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Creative Zen Touch 40 GB Audio Player
By: Creative Labs Average Rating: 3.5 Total Reviews: 81
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 On: 2008-03-02
Ive owned mine for around three years now, and its still working just fine. I drive truck so I use it a lot in the semi with the stereo adapter. I mostly use it to listen to MP3 downloads of some favorite radio morning programs of mine (Nice to hear without all the comercials), but when I do use it for the music Ive put on it really sounds pretty good.
The only problem Ive is that a few times it wouldnt turn on, but thats easily fixed by sticking a pin or plastic tooth pic into the reset hole. The only other problem was in figuring outsome aspects of the program on the computer. The instructions could have given a bit more information. Eventually I did figure everything out and havent had problems with it since.
My only reservation about this unit is what Ill do if the battery stops recharging. I havent seen any replacement battery and the screws on the unit are extremely small (Much smaller than the typical small screwdriver set) so I havent taken the case apart to look and see if the battery actually does detach. But for now the battery last a really long time with evey charge.
Im happy with this unit. Theres a lot of space on mine (40g) and Ive barely gone over the half way point after putting in many CDs.
On: 2008-03-01
This is a great product. I had a video i-pod - hated it, hated the way that I had to use the wretched i-tunes. So, I did research and got the Touch. My life improved. I have not had the difficulty with the software that others have. To me it seems easy and intuitive. A minus is that computers dont recognize that player as a drive - you have to use the Nomad software to store data files - that means an added step to data storage... but to me, that is nothing in comparison to the misery of using i-tunes and having overpriced dreck pushed at you every minute. The great thing about the Touch is that it is a terrific machine and it is MINE - it doesnt make the owner an indentured servant to Apple. Sure, it takes a little while to become familiar with the eccentricities but once you get the drift, youll fall in love. It doesnt have video, but who cares - who wants to watch a movie on a postage stamp? The Touch is worth every penny of the high price it commanded when it first came out. Discounted, it is an unbeatable bargain.
 On: 2008-02-18
DO NOT BUY THIS OR ANYTHING ELSE WITH THE CREATIVE LABS LOGO!! Where to begin with this piece of junk? I bought this due to its hard drive size, its compatibility with all types of music files, its long lasting battery, and the other reviews I read. When I got the refurbished (by Creative Labs) player, the first thing I did was install the software, then tried to sync the player with Windows Media Player 11. As soon as I turned the player on (after chargin the battery), I got a firmware error message. A search through the Creative Labs website to find a fix resulted in receiving an RMA to send it back to Creative Labs for repair, which I did. A month and several inquiries to Creative as to the status of the player later, I checked the RMA website where I was told there was as issue with the RMA. No email notification that there was problem, and I was surprised as I had followed their instructions for returning it for repair. I still dont have a working player and dont have high expectations when I get it back. Maybe my viewpoint will change when I am actually able to use an operable player, but I wouldnt recommend buying anything made by Creative Labs. There are better players out there for comparable prices, and I am regretting my decision to buy it. Next time, Im getting a Cowon, a Zune, or (may my tongue turn black for saying) an ipod.
 On: 2007-12-28
The first day I got my Zen MP3 player, the hard drive immediately stopped working by the second song. I returned it for a different player and am satisfied with the second player so far. My only problem with the Zen player is that you cannot create files to store different types of music or certain albums, but I guess you can overcome that issue by playing music according to artist, genre, etc... Also, Im still waiting for my refund from e-parts and more for having to ship out my broken player. It hasnt come yet.
On: 2007-12-21
I have actually had my Creative Zen Touch for going on five years now, and it still works as flawlessly as the day I bought it. Its a real pity Creative doesnt make them anymore.
I am not gentle with my electronics. I have dropped, washed, left it out in the car, and who knows what else. The (somewhat) cruddy carrying case has long since fallen apart, Ive had to purchase new earbuds over and over again as the old ones fall apart, but my Zen is still miraculously going strong.
Although bulky, I find that that larger size is a benefit more than a hindrance. If you drop it, you dont have to freak and wonder if youll have to shell out another $250+ for a replacement.
Mind you, there are some negative factors as well, most of them applying to the software. I prefer ripping my cds with Windows Media Player, and occasionally Ill rip songs and the software simply wont recognize that theres an mp3 on my computer. Ill open the folder and the software just shows it as empty space. The only way to avoid that problem is by ripping the cd with the softwares ripping program, and its frustrating that you cant change the song quality. Also, I enjoy listening to music from many different countries, and, although when you first set up the software it supports all languages, if you should need to switch computers or download the software to a new computer, theres no longer any language support. You can fiddle with that program as much as you want and download as many patches as you can, it doesnt matter. Youll just have to find the romanized titles for those songs, or the songll just appear on your mp3 player as gibberish.
Despite these setbacks, the fact remains that the mp3 player itself is sturdy, dependable, and, most imoprtantly, still working. It breaks my heart, but Ive been having to look for a new one for no other reason than that I no longer have any room on my old one. And it breaks my heart even more that I cant just get an upgraded version of this one.
On: 2007-11-03
This MP3 player is awesome. Ive had it for almost 3 years now and its still running great. I bought it to take to Iraq with me when I got deployed and it survived the deployment, its been to the gym with me (I know, not good for hard drive-based MP3 players, Im in the market for a flash drive-based player), on all my travels, everywhere.
So first the software it comes with is incredibly easy to use and very useful. Easy to make playlists and sort through songs. True that you cant make playlists on the go, but Im ok with that.
Its got a hold button on the top, which Ive found very useful. Ive had the thing in my bag and then pulled it out only to find that the battery drained; now I just put the hold button on and it cant do that anymore. It also helps when taking it out of the case so you dont accidentally hit Random or the power button (done both).
Dedicated volume buttons, a must for me. Speaking of sound, its pretty good. There are some songs that I listen to that the volume cant quite go as high as Id like, but its very possible that Ive converted files incorrectly - dont know. Anyway, its perfect for what I need.
The touch scroll takes a little bit of getting used to and it can be a bit oversensitive, but I got the hang of it pretty quick and now find it very easy to use.
Ive never really tested the battery life, but it seems to be just fine, havent had any problems with it.
Thats my 2 cents, overall great MP3 player, highly recommend it!
On: 2007-11-02
This MP3 player is awesome. Ive had it for almost 3 years now and its still running great. I bought it to take to Iraq with me when I got deployed and it survived the deployment, its been to the gym with me (I know, not good for hard drive-based MP3 players, Im in the market for a flash drive-based player), on all my travels, everywhere.
So first the software it comes with is incredibly easy to use and very useful. Easy to make playlists and sort through songs. True that you cant make playlists on the go, but Im ok with that.
Its got a hold button on the top, which Ive found very useful. Ive had the thing in my bag and then pulled it out only to find that the battery drained; now I just put the hold button on and it cant do that anymore. It also helps when taking it out of the case so you dont accidentally hit Random or the power button (done both).
Dedicated volume buttons, a must for me. Speaking of sound, its pretty good. There are some songs that I listen to that the volume cant quite go as high as Id like, but its very possible that Ive converted files incorrectly - dont know. Anyway, its perfect for what I need.
The touch scroll takes a little bit of getting used to and it can be a bit oversensitive, but I got the hang of it pretty quick and now find it very easy to use.
Ive never really tested the battery life, but it seems to be just fine, havent had any problems with it.
Thats my 2 cents, overall great MP3 player, highly recommend it!
 On: 2007-10-16
Have owned it for 2+ years.
Pros:
- Excellent Sound quality
- Long Battery Life
- Durable, thing can be tossed around and screen has never scratched even with no case to protect it.
- Cheap
Cons:
- The buttons slowly stopped doing what they were supposed to. Occassionally hitting "next" will do the dreaded random all. Or it might pause. Could be because of all the dropping over the years but I dont think so. Seemed more of a gradual onset of dysfunction than any "breaking."
- Random all is useless and annoying.
- The software is buggy. It crashes a lot, and the built in player rarely works.
- The touchpad is hard to use, even after years of practice.
Conclusion... Buy it because its cheap and plays great music for long periods of time. Plus it doesnt need iTunes or the proprietary song format.
If you have more money to spend, however, there is almost certainly something better on the market that is also non-iPod.
On: 2007-09-23
I have had the pleasure of owning a Zen Touch for the past three years now! The only problem I have had to date is that I lost the power adapter; seriously, thats it!
The Zen Touch has solid construction (Ive dropped it several times), is easily navigable, has great sound and has an amazing file capacity. I tried to get into the I-pod hype, but saw so many other cost effective alternatives; I thought I would try to make Mac work harder for my affection (not even the i-phone has swayed me yet).
Although I am a subscriber to Sirius Satellite Radio and make huge use of the Stiletto that boasts a pretty sizable mp3 capacity itself (along with recorded radio files and internet radio capability), I still use my Zen Touch heavily for work at our after school programs.
I would go to bat for the Zen Touch any day (although I dont think Creative makes them any more). I will use my Zen until they start downloading music directly to my brain... we, even then the Zen would probably be way more reliable (Ive had to reboot the old noggin quite a few times since I work with kids).
 On: 2007-09-14
I got this to replace my XTRA 30GB. Its pretty much a good substitute. The sound on this thing is great. Unfortunately the headphone Creative ships with it suck and dont do it justice at all so you will definitely want to invest in a pair of good headphones to go with it.
Its a little smaller than the XTRA and I guess it looks a little better. Unfortunately the little dial you used to navigate around the menus has been replaced by a touch pad. This takes a while to get used to and still is hard for me to get right on the song I want on first try. Although going into the options and reducing the sensitivity of the touch pad helps with this, Also, there a lot of menus to navigate through. To me new interface is an example of trying to fix something that wasnt broken and actually making it worse. You can transfer music quickly and easily, Vista downloads the right driver instantly and the battery holds a long charge
This is a nice player for about $100 on the whole. The sound is by far the most important thing to me on an MP3 player and the Creative players all sound great. Its 40GB capacity is also nice to backup a lot of music or use it as a little portable hard drive. With all the benefits I can live with the slightly irritating interface and menus.
