Creative Zen Sleek 20 GB MP3 Player
By: Creative Labs Average Rating: 3.5 Total Reviews: 57
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 On: 2007-12-12
bought this for my daughter last year. She has had nothing but trouble with it. It was already sent back and fixed and still does not work right. Now the warranty is not valid so she is stuck with it.
 On: 2007-01-11
I bought this after my Zen Micro filled up. I liked it for the most part....Until it froze on me and I didnt have a phillips small enough to get the casing off so I could pull the batteries. My Micro just has a slide panel in back that makes it easy to pull the batteries. Ive since misplaced or had the unit stolen so I dont know if it will even be any good if I do find it. In general I like Creative and will stick with that brand the next time around....Only not this design.
 On: 2007-01-10
This machine has fantastic sound. However, you navigate w/ a touch-pad that is so sensitive that I found it unusable. I really wanted it to work because the sound quality is remarkable. However, it was nerve-rackingly frustrating to try to navigate with this device. I can not believe that this product actually got tested by technicians and made it out of the research lab. Unless you have the dexterity of the finest surgeon, buyer beware. I sold mine on Ebay, lost alot of money. I now have the Toshiba Gigabeat ME30S 30 GB multimedia player. The sound is nowhere near as good as the Zen Sleek, but it is so user friendly that I am satisfied. At least I can use the darn thing.
 On: 2006-12-08
I would advise anybody to buy a creative labs audio player. Ive had no problems with my zen sleek and I have about 3,500 songs syncd to it. You have to remember that its a harddrive type mp3 player. If youre not tech inclined you probably wont understand how to work and maintain this player. If you drop your personal harddrive computer at home it will not operate anymore, hence, if you drop your harddrive zen sleek it wont work anymore. If you buy this item and take care of it and have the know hows of a computer you will enjoy a great piece of audio work.
On: 2006-11-17
While Zen may be a trancendental state of mind, this ZEN will put you in a less enlightened frame of mind if you buy it. I did and now have lived to regret it.
The unit frequently freezes and can be reset with a paperclip. Then it for some wonderful reason, it deletes a part or all of a song(s) when you do. The battery life is pitiful, even with the backlight and extras turned off.
Forget about downloading firmware or software and getting it to install correctly. It wont and you have to do the paperclip thing again.
The control buttons are exceptionally sensitive, even when set to low sensitivity, so you can zip right past what you want to do almost by dropping an eyelash on it.
Now, my unit wont power on after being charged. Customer service tells me that after only 5 months of owning it, that the battery needs to be replaced. Of course I have to pay $25.00 for the diagnostic testing and then $122 for the battery AND I get to pay for the shipping both ways.
Customer service questions can be answered by phone after the first 60 days at $12.95 per call and customer service emails will wind up in Singapore or Ireland and will take several days between emails. The Creative Lab site says it is usually only one day to get an answer. I am now on my second email to them and have lost most of a week.
Save your money and do not buy this product. You will probably live to regret it, sooner or later. I am shopping for a new player and hoping I can find one that wont let me down the way this one did.
UPDATE 12/12/06***Original review was written in November 2006.
I sent my defective device into Creative Labs after receiving a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA). After emailing the company with the warranty information, I had to send the device in with a $25.00 check. The check was to cover diagnostic work and return. Creative promised a 10 business day turn around on the device. The battery replacement was covered under warranty.
I did not get my old device back, instead, I received a factory refurbished one. I could tell that it had been used because of the minor scratches on the case.
When I tried to connect the player, I could not get my computer to read it, with Windows Media Player 11 or the Creative Labs software. I uninstalled the Creative Software and reinstalled it and it would not work. I went to the help tutorials and after much searching I discovered the device needed updated drivers and firmware.
Now, this is just my opinion, but it seems logical that a newly refurbished device would have come with updated firmware and a note telling me I needed new drivers. I did get a note saying that with my new to me device that Creative would keep it under warranty for the remaining period on the old device. I think that the new to me device should be given the 1 year warranty effective from when I got it. I see this item is no longer available for sale. Perhaps with good reason. I will never buy another Creative device regardless of what it is, my experience with them has been so poor. Caveat Emptor! Buyer beware!
On: 2006-08-04
I loaded 16 gigs of my music and listened for 3 days before it completely died. It gave me an error message, and then went to a black screen. It will not charge. It will not play. But it looks cool on my desk. I took it back and wont get another.
On: 2006-07-13
My Sleek stopped working correctly after sustaining one fall from waist height. Now, sound only comes out of the right side speaker, which is infuriating, and leads to a product that brings more rage than joy. Furthermore, attempting to get anything done with the warranty requires jumping through a few hundred hoops, paying fees, and (oh yeah) you must keep your receipt. Forever. Also, this machine has a TERRIBLE computer program for loading songs onto it etc. It was an absolute exercise in frustration just to get them on there, only to have it break six months in after one fall from waist height. I thought I would be enlightened and get an iPod competitor for a lower price and with neat-looking features. My next MP3 will certainly be an iPod.
On: 2006-07-12
My Sleek stopped working correctly after sustaining one fall from waist height. Now, sound only comes out of the right side speaker, which is infuriating, and leads to a product that brings more rage than joy. Furthermore, attempting to get anything done with the warranty requires jumping through a few hundred hoops, paying fees, and (oh yeah) you must keep your receipt. Forever. Also, this machine has a TERRIBLE computer program for loading songs onto it etc. It was an absolute exercise in frustration just to get them on there, only to have it break six months in after one fall from waist height. I thought I would be enlightened and get an iPod competitor for a lower price and with neat-looking features. My next MP3 will certainly be an iPod.
 On: 2006-06-30
This Mp3 player has given me almost no problems and is very nice to have. I have had it for about 7 months now and the only major problem I have encountered is it freezing up on me, which may be due to myself doing something wrong. The menu is organized for easy browsing and it also has a FM tuner. The problem with the FM tuner is that, although it may have 32 presets, I can only get about 8. I think it would be better if you could manually seek through the radio. The aluminum casing feels sturdy and resists fingerprints. I have dropped this thing several times and it hasnt gotten a scratch or been effected. The vertical scroll touchpad is also useful for quick browsing. There is also a microphone which makes good quality recordings. Ive read in a previous review and I wasnt sure if I was the only one, but yeah whats the deal with the lint in the screen. That stupid case gets lint all over. I definatly will be getting a better case. If your looking for a quality Mp3 player at a cheaper cost, you will definatly not be dissapointed.
On: 2006-06-21
I love this thing. Works great, no jams, easy software. What`s with the dust in the screen? How does the dust gets inside?? Maybe the awful velvet pouch.... Anyways, great gadget, light years away from the Ipod. Recommended.
On: 2006-04-19
I cant say enough about this MP3 player. Battery life? Check! Sound quality? Check! Ease of use? Check! Durability? Check!
We love this thing. We are long time Rhapsody subscribers, and we wanted a Plays for Sure device. I bought the sleek for my wife at Christmas, and its been smooth sailing since. We are on Rhapsody to Go now, which is essentially unlimited music for a small monthly fee. Because we arent using IPods proprietary music format, the sound is perfect. The highs are there, the lows are there, not cut out to save file size like the Pod.
With a Plays for Sure device you know you can move music services, and put files from many providers into one playlist. Again, not so with Apple.
Everything about this player is fantastic! Weve had nothing but positive experiences. I highly recommend Creatives line of players, and cant stress enough how important it is to break free from Apple and look for the Plays for Sure logo before you buy anything.
On: 2006-04-19
This is my first time mp3 player ever, so I cant compare to others. I purchased this player 5 months ago based on several reviews around the web, but also the price. I must say I have no regrets. This is a nice piece of equipment. I like the design and the interface. Some people complain about the touchpad being too sensitive, I guess you have to allow some time to get used to it. Once you get used to the touchpad, everything else is just about reading the book that comes with it. I dont like the velvet pouch that comes in the package either. Thats why I got a carrying case with the arm-band for ~$12 (I like to workout listening to my favorite music). Sound quality is excellent (just make sure you rip your CDs as 128 kbps mp3 files or higher. 128 is actually enough). You have to be careful with the foam cushion in the earphones. Theyre easy to slip off accidentally (maybe its common to this type of headphones). My player used to freeze up when I first got it, normaly while transfering new files from my PC to the player (problem would be caused by one bad file. A hard reset used to take care of it). Then I learned that it is best to re-compress the bad mp3 file with the file conversion utility that comes with the player and problem solved.
I havent seen the 18-hr battery life, maybe because I click too much on my player, and it turns the screen on everytime, but it lasts for a long hard day at work, as a minimum. If the battery dies, it will tell you before its too late, so youll always have a few extra minutes, and the best of all is that it charges full capacity in roughly 2 hrs. I havent had any need of online support so I cant really say anything in that aspect.
