better.
All of these issues are eminently fixable. The best thing is that the Zen is just a medium - if it dies, buy another one (theyre going to continue to get cheaper, just like hard drives are) since the content (ie the important bit) lives on your PCs hard drive.
If you havent got into the world of the HD Walkmen, its high time you did. If you want a good place to start, you could do a lot worse than the Creative Zen.
Olly Buxton
***Postscript***
Not two weeks after posting this review, my Creative Zen Touch died - the front panel ceased to work altogether, and no amount of resetting, or upgrading firmware, could save it. But Id had it 15 months, and given it a good workout, and it didnt owe me anything. Even though it was well out of warranty, the folks at Creative offered to sell me a reconditioned model for ?99 - which is a pretty good price. In the end I passed up the offer and bought a Creative Zen to replace it.
On: 2005-10-25
I think this product is awesome! The only problem I encountered is that a small number of my music files cannot be transferred onto the player because they are an "incorrect" file format, but it has been for less than 20 files out of 1900, so its not that big of a deal.
It plays great, awesome battery life, great scroll features, basically your typical Ipod but $150 cheaper! I love it!
On: 2005-10-16
I owned the Creative Zen Touch for a many months with excellent operation. There was only 2 system/disk lockups that happened during the hundreds of hours of operation. The battery life is the best I have seen in any portable music device. The long term drawback is that it is not user replaceable. The Zen Touch is slightly larger and heavier than other similar devices, but tolerable. Screen was monocolor, but didnt detract from the overall experience. Sound quality is enjoyable, especially if you add a nice pair of noise cancelling ear buds. The file transfer speed was fast with a USB 2.0 interface. The software package was excellent, although the player is not PnP compatable without loading the special driver (included).
I did notice one feature that Creative should have added to the player, a sleep/timer. Without a timer option and the amount of battery life, there is the possiblility of unnecessary extended playing. The idle time shutoff feature only works if the player has stopped playing, but if you selected ramdom/repeat or a large amount of tracks, it can potentially run for 20+ hours. I know because I have fallen asleep many times to wake up with it still playing. That could put constant wear and tear on the drive mechanicals and bring you closer to a early life HDD failure.
It does have a few quirky features with only two mentionable issues. The touchpad (main player feature) took some time to get used to, and seemed slightly inconsistant with regard to sensitivity. With the tap feature turned on, it made navigating much harder without mistakes and very impractical. Unfortunately, the touchpad is the only form of navigating menu selections. The other issue was the song load time when GENRE -> PLAY was selected. I know I had more songs loaded under certain genres, but on a few occasions, the load times would exceed the idle shutoff time and the player would shutoff during the load. This was resolved by adding an extra step with selecting GENRE -> VIEW TRACKS -> PLAY. With this in mind, Creative should have optimized the operation of the player to handle large amounts of tracks under any song sorting menu selection (especially genre). I figure, the less menu selections you have to make, the better and easier it is to enjoy the player.
Finally, after truly enjoying the fact that I could easily transport and listen to a fairly large amount of music for a long period of time, it ended abruptly with a single drop (3ft) onto the concrete floor, while tucked in its thick protective case. It happened to land right on the corner of the player (an unprotected area of the case). At first, it seemed to be working fine, but the touchpad stopped responding after a few minutes. Unfortunately, without the touchpad functioning at all, the unit is rendered useless for portable operation.
Compared to the competition in this category, I think Creative is on the right track. It is a great player for the value, just be careful not to drop it.
On: 2005-10-15
I did an enormous amount of research before buying my first MP3 player, and settled on the Creative Zen Touch 20GB. For the most part, I think it was a good purchase. Ive loaded over 1300 songs (including more than half a dozen books) and Ive barely used half the 20GB capacity. I dont use the earbuds supplied with the Zen Touch, though. I had my own Sony noise-cancelling headphones instead, and that creates a perfect combination. The sound is excellent, and although the units heavier than many others on the market, it hasnt been a problem in any way. I use it at work (at a desk) and on flights. My only quibble with the unit is that I find the promised 24 hours of battery life is optimistic by half. Still, 12 hours is decent, and for sound quality, the variety of formats and ease of downloading, its a great gadget!
On: 2005-10-15
They dont tell you this unless you know where to look
When (when, not if) it freezes as you are starting up push the play button and keep it depressed, stick a pin in the reset hole for 5 seconds, take the pin out, and let go of the play button. It will restart in recovery mode. Select disk clean up and let it clean up. Then select reboot and it should work.
I am really sick of it freezing, but it is a great product nonetheless.
On: 2005-10-13
I really do love my Zen player, but I am having one issue with it that is driving me nuts! For some reason any headphone I put in it does not play out of the left side, even a brand new one. I have an adaptor to play it in my car and the same thing happens with that. If you bend the wires a certain way it works ok but you have to keep holding it down. I have no idea why it is doing this but I may consider sending it back to fix it. I have not read of anyone elses doing this, so it must have been something I did. But I have no clue!