On: 2007-07-07
I bought one of these after making extensive comparisons with other players. I didnt want video so I chose this older model. The sound quality is very good with some separately purchased earphones (the ones in the box are okay but not great). The battery life is amazing. Im not sure if it gets 24 hours but I use it every day all week and I often dont charge it before going back to work again on Monday. I only have two complaints, this player is heavy, but that is to be expected with such a long-lived battery, and that when I am accessing a large playlist the player can take a very long time to respond. Also I find the random button on the front a bit silly, I listen to a lot of different styles of music and hearing opera followed by pop music just doesnt work for me. That said, this is a great player and when the time comes to get a new one I will buy another product from Creative.
On: 2007-04-11
As others have said, the sound is great and battery life is excellent. Thats about it. If you (God forbid) hit the "shuffle" button (why do we need a "shuffle" button on the outside where youll hit it often?) you will "shuffle" until you magically hit the button(s) to correct it - or the Zen gods shine down on you. Ive had this player for several years and still cant figure it out. Instruction manual? Forget it.
The touch pad is irritating as you will overshoot your mark often no matter how often you adjust it. There is nothing intuitive about the software.
Heres the best thing. Sometimes it...just...quits. You have to get a paperclip, stick it into a little hole and it revives itself. No idea why it does this. But rest assured, it will do it at the worst possible moment when there is no paperclip or other similar object in sight.
I bought the Zen because I hate anything Apple. My next MP3, unfortunately, will be an Ipod. And the way the Zen has been acting up lately - it might be sooner rather than later.
On: 2007-02-21
The Zen Touch is not quite as easy to use as an ipod, but you get used to the controls in a little while. Its MUCH LONGER battery life is a real plus, and its sound quality is as good and perhaps a little better than the ipod. And it is significantly cheaper, measured gig to gig.
There are far fewer bells and whistles available to buy for those who want them. If, for instance, I had wanted to spend $300 on a bose sounddock, I would have found nothing of that quality (or price) even remotely available for anything but an ipod. They really have the market cornered. But a standard mp3 player jack goes nicely into the computer, the receiver, etc., and that works just fine.
The zen software, however, is a real drawback. It seems to conflict with many computer-resident programs and crashes far too often. Creative has also been singularly unhelpful in supporting the software. A simple question about use of the software elicited a template email response that no free help of any kind would be available past the warranty date. And there is no direct phone numbers available to most users.
I am investigating third party software which is said to be more user-friendly and reliable.
On: 2007-01-30
I bought a zen touch for my sons birthday. he hasnt used it very much, but the buttons on the front have stopped working. it is just within the warranty.
There is NO 1-800 customer support line. They charge you for technical support $15 for 30 minutes. We have been trying to get an RMA number to return the player for about a month now. Everything is by email and we have heard nothing from them. It is extremely frustrating not being able to talk to anyone at creative about this.
I was dismayed to read about the problems everyone else is having with this product.
On: 2007-01-28
I have had my Zen Touch for nearly a year now, and it has been a great purchase. I was looking for specific features when I was selecting a player. While I dont think the Touch is perfect for everyone, it was an exact fit for my needs.
I recommend the Zen Touch if you:
-Have a lot of CDs. Im not a big music downloader; I prefer to buy used CDs and I own a few hundred. I also dont like keeping lots of files on my computer. With the Zen Touch, I dont keep a single note of music on my computer. I simply drag and drop the files from the CD to the Zen and the software rips and writes, no extra work on my part. I have heard from my iPod-owning friends that if they delete songs from their computer, they will also be deleted from the player when they plug it in again. Not so with the Zen Touch.
-Want a long battery life. I took it to London and I wasnt sure if I could charge it without buying an adapter (I later found out that it wasnt a problem) so I went an entire week, with normal use (about 3-4 hours a day, high volume because the trains were so loud) and it did not run out of power!
-Enjoy simplicity. This is a music player, not much else. No videos or photos or anything complicated. Just a music player. That was all I wanted. If having a lot of features in the palm of your hand is important, then the Zen Touch is not for you.
-Want something that looks and feels sturdy. This is not a light little iPod Nano. This is a 40g hardcore piece of machine. Its not especially light. But it doesnt feel breakable like Apple products.
-Are willing to buy a new pair of headphones. You should probably do this with any player, though.
Do NOT buy the Zen Touch if you:
-Are really into accessories. Creative doesnt have very many to begin with, and the offerings for the 40g Touch are sparse. It doesnt stand up to the massive amounts of holders, docking stations, and other stuff available for the iPod.
-Dont think youll use all the space. I have every single CD I own and its only half full. This is great for me, because I expect to buy much, much more. I wanted something that would hold everything and let me hit "random" (another great feature of the Zen Touch! The random button right on the front! I use it constantly), like having my own radio station. If you dont own a TON of music, or expect to get lots more, save your money and get something smaller.
-Jog with your player. Its fine for working out on a machine, because it can sit still, but the hard drive is too delicate to bounce around excessively. Thats not to say it isnt pretty hardy, for it is, but its not designed for exercise. Get one of those adorable mini-players for that. Creative makes a nice one.
All in all, I am extremely pleased with my Zen Touch. The software isnt perfect, but has suited my needs, and i would like an accessory or two, but I can live without. If youre looking for a sturdy, simple player with a huge capacity for the price and excellent battery life, this is a very good choice.
On: 2007-01-16
I bought one despite horror stories in reviews, because, in my research, all MP3 players had similar faults. Such devices arent built to last, it seems. I havent had the Zen long, but its great for the capacity, long battery life, sound quality is very good, doesnt lock you into one computer or music service, has A/C adapter, excellent for the car, etc. The output level is lower than expected and there are annoying quirks to using it, but none really bug me that much. However, the client software for the computer, "Organizer," is execrable. The developers apparently did not understand and did not implement MS user-interface standards, which are severly lacking, especially if you prefer keyboard to the mouse. The design is confusing for usability, the error-handling has enormous gaps, user-feedback is weak or nonexistent, and its dreadfully sensitive to interruptions of physical connection or threat from low battery. I couldve written several show-stopper bugs and dozens of others in the first hour or two, so I suspect that no professional quality assurance was employed at all. I wont detail the design flaws, but I lost work on multiple occasions, and it took far longer than it shouldve to edit my tags and arrange the tracks as I wanted. I did a "what the?" double-take several times. You will, in the end, make it do what it must, but, oh, this software is a unmitigated disgrace to any "technology" company.
On: 2007-01-03
I bought this mp3 player about a year ago, enticed by its reasonable price and good reviews. However, no one who reviews this product seems to use the product long enough, or they would encounter the many horrible problems with it.
1) Random queue-all button on the front. Why the hell do you devote 1 button out of 6 on the front to a "queue all songs in random order button." Mistakenly hit this and you not only have to wait for the songs to queue up, but you have to relocate what you were listening to, and then change the play order to in-order from shuffle. What idiot designed that?
2) The menu navigation and back button is counter-intuitive and annoying. The back button is one of the most aggravating features of the zen touch, its functionality is confusing and annoying. It has little memory for where youve been and often just returns you to the main menu.
3) DRIVERS AND FIRMWARE ARE AWFUL. I can not stress this enough. The drivers for the zen touch are HORRIBLE. In Creatives latest, and last, firmware upgrade, the support forums exploded with a problem with windows xp not detecting the player correctly. This results in you not being able to correctly upgrade your firmware. If you cant upgrade your firmware correctly, you cant connect to the mp3 player. But you cant upgrade the firmware without it the OS realizing its an mp3 player. Its an annoying looping system that so far has few fixes. Make sure you explore the support forums before purchasing this horrible product; make sure you see the 100 page threads complaining about this product.
4) Support is TERRIBLE. Creative initially sent me a dead charger for this player. A little over a week after i bought the product, it died and i had no idea how to fix it. Instead of helping me in a simple email, they told me that since it had been more than a year, they couldnt help me unless i called their "tutor hotline", a $20/half-hour phone call that guarantees no help.
On the plus side, it has very good battery life and its cheap (for a reason).
PLEASE, please, listen to me when i say not to buy this product. Youll regret it in the end as creative is notorious for horrible products, and this is no exception. The whole time ive owned this product, it has been nothing but a headache.
On: 2006-12-18
I enjoyed my Creative Zen Touch when it was working. The first Creative Zen mp3 player I received had a problem with the stereo in a few months when I put in the earphones. You could get it to work if you held the earphone connection in a certain position.
I sent it back under the warranty and I received a "new" refurbished one -- serial number crossed out and covered with white label. It too went down in a couople of months and I sent it back.
I again received a "new" refurbished one -- serial number crossed out and covered with a white label. The earphones are no longer working on this one with the same problem as my first one.
So three Creative Zen Touches and each one had problems. I guess Im going to buy an iPod.
On: 2006-11-26
The player worked great for about a year and a half, then I decided to update the firmware from Creatives website so that the player was compatible with WMP. The player froze up during the update and is now stuck in recovery mode. I am an intermediate computer user and have tried all of the self-help on Creatives support site to no avail. Creative will not even provide email tech support now that the warranty is period is expired. They want $25 to issue an RMA for repair ... the least expensive repair is more than the price of a new identical player. I will never buy another Creative product.
On: 2006-10-22
Its not the iPod. Its also not 40 cds in a bulky case, burning in the stuffiness of your back trunk on a hot day.
If youre a studying musician like me, the Zen Touch can be invaluable. The capacity for holding 40 Gigs of music is astounding. Charlie Patton, Louis Armstrong, Rosetta Tharpe, PJ Harvey, Memphis Minnie, Shostakovich, John Coltrane, Wilco, all these great artists readily available at the touch of your hand. And plenty of extra space for your own backing tracks to solo over. Plus you arent paying unnecessarily for unnecessary frills like video (which is neat, but a battery drain, entirely too small picture quality and besides the point for someone looking for a portable music player).
Its great, right? Well, if youre just looking for a portable music device, the sound quality, and the quantity of hard disk space is fantastic. But - but but but - beware the setback. The downside. Everything has it, and few people selling it will reveal it to you.
I could give a crap about firmware, or freezing up, both of those were minor setbacks in utilizing this tool to enjoy great music.
After a year of ownership, my Zen Touch fell out of my hands and onto the pavement. It had done this before, and usually the carrying pouch made sure it wasnt such a bad spill. But now, all I have is a $[...] machine thats in Recovery Mode, and wont get out because of a "hard disk error". And customer support has been tepid.