Overall, it is a handsome player, not a trendy one, but with all the bells and whistles other popular players offer, plus you have FM radio and voice recorder, which, although I dont normally use, its nice to know I have them. The bundled software is a great companion also. It is really a very nice player with a very reasonable price.
On: 2006-04-04
Less than 2 months after purchase the buttons stopped working, and the manufacturer was extremely difficult if not impossible to deal with. No useful support or responsibility. I just transacted the deal with Amazon, which is where I purchased, for an 80% refund. Disappointing.
On: 2006-03-29
i bought this so i could easily listen to my 100+ cd collection without lugging my cd book along. a lot of my friends have an ipod but why get one of those for the same price when they hold 4000 less songs? now enough of my ranting, ill get to what u want to see...
PROS-
*holds around 5000 songs, more than enough space for the average music fan.
*has fairly good sound quality, but it depends on what headphones you use.
*it is easy to load songs on and organize them.
*touchpad is easy to use, i got used to it fast and the sensitivity can be adjusted, sometimes you might the song you want but its easy to get used to
*battery life is good, but the background light drains it fast, this can be turned down/off though.
*this might sound weird, but it looks great, silver and shiny
*the FM radio is a nice little bonus, as is the recorder.
CONS-
*after putting songs on it, it will sometimes freeze up and not respond at all, i then have to re-boot it.
*it seems that when ripping cds to it, if the cd has the computer only special features on it, the very last song on the disc will not be ripped and you have to manually rip it on.
*the headphones that come with it suck, theyre kind of big and have pretty crappy sound quality, you might want to get your own.
*the volume scale is a little small, moving up one notch increses the volume quite a lot.
*it would also be pretty cool is there was a docking station for this, but oh well...
overall, i really like this product, i bought it on sale so it was around $200 (wouldve been $180 but best buy kept running out...) so it was a really good deal, especially compared to ipod. in the directions, it says it needs to be hooked up to a computer to charge... it doesnt. i just connect mine to the wall, and turn it off, the little battery indicator appears in the corner showing progress, and when it is fully charged, the indicator will disappear.
if you are looking to buy an MP3 player and are comparing this to Ipod, GET THIS. it is sold at a better price with equal performance and more song capacity.
On: 2006-03-24
Until it begins freezing up. I bought mine when it came out and the unit worked fine for 2 months then froze once in mid song and once during song selection. Once it freezes you have 2 choices pray it unfreezes or wait until the battery drains. Read the reviews by Dallasite & E. Lee. Same thing happened to me I contacted Creative and followed their instructions the reboot seems to help temporarly and the firmware update makes the player unresponsive. This was a good MP3 player but it seems everyone has the same problem with it.
On: 2006-03-21
If you are planning on buying an MP3 player do yourself a favor and go with a well known brand like i-pod (its worth the extra expense). I got the creative zen leek MP3 and tried to use it right away. It came loaded with 2 songs and after I listened to the first one it got stuck. It froze on me and didnt want to turn off, or do anything else. After several hours of trying I finally could turn it off. By then it was really hot. I never even have the chance to download my own songs. I returned it right away and I am waiting for my refund.
On: 2006-03-13
I received the Zen Sleek in early January. I used it about a month with no problems except the occasional freezing up that is apparently pretty common with this item. With a paper clip reboot, you can undo that problem pretty quickly. However, after a month of use, it became unusable due to a hardware problem. Through Creatives online customer support, I got some tips. I reloaded the firmware, etc. However, it finally became totally unresponsive. I received a Return Merchandise Authorization on February 13 and sent the player (which was still on, because it could not be powered off) to Creative at my expense. I finally received a new player on March 22. If they produce so many shoddy products that they cannot promptly handle their warranty obligations, why dont they have a policy like many other companies of immediately replacing defective merchandise? Just a thought.
On: 2006-03-11
Love it, love it. the space is amazing,,the ease of adding music is amazing. the only suggesiton would be to add some accesories like a case. the pouch that it comes with is useless. good bargain.
On: 2006-03-07
The Zen Creative appears to be a very good product. I had only one small problem with the docking cord, but Creative did offer a replacement free of charge.
by: Anonymous On: 2006-02-19
this is much better than an ipod! the scroller is much easier than an ipod scroller. Better navigation and more buttons. A microphone that records you and FM radio. If your thinking of getting this, get it. though i still think the ZEN vision:m is much much cooler.
On: 2006-02-14
I must admit, I enjoy my Creative Zen Sleek. Ive had it for 2 months. Its an attractive piece of machinery, with a nice sized screen and nice big buttons. Im just not a techy; so it was a very pleasant surprise when I started creating playlists and organizing my files on the computer interface. Its very user friendly! And, Ive not yet downloaded a piece of music that I couldnt listen to on my Sleek (Im told this happens with iPods). The sound is awesome. The vertical touch pad is a lot less maddening than going around in circles with your thumb. The battery life (for me) goes for a good 12-13 hours before draining out.
My problems with the Sleek are: the fact that the dust gets behind the screen. Right now there are only a few specks of dust, but Ive heard it only gets worse from here. I wish Creative would come up with a solution to this incredibly frustrating problem. Also, the USB cord is connected to the power cord. That can be very annoying. Those earbuds that they enclose are a tad painful. I cant keep them in for more than 30 minutes at a time. And that velvet pouch thing is just a joke! I imagine that thing attracts a ton of dust (not a good thing given the problem with dust behind the screen)... That thing is still in the box. Otherwise, I love my Zen Sleek :)
On: 2006-01-20
I think its a great player, but poor design and functional problems.
1) The power cable plugs into the USB cable. You must have the USB cable with you to charge the battery, so you cant go anywhere without the USB cable. (The iRiver H10, however, can connect to the power with or without the USB.)
2) All I wanted was a portable hard-drive that can carry files and can play music on the go. Simple as that. Is it too much to ask? I cant plug the Zen into just any computer and play the music on the desktop/laptop unless (a)I have the Zen software, or (b)I have to copy the music on to the desktop/laptop. Thats very unflexible for me.
What Im looking for is a normal letter drive that can plug into a computer directly via USB (or at least with a standard USB, instead of Zen-specific cable). I would like to plug it into my laptop at work (or any computer at a friends house) and play music on the laptop speakers. If youre like me, stay away from this piece of junk.
3) The player froze too many times. I didnt have a paper clip handy on my way to work to reboot. Even when I did use the clip, it would sometimes reboot and freeze at the start screen.
I gave it two stars because the sound quality is good.
On: 2006-01-20
I bought this player after some extensive research, taking price, sound quality, and size into consideration most. I have been extremely happy with it, the sound quality is great, the software is easy to use once you get used to it, and it has a lot of handy features such as the radio and sleep timer and other little goodies I continue to discover. I have run into a few minor problems, such as dust getting under the screen, and it froze once. The battery life is also not what I expected, I would estimate that I get about 8 to 10 hours of play time with the backlight off, but I also didnt give it a 100% charge the first time around,(what can I say, I was anxious)so that may have compromised the battery in some way. Other than that, it has been great, its small, easy to use, and has amazing sound quality at a great price at $200 or less. I would definitely reccomend this to just about anyone wh0o is looking for a high capacity player.
On: 2006-01-19
I think its a great player, but poor design and functional problems.
1) The power cable plugs into the USB cable. You must have the USB cable with you to charge the battery, so you cant go anywhere without the USB cable. (The iRiver H10, however, can connect to the power with or without the USB.)
2) All I wanted was a portable hard-drive that can carry files and can play music on the go. Simple as that. Is it too much to ask? I cant plug the Zen into just any computer and play the music on the desktop/laptop unless (a)I have the Zen software, or (b)I have to copy the music on to the desktop/laptop. Thats very unflexible for me.
What Im looking for is a normal letter drive that can plug into a computer directly via USB (or at least with a standard USB, instead of Zen-specific cable). I would like to plug it into my laptop at work (or any computer at a friends house) and play music on the laptop speakers. If youre like me, stay away from this piece of junk.
3) The player froze too many times. I didnt have a paper clip handy on my way to work to reboot. Even when I did use the clip, it would sometimes reboot and freeze at the start screen.
I gave it two stars because the sound quality is good.
On: 2006-01-19
The quality of this MP3 lives up to the word on the street, but it started collecting dust behind the view panel since I first opened the package. One month into it, it is getting harder event to see the songs as they appear on the display.
On: 2006-01-16
Well, I cant really write a review for this... as I never got to use it when I bought it. Alot of sites say this works with Windows 2000, but its XP only. I sadly had to return it the day after I bought it.
On: 2006-01-11
I recently purchased the Zen Sleek and find it to be everything I expected. It is claimed to have 20 GB although it is closer to 18.6 GB. I use Windows Media Player to download all of my music onto the player. It is very simple, every time you plug the player into your computer and open Media Player, it automatically updates any new songs or changes you have made. This feature is by far the biggest plus for this player. The software however is not as user friendly as I had hoped. This is the reason I am giving the Zen Sleek only 4 stars. Creating playlists is not as easy as it could be, fortunately you can create playlists with Windows Media Player. Overall a very good product and excellent customer service from Amazon.com.