On: 2005-10-12
I got the Zen Touch 40 gig about 1 month ago. Like everyone here, I did some research, and decided this gave the best bang for the buck. Which it does. But.
1) I bought an accessory: FM Wired Remote Control.
Glance at the name. Do you, like me, assumed this implied a gadget thats wireless? So you can maybe activate your player from across the room? I freely admit its my fault for not reading carefully enough, that the product was a "WIRED" remote control, but put wire and remote together, and what comes to mind?
2) The MP3 player had great sound. Then on day 2, when I was out walking, a song suddenly skipped once. I shrugged. 15 minutes later, it skipped again, and this time the screen froze. I couldnt shut down, couldnt do anything. Since I got a lemon, and was not completely satisfied, I decided to return it for a refund.
3) I returned it on the next business day, emailed and called. The product was broken, but I had to pay shipping.
4) Creative customer support refunded my purchase, less the warranty purchase price in 1 week.
5) By the way, their phone support only works Mon-Fri business hours. I decided to both phone and email to ask for a refund of the warranty.
6) Phone support told me my warranty refund is in process. Then tonight (2 weeks after my first email/phone call) I received an email telling me if I want a refund for the warranty of their shoddy product, I have to send in serial numbers and T&C I no longer possess and get the details to them by snail mail in 2 days time. If this reaches them after 2 days, I lose >50% of the warranty purchase price.
------------------
So, this sums up my experience with Creative.
1) Product is cheap, but with a reason. They skimp on product support and customer care.
2) They practise dishonourable methods to screw customers out of their money.
I strongly advise you not to buy this mp3 player.
On: 2005-10-08
I am a big music fan with tons of mp3s. Plus I listen to genres which vary from India Movie Soundtracks(Hindi, Telugu and Tamil), Rammstein , Linkin , Hip Hop / Rap artists like Eminem, 50 cent, nelly and Country artists like Byran Adams, and ofcourse Pink floyd.
For my purpose I needed a player with decent capacity and easy to access play lists and songs. The options were IPOD and Creative as both of them compete in several review webites and magazines. After a much research I found creative to be best option and bought the 20GB version Touch, eventhough you can get 40gb NOMAD in Creative , as I said I want easy scrolling capablility. One plus point was also I get a nice Leather Carrying case with it.
After it arrived I started using it, two of the things which I was not very much impressed were, the scroll was tooooooo sensitive and goes zip zap with just a gentle touch, I got rid of this problem by decreasing senstivity in settings and also getting used to its sensibility level.
Second one was sound quality was not even near as I read in the reivews before buying, it was not good, then I again went looking around web for solution, and I read a person saying to adjust custom equalizer the lest one highest and all other least, I did that, and its wonderful sound came out from somewhere. Its pretty good and bass it ultimate. I started loving my player now.
Overall a very good one for the given price.
On: 2005-10-06
I truly loved this mp3 until it required that I clean up the hard drive. Then what a peice of junk this turned out to be. At the point and time in which u have to defrag this crap is the time in which u send it in to be repaired or the time in which u throw it out of the window. I suggest choosing the latter.
On: 2005-10-04
Its a very good player. Very good audio clarity. But features are very less comparingly. I would get an ipod for a little more price because:
1. Creative Zen has less feautures, much less features than an ipod.
2. It is much slower than ipod (of course, we are talking about apple). I had about 180 songs in Creative Zen Touch 20 GB, and when I click playlists with all the songs, it has a lag time of 3 - 4 seconds. Imagine if you have 1000 (least, coz its 5000 song capacity), how the lag time would be. It would take forever to load the songs.
3. It is heavy and vulnerable. I dropped it from a height of one foot, that too with its cover on, and it made a little dent on the side, which resulted in dust on the screen. Dent happened mainly because it is heavy, and not as strong as Ipod. So I bought ipod after returning this item.
4. Scrolling is kinda pain, because in ipod, you dont lift your finger and it is pretty controllable to select and go through songs in a circular motion. But this is a straight up and down, you have to keep lifting your fingers and the lowest sensitive setting also makes you spend at least 10 seconds to just select a single song you want to hear, that is, it takes your total attention to just scroll exactly one song down or up. This is not a major problem, but #2 and #3 are!!
So if I want to go for this, I would spend 20 or 30 more dollars and get ipod from apple (especially with the student discount; me being a student is advantageous). Its worth it. And by the way, I wasnt an apple fan until this happened.
On: 2005-09-30
After ripping my entire cd collection (about 18 gigs!) the zen had to be reformatted. After doing this and ripping all my discs again!! the same thing happened !!! and has to be sent in for repairs. When I | | |