One might assume, for nearly $[...], and attempting to supersede the iPod, that Creative could make the effort to protect from the accidental and the inevitable. Its in poor taste to make such a bulky product so fragile - even if, (from a voracious, unethical) business perspective, one would assume the customer would get so frustrated but like the product so much as to buy another $[...] player.
But theres also the backlash, that a customer would get so frustrated and choose never to buy from the company again, because of its lack of quality care in developing its products.
Your best bet with the Zen Touch is to purchase the $[...] extra 2 year warranty with them. But why pay $[...] for 40 Gigs of great sound & long battery life when these things will falter on you?
On: 2006-07-14
First off, I love this device. Ive had mine for a year and have spent many hours with the player running in my car while I drive happily listening to my favorite music running for hours and hours. The battery life on this player is awesome (and some of the reason for the somewhat large size of the player). Ive spent literally weeks between charging the unit with normal/occasional use.
When I got my unit, within one day, I did get a single line of pixels in the display across the LCD that went dark. I considered sending the unit back but it is such a minor nit and didnt really cause me that much problem that I didnt send it back. I do suggest to Creative that they check their quality control on the LCD display.
The one thing I dont care for: The case is horrible. Absolutely useless. If you try to wear the leather case and go walking with the Zen at your side while listening to it, the center menu button will press randomly and you end up having to place the player in your hand so you can listen to the unit.
If Creative would simply cut a hole where the case contacts the controls, this would be a much better case. I ended up taking the leather case from a Grundig mino-shortwave radio (which fits nicely!) and using that as the primary case for the Zen. I got the Grundig here on Amazon for $30 and note that the price for cases for the Zen run often more than $30, so why not get an extra radio and get a decent case for the Zen in the process? I do plan to try cutting the original Zen case with someone who has leather working tools doing the job so I can get some use out of the case, but for now, the trusty little Grundig leather case works just as well.
The other thing that is absolutely horrid is the Creative software. If you make the mistake of loading this ill-mannered software on your computer, it will nag you to death unless you register your player. I highly recommend you not load the Creative software except for the drivers and to use the Windows Media Player to manage your playlists and such. Creative needs to rethink its software and when people say no to registering the player, accept that and let it go at that. Instead, this mindless zombie of a package continually barks at you at every reboot. I finally got so sick of it that I removed the Creative software and ended the problem permanently.
Overall, despite the little weird parts of this overall package, I love the actual player and would recommend it... Just realize that you are going to have some adjustments to make with regard to the software and case....
On: 2006-07-05
I admit I had trepidation when I placed my order for this little mp3 player. Even my husband said, "Are you SURE you dont want an iPod?" But I opted to stick to my guns (and all my research) and order the 40GB Creative Zen Touch. Ive only had it a couple of days but let me tell you that I already love it.
The unit itself seems sturdy. Sure, its thicker than the iPod, but it makes me feel confident that I wont accidently break it somehow. The screen is a decent size, the buttons are easy to push and uncomplicated.
The software is not that great, as other reviewers have stated. And the help file is also of no help!! *lol* However, Im fortunate that I was able to figure out a way of ripping my CDs and in only two days I am proud to say I have over 800 files on the unit right now. Twenty-one of those files are extended play podcasts that will be removed eventually since once listened to I have no need to keep. In any case, according to the player I have only used about 10% of its total capacity at this point. So obviously Im pleased with that. At that rate I should easily be able to get the advertised 10,000 song files on this baby (minus podcasts).
Battery life is low when actually loading up the songs - I find that after a 2-3 hour loading session Im already down a tick on the battery watch. However, its great to know I can leave it attached to my computer with the USB cable and itll recharge the battery.
Sound is better than expected - I have my own earbud headphones that I use and the quality is excellent through those. I messed around with the various EQ choices and found that they are quite nice. I can imagine with a REALLY nice pair of headphones that the sound is amazing. I have yet to test the player in my car (using the cassette tape adapter) - Ill run that test tomorrow commuting to/from work. But Im confident it will go well.
All in all a GREAT player for the money. My main reason for getting it was that it plays not just mp3 files but WMAs. I have a large number of WMAs on my computer that I wanted to be able to play without converting them. The Creative player does just that. iPod doesnt offer that capabilities. That, and the price, is what had me choosing the Creative. And I couldnt be happier about that.
Four stars is a ding for the horrible software and the lack of really good help files. However, if you have *any* techie in you at all, you can figure it out easily enough.
On: 2006-06-17
I want to know if anyone knows what other case will work with this player. I have not purchased this mp3 player yet, but when I do I want to have a case to go with it that allows me access to all of the buttons on the player. I wish creative would make more accessories for this player. I know other people say they have bought a case from another seller, but they never said who it was. I really want a good case for this great player. Please give me some answers to my questions. Thanks.
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: 2006-05-30
This is my second Creative MP3 player and probably my last. The first was a Jukebox III which recently croaked years after little use and being handled with kid gloves. It never left my house, was never dropped, and like new despite its untimely death. Jukebox III cost slightly more than Zen Touch, and had half the drive capacity. What it did have was more customization, functional buttons, and menu convenience. Creative support was at best horrible however and still is. So what possessed me to buy another? Here goes...
After waiting forever and being nearly last person to obtain the obscure and long awaited rare wired remote, then paying a kings ransom, this little gem was hard to let go of. It added FM radio, microphone for voice recording, and ability to control the player remotely while tucked in a carrying case. The last of the truly decent high capacity Creative players to make use of them turned out to be Zen Touch, and by now nearly a dinosaur itself. The features which originally attracted me to Creatives line of MP3 player was quality construction, large drive size, and most important that they did not choose to control transferred data or music files between equipment. If I wish to put files from one computer into my MP3 player and transfer them to my other computer, I can without restriction.
Now that I have Zen Touch and have been using it awhile there are a few things I do not care for. The scroll touch is far too sensitive even at lowest setting. It zooms up, zooms down, never giving a chance to select a file, and the center area either works or doesnt half the time then over shoots the mark. Not so slick. The menu is lackluster and basic compared to firmware used by Jukebox III, and after an upgrade I noticed it did not allow customization of startup screen through Mediasource software which may or not have been the case prior. This was the best way to ensure the player had your own logo on it in the event of theft recovery.
Zen Touch is not as sound rich as Jukebox III, and a disappointment by comparison. The battery is not removable which means the two batteries from my old player cannot be used with this one. Whos poorly thought out design was that?! If a company wishes to endear itself to the consumer, it makes add on equipment useable for future purchases, not so they become obsolete. For this reason, when this player dies like the last, it will be the last Creative product I purchase unless they come up with better customer support, more foresight, and great product quality and design which allows free transfer of file data. Hope they are up to the challenge, because I do not wish to buy a trendy Ipod either as Im looking for something with more freedom of choice, fairly priced, and higher quality.
On: 2006-05-27
This is the first type of mp3 player Ive owned and it works well. I have thousands of songs on here (around 7,000 right now). This mp3 player is designed well--the buttons are well placed and there are enough functions.
I would advise you not to open up songs by music style if you store a lot of songs on your player. It can take quite a while for all the songs to load (around a minute or even longer).
I do want to caution you though. I received this type of mp3 player for Christmas and for some reason it didnt work at all. After a lot of hassle (a lot of hassle!) I was able to get a replacement and havent had any problems since (thankfully!).
On: 2006-04-28
I used email customer support, as their live support is only available during regular office hours and inconvenient for me to use. Their email system works such that if a problem is not resolved with a single correspondence, the next correspondence is handled by a different person. This is apparently a random process. Accordingly, each time the issue is reviewed, the person doing the reviewing is completely unfamiliar with the problem. Its also obvious that each new person does not carefully read over the troubleshooting history. This results in the same advice being repeated, and also completely inappropriate advice being given. I had a problem with software installation, but somewhere along the process one of the Creative people got the idea that I had a problem with recognition of the player. Even after I responded (twice!) that that wasnt the issue, they continued to try to solve this nonexistent problem, while at the same time ignoring my real problem. Also, any comments or questions that I had that I thought would help to resolve my issue were completely ignored. Mostly their responses appeared to have been cut and pasted out of some kind of boilerplate customer service manual (including offers to buy more Creative products).
Finally, they accused me of ignoring their advice, which is true because their advice was irrelevant!
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: 2006-04-09
This is the second Creative MP3 player Ive owned. First was a Creative Nomad Jukebox, which died after about 13 months. The PC software was awkward to use - or maybe it was just poor documentation with the software.
The Creative Zen Touch performed much better - it required a reset much less often, and the resets took several seconds instead of a few minutes. (The Nomad took a few minutes to re-build the library after every reset or after charging a battery that had run out.) The Zen Touch was also much faster for moving through menus, finding a song, and getting the song started.
Battery life was great, somewhere around 10 hours, maybe more.
After 8 months, my Zen Touch froze up in the middle of a song. The only thing it would respond to was the reset, and after the reset it immediately froze in the same place. It had performed well until then, but seems to be a goner. Luckily the Nomad had taught me to buy an extra warranty from the retailer.
Before buying this, go to creative.com and check out their customer support section. They do NOT want to talk to customers who are having problems with their products, especially if its been more than 60 days since the purchase!
On: 2006-03-25
I love my Creative Zen Touch MP3 Player. Take with a grain of salt the dissatisfied customers. I have my entire music library in it with room to spare. It allows you to look at songs by genre, artists, even with the software by the year.
Only problem I have had is it locked up twice but a mere reset and it was ready to go again.
I am very satisifed and this is much cheaper than an Apple I-Pod
On: 2006-03-17
I bought my Creative about two months after my fiancee bought his iPod (a year ago, in fact). After six months, his iPod needed rebooting every other week, and had to be reformatted every few months. During the same time period, my Creative has frozen twice (solved by turning it off for a day or two and recharging the battery) and never needed rebooting or reformatting. His iPod crashed last night, and the people at Apple said they would need to send it away to fix the hard-drive problems, at his expense...so hes now simply going to replace the thing with the new Creative Sleek.