On: 2006-01-09
Im a major music listener, before i got this player i listened to the computer 24/7, and now use the mp3 player. it has extremely usuable interface the touchpad in my opinion is not over sensitive at all, i actually put the sensitivity up to high. the screen is large and detailed. the main menu is customizable in every way possible. the battery last a rediculous time (18 hours) i actually get more with putting the contrast to 20% (20-21 hours)this mp3 player is smaller than the ipod mini by very little but still is and feels solid and well built and put together. as for sound quality and features this has everything you need and more up to 97 db most headphones go to about 108 so you really dont need more im usually putting my mp3 player on 10 out of 25 for volume and yes im a 18 year old soon to be college student. Im very peticular about my music and this produce the best of the best. i have a pair of sony mdr-81s if your wondering. The Random Play all feature is amazing, makes the player like the radio but only songs you want to hear and up to a library of 10,000 songs i only have 1400 songs! This is a killer mp3 player with everything you need and ask for. i wouldnt recommend for jogging kinda pulls my shorts down on one side with the bouncing due to no belt clip but thats the only downfall. the one and only thing ide fix for this mp3 is not the mp3 player itself but the accessories that are available are very few other than that this is the perfect mp3 player and ide buy another one in a second if i had too.
On: 2006-01-08
I am a music lover, though i never cared about the specifics of sound quality, etc. I heavily researched what mp3 player would be the best for me and am in love with my zen sleek.
Here is how I based my decision:
*Even though ipods have the most accessories, I knew I didnt want something from apple. I am a PC user and though ipods are made for either operating system, it just makes sense that it would work best (and with the least glitches) on a MAC.
*ipods also only use music that are encoded for ipods. that means that to listen without a glitch, you must only use music from itunes, ripped cds, or change the encoding. you also cant use music from sites such as raphsody or napster, which have the best deals on music
*Now that I made the decision to buy a mp3 player that was "plays for sure" windows-ready, it was time to settle on a brand. i previously had a dell dj and though it was okay, it seemed pretty complicated to organize. i wasnt impressed.
*I picked the creative zen sleek because i loved the design of it and have heard only good things. 20gigs is enough for me, but the zen touch goes up to 40gigs if you need more. The price was right (got it at best buy for $230 and at the time, got a free $50 gift card on top of that). I want my mp3 play solely for mp3s, so i didnt need a color display or one capable of playing video.
*It is easy to play playlists, and also has an FM radio attached. great for working out, nice and light.
*I use the iriver fM transmitter to use in my car... still some static but in most areas the sound is fine (remember, the sound quality is not a big deal to me as long as i can hear the music reasonably well.) it is important to keep the volume at 15 or else a lot of interference will occur... set the volume of the car stereo as high as you want.
Drawbacks:
I can only think of one, which is that there are NO accessories. i am hoping at least a dock w/ speakers is in the works so i can use that instead of my bulky stereo. the only accessories i have found was a cover/case, and an fm transmitter. if you want accessories, i would suggest the zen touch or the new zen vision. the lack of accessories is the only reason i am rating it a 4 instead of 5.
On: 2006-01-03
The Creative Zen Sleek is a lot better than I thought itd be. The sound quality is great, the screen doesnt scratch nearly as easy as the iPod nano. I like the looks of it.
Pros:
+ MP3, WMA, WMA w/ DRM
+ can act as a removable USB drive
+ can record from FM radio or built-in microphone
+ long battery life
+ songs can be deleted directly from device, without hooking to a computer
Cons:
- dust gets under the screen, especially when in pockets
- scroll pad is a little sensetive
(kind of a con) - when you select a song to play, you can feel it for a second when the hard drive starts to spin.
Overall, its a great player. Ive had it for over 2 weeks now, and you cant even see any scratches on it; its much more durable than the iPod nano, and I think its an overall better player than any other player Ive seen.
On: 2006-01-03
I selected this unit after I bought my wife a 6 GB iPod Mini.
This unit is similar in size and weight and construction material, but is 20 GB and uses more than just iTunes for transfers to the unit.
The SW that did come with the unit works just fine for ripping CDs and copying them to the Sleek.
The velvet carry bag is crap, they should have just left it out. Search for a Proporta leather cover. I have one for my Palm T5 and now I have one for the Sleek.
The unit has a soild feel and is very simple to use.
A few negatives worth loosing the 5th star:
1. The wall-wart power supply requires the USB cable to connect to the unit. Either the wall-wart should have connected directly to the unit, or the wall-wart should have had a USB connector so I could use the cable itself. Since it will charge from a USB connection, the power supply is only needed when there isnt a computer around - in which case I shouldnt really need a USB cable, should I?
2. Accessories are non existant. At the very least there needs to be a car/airplane adapter. (one that over comes the problem mentioned in (1) above would be nice).
On: 2005-12-27
I am extremely happy with the quality of this product, the sound is incredible and th controls are very intuitive. The product itself receives 5 stars but the deceptive advetising receives none. The box and other websites say that the software is compatible with Windows 98SE however, the software will actually only ru with Windows XP. If you are an XP user or you can dix the problem bt rigging a solution like I did, you will be thrilled. The prodict is wonderful, just dont be conned by the box.
On: 2005-12-27
ive used my share of mp3 players. complex ones with menus and so forth and simple ones (you just press play and track search) this item is amazing. Best mp3 player ive ever used. I cannot think of anything to complain about it because comparitively its the best. The only problem is that everyone keeps buying them and they are hard to get a hold of on amazon.com! if you want an mp3 player of an ipod buy this! its better than ipods for one simple reason.... no need for any itunes and nonesense programs just one program to rip CDs directly to the sleek or from ur hard drive. Very simple to use and if you ever encounter a problem creative customer support with assist
sincerely,
tony
PS im an avid creative fan because every product i have gotten from them preforms to full expectations
On: 2005-12-18
bottom line, a player is only as good as its purchasers expectations. If you want a durable exterior, long battery life, LOTS of hard drive space considering the size of the player then this is an excellent choice.
if you dont need alot of hard drive space because you just use it to excersize or fill up down time waiting in line for something then you will want the micro 5gb by creative.
i have this one and love it but if i had it to do over again i would have gotten the smaller one because i have learned i dont really need 20 gb. i havend even filled 10% of the memory.
The battery lasts exactly how long it says and it is awesome, it recharges fast too,. ive had several apple owners tell me the battery life is MUCH shorter on thiers
I also hate that there are no accesories but f.y.i. for those of you out there who have and want this one. The accesories made for apple ipod regular and the new ipod video work fine with this player. i have a fm transmitter meant for ipod, and a case with arm band and clip meant for the ipod video one. all the portable and in home speaker sations meant for regular ipod work with this player also. i have dropped this player by accident a couple of times (on a waxed hard floor like in a hospitol)and it didnt hurt or scratch it, couldnt believe it. it tolerates alot of moving around and vibration without skipping too. I highly reccomend you use windows media player 10 software to load and manage it. the only thing you need the zen sleek software for is to make your playlists if you wish to do so. you can use this player to back up files on your computer too.
On: 2005-12-14
This player was everything i could have asked for in an mp3 player. My 20gb zen touch stopped working and the shop from which i had purchased it gave me a full refund. I spent this on the zen sleek, principally because it had the fm wired remote with voice recording built in. And i have to tell you, i was not dissappointed with it!!
Sound quality as with the zen touch is amazing, so many people say that you need to get a new pair of headphones, but if u have any sense as to work a graphic equaliser and turn on something called bass boost, the sound is quality. Recording is also excellent, although for sounds of higher frequencies, things tend to get a bit muffled.
the alluminuim case is a lot more durable than my old players, since i bought it (4 months ago now) no damage to it, whereas the screen has become scratched. (had player in pocket and earphones were scratching on the screen, very dissappointed about that now!
the main problem i have with this player however, is creatives lack of support. If i look at owners of the Zen micro, or even the new zen vision, all i see are a mass of accessories that can overcome any demand from the player, yet for the zen sleek, there are only two to my knowledge, a wired remote (with no screen) and a docking station. I find this completely unacceptable from creative, they should show more loyalty to their customers. I also find that firmware upgrades are pretty useless... wish they would just do everyone a favour and back up what is on the other hand a fantastic media player, which has a great function of allowing the user to partition a section of the hard drive and use it for file storage.
all in all.... gr8 job creative in making a benchmark player for the opposition to beat, but we need more accessories!
On: 2005-12-10
Just because you have problems with software.. or shud I say that you are not smart enough to handle it... you give like 1 start rating to the player???
On: 2005-12-10
Before you start reading all this, just letting you know that Ive written this review assuming you have done some basic research on the Zen Sleek and are looking for more information. With that being said, lets get on with the review:
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To start things off, the question I most often read about is the Removable Disk option, so lets start there: The Removable Disk option is uber easy to configure; all you do is go to Extras > Removable Disk and set the capacity anywhere from 512MB to 16GB.