What I liked better about the Creative is that the volume, pause, play, FF and REW controls are separate from the touch pad. That bothered me the most about the iPod, if you FF to the next song on shuffle, and the mp3 volume was higher, youd have to wait for the screen to reset to change the volume...ending in a lot of headaches. The Creative control pad set-up is much more intuitive and convenient. It also came with a case, so you dont have to fork over extra money for a horribly colored gel holder.
I dont use my player for anything but songs, so I dont know about how it handles data files. The program you use to upload songs is not as user-friendly as iTunes, but I dont upload new music very often so I dont find that much of an issue. Definitely a better deal than the iPod, and it seems to hold up better over time.
On: 2006-02-18
I cancelled this purchase before it was shipped, because the Creative MP3 players are not compatible with Audible (my source for audio book downloads).
On: 2006-02-14
I switched to the Creative Zen Touch after a year or so with the Apple Ipod 3G. I was disappointed with the Apple Ipod because of battery life, easily scratched, iTunes, extra stuff you needed to buy, etc. The Creative Zen Touch is a little bigger but has a far superior battery, and TONS of storage. Be sure and go right to the Creative website and get the latest firmware updates and software for much improved functionality. The original software and firmware that came in the box is dated but the new software/firmware is MUCH improved, well done Creative. The thing I dont like is the vertical touch menu, it is difficult to get the menu I want and can take a lot of getting used to. After a month, it still irritates me. As for sound quality, the Creative is about equal to the new Apple Ipod 5G, which is excellent. Had it not been for the design of the vertical touch menu, I would have rated this 5 stars...
On: 2006-02-13
I did a lot of research before I bought this product, I started in December 04 and finally bought this is July 05... guess what happened in January of 06.. my Zen "Technologically" Touch(y) mp3 player... yeah it broke almost exactly 6 months after I bought it.. hmmm kinda odd and suspicious right? So I figure now Ill go buy an Ipod (phewy and psshaw), even with the whole sending it in to re-install the battery, I atleast have a player that is well designed and functions after 6 months... if the whole "trendy" issue is keeping you from buying an I-pod, then youre a moron... because this whole "anti-Ipod" thing in and of itself has become a trend, if the Ipod didnt function properly that id understand, but it seems (by proportion to every other mp3 player) to work better than any other player out there, so screw it.... stop being so tragically hip and own up to the fact youre just as vain as everyone else.
On: 2006-02-13
No matter how good the design of this product may be, and no matter how good the features are, there is an underlying problem with this corporations treatment of its customers.
I have had a really nasty experience with the Creative Lab Zen Xtra 40G, which convinced me to stop purchasing any of the companys products. Unfortunately most of my computer sound related accessories are Creative ones.
The problem arose when one of the companys new firmware release bricked the player. After this there was no way to reset the device in any of the ways accessible to owners, it had to be sent back to the labs to restore it. After doing a little on-line research it became clear that many people experienced the same exact problem. Same update, same response, at the same stage of the update. This was no fluke.
I exhausted every possible way of getting the Tech support department to take responsibility for this bad piece of software and wave the fees associated with the restoration. Even the supervisor I talked with refused to assist and insisted on referring to the warranty, which in my view has nothing to do with a companies responsibility to wards its clients.
An owner should not be responsible in regards to the breaking of hardware due to buggy software by the manufacturer itself.
On: 2006-02-12
I have wanted a MP3 player for the longest time. Ive bought some 512MB flash memory ones as gifts. But for my personal use, I needed to do more research. The Zen Touch 40GB is the end result of that long research. Ive held my friends video iPod (30GB) in my hands. While its a sleek device, I was determined to resist the power of the Dark Side. The Creative Zen Touch offers me a solid alternative. First of all, lets be clear what its not. Its not a multimedia player, has no video/photo capability, no color screen, no calendar/address book functionality. It just plays music (MP3/WMA/WAV), and it plays them in great sound quality. If all you want is a music player, then this is a great value.
Externally, its not as sleek as the iPod, its about the same width and height but more than twice the thickness (a full inch versus the iPod 0.4", the 20GB version is 0.8"). But the reason its so thick (and heavy, it weights 60% more than the iPod) may have to do with the high capacity battery which lasts for 24hr playing time versus the iPods 12. The build quality is also terrific, with great fit and finish. It feels like a solid product. The touch pad works pretty well once you get used to the sensitivity. The included ear buds are too big and uncomfortable. I use an old pair of Sony MDR-EX70 that works pretty well.
Now we get to the software, here is where Creative fall way behind. The included software feels clunky and looks ugly, its a long way from the sleek iTunes, which I have to admit, is probably the most intuitive software for playing/purchasing music. But after a trip to the Creative website and downloading the latest firmware/driver/software, its much better. Its now integrated into the Windows explorer enabling drag and drop download for both music and data files. And you can create folders in the music library keeping your files well organized. You can also create playlist on the Zen using drag and drop. In addition, it does support a variety of languages including CJK characters (Chinese/Japanese/Korean). The standard software does not support Unicode filenames, but if you use software that support Unicode such as Windows Explorer or Windows Media Player, you can use Unicode filenames without any problem. I now have no complaints about the software.
In conclusion, this is a solid music player, while may not have the sleekest form, does offer great fuctionality at a good price.
On: 2006-02-08
I have had the Zen Touch 40GB model for about 5 months, and am still impressed by it. It is larger and heavier than the iPod, but the capacity for the price is excellent. The weight and "bulkiness" is a plus for me. The iPods just feel cheaply built and I am afraid that if it were dropped, its history.
I found it at Best Buy on sale for $225. The sound quality is outstanding, which was a main selling point for me. I have over 4000 tracks on it, and still not halfway full. I bought it solely for music, not for a color screen or video playback. For this purpose, it is great. My only "problem" is that in transferring tracks, some are played back in the wrong order. I suspect that this is a tagging issue, though. The battery life is great--24 hours at least using little backlight and at a moderate volume.
If you are looking for a solid, well-designed MP3 player with great sound quality this is it. If you need video playback, etc. look for other Creative products on their website. Good products, at a fraction of Apples inflated prices. Research before you buy into what an ad tells you!
On: 2006-02-01
Bought three (3) Zen Touch for Christmas 2004 (just a bit over one year ago). The disk drive one on went bad less than two months later. Creative Lab replaced it with a refurbished unit -- I hated that but had no choice.
Now just one week after the one year part warranty hads expired, disk drive on another one went bad!!! It will cost $24.95 for diagnotics + parts to fix the player.
It could be bad luck, but this is a rather disappointed experience for me (66% failure rate), so I think it would be fair to warn you all.
On: 2006-01-31
Cant say enough good things about the Zen Touch. Its extremely easy to load -- I found the included software pretty simple, and Im not very computer savvy -- and does so much more quickly than my previous player, an iRiver H10. I use the included software, which may not be great for managing files, but is significantly better than WMA for transfering them. Doesnt matter which music management system you use, though, as the included software behaves nicely with WMA and Music Match, which I use to rip cds. Once ripped, its easy to move them to the included software and then to the player, or just directly to the player through the drag and drop capability. Note: drag and drop doesnt seem to work for playlists.
Its also easy to navigate, I actually like the scroll bar and the menu layout is no better or worse than others Ive used and seen. The big, HUGE difference is the addition of a function that lets you jump around the alphabet as opposed to forcing you to scroll through album or artist names progressively from a-z. Its indispensable for those with substantial collections. Makes you wonder why no one else has it (or no one Ive heard of, at least). Really. I cant believe this isnt industry standard. Imagine if a tv remote only let you move up or down one channel at a time. Crazy right? Thats most mp3 players. Not the Zen Touch.
The Zen Touch is also reliable. My H10 was a nightmare, I had to carry around a paperclip for resetting, it crashed so often. And I also never knew if a sync session with my PC would be successful. No such problems with the Zen Touch. Smooth sailing.
Lastly, the battery life is incredible. Im on 15 hours straight playing right now and theres no sign of stopping. And its powering through computer speakers at a much higher volume than I would use for headphones. Dont know if Ill make the 24 hours advertised, but 15+ is plenty enough for me.
On: 2006-01-30
I upgraded to this player after having the Archos Jukebox Recorder, running the open-source RockBox software. Heres what Ive learned:
First, make sure you head over to creative.com and download all the updates. The firmware and software updates are VERY handy. All the complaining about Nomad Explorer is moot, because the downloads give you the Zen Touch Media Explorer, which works exceptionally well for me. Multiple file tag edit, drag and drop, you name it.
Second, the firmware in the player is good, but it felt like a SERIOUS downgrade from the RockBox software. I realise that I cant expect Creatives software to compete with open-source programming, but still. I had gotten used to having a sleep timer, for example. The list of features that Creative DOESNT have is a mile long. BUT on the flip side of the coin, Id never go back to the Archos for one big reason: the Archos didnt sort by ID3 tags. I didnt like it at first, but it grew on me fast. I just wish there was more ways to sort them.
Pros:
-Fast player. Switching between songs rarely takes a full second
-Great interface. I love the touch pad.
-Big bright screen. Go check out the Archos Jukebox Recorder to see what I came from.
-Lock button. LOVE IT.
-Battery life. I left it playing ALL NIGHT last night and its still got quite a bit of battery left.
-Read: Sort by Genre + Shuffle Play = best radio station ever!
Cons:
-Very limited firmware. The stuff you can do is cool, but the stuff you cant is vast.
-Creatives tech support is infamous. INFAMOUS! For sucking.
-Touch pad is quite sensitive. I have mine set on low, and it still takes a very steady hand.
-included earbuds suck. Whos surprised? Not me.
-Absolutely NO accessories. The iPod has this player whipped in this category. (and every other player too, i suppose)
All in all, Im very impressed with this player. Its very nice looking, very long battery life, intuitive interface (ive browsed the manual to see if i missed anything, and I didnt really see anything that I didnt figure out on my own), and plenty of space on it.
On: 2006-01-17
I received the 40gb Zen Touch for Christmas. I read about people complaining about the case it comes in and the ear buds. I just bought another case and use my Optimus top of the line earphones.The sound quality is excellent though I wish it had a bass boost. The software was easy to load and since I rip from my extensive Cd collection I find it very easy to download. Another plus is if youre not running Windows XP, you can still use Windows 98 to download. Once you get used to the touch pad its fairly quick and easy to navigate.Having the volume buttons on the side is a big plus for me.
I work inside an office about 4 hours a day so the battery life is perfect. It lasts all week. The one touch random play button is a nice touch too.
Lets get one thing straight. There is no "ipod killer" out there and probably never will be. They are the king of mp3 players and always will be. Creative is just trying to get a piece of the action. The Zen Touch was a lot cheaper and for my particular use is better. You just look around and test MP3 players until you find one you like. Its nice to know there are options besides ipod, which NEVER budge on the price. Of course, the nice thing about ipod are the accessories. I wish Creative had a docking/charging station for the zen, as well as a protective clear cover.
Overall I really like the Creative Zen Touch. Its heavier and not as flashy as ipod, but it works for me. I dont care about videos or photos or tv shows , which eats the battery anyway. No matter what MP3 player you get, there will ALWAYS be something more you want out of it. I just want music, and the Zen is perfect for my use. You get what you pay for.
On: 2006-01-06
Ive had my Creative Zen Touch for almost a year now, and I still love it. I was slightly tempted to get the latest iPod video, but then read reviews from people who had bought it and were grossly dissatisfied with it. One of my beefs with Creative is the lack of accessories for the Zen Touch, but at least the darn thing came with a wall charger and a decent carrying case! Sure, get an iPod and get soaked for the little basic things you need to operate it!
I dont hate Apple. I have an iBook. I even found a decent open source application to download my MP3 collection to my Zen Touch from my iBook. I use iTunes to rip my CDs to MP3s and load them on a non-Apple product. How cool is that?
The battery life cant be beat. I havent timed how long I can go between charges because I just lose track of the days!
The sound quality is wonderful. I dumped the earbuds right away, but then again earbuds usually fall out of my ears right away, and these seemed larger than any other pair I had tried. I bought a pair of Koss KSC22 Sportclip Headphones, and theyre great.
The size and weight of the unit is certainly larger and heavier than an iPod, but I doubt an iPod could have handled being dropped a couple of times sans case with minimal scratching like my Zen Touch. Ive even gone running with the Zen Touch without a hitch. Overall it is a very attractive unit and it feels very solid.
The buttons feel very solid, and the user interface is easy. Setting the IDF tags took some time, but was worth it to be able to see so much information about a track so readily.
Small beefs:
Creative isnt looking to create any partnerships for accessories. Theyre paying more attention to the newer Micro and Sleek lines. I think thats really sad considering how many people really love this player. The one cool accessory they have on their website (the FM remote) has been unavailable for a long time, and I doubt theyll be producing more.
Ive had the player lock up a couple of times. I dont have that large of a collection (only about half of the 40 gigs and no data store). However, I only had to hit reset and everything was fine.
The touchpad isnt my fave. I had it set to low sensitivity but then there were many times when it wouldnt respond to my touch at all. I had to set it to medium for optimal performance, which means that when selecting a song it can be a bit tricky. However, I use the Random button mostly (oh how I love the Random button!), so this isnt a terribly huge issue.
So even despite the beefs, Im giving it five stars. If you want to have your whole collection with you at all times (with my beloved Random button - like having the best radio station with you all the time!) and want performance rather than hype, you should definitely buy the Creative Zen Touch.
On: 2005-12-08
Many of the negative comments about the Zen Touch involve the difficulty of using the software that comes with it. After loading the latest firmware updates, I downloaded the Creative Software Suite dated 10/31/05. The new software is much easier to use.
A major use of the Zen for me is listening to audiobooks. I was having trouble creating playlists that put the many .mp3 files in the correct order. The new software solves all that.
On: 2005-12-05
I just got a Zen touch 40GB and it is amazing. I have no complaints so far. The reason I am writing this is to let anyone know that is considering this product, that everyone complains that the touch pad is too sensitive, but you can adjust the sensitivity of the touch pad under the player settings. Also, a great thing about this player is that you can put protected wma files on it, so if you have cds that you accidentally copied in that format (like me) it is no problem!! Overall a great player. I like it much better than my ipod. ipod is great, but its not worth the money, for the amount of comparable features you get.
On: 2005-12-02
I bought my touch at best buy for 220 bucks (they were having a 25 percent off all creative mp3 players sale) three weeks ago, and I am very pleased with this player.
First off, I want to say that the sound quality is the best you can get out of any mp3 player on the market right now. Like everyone else says, the earbuds are crap. I never use them, I use Grado Labs sr-80s, and this player has amazing sound.
I didnt have trouble with the software like other people did... I used the included creative media source software, dragged my songs on to the player, and voila! I did have a funny problem where I had to plug in the player, unplug it, and repeat about 3 or 4 times until my computer would recognize it. Not a big deal, and it doesnt happen anymore.
The battery life plummets when putting songs on to the player, but when youre playing songs it lasts forever! I use my player the most while Im at work, and it has gone 28-30 hours at a stretch before running out.
Some people had problems with duplicated song names, but Ive always been careful about my ID3 tags when ripping my music, so it wasnt an issue... even though I have about 4 versions of the song "Little Wing" on my zen.
The case is annoying since you cant use the buttons when its on... I just never use it. The zen feels like its built to last, so Ill see how it goes.
If anything happens, I will update. If not, Ill update in a few months.
Edit #1
I forgot to mention the touch pad. Yes, its tricky to get at first, but I lowered the sensitivity to low, and after a few hours of use it became second nature to me. When you make your decision, the touchpad shouldnt be a serious issue.
Edit #2
It is now 4-01-06, and my Zen is just like it was 6 months ago when I bought it. Ive had no problems whatsoever, and I recommend this product to anybody that wants an mp3 player to play MUSIC, and doesnt want to pay for features like photos or videos.
On: 2005-11-26
The interface is nice, sound is good, and it stores a lot of music. However, after having this player for about 6 months the volume stopped being adjustable (the cheap volume buttons on the side somehow broke internally and now its useless). Since the warranty on this thing is no-where close to apples, there was nothing I could do to fix it. So, after wasting a few hundred bucks I bought an ipod and am now happy. Since the volume and controls are all on one wheel, I dont have to worry about 5 different buttons breaking. Plus the warranty for the ipod starts at 1 year (compared to Creatives 3 month warranty), so I wont have to worry about it breaking in 6 months again. Sorry Creative.
by: Anonymous On: 2005-11-18
Ive had this thing about a week so far, and I like it. Heres what Ive noticed.
The included earbuds suck, but I had a good pair of headphones, so thats not an issue for me.
The sound quality is very good. I wish the custom EQ had more breakout (I think it had four bands).
Others have complained about the touchpad being difficult to use, and I agree. It does take some getting used to. Definately start out with the tap for OK feature turned off to eliminate erroreous clicks.
The whole player feels very solid. Ive noticed the volume buttons need a little more pressure than I might expect, but overall its pretty good.
A note to linux users: you have to stick with the firmware it comes with out of the box. Updating to a newer firmware converts the player to an MTP device, which isnt supported in linux currently. And its a non-reversible upgrade, so the answer is just-say-no to the firmware upgrade until something changes.
On: 2005-11-04
A note to JGM (Lexington, KY USA), Every point you made in your review is wrong.
1- It is a totally different player than the Dell
2- It is still supported with firmware upgrades and accessories available on their web site.
This is the third Hard drive player I have owned (20 GB version, identical except for the hard drive. (Gateway XP-20 and iPod) and I feel this is the best of the three. Despite what you read the software is easy to use. Sound is better than the iPod. Searching for songs is easier too. Some people complain that They dont like moving your finger up and down when searching through many songs. Well guess what! you dont have too. Simply holding your finger down on the bottom of the strip causes the player to scroll through the songs. You can also search by the alphabet which narrows down your search.
I use this several hours a day almost every day and it never locks up.
The sound is the best. I use third party headphones.
Queing 3400 songs takes only a couple seconds.
I would rate this 4.5 stars since nothing is perfect. The case is well made but you have to remove the player to see the screen or access most of the buttons. Thats really my only complaint.
On: 2005-11-01
I went for this player because of its price/Gb. It is way too bulky and heavy. Software is the worst among WM, iTune, SonicStage. It will NOT display unicode-characters (such as Chinese) which the Zen Micro can. I am not sure whether this is because I am using the English XP. I end up returning it for the iPOD NANO 4GB. You should only consider the Zen Touch 40 GB if you have to have a large harddrive based player.
On: 2005-10-27
I put every CD that I own on this thing and have room left over. The battery lasts all day while Im at work and thats without turning it off. Id recommend this product to anybody!
On: 2005-10-25
I got one of these as a gift from my Girlfriend a month ago, and am amazed at the things this little box can do.
First, it comes with easy to install software that allows you to backup your entire music collection on the computer. From there, its a synch to connect the computer to the Zen touch, which stores an insane amount of music! I personally have stored 4300+ songs, and am still not even and HALF capacity.
The player works well with peripheral add ons, such as a headphone jack that will attach to a cars cassette player for on the go listening. In fact, cassette deck connectors from old portable cd players will work with this system well.
Possibly one of the coolest features of this player is the random play all feature, which sifts through all the music. It can be set to randomly sift through playlists, genres, albums, artists, pretty much anything you want to file your music by.
I had no problems with the loudness factor on this item, but do find that the touch pad can be a bit sensitive. Also, its hard to find "official" creative zen accesories, for those who are into getting liscensed swag, this may be a downer.
Ripping cds is a snap and the software includes a program that will automatically list the tracks on a disc and the artist, as well as the genre. This is a real time saver, except when ripping mix cds.
If you are looking to get an easy to use MP3 player and need to store a music catalogs worth of music, this is a great system to use. I highly recommend this product to anyone who wants an alternative to the ipod but who also wants real storage capacity.
On: 2005-10-24
Absolutely a great buy, dont pay for Apple advertising, this is the SAME THING, only you scroll down and not in a circle. I cant thing of a good reason to buy an Ipod over this. Battery life on this thing is ridiculous. Less proprietary accessories to accumulate afterwards. Seriously, why pay more?
On: 2005-10-24
I just bought this mp3 player recently and it has certainly earned its keep. The player itself looks really nice but beyond that, its incredibly functional. As advertised, the software uploaded a song per second onto the player, although the first time I used it, it still took over an hour because I uploaded about 4200 songs. Even with that time constraint though, this little device was worth every penny. The software that comes with the device is very easy to use. It manages the songs with every category you could need. You can do Album, Artist, or Genre searches and you can change any of that information for any of the tracks using the software on your computer.