The best part is that you dont even need a computer to enable it! Within literally seconds it was ready to go and I was able to plug it into my PC and immediately start transfering files.
Windows XP/2k machines automatically recgonise it as a Removable Disk drive (just like a thumb drive) and configure it for you (Ive noticed that Win2k has everything ready to go a few seconds faster than XP. I havent yet tested it on Windows 9x, though).
One thing you have to do though is select the Removable Disk option in the player every time you want to utilise it or else the PC will recgonise it as just an MP3 player.
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A feature I love thats also lacking in the iPod is the Menu button on the bottom right that reminds me of right-clicking in Windows. When in the Main Menu, clicking it brings up some options to reorganize its layout to suit your needs. Pressing it while in Now Playing brings up a menu that lets you View Details on a song, such as Genre, Biterate, and Play Count. Very useful indeed.
Other options include bookmarking the position in a song (useful for long tracks), saving the song to a playlist, deleting it from the player, and looking up all songs on the player from the same artist. Also whatever menu youre in, you can just press that menu button and adjust the volume. The menu button is a very nice as well as essential feature that the iPod doesnt have.
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Another nice feature is DJ Mode. It has four modes, Album of the Day (plays a random album), Random Play All (plays every song once in random order), Most Popular (plays the top 20 most heard songs), and Rarely Heard (plays the top 20 least songs heard). Very, very nice.
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If anyones worried about FM reception, dont worry, I live a good twenty mintes from the next major city (Phoenix), and receptions great.
However, I owned a Zen Micro before I returned it to get the Sleek, and I found the Micros reception to be very poor (mightve had a bad unit).
By the way, the antenna is the headphone cable, so dont try to record anything from the radio without headphones plugged in cuz all youll get is static.
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The voice recording feature is nice, but remember, its good for nothing more than just voice. I did manage to record an electric guitar solo inside a high school gym. However dont expect high quality because one, you can only record at 64kbps, and two, the recording clips and makes annoying blips if what youre recording is too loud.
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Claimed battery life is 18 hours. The number doesnt lie, but its assuming you have Smart Volume, as well as Bass Boost and EQ settings disabled. With all these enabled, I got around 9-11 hours battery life.
Lowering the contrast setting to 30% jacked-up battery life to about 12-15 hours while keeping the screen easily readable. Battery Life also depended on how many times I switched songs or played around with settings.
----
Now I guess I should actually mention a bit about listening to mp3s on this, since thats probably the main reason you are interested in an mp3 player. Let me just tell you this, the quality is phenomenal, five to one against the iPod.
With a much higher signal to noise ratio than the Pods, I was able to crank this baby to max volume (which is very loud, let me tell you), and hear absolutely no distortion. In fact, the sound quality is so good, that I started ripping all my mp3s to 192k and above because I could easily hear the decrease of quality due to compression in 128k mp3s! In fact, Ive gone as far as ripping some of my favourite songs as WAV because the Zen Sleek brings out every single detail of my music!
Mind you, I was listening to all my music with the stock buds for a long time and could still hear the difference. Upgrade to high-end buds, such as the Etymotic ER-6i, and prepare to be blown away! Clipping does occur, though, when using over-tweaked EQ settings. Easily fixed by enabling the Smart Volume Mode.
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Be aware, though, that the Sleek isnt perfect. After just a couple weeks of owning a Sleek, I noticed dust getting caught under the screen. However, a quick gust from a can of electronics-safe compressed air fixed the problem. Real minor issue.
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All in all, the underapreciated Zen Sleek owns the iPod in all categories. Dont get sucked into buying the $300+ iPod just because everyone else has one; I got my Zen Sleek for $200 USD at Best Buy and I couldnt be more satisified.
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Rating scale: 0-5 (0.5 increments)
Features: 4
Battery Life: 3.5
Sound Quality: 4.5
Value: 5
FINAL SCORE: 4.5 / 5
On: 2005-12-04
iPod cannot hold a candle to this product. The battery life and ease of use make this an amazingly superior product.
After installing the SW jus so the driver is available, it can be used as simple drag and drop. Ive been getting 15 hrs of battery life. The FM reception is quite amazing (although I live in the city).
A really beauiful product.
On: 2005-12-03
Despite what some other reviewers have said about this device, I have to say that its nearly perfect. I only say that because, well, nothing is perfect. I have found the Zen Sleek to be an out-of-the-ballpark home run for Creative. They tried desperately to unseat the IPod with this model and I believe they have competed well.
The "Pros":
Other than the fact that this is a great looking unit, it is encased in a brushed aluminum housing with white accents. It is scratch resistant unlike the IPod which will scratch if you look at it wrong. The bright blue large display is nice and makes it easy to find what you want.
The battery is long lasting. This thing holds at least a 16 hour charge, but the manufacturer says it will hold an 18 hour. I just dont ever let my player go completely dead.
Great touch control gives you the speed at which to cruise through your music collection. The touch sensitivity control is a nice feature becuase it can be tough to use the first little while. Change the sensitivity to adjust for the speed at which you navigate.
Many reviewers here have really been disappointed with the software that comes shipped with this unit, but I must argue that it seriously couldnt be any easier to rip your CDs and transfer them onto this device. Its rediculously easy and I had no problems. The custom tag editor is easy to use as well. I love that I can take all the music I have downloaded from the net and change the ID3 tags so they are correct instead of transferring the music with bad tags that were written down wrong by the author.
The FM Radio is a delight since having options was never a bad thing. The IPod does not have a radio.
The multiformat transfer. You can transfer MP3s, and WMAs. You have a lot of flexibility downloading legal music from various souces on the net as opposed to IPod which only supports one format, those on ITunes.
The "Cons":
Well what can I say about the carrying case? Its a cheap faux velvet sack with a drawstring to close the top. Im sure Creative said we should spend more time into making the player good and not focus so much on the carrying case. I think they did that.
That is about it for cons. In my opinion you should really consider this over the much hyped and less optioned packed IPod. And its cheaper!!
On: 2005-12-03
In case youve come across info about this product that says it works with Windows 2000...dont learn the hard way, like I did.
The product is only supported by XP or higher...if you have Windows 2000, it will NOT work (Unless you are using Windows 2000 in Asia, according to Deepak, the Creative media support fellow.)
So I bought this, and tried to install it, and no go... have to send it back.
Be careful -- the box says it works with Windows 2000, but some of the boxes apparently now hav ea label stuck over that info to "cancel" it out. But the installation instructions still refer to Windows 2000, even though it doesnt work on that platform...
Off to buy an I-POD...
On: 2005-11-29
I just recently purchased the Zen Sleek from Amazon for my wife and for the three hours that I have had playing with it, it is a really good mp3 player. I did do some research over the last 3 weeks or so in order to see what was out there. By the way, I have found that in order to save a lot of time researching, you could ask the nearest teenager what is out there and what s/he recommends buying. They spend waaaayyy more time than any adult researching all this crap. Anyway, the iPod was not even in the top recommendations that I got. I have to say, Apples marketing is hands-down better than all the other mp3 player-making companies.
For the money that you spend, this is really the best player on the market. The Creative Nomad 40GB player is also good and costs about the same (maybe even cheaper), but not as cool-looking as this one and with less features. If you can afford the new Zen Vision (which is about $400), that is pretty good too. If you are not hankering after space, but want a compact and cool-looking player, try the Creative MuVo which now comes out in 1GB players.
I will (maybe) post a more detailed review when I finish fooling around with this. I have to write about the software that this thing comes with. I will echo the feelings of others who have posted reviews that I wish the player would just be recognized as a drive by the computer (PC or Mac) when plugged in via USB. That is why the player is rated at 4 stars.
On: 2005-11-26
I have been searching for the proper mp3 player for quite some time. Over the internet I was obsessing over the Zen Sleek for roughly 2 weeks. Finally I went to BestBuy, and got a first-hand look at the Zen Sleek. It was a huge disappointment; the backlight is too blue and makes it hard to see under light, the verticle touch pad is far to sensitive, and the overall player is too thick. Going from start-menu to options to now playing is difficult, and controlling the volume is no-where near as easy as the iPod. I would never reccomend this to anyone and strongly hope you do not either.
On: 2005-11-19
I have owned the Zen Sleek for about a couple of months now, and I must say...I still love it!
I cannot make technical references as I do not believe I have enough experience or knowledge, but I do represent the everyday listener.
I work in an office doing data entry and may I just say that this player will lasts me the entire day and into the night when I go to school. Ill try to touch upon all the issues mentioned:
+ Looks- the player is pretty and is a great change from the Ipods that everyone owns
+ If you have a favorite morning show, the fm radio works nicely and allows for 32 presets
+ Microphone- many say there is not a need for this, but I like the fact its an option. You can record radio too
+ Bookmarks- the player allows you to bookmark ten of your favorite songs for instant access
+ DJ feature- gives you an Album of the Day, Random Play All, Most Popular, and Rarely Heard songs.
+ Battery Life- Im not sure of how much battery life it claims to give you, but I have never had it turn off on me and Ive used it for 11 hours straight.
+ Click buttons- a major prob with the zen micro were the touch buttons (seek forward/back), the sleek has click buttons with a back button and a menu button
+ Space- 20gb of space and it costs less than Ipods
+ Sound- I havent really listened to the Ipods so I cant compare, but I think the sound is great. There is also so much room that you can put your music in all high quality. The headphones are decent enough for my ears, and I have no problems with them.
= Touchpad- Ive heard mixed reviews on this, personally, I adapted to it immediately and never had problems again. This touchpad is significantly better than the Zen Micro, but it depends on the person.
- Accessories- they lack any accessories, they have a dock and a wired remote, thats it.
- Carrier case- they give you a velvet bag, booooo! A little velvet back to protect your $300 dollar investment. I had to buy a real case for it (and there are a lack of those too, I bought an Ipod case and it fit nicely)
- Start-up time- When the player has been off for more than a couple hours, it takes a bit of time to play, but its a smooth start-up everytime after.
- Dock- When you hook the USB to your computer and then take it out, sometimes the player freezes thinking it is still docked. For me, I used to just let it run out of battery while I sleep. It does happen more than Id like it to so I went onto the Creative website for troubleshooting, it says there is a way to reset it, but I have not tried it.
- Skips- The player sometimes starts playing a song and a few seconds later starts it over though you didnt press anything. Ive only had this happen twice and it went away after I turned it off and then back on. Sometimes when you try to track back to a previous song to listen again, it skips back to the song before the one you wanted(if youre on shuffle, you lost it and will have to look for it manually)
Overall, this is a great player! I have never received so much happiness from such a small object. If the cost sets you back at all, believe me, this player is therapy in itself. Well worth the money, I definitely recommend it!
On: 2005-11-16
Ive been shying away from getting a new mp3 player, because not many devices supported all of the standards like Subscription based PlaysForSure, Audible and USB Mass Storage. The Creative Zen finally did this. Id been pretty worried about how well it would sync with Yahoo Music Unlimited, because Id heard reports that sometimes DRM work and sometimes it fails pretty badly. So when I connected my new Sleek upto it, I was suprised with how quickly it worked. The quick Sleek transfers songs extremely quickly and effortlessly with no errors at all. At first, I couldnt believe it was actually transferring the songs and thought it was a mistake, but sure enough after a few minutes, my entire library (only (838 mbs)) was quickly transferred. Another great feature was audible support. I quickly downloaded an audiobook and have been listening to them for hours. This worked effortlessly as well.
The finish of the device is really nice and the build is very solid. I was suprised at how well the touchpad works. I didnt think the middle strip would be very easy to use, but it is surprisingly simple. The Menus are very intuitive to use and using the device is really easy.
The only two things I would change about the device are this. If you want to use it as a USB memory device, you have to choose a partition size, instead of flexibily saving it on the device. The other thing I would do is use a standard mini usb or usb connector to charge and sync the device.
Overall, Im really happy with it and it has changed the way I listen to music and increased the number of audiobooks I have read.
Pros
+ 20GBs of Hard Drive Space
+ Plays for Sure Support
+ USB 2.0
+ Audible Support
+ Bookmark Support
+ Excellent Finish
+ Easy to use interface
Cons
- Proprietary Connector (not simple mini usb or usb)
- Partitions for USB Mass Storage
On: 2005-11-09
Well, this is the first time I have ever written one of these. I felt kind off compelled to say a few words based upon a few of the negative reviews I saw. Just my opinion folks.
First, to dispell one of the issues I see listed. I tend to concur on the complaints regarding the non standard USB and charging cable. However, one point to note. You CAN charge the Zen Sleek using the USB cord only. Try it. If it does not work on yours, perhaps it requires the latest firmware. Works like a charm for me. You of course will need a computer with a USB port to make that work when you travel. I always carry my laptop so this is no issue.
Second, I bought the Sleek based completely on sound quality and because I did not want to be stuck with using only Apple software. With the new firmware, the Sleek shows up as a harddrive on windows explorer for XP (I admit that I have no knowledge regarding previous OS). Then you can simply drag and drop as you see fit. You can manage the contents of the Zen this way also. Very nice.
I am somewhat of an audiophile (although I have not upgraded my stereo in many years with other family monetary obligations). I have high quality B&W speakers with separate amp and preamp setup. It is very nice. I also have some older, but excellent Sennheiser headphones, so I think I have some basis for a reasonable opinion (although I will be the first to agree that sound quality, like art, is a very subjective subject). To me, the earbuds provided with the Zen are the best I have every heard. They have strong base (with the extra bass function selected in the Zen) are are not too "bright", which I hate. I have the sound set "flat" with the equalizer down one notch at the highest frequency. I was thinking that I was going to have to use phones other than what was supplied with the zen, but actually I am very satisfied with the buds (I will probably use my Sennheiser 250 noise cancelling headphones during plan rides since the buds dont really mask background noise). I do think that earbud performance is somewhat dependent on the geometry of your particular ear and how the buds sit within that. They have to be fairly tight I think for the bass to be strong.
The comments regarding failures does make me a bit nervous. I have had no problems so far. I have had the unit for a month and have used it quite a bit. I did get the Best Buy replacement warranty for 2 years, so I am hoping that will take care of me if I have a problem.
Anyway, a few other comments for folks to consider. Good luck in your purchasing decisions. It sure is complicated to pick something out in this day and age.
On: 2005-11-08
I got this THING a week ago as a gift. I listen exclusively to classical music, and have never been a fan of classical music that has been compressed. That though, is not the point. The Creative site gives scanty and contradictory information about the bundled software; specifically:
Microsoft® Windows® 98SE/Me/2000/XP*
Intel® Pentium® II 350MHz or AMD K6®-2 450MHz (Pentium III 450MHz or higher recommended for MP3 encoding)
64MB RAM (128MB recommended)
USB 1.1 port (USB 2.0 recommended for faster transfer)
* Minimal requirement for PlayForSure support is Microsoft® Windows® XP
Because you have no description of ANY of the bundled software, you dont know what this really means.
NEWS FLASH: NONE,THAT IS NONE of the software on the Zen CD will load in a NON-XP environment. The start-up program checks the OS and terminates if is not XP.
I did try it on an XP machine. All of the software loaded. All of it started up. Plug in the Sleek and the NEW HARDWARE FOUND applet starts. NEWS FLASH: there are NO DRIVERS on the ZEN CD, WIN-XP CD or @ Microsoft on-line update. Try to use Creatives driver download - YOU CANT DOWNLOAD ANYTHING. You can only use the on-line auto-update if it is a supported device, which the Sleek is. Auto-update WILL NEVER FIND THE SLEEK BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOT INSTALLED A DRIVER, AND YOU CANT DO THAT?!?! (catch-22)
BOTTOM LINE: if you get one, dont break the tape sealing the box. Just send it back and be thankful you read this,and other reviews befor you did. Get something else. None of use has time to waste on a cludge like this that apparently has been rushed to market without the proper software.
On: 2005-11-06
I bought this as an alternative to an iPod that i had that had a battery issue, the main draw of this was that it had a good battery.
First off, here are the good things about this player (on paper):
-Large and accurately stated battery life
-20 gigs for $250, $50 dollars cheaper than the 20 gig iPod was at the time.
-FM radio tuner, usefull for finding new music to listen to
-easy navigation of the menus
-voice/radio recorder, usefull if your going to nap in class.
-great sound quality
-looks just as good as the iPod (in my opinion)
And the bad things (again on paper):
-no acessories
-requires two cords to charge, adding to my already messy computer area
-terribly useless pouch for protection
Not too bad right? Lets go on...
My personal experiance with this product was mixed. Minus its long start up time (about 5-10 seconds) I loved its features, while they worked. After about a week, i accidentally put this thing on my dryer and it got shaken up, the result wasnt good. The headphone connector fell out of place, i would only hear my music in one ear or the other and when i moved the player, i could hear the little connector bouncing around inside. After about two weeks or so of use, my Sleek started to act up even worse and freeze up. now, this wasnt too bad, i just had to wait 10-18 hours for my battery to drain itself. After, it would be fine as it could be. Soon, this grew to an everyday thing and eventually i got safe-mode screens that i couldnt get past, due to a hard-drive failure. I didnt go and call Creatives coustomer support because coustomer support is nearly always useless, so i just took it in to Best Buy (the place i bought it) and excanged it with my PRP plan.
^Not good eh?