With all of this, I recommend this player to anyone that wants a portable music collection. Theres just one thing that you cant do with this, running. In the manuel that comes with the device, it states that due to shock, it is not good to run, jog, or do any other type of strenuous activity with the player.
Also, this is a portable hard drive, and although its not technically made for it, you can upload files as well as songs onto the drive. And unlike the IPOD, you can take things from the player and move them to your computer. Savvy.
On: 2005-10-14
I have been shopping around for a MP3 player for a long time. I finally got serious about it really starting comparing the players. The first one that comes to every ones mind is the ipod. I looked into those, and while the color screen is amazing and they insanely popular, I personally dont feel they are worth the $$$. A new 20GB ipod is around $300. The sound quality isnt that great either when compared to other players(iRiver and Creative comes to mind).
Now bring in the Zen Touch. Althought the Zen Touch doesnt have a color screen it has twice the space and superb sound quality. I also picked up my Zen Touch(40GB) for $30 cheaper than the 20GB ipod. I also like the fact that it plays WMA files. With some of the newer file sharing services supporting this file system its important to have a player that can play those files. Ive read many reviews that didnt like the sensitivity of the scrolling device. It is a bit touchy at first, but with a little practice(20 minutes tops) it becomes as easy to use as the mouse on your computer. The random button on the front of the unit is a little inconvientely placed. If you slide the Zen Touch into the included leather case you can bet on the random button being pressed, but by using the lock feature you can avoid this.
Creative Zen Touch 40GB
Pros:
- Higher MB/$ ratio than the ipod, and overall bang for the buck
- Support of mp3/wma/wav files
- Excellent sound quality
- Battery charges last arounds 24hrs off a 4hr charge
Cons:
- Blue-backlit screen doesnt compare to the ipods color screen
- Included software isnt that great. Check out NOTMAD Explorer as an alternative.
- The lack of accessories available
- Included earbuds arent that great. They seem too clunky. Toss them and get something better.
Final Impression:
If I had to go back and start over I would probably still stay with the Zen Touch. Its a fantastic product that deserves some of the ipods spotlight.
On: 2005-10-13
I love my Zen Touch. It has oodles of room. I have 3500 filed on it so far, including several entire-album files, and still have eighteen Gigs to go. Sweet! And the randomize feature seems to actually ....randomize.
My experience with battery life is so far way ahead of what the player should deliver - Ive gotten about thirty-five hours without a charge, over five days, in my office. Supposedly I should get about fourteen. Although maybe its my usage pattern (8 hours a day with overnight breaks.)
The software that came with the unit really SUCKS, but the player itself is perfect. Anyone purchasing any of the the Creative products using NOMAD should go on line and locate a product from Red Chair software called .... NOTMAD .... which does everything NOMAD should do, but doesnt.
Overall, this was a perfect purchase. The cigarette pack size doesnt faze me - the price point more than makes up for it. And the touchy-feely strip down the center is kinda cool.
So go get one!
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
Well first I received my MP3 player on my birthday, that I am spending in Mosul Iraq. I was really excited because I didnt think that I would get it by than.
Anyway the controls are pretty simple. It is easy to set up your playlist and this player sounds great.
On: 2005-10-07
Realizing that every website I have travled to they have said "fm with optional remote" well guess what that optional remote doesnt exist...I went to Creatives website and they dont even sponors this unit in there own assories page.
I really wanted to buy this unit, Im fine with the horrible software that they give. I can just use my own. Im fine with the fact that the earbuds are just simply horrid. I have my own and will using this mostly for my car. Im also fine with the touch pad being difficult to get use to. But the simply fact that Im about to spend $250 dollars on a single unit, I want to put it in some sort of case, and not the horrible case they provide where you dont have access to any of the buttons and since there is no remote you have to take it out of the case to change the playlist or simply skip the current track.
I went to Bestbuy the other day and Held the Zen Touch and Zen Xtra in my hand..the Touch is definitly a better player to keep in your pocket, The Xtra youd have to be one of those thug kids with the huge pockets to be comfortable with that beast.
I refuse to buy a ipod, and I have always loved creative. Right now in my pc I have there Audigy ZS 2 Platium and I love it! I just wish they would support ALL of there products instead of just the most expensive ones like the Creative Vision that cost about $500!!
Oh, and if your going to use an mp3 player like this, be sure you know what an id3 tag is and if you are a pirate Im sorry for you because you have a lot of work coming to you because most of those pirated files were ripped incorrectly.
I hope you find my thoughts helpful when you consider buying your next mp3 player, I still have no idea what I will end up settling with..yes settling, there isnt a single device out that that
suits all of my needs.
I rated this a 4 simply because, of the horrible case,non existant remote and the simple fact that Creative doesnt support there own product.
On: 2005-10-06
I recently bought the Zen Touch 40 GB and Im thrilled with it. I considered an ipod because I primarily use a Mac, but went with the Zen Touch because it has twice the storage space for the money, the battery lasts 8 hours longer and only take about 4 hours to fully charge, it also has a random button, it comes with a protective case, and it didnt require me to upgrade my OS. This mp3 player has really exceeded my expectations. I have heard people complain that the touch bar is too sensitive, and I wonder if they realize they can adjust the sensitivity. The default setting is medium. I would highly recommend this player to anyone looking for an mp3 player.
On: 2005-10-04
Well everyone said it and the only thing I have noticed 2nd day of having it is the case, if you put it in the case you have to lock it. If you want to skip songs you have to take it out of the case.
I also noticed that the head-set the left piece started crapping out on me. I also read another comment that the ear-buds suck real bad and I guess it is true. They sound good but getting to vol+/-20 I hear cranking noise on the left one.. Is it worth returning for new ones.. hmm maybe not. I paid the 60$/extra for the 2 year insurance via amazon.
It is good, Im happy I will buy the FM Transmitter for the unit, I will buy the Clear Case that you can use buttons through and I hope they have the docking station with speakers coming out soon for the Zen Touch. I use a Mass Tagging software for my MP3 ID3 tags.. I dont mind making playlists or playing random on the run.
Do I regret buying, not at all. Do I enjoy it, yes, I wish they made the same size, ZenTouch 60gig because I wouldve purchased that. For having a USB1.0 on my laptop vs 2.0 it was pretty quick transfering 1,000 songs for the first time. Ive got about 8,000 to go.
On: 2005-09-29
Ive read alot of reviews comparting the Creative players to the iPod. Ive already narrowed my search to a Creative player, but am having a tough time deciding between the Creative Zen Touch 40 and the Creative Nomad 40. Please let me know the pros and cons of each in comparison.
Thanks
On: 2005-09-28
I just couldnt resist that title, but honestly thats a great description. Ive had a 20 GB for quite a while. Its great, buy one. Im sure the 40GB is great too. It has twice the memory, though I dont see why thats necessary for songs. I have over 5,000 64WMA songs on mine. Creative says you can put 10,000 64WMA songs on it. You probably can. Thats a lot of work, though. I use 64 wma which sounds great. Buy one,Youll be happy. Ignore the negative reviews. If, by chance you have a problem, contact Creative and theyll handle it ASAP and in a professional manner. My Zen touch is like my Casio Databank watch. If something was to happen to either one of them; Id immediately go online and order another one.
On: 2005-09-23
This is a fine mp3 player that holds a massive number of files. The sound quality consistently beats the competition (Creative is, after all an audio company) and the battery life is tops in the industry.
There are a few quirks in the software and user interface but nothing that would take away from the overall usage of the product.
But when paying hundreds of US$ for an mp3 player all of the issues of ownership must be factored in (as opposed to just the player itself). The problem with this player is that Creative has completely abandoned it. When it was released in mid-2004, it was billed as a quality alternative to the Ipod (some trade mags and websites were close to crowning it as the Ipod killer). Yet, more than a year later, there are no accessories of note (Ipod has how many?), and the lack of firmware upgrades (Audio books anyone?) are evidence that Creative has little faith in this product, and more damaging to the possibilities of a future increase in the overall mp3 market share, in developing the consumer loyalties have allowed Ipod to own the market. Further, given that this product has been on the market for more than a year, not even the most optimistic fan truly believes that Creative will begin, now, to release the needed firmware upgrades (audio books, file management, etc...) or the most desired hardware accessories (car chargers/speaker systems, FM transmitters, high quality sound docking stations - see the Bose product, functionally sound cases, etc...) Clearly, Creative has moved on to focus on the new mp3 player releases.
To make matters worse, this same player, in essence, is sold through Dell as the DJ with nearly all of the firmware upgrades and a number of quality accessories that Creative has denied to its own direct customers. No small amount of irony there.
Again, the zen touch excels as a player but minus the support of Creative, and at even the current reduced pricing, it cannot compare to the entire ownership experience to its chief competition.
If you really like this player and dont want to wait until the price drops below $100 (where the ownership experience argument begins to be less of a factor in comparison to Creatives competition), buy the Dell version. If you are looking for an alternative to the Ipod, bite the bullet and buy the Ipod.
On: 2005-09-09
Ive had my Zen Touch for a few days now, and its been wonderful to use. All things considered, I fully researched the player before I made the purchase and came to the conclusion that it was exactly what I was looking for. It has its low points, but the long battery life & low price definitely outweigh its chunky size and lack of subdirectory support.
The High Points:
--Sound quality:-- I listen to a lot of classical music in addition to shake-yer-booty club tunes, and the Zen Touch has played everything Ive thrown at it clearly, crisply, and without any distortion.
--Price:-- My budget for the player was limited, and I only went a few dollars over while getting lots of bang for the buck.
--Data support:-- I have about half the space on my Zen filled with movies and random files which are really easy to drag & drop. Its great for taking a movie too big for CD over to a friends place.
--Durability&Construction:-- This player feel like quality. Its obviously well made and sturdy. It would probably be easy to scratch the finish, but thats why there is a case. I would definitely be mindful of dropping it while its running, though, since thats a great way to kill a hard drive. A fall would likely not harm the case, but if the hard drive is spinning it can ruin the drive. Thankfully, the belt clip has a little edge which helps to keep it from slipping off, and Ive clipped it to everything from necklaces to bra straps to a swimsuit with no fear of it falling off.