Overall:
The Creative Zen Sleek is a great mp3 player, while it works. dont buy it, it will break on you, youre better off just buying the iPod for fifty dollars more, its gonna save you hassle in the long run, because if i am not mistaken, Apple fixed the battery issues after so many people had problems with them. The FM tuner and voice recorder are nice, but you dont need them, and if you cant even get them to work, theyre useless. Its good on paper, but built too poorly to compete with Apple, good try Creative, better build the next one solid.
On: 2005-11-05
I bought this as an alternative to an iPod that i had that had a battery issue, the main draw of this was that it had a good battery.
First off, here are the good things about this player (on paper):
-Large and accurately stated battery life
-20 gigs for $250, $50 dollars cheaper than the 20 gig iPod was at the time.
-FM radio tuner, usefull for finding new music to listen to
-easy navigation of the menus
-voice/radio recorder, usefull if your going to nap in class.
-great sound quality
-looks just as good as the iPod (in my opinion)
And the bad things (again on paper):
-no acessories
-requires two cords to charge, adding to my already messy computer area
-terribly useless pouch for protection
Not too bad right? Lets go on...
My personal experiance with this product was mixed. Minus its long start up time (about 5-10 seconds) I loved its features, while they worked. After about a week, i accidentally put this thing on my dryer and it got shaken up, the result wasnt good. The headphone connector fell out of place, i would only hear my music in one ear or the other and when i moved the player, i could hear the little connector bouncing around inside. After about two weeks or so of use, my Sleek started to act up even worse and freeze up. now, this wasnt too bad, i just had to wait 10-18 hours for my battery to drain itself. After, it would be fine as it could be. Soon, this grew to an everyday thing and eventually i got safe-mode screens that i couldnt get past, due to a hard-drive failure. I didnt go and call Creatives coustomer support because coustomer support is nearly always useless, so i just took it in to Best Buy (the place i bought it) and excanged it with my PRP plan.
^Not good eh?
Overall:
The Creative Zen Sleek is a great mp3 player, while it works. dont buy it, it will break on you, youre better off just buying the iPod for fifty dollars more, its gonna save you hassle in the long run, because if i am not mistaken, Apple fixed the battery issues after so many people had problems with them. The FM tuner and voice recorder are nice, but you dont need them, and if you cant even get them to work, theyre useless. Its good on paper, but built too poorly to compete with Apple, good try Creative, better build the next one solid.
On: 2005-11-01
I recieved this as a birthday present not even 3 weeks ago, and at first, I would have told you this was the best player on the market. That is until the second week I got it, the player started to freeze so bad, that not even the reboot button worked. The only way to let it unfreeze was to let the battery drain. That was okay, I thought, I could handle that because the rest of the system was working well (except for the TERRIBLE ear buds it comes with) and not to mention the complete lack of ANY accessories. Want a nice hard case? Forget it, Creative Labs gives you a sack to take care of your $250 investment.
Well, to make a long, painful story short, the freezing happened again...and then again, with the only way to unfreeze it is letting the power run out.
Today, I turned on my player after yet another freeze, and this time the safe mode menu comes up, and none of the options work. I try to format the disk, and it comes up that I have a harddrive problem. I call creative labs, tell them my situation, and they want me to pay money to ship this POS insured mail back to them so they can take 10-14 business repairing rendering my return/exchange period at circuit city obsolete. I told them they should reimburse me the hours I spent transferring music to this player, but they werent amused. Buy from Creative Labs at your own risk. There is a reason why everyone is walking around with an Ipod, and now I know it from first hand experience. The Sleek sucks, Creative Labs sucks. Buyer Beware.
On: 2005-10-31
I recieved this as a birthday present not even 3 weeks ago, and at first, I would have told you this was the best player on the market. That is until the second week I got it, the player started to freeze so bad, that not even the reboot button worked. The only way to let it unfreeze was to let the battery drain. That was okay, I thought, I could handle that because the rest of the system was working well (except for the TERRIBLE ear buds it comes with) and not to mention the complete lack of ANY accessories. Want a nice hard case? Forget it, Creative Labs gives you a sack to take care of your $250 investment.
Well, to make a long, painful story short, the freezing happened again...and then again, with the only way to unfreeze it is letting the power run out.
Today, I turned on my player after yet another freeze, and this time the safe mode menu comes up, and none of the options work. I try to format the disk, and it comes up that I have a harddrive problem. I call creative labs, tell them my situation, and they want me to pay money to ship this POS insured mail back to them so they can take 10-14 business repairing rendering my return/exchange period at circuit city obsolete. I told them they should reimburse me the hours I spent transferring music to this player, but they werent amused. Buy from Creative Labs at your own risk. There is a reason why everyone is walking around with an Ipod, and now I know it from first hand experience. The Sleek sucks, Creative Labs sucks. Buyer Beware.
On: 2005-10-29
The player was upon my expectations. It did even better: very good FM reception, very long battery life (about 15-16 hours ig I disable the backlight feature during the day). I like the resume feature: if I listen to an 100 minutes mix either by dj tjesto or by atb, VA or whatever, if I close the player (either by pressing pause before or not) when I power it up it resumes the at the same position.
The stupid part is that creative told me that they will develop a driver for woindows 2000 (that was all i asked) and they did not. it is good that you can use the player as a removable device under win200/xp/2003 but i also wanted to be able to load music on my player using win2000 and maybe some of their drivers. but NOT... they dont provide anything. i have a win2000 license and i dont want to pay microsoft another ammount of monney on another license (it works with winxp).
they also promised that they will build up a carying case. that is a week point, again: i dont like that black velvet bag. it is very uncomfotable. its exterior has a high friction coefficient. it is very enoying, mostly if you like beeing dressed up. and it takes all your coats internal pocket. besides this, if you have the black bag (carying pouch) it looks huge in your pocket.
there is another ugly thing I dont like: the player is encapsuled in an aluminum case (or it was put together in that case) and I am not able to open it (who needs warranty today?) and clean THE DUST THAT GATHERS ON THE INSIDE SCREEN. they encapsuled it but they did not do quite a good job. it still lacks in sealing.
an other issue that ennoyes me is that only the usb data cable has the player connector, not the power cord. you have to have the dock connector plugged in to plug the power cord in (so either you have or not a computer you must use the usb cable; the usb cabless computer ending beeing unplugged! e.g.: if i go on a trip and i have to recharge the player i need to take with me both cables: the transformer cable plugs into the player dock connector and the player dock connector has an usb cable comming out of it... so i have to have an extra loose usb cable that is very tricky: if you accidentally grab it, your player ends up on the ground. and that is VERY HEALTHY FOR THE HDD INSIDE.
Good thinking, creative. I will never buy any device or case or whatever from you. thank you for making it crystal clear to me.
On: 2005-10-26
Overall, an excellent product. Better than an ipod because it has an fm radio and a microphone. If you dont care about those two features though, you might as well get an ipod because it uses itunes and has a better scroll wheel. This model has the monochrome screen; for about an extra $100 you can get the photo/color screen version. The iRiver H10 is also color and has the same features, but a little thicker and didnt get as good reviews.
Pros:
Excellent sound
Looks great (although not quite the ipod)
FM Radio and microphone
Plenty of features and straightforward to use
Same dimensions as 4th gen ipod.
Cons:
-The touchpad scroller can be tricky to use. The problem is that you cant keep spinning your finger around like on the ipod, so you have to hold your finger at the top which is sometimes interpreted as slow and sometimes fast. My guess is I will be more used to it pretty soon though.
-The radio reception is pretty poor. I can get the major stations here, but slightly more distant ones that my car stereo has little problem with, this thing doesnt pickup too well.
-Because its not as popular as the ipod it wont have all the extra 3rd party accessories available.
On: 2005-10-21
The new Zen Sleek is great. A true match for the Ipod. This is the third player I have owned. I also own a restaurant where I have different bartenders bring in music to play via mp3 players or cd etc, so I have used both the Ipod, Rio Karma, Rio Carbon as well as my own Zen Xtra. I recently lost my Zen so it was time to upgrade. The Sleek has finaly found the right combo of form factor as well as features to make it top notch. Personaly I have quite a bit of music stored on my computer as mp3s or wmas so Apples Ipod was out, I am also a fan of a variaty of on-line music stores, MSN, Napster, Yahoo etc. The Sleek is compatible with newer subscription services which is great. The player it self is excelent, the size is basicly the same as the Ipod & the "touch pad" works great, you may want to adjust the speed to suit your tase.
The one downer is the combo power & usb cable kind of a pain but more than made up by this feature packed player.
On: 2005-10-19
I have not been a owner for very long, but the first things that strike me are:
+ Long battery time
+ Cool design
+ Works fast
+ Radio is easy to use
- Scratches easily
- After about a month it quit working and I had to let the battery get flat before any buttons would respond to me pressing on them.
- So many wires everywhere
- A lot of the times it says the player isnt connected when I connect player to PC. That might just be mine, though.
- Its not easy to carry around. There should be someway to carry it on your arm when youre outdoors.
I give it 5 stars because its 20GB, cool design and easy to use for only about $300.