--Battery:-- It just keeps going and going and going!!! I havent timed how long Ive gotten yet, but its definitely way over 20hrs. Docking sucks the life out, though. Plug in for it.
Things I Expected To Be Low Points But Were Fine:
--Scroll Bar:-- A lot of people have complained that it is too sensitive, but mine has been fine to use without playing with any settings. It took about three minutes of useless flipping from the bottom of my playlist to the top, but its easy to get the hang of.
--Headphones:-- The included headphones are perfectly adequate. Theyre not Sennheisers, but they dont distort and I plan to use them because money is tight and theyre fine... In fact, theyre noticeably better than any other headphones provided with CD players Ive purchased in the past.
--Software:-- I expected that the software would be awful, considering the reviews, but I used both Creatives NOMAD Explorer and Red Chairs NOTMAD Explorer for a while and I didnt feel that it was necessary to pay the extra bucks for it. Creatives software is perfectly adequate for transferring files to the player, creating playlists, and editing certain ID3 tags in bulk (artist, album, and genre). Thats all I expect it to do, and it does that very well.
The Low Points:
--No Subdirectories:-- The Zen Touch uses ID3 tags to organize the files, which is a pain since a lot of the time the tags are wrong, especially on mp3s which have been around for a long time. However, tags are definitely better on downloaded files these days than they were in the Napster era. Creatives software makes it easy to bulk edit some tags(album, artist, genre), too, which really helps to cut down on the pain-in-the-butt factor. Thankfully, there are plenty of free ID3 editing programs out there to easily bulk edit the track number and year fields.
--Provided Case:-- Dont get me wrong, its great protection for the player, but its not possible to access the buttons while it is in there. That means everytime you want to change the song, you have to pull the player out, take it off hold, press the next button, turn hold back on, and then slip it back in the case. What a pain. I havent purchased a new case yet, but Im definitely going to look into it!
And, inconsequentially, the headphone cord is white, so from afar it looks like Id actually waste my money on an iPod. Boo.
All in all, this is a great player and definitely worth the money.
On: 2005-07-15
Positive things:
I got my Zen Touch 40GB about a week ago, and overall Im very happy with it. The touchpad isnt as easy to use as the iPods wheel, but if you turn the sensitivity down in the settings it shouldnt be a real problem.
The battery life is exceptional. Ive been skipping tracks like crazy, playing 128kbps-392kbps audio, running my backlight on 30-second mode(the highest), and using 30% contrast. I charge nightly after use, and Ive never yet managed to eat an entire bar off the battery life display.
The sound quality, as others have said, is great. A clip-on case comes in the box. Its fine for carrying it around, but if you want to access any of the buttons on the player, youll have to remove it from the case until youre done messing around.
Negative things:
The earbuds that come in the box suck. They hurt my ears and fall out every three seconds. Get yourself a pair of these, instead: Sony MDR-J10
The players firmware is very minimalistic. You cant set it to display the time of day along with the track information(which isnt something Ive seen on any mp3 player, but it would make sense... why should I have to carry an mp3 player AND a watch?), and it doesnt support any lossless encoded audio format. It also doesnt support viewing text files... which would be a useful feature for keeping recipies and such. Im hoping that Creative will address these three issues in a firmware update.
Ive also heard a lot about problems with the players interface freezing. Ive not personally experienced this, but apparently the only way to fix it is to either wait for the battery to die completely, or push a straightened paper clip into the reset-hole. Youd think they could make that a little more accessible. I hope it never becomes a problem for me.
The computer-interface software kind of sucks. It takes absolutely forever to transfer music to the player, even when using a USB 2.0 port.
The placement of the OK button on the touchpad track was a bad call on the part of Creatives design team. Its not a huge problem... its just not where Id have put it.
Overall, its a great player, and Im happy I got it instead of an iPod, but Id really appreciate a firmware upgrade.
On: 2005-07-08
The Zen Touch is slowly becoming the most important electronic device that I own. My favorite thing is that I can put any MP3 on the device and it will play it. I have and extensive MP3 collection and it plays them all without fail, from my old MP3s to my newest licensed ones. Throw the bundled software away and just install the newest driver though, I found it very confusing to use. I simply use the drag and drop method to get my music onto the device. I am very pleased with the device and the performance the audio sounds great. It will soon be supported by Napsters To Go service and I cant wait to fill all 40 gigs with music.
On: 2005-05-15
two things, is there a case for this thing you can buy anywhere? also, is it the same size as the 20 GB model? Thanks!
On: 2005-05-01
Great mp3 player with one fatal flaw. All mp3s are stored in one directory, making it very hard to organize songs and resulting in a lot of file name conflicts.
An mp3 player just needs to be a portable hard drive with headphones. Amazing how many lack this basic functionality.
So its not perfect, but it is better than an ipod. At least it doesnt meddle with my primary music library the way the ipod does.
On: 2005-04-27
I bought this elsewhere for much cheaper, so do your homework. Amazon prices dont seem as competitive as they once were! Anyway, on with the review. I think this unit sounds fantastic. The headphones really work well for me. They fit my ears well and sound full and robust. I have a pair of Sennheiser ear buds (MX500) and a Sennheiser headset (cant find the model number) and they do not sound as good as the included earbuds. This is a pleasant surprise as I expected the included phones to not fit well and sound poor. So that is good. Earbuds seem to be a very individual thing. In any case, I want to get a new set of headphones, perhaps the Sennheiser PX100s... Overall I find earbuds dainty and difficulty to store well (there is no case for the included earbuds, I use my MX500 case...)
I find the software to be completely usable. I do not use it to rip unless my EAC/LAME setup cannot handle one of my CDs, then the Mediasource software usually handles things just fine, which I find interesting. One thing for sure is that files upload VERY quickly to the player and it is so easy to SYNC your PC music collection to the player (or vice versa). I especially like the media sniffer aspect of Mediasource which scans the directories you point it to for new additions to add to the collection... Very handy!
I would give the player five stars, but: I do wish Creative had included a remote. Also, the case is just crappy and doesnt clamp well to my belt or jeans pocket. I usually put the player in a pocket. Get used to using the player lock button as the random button for some reason seems to get pressed a lot for no reason....
As for the controversial touch strip, I find it to be okay. Yes, it is sensitive, but I find that I am getting better. Initially I was terrible, but incrementally and slowly I am seeing improvement. I turned the tap feature on the touchpad off. The buttons are useful, except for the random one, which is just plain dumb... No one must have tested this in design phase.
Overall, this is a great player. Comparatively cheap, well designed, and fabulous sound. Works perfectly well for me. I have had it for about 3 weeks now and have been listening and using it a lot!
On: 2005-04-23
I love this thing.
The Good: Almost everything! Particularly:
EXCELLENT battery life.
Solid build.
Incredible sound quality.
Unique, if not eniterly effective firrmware.
The bad: The included software isnt good. At all. But Ive used worse.
My 20 GB Zen Touch had a harddisk failure after around a month. Creative speedily replaced it with another, though on the replacement, the scroll wheel was broken when I received it. They took it back, and somehow I ended up with a 40 GB model.
This is the most excellent and efficient customer service I have ever encountered.
No player Ive seen sounds better.
On: 2005-04-15
I have been using the Zen Touch for several months now. Extremely pleased with my purchase. A couple of years ago I bought a Nomad3, its round shape caused a lot of slipping and falling to the ground. Eventually I had to send it back to Creative to get fixed. An eighty dollar service charge was too much so they sent it back and I managed to fix the unit by dropping it again. Nervous, I sold it to a buddy (its still working) and bought a Dell DJ15 GB. Made by Creative the unit it self was great but the software (MusicMatch) was very buggy. After discovering AllofMP3.com I ran out of room. So I went back to Creative and loved the new software. Nice unit, very clean looking. The software supports dual players at the same time so it is very easy to swap songs through a PC. Nice feature.
On: 2005-04-08
I purchased the Zen Touch when it first came out with the intention of replacing my old Jukebox Zen. While I like the looks of the Zen Touch better, I was bothered by a few things.
1) The random button. I never put my player on hold since I am constantly changing tracks and the volume. I kept hitting the little random button which put every file onto my playlist. So then I had to go and delete the files I didnt want only to hit the button again a few minutes later. Annoying.
2) The playlist feature. Unlike in the Jukebox Zen the now playing files are not grouped by artist or by album, theyre simply placed in one large list. This makes it very time consuming to delete a particular band from the now playing.
3) Button placement. I actually like having the buttons on the side of the player (as in the Jukebox Zen), that means that I can easily slip it into my pocket without hitting any buttons.
4) The touch pad. Its a little difficult to select what you want with this thing but it makes for easy scrolling. Its also nice that you can set how sensitive it is and you can just tap on it to select songs.
5) The software. Okay, we all know by now that the software that Creative packages with its products sucks. I like their products enough though to deal with it.
Overall I thought that the Zen Touch was a good product, I just wish that they had kept some of the features that made me fall in love with the older models. And until they do Im going to stick with my Jukebox Zen.
On: 2005-04-06
Ive had my zen touch for about 2 weeks now, and overall Id say Im very pleased with the product. The design, while a complete ripoff of the ipod, is still functional and useful. (with the exception of a "random play all" button on the front of the device) The features involing the firmware are pretty much identical to the ipod as well; music library, artist, album, etc. Finally, I can say from personal experience that the sound quality is actually superior to that of the new generation of ipods. A close friend of mine had just purchased a brand new 40 gb ipod and we tested them both (pretty much for bragging rights) over several mediums including my fm transmitter, a/v cable input, and headphones. We both agreed unaimously that the zen touch sound clearer with better bass response. All that being said, the zen touch DOES have a tendency to hang up at times, especially while uploading music to it. Ive already had to reset it 3 times. (This doesnt erase anything, but does require a paper clip or something similiar to stick into the "reset slot." Hopefully once all my music is on the player I wont run into this problem. One more thing, kudos to the file-transfer program included with the player, it has a pretty simple interface that only takes a little getting used to. In addition, you can modity the files on the player from your PC! Im not quite sure if you can do that on the ipod, but it would be news to me. Hope this helps.
****Update**** Turns out my USB port was messed up. Now that I fixed the problem it works perfectly and I can upgrade this puppy to a perfect 5 out of 5. Ive had it for 4 months now and I can honestly say that I couldnt imagine life without it.
On: 2005-03-22
Had a Zen xtra 40gb player that was great except for the toggle switch. The Zen Touch fixed this with the touch scroller, but it is a little hard to get a handle on. Sound was great using 3rd party earbud headphones or when connected to another stereo. Industrial design/build/feel of the unit is greatly improved over previous versions.
Skip using the included software and just use Media Player 10 for free - works much better for organizing music and keeps all the same details on the player as well - cataloging, file extensions, etc.
The BIG problem with mine and my neighbors 20gb Zen Touch is that it constantly locks up while playing. You can hear the disk spinning/grinding. Neither unit has been dropped and we have run scan disks and are running the latest firmware.
I am returning my today! iRiver will be next on my list.....
On: 2005-03-01
I have had this product for 2 weeks and I am very happy with it so far.
I wanted a player that read wma, had at least 40gb, a good battery and easy navigation. On all aspects the player scores very high.
I use windows media plyer 10 to transfer the music and nomad explorer to rename some of the wrongly catgeorised mp3s. Overall it works well.
I used to own the Gmini 220. This was such a bad player. It had only one good feature: the file tree structure. All the rest was crap (battery, speed, stability).
This one is fast, and i have not had to reset it once in 2 weeks although I have been listening to it a lot.
HIGHS
- Price
- Very good built quality
- Capacity
- Speed of navigation. I read many reviews on the touchpad. True it is sensistive but i think it works fine. It is very easy/quick to find your song (i.e. to scroll through your entire collection) and then it is easy enough to select the exact song you want (i do not use the touchpad "tap to select" option - i did not find it useful). Also, this machine is used to listen to music not scroll down and up for hours...
- Battery - Amazing
- Sound - very good. The bass are not pronounced enough though. It lacks a "boost bass" option. The EQ function is not very useful to increase the bass as it distorts the music too much.
LOWS
- The firmware is not as evolved as the one used on the Zen Micro (the player is not recognized as a hard drive directly, the touchpad is more sensistive than the Zen Micro)
- It is thicker and heavier than an ipod
- Headphones: Apparently it is not good. I have not tried them. I use the etymotic er6i, which are amazing. I used to own a noise-cancellation hp. This is much better and much more convenient to carry when you travel.
Conclusion
I would defintely recommend the player if you are looking after WMA playback, Capacity and battery.
On: 2005-01-27
I brought this player in early January after a LOT of research. I was really looking for something in the 20gb - 40gb category that could handle all of my mp3s, as well as backing up some of my data files. And when I research, I REALLY research.
I was first interested in the Sony NW-HD1 for its sleek, small design. Then I leaned towards an iPod for both its popularity and its design. At the end of the day, I went with the Zen Touch, because it claimed lengthy battery time, large disk space and exceptional sound.
So far, it has exceeded my expectations. I listen to my music as I work in 4-6 hour strecthes, and Im still listening to that music on my first charge. Sound is fantastic. The earphones provided arent brilliant quality, so do yourself a favor and fork our for the Sennheiser PX 100 or PX 200.
Be aware that the player recognizes audio files by their id3 tags, and not by file name. It takes a little time filling out missing ID3 tags in the supplied program, but it is well worth in the end -- because it gives you the ability to choose by song, artist, album and genre.
I have found the touch pad a breeze to work with. Maybe its because I was forewarned about its sensitivty, but its pretty easy to get a handle on.
Unit response time is lightning fast. I only experienced a slight lag between songs when I skipped through dozens at a time.
Now for the bad part:
The supplied software is okay for managing music, but is near impossible to manage data files. And even as a music manager, it is needlessly complicated. I uploaded all my data files, only to have them stuck there and unable to be deleted or added to. This was a problem I worked at for days, with no solution. Turned out that the Nomad Explorer softwareis just generally terrible.
An ESSENTIAL program to go with your Zen Touch is Red Chair Softwares NOTMAD Explorer -- it handles both music and data files easily, with a simple drag-n-drop interface. Since using Notmad Explorer, Ive had no problems with the unit or its functionality.
Unlike iPod, the Zen Touch feels expensive. Its tough, well-designed and durable. Ive used an iPod before and it felt like a kids toy. The Zen Touch is something youll feel compelled to be careful with. Although, I take mine to the gym for my weight training and cardio workouts. I wouldnt suggest sprinting with it or throwing it around, but it is very well-built.
The only reason this product gets 4 stars, instead of 5, is the terrible software included. But if you pay the extra to get the independently produced Notmad Explorer, then the software bugs are a non-issue.
Highly recommended.
On: 2005-01-20
I purchased this product for my husbands birthday. Unfortunately, he only had it 2 days before an accident occurred in which the belt clip slipped from his belt and the player fell about 2 feet to our tile floor. This 1 fall seems to have wrecked the player. I might have done better to purchase a $300 brick. I am currently researching methods of somehow rescuing the player without paying the exhorbitant repair fees charged by Creative (since the warranty doesnt cover anything that isnt Creatives "fault"--as if poor durability isnt their fault).
I have heard that the I-pod can sustain several falls without severe problems, and if I had known of the Zens poor durability before my purchase, I would have bought the I-pod instead. So: heads up if youre considering this purchase.
On: 2005-01-20
Ive had my 40gb zen-touch for a week and couldnt be much happier.
In response to the review about the root structure....I think this is only an issue for the most intense 1% of users. You can locate files by artist, album or genre, so unless you REALLY need to have sub-genre folders to separate cool-jazz from be-bop in your jazz folder, it wont be an issue.
Ive got 6,200 tracks loaded (thats 490 albums) and still have over 9gb of space remaining. Ive been running for 20 hours on my most recent charge, and theres still a bit of juice left. The style is slick, and the convenient lock switch on the top of the player will easily eliminate any un-intentional scrolling when in transit. The touch-pad IS a bit sensitive, but thats about the only complaint I might have (and a minor inconvenience at that).
With double the memory and double the battery life of a similarly priced i-pod, the zen-touch is a great product.
Treat it with respect (i.e. avoid drops from height on hard surfaces) and youll be pleased with your purchase.
On: 2005-01-16
i really do like this player; its great, super-fast (near-instant boot time, fast shutdown) and the battery life is stellar: i drove from austin to dallas and back--5 hours of driving--playing 128-to-320kbps VBR mp3s and the battery is still at 3 bars (out of 3.)
the problem i have with it is that the touchpad is just annoying. even at lowest sensitivity, its far too easy to accidentally scroll up or down by 2 items instead of 1. i would say 90% of the time when i try to make the tiniest possible gesture, it either doesnt scroll or scrolls by 2 items.
what really gets me, though, is that the touchpad is just not the right mechanism for this. if it were obviously a great idea that just needed a little tuning, id be fine with it. but really, a set of four buttons--up, down, page up, page down--would be better in every way.
with the touchpad, you have to be looking at the player to use it. i know my way around many of the context menus without looking at them, now, but i *have* to look at them since i dont know, using the touchpad, how far i have scrolled if i dont. with buttons i could easily click down 3 times and know where the cursor was. this is actually a pretty serious problem while driving.
i didnt know this until i got the player, but the touchpad is divided into 3 regions; the top third is for "fast upwards scrolling", the middle for "precise scrolling" and the bottom for "fast downwards scrolling." so theyve already discretized this supposedly-analog touchpad, and even then its often hard to use even on low sensitivity. with buttons, problem solved.
one nice thing about the touchpad is that with a very fast, full-pad swoosh downwards or upwards you can scroll through a hundred or more items instantly. but you could set up the page up and page down buttons so that if you held them for more than a few moments, they rapidly started scrolling up or down, and it would really be just as effective.
other reviews say things like "the touchpad is not bad once you get used to it" or whatever. first of all, im unconvinced; ive been using this thing every day for several weeks now and its still irritating to use: ill seriously scroll up and down by 2 items 4 or 5 times just trying to home in on the item between them, which is frustrating.
but furthermore, the fact is the touchpad is completely unnecessary. buttons would be better in every way. seems like creative made the touchpad decision more to copy the iPod than because it was actually a good design idea, which is unfortunate.
nonetheless, like i said, i love the player; the sound quality is good, the size is nice, the battery life is incredible and the integration with my windows xp machine is really pretty seamless.
On: 2005-01-06
Wonderous Creative Inc fails to notify buyers of the Creative Zen Touch 40GB that all files in your music library get copied to ONE single ROOT directory on the player (Read: No Subdirectory functionality whatsoever). The only way to sort your new glorious one directory jukebox is by id3 tags. For those of us who have been using mp3s since the internet was born, we made a habit of deleting id3 tags because they were RARELY uniform accross the CDDB. Sometimes they seemed like they were written by people who could only type with a rubber mallet in one hand and a basketball in the other. Or they would classify Bach under grunge.
Lessons learned: Id3 tags are as only as good as their authors, and any kind of naming/classifying standards for music have yet to be developed.
Oh yea, and the touch pad pretty much eliminates any kind of in car usage.
On: 2005-01-06
I recently received a 40 GB Creative Zen Touch for Christmas. At first I was not very excited because I was really looking forward to getting an iPOD (only because it was popular, bad judgement on my part). After doing some research, I decided that the size of the Zen did not bother me considering the 24 hour battery life that it offered.
I opened the box, charged the Zen in four hours and started to use it right away. I downloaded the software that was packaged with the product but I do not ever use it. Windows Media Player 10 has a feature that connects with many MP3 players. This feature allows me to download music in to my Zen easily.
In all the reviews that I have read, everyone has complained about the sound quality of the headphones. I have been using them since Ive gotten it and I think they sound very good. My only complaint is that they are a little big so they dont fit comfortably in my ears but this isnt even a problem with the player.
I am so thankful that I chose to keep it. When I arrived to school on Monday, there was an abundance of kids with their iPODs and iPOD minis. I am glad that I am not one of them. I have even received compliments for not being like everyone else.
In conclusion, I am very grateful for my Zen and I recommend it to everyone.
On: 2005-01-04
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