On: 2005-10-16
I have been on the market for a high-storage mp3 player, and finally decided to go for the zen touch 20 gb. iPods were out of the question from the beginning, I dont understand why they have become so known and valued (?). Side to side with other mp3 players (specially Creatives) they dont stand a chance in most of the features.
At first I wanted to buy the Zen Sleek but finally changed my mind because I dont need radio or voice recording at all... The sleek is slightly smaller and has bigger buttons, but on the other hand it has less battery life. And I dont know how does it regulate volume - the Zen Touch has dedicated volume buttons, but I cant see them on the Sleek. And Zen Sleek is way more expensive than Zen Touch (it has some extra features, yes, but they arent worth the price difference for me... Id rather spend the difference in some quality headphones, for instance).
The Zen Touch is almost perfect; first of all, excellent sound quality. Ive owned several mp3 players (both memory-based and cd-mp3 players, portable and hi-fi), and all of them had some kind of flaw when playing mp3 files; glitches, files that just didnt play, players that chopped the first second of music, incompatiblility with certain sets of characters...). But the Zen Touch finally seems to bring mp3 out of that perpetual "beta" stage of amateur players into a "version 1.0" status. It just *works* and sound quality is excellent as I said.
But I say "almost" perfect because I think there are 2 evident problems:
1) After 5 hours struggling with it, I realized that for some reason its impossible to transfer files to the Zen Touch using my desktop pc. No matter how many times I install the software or update the drivers or reinstall the firmware, or even my motherboard usb 2.0 drivers: it always comes up with something like "unknown error" on the PC when trying to transfer files, leaving the unit frozen (you can reset it using a straigthened paper clip, and I probably had to reset it a hundred times). I finally decided to transfer my mp3 files to my laptop and try it... and it worked flawlessly and very fast (usb 2.0). If I didnt have a second computer, I would have been stuck, unable to transfer a single file. I am not a newbie, and I usually manage to fix any software or hardware trouble by myself, but this time it proved impossible to make it work, so I guess the software or drivers have some trouble. I did some research and found out Im not the only one with this trouble.
2) The touch pad. I had read some people had trouble with it, but I thought they were just plain clumsy. But oh... my God... this is very hard to control even at the lowest sensitivity setting. Anyway, my control of it improved *a lot* once I stopped using my index finger (like I do on my laptops touch pad) and started using my thumb. It may sound strange, but really, it made a difference for me. This device has been designed to use the thumb with the touch pad while you hold it flat on the palm of your hand. But sometimes I really miss some simple up / down buttons, because selecting a simple option often makes you feel like skating on ice: you slide too far everytime, and when you try to go slower, it just doesnt scroll. And when you think you are about to get it right, sloooooowly moving your finger... you accidentally "step" into the top/bottom area which happens to scroll much faster, so the list suddenly jumps ahead or back and you have to start all over again, unless you throw the player against the wall or through the window. Maybe I will get the hang of it with time, but right now its making me crazy sometimes. Anyway, it has to be said that even if I could perfectly control the touchpad, it would still be slow to get to the song I want: were speaking of thousands of songs in a small screen. No control system (in a small mp3 player) will compare to typing a name in your PC mp3 player or pointing and clicking on your TFT screen.
Lesser troubles include the somehow puzzling lack of a stop button (you can only pause or wait until your selection stops playing at the end of the last song - nothing more), the not-very-functional carrying pouch (it should have some openings so that you could at least use the next/prev buttons... it covers the whole player so you can do nothing at all unless you extract it completely from the pouch), and the fact that you cant create folders or anything: everything is ID3-based (you can look for tracks by artist, album, genre, album... or see all tracks/use a playlist). I have taken care to keep my id3 tags in good shape, but many people just relies on the filename and they are gonna have a hard time and some headaches with this player... I recommend using some utility (like Dr. Tag) to autommatize the process and copy the "artist - song" to the appropriate id3 tags fields (provided your files are correctly named).
What about the rest? Well, theres always room for improvement, but... not much to improve really (other than the above). This thing is perfect. Battery life might not be 24 hours, but it feels like it lasts forever. And the sound... Ive tried it using headphones, plugged into the aux of my hi-fi stereo, and plugged (using a simple tape adapter) to my car radio... The sound is always top notch (most of my music is encoded as mp3 at 192kbps). The player starts up pretty quick, and always reacts quickly to your choices (well, sometimes it displays "Loading" for 1 or 2 seconds, but... Winamp also makes me wait to access my playlist). It has several maintenance options (defrag, format, reset, upgrade firmware...), several settings you can adjust, an EQ I havent used yet...
I give it 5 stars although I could give it 4 because of the troubles (specially the fle transfer issues)... but I think Zen Touch and Zen Sleek are the best ones out there right now (in the department of hard-drive based mp3 players). You can take all your music with you and play it on the go using some decent headphones, or in any home/car stereo, with outstanding quality. That deserves 5 stars, doesnt it?
On: 2005-10-12
This is an amazing DAP.
This thing has just enough memory and fetures before it becomes pointless. Personally, in a DAP, I dont need a color screen to view pictures. This has a monochrome screen. Along with this it has a voice recorder for up to 10 hours, a FM radio tuner, which is always nice, and can double as a removable drive. The voice recorder is useful in many situations like little mental notes for later or recording a lecture at a class; its really a useful thing to have. Its all Id ever need for a DAP.
Pictures of this thing online do not do the actual device justice in terms of how sexy it really is, the brushed aluminum casing is, well sleek, as well as it is sturdy. The blue backlight is not as dark as the Zen Touch and is very readable. The buttons have a nice blue glow to them as well.
There is the familar Zen touch strip in the middle. Its fairly easy to get used to. After a hour or two I quickly got used to using it. The layout of the buttons make sense. These buttons are tactile, you can acutally push down on them, it prevents the problems with mistaken clickage on the Zen Micro. Of the buttons themselves, you have the standard rewind-last track/play-pause/fastfoward-next track buttons. Along with those standards, you have a useful "back to last page or back to main menu" button and the "show details or show possible options available" button. These buttons combined with a very intuitive operating system makes this thing very simple and efficient.
The sound quality is very nice. Creative bosts a high signal to noise ratio, whatever that means. I listen to a range of music from classical, to jazz, to classic rock, to grunge, to bluegrass, to blues, to old skool rap. I can hear every little nuance in all my music. The sound has good bass support, the bass booster option does help the bass but it makes the treble slightly muddy. The players flat EQs are very nice as they are, they are nice and balanced, with nice bell like trebles if needed.
The software that came with this is alright. I prefer to use WMP 10 to transfer all my music onto the thing. I think WMP 10 makes more sense to work. The included headphones are alright. You get a good amount of volume from them and the sound quality is acceptable.
I only have two things to criticize:
1. There is no dedicated stop button. Not a big deal.
2. No dedicated volume buttons exist. This becomes a little problematic when you are accidently touch the touch strip while this is playing, but I guess thats what the hold switch is for.
All in all, for $250, its one helluva deal. Best for that price range.
On: 2005-10-05
I bought this MP3 player yesterday at Best Buy. I was originally looking fo the Zen Micro since I knew that it would allow me to play my Rhapsody to-go songs. I really had not heard of this new player until I arrived at the store. I asked the salespeople if this player would allow me to play RTG and they did not know. This was my main criteria for purchasing a player.
The great news is that it does play the RTG songs! This is really excellent. If you do not know about Rhapsody to-go or the similiar Yahoo or Napster versions, let me tell you, it is simply incredible. For a small fee each month, I can listen to any of over 1.3 mil tracks on my computer and now with this player, I can listen to those tracks anywhere. Basically, I download hundreds of dollars, even thousands of dollars worth of music on my computer and also on this solid player and listen anywhere, anytime.
Pros -
+ Great looking, sexy, shiny and futuristic
+ Solid Battery, 16 to 18 hours
+ Easy to learn and get up and listening right away
+ FM tuner with 32 presets
+ Recording - record your own voice for up to 10 hours
+ Recording - record a radio show for up to 10 hours
+ Locking - lock up the player while it plays so you dont accidently press the wrong button
+ Music playback - lots of different ways to play your music
+ Syncs - syncs great with WMP 10, fast and easy to use
+ Bookmarks - you can bookmark save up to 10 marks where you are listening in a song, this feature makes sense if you are listening to an audio book (not needed for a 4 minute song)
+ Cool buttons - great looking blue neon effect with the buttons
+ Size - fits snug in your hands
Cons -
+ Trackbar - even with practice and changing the settings, this is a very delicate trackbar
+ Headphones - the standard headphones sold out of the box are alright, you will probably want to buy your own
+ Battery life - there is no detailed battery lifeline in the display, there is a basic one, but there is not a battery info that says "Battery Life - 4 hours remaining"
+ Battery - there is no removable battery
+ Docking station - this player does not come standard with a docking station
Dream Specs -
These items are not cons, just items I look forward to seeing in the next year or two (inevitable upgrades with enough time)
+ Color monitor - the current monitor is greyscale, the text is easy to read, but it would very cool to actually see full-color photos and album covers of what is playing
+ 100 gigs - with my 20 gig model, you dont get as many songs as the manufacturer suggests, keep in mind, I am downloading my songs at 160 to 192 WMA files and I can store appr. 4,000 songs in the entire player (as of this writing I have not filled my entire hard drive yet, but adjusting for how much space my file are taking I should be able to fill this drive with about 4K songs, much less than the suggested 10K)
+ Smaller, lighter - the current player is a good size, but it would be great to see it about 10% shorter and about 30% - 40% thinner
+ Battery life - the battery life is good now, but it would be great to have a full 24 hour battery life
+ Wireless headphones - I believe that wireless headphones are just coming out for the MP3 players, it will be even more convienent to listen to a player like this without the cord of the headphones
+ Voice recognition - along with the wireless headphones, it would be extremely cool to have voice activated headphones in conjunction with the device, simple ask for a song and it plays!
All in all, this is a very excellent player and a great example of things to come. The sound quality is wonderful. Most importantly for me, the fact that I can instantly listen to any song from over a 1.3 mil song library via Rhapsody is fantastic. If there were more detailed ratings, I would actually rate this player a 4.5, but simply due to the RTG ability I give it 5 stars here. Remember, this fact is kind of a secret as of this writing. If you go to the Rhapsody site and run a search for all the players that are compatible, this one does not even come up.
So, if you want to listen to all the new CDs, tons of classical, jazz, rock, pop, rap and sountracks, comedy, country and even childrens music without having to buy the actual CDs, this player is for you.
On: 2005-10-04
I subscribe to Yahoo Music Unlimited, so needed a player capable of playing subscription based music - this rules out ipods and others. After a firmware upgrade it functions flawlessly, so far. This device looks good - better than previous Creative hard drive offerings.
Sound quality is good, the scroll tab takes a bit of getting used to - I set it to a lower sensitivity. I will be upgrading the headphones, probably to noise-cancelling, in the near future. Very pleased with my purchase.
On: 2005-10-03
Creatives new Zen Sleek is quite a nice player, in my opinion. Sleek is an appropriate descriptor for this player as it feels so good to hold it in your hand. It looks pretty too, the silver aluminum casing goes great with the white front parts. The screen is a nice blue and easy to read, similar to the Zen Touch. It also has the touch slider and nice tactile buttons that glow blue when activated. The button layout is just like the Zen Micro, but this is a much nicer (sleeker, lol)looking unit.
The Sleek sounds awesome. All the equalizer presets sound good, but I leave mine on Rock, I think that sounds the best. Listening to the unit, even with the included buds, is a spine tingling experience. One cool feature is it has a sleep timer so you can go to sleep listening to it and it will auto shut-off at the specified time limit, i.e. 30 minutes.
The Creative Mediasource software is easy to use, just like the Zen Touch. However, Creative has just released a firmware update that makes this little baby a drag-and-drop hottie, no special software required. The Outlook calendar, tasks, and contacts sync is a nice feature. Also, you can set a UMM data partition...thats nice too. The FM tuner works great, as does the Recorder feature. The menu is extensive with lots of little extra goodies.
As mentioned in the other reviews, the only dislikes I have are:
The proprietary USB/charging combo cable...not cool, but I can live with it. No case included, just a velvetine ZEN pouch, come on Creative...give us a nice case. The docking cradle has to be purchased separately, for another $39 on Creatives site. No color screen, although do you really need it. Creative is supposedly releasing another version in November, the Sleek Photo, which will have the color screen for $110 more.
Overall, the Zen Sleek itself is killer (iPod killer?). I would give it 4 and 3/4 stars because of the USB cable. I love mine and highly recommend it.
On: 2005-10-01
what a great player. i love it. its like a zen micro gone through puberty. the casing is "sleek", with the aluminum brushing, much more than your best friends ifart(ipod for those who didnt get the pun). its not that i want to compare with ipod, but with apples deathgrip on the portable audio market, its impossible not to.
**Pros**
-Software is MUCH better than what Im used to, on par with iTunes, in my opinion
-This player is scratch resistant, while the ipod is practically scratch prone.
-Size: Just about the same specs as ipod.
-Buttons: i love tactile buttons. much easier to use that trying to navigate touch buttons in the dark.
-Find Track: Allows you to select a letter and goes directly to that letter.
-Playlist: Amazing
-FM Radio/Recording: I have not used any recording yet, as its not why i bought this player, but i get the same reception on the little player as my clock-radio does. Great for listening to the Ravens lose >:-O
-REMOVEABLE DISK: This is such an amazingly useful feature. Sure, a player can be great, but what if you change computers. Rather than having to transfer your player to a hard drive, or not having one at all, this player can set aside up to all of its memory, and can hold ANY kind of file. it cant use them, but can transfer them to anything with a USB slot.
**Cons**
-No included case: rather unfortunate
-battery is not user-replaceable: extremely dissapointing after success of the micro
-Alarm: doesnt allow you to use the playlists. i may be the only person in the world who uses this feature though.
-Charging: adapter must connect to usb link. kind of a hassle.
overall, i think its a great player, but nothings perfect.
On: 2005-09-27
After much research I finally decided to purchase the Zen Sleek 20gb Mp3 Player and Im quite happy with this unit. I also considered the Dell DJ, Zen Touch, and Zen Micro. I also thought about the iPod for a few seconds - but it doesnt take long to realize that beyond a pretty case, the Zen and DJ line just offer so much more, for less $$$!
As is the case with many folks shopping for a good mp3 player; I needed an Mp3 player that was compact, had above average battery life, at least 20gb of storage, and a few extra features to keep it interesting. But most important of all, it MUST have good audio quality (97db SNR)! Well, this Zen Sleek met all of my goals and more!
Here is what I found while doing some research this weekend both on-line and in the local stores. The Dell DJ, while cheap, simply didnt offer any of the features or battery life the Zen Sleek offered. The iPod had "average" battery life, no nifty features, too expensive, and isnt fully compatible with other music formats. The Zen Touch does have the best battery life ever - but its way too bulky and the LCD isnt very bright. And with a max storage of 6gb, the Zen Micro just didnt have enough space for my needs. Otherwise, it would have been my 1st choice.
And just to sum everything up, here is a list of Pros and Cons.
Pros:
- Considering the storage, its quite small and light
- 20gb of storage (Im hoping for more in the future)
- 18 hrs of battery life (As expected, I got slightly less with 192kbps WMAs)
- 97db SNR for the best possible audio quality. I tested the audio quality with everything from a high-end car stereo to a top of the line home theater system. All sounded excellent. It even sounded rather good with a tape adapter!
- FM Radio (not needed, but very handy)
- Awesome and very easy to use touchpad feature as well as Creatives well known interface.
- And it looks great with the silver and white color scheme!
Cons:
- Slighty on the expensive side ($249.99 US)
- Not enough accessories at time of release
- Not a big fan of the velvet-like carrying pouch. Sorry, I just refuse to use that thing. :)
So, basically I cant find anything wrong with the unit itself. :) For this reason, Ill give it 5 out of 5 stars and consider this unit highly recommended.
On: 2005-09-26
Ive had 3 Creative MP3 players so far. And this one blows the other two Ive had away. My first two MP3 players were the Creative Zen Xtra 30 GB models. They were nice players...but I had headphone jack problems, it was big and bulky, and the hard drive failed twice for me. Therefore, I decided that I needed a new player. I was looking at the iPods, and about to buy one when I saw that Creative had a new product out called the Zen Sleek. I decided to give them one last shot. And man am I glad I did. At $249.99, its $50 cheaper than the iPod, for the same size (20 GB). However, you dont get a color screen. Does that really matter though? Are you using your MP3 player to play games and look at photo slides, or play some music? I chose the latter.
The Zen Sleek is much, much better looking than the Zen Xtras ever were. This one almost looks like an ipod. It really is quite sleek. It has a great looking aluminium case, a vertical touch pad as opposed to that (in my opinion) awful wheel that the iPods have, and the buttons are nicely laid out.
The Zen Sleek also has a radio with THIRTY-TWO presets built into it! This is great when I go on trips, because I listen to a lot of radio shows that Id love to keep up on. Its also great if you like listening to your favorite sports team on the radio (Which I do). It also has a microphone, and the ability to sychronize your contact list from Outlook, and a calander with a task list. Good stuff. This thing also has an 18 hour battery life!
Now the bad stuff... the only way to charge your player is to hook it up to a USB cable, and then plug the AC adapter into that. It does charge without the AC adapter however. But, I like to charge my player away from my computer, which means that I have to remove the USB cable every time I want to charge it anywhere else. No big deal..except to get to the back of my computer I have to take it out of a stand its in. Not fun, but Ill deal with it. It also doesnt come with a case, it comes with a little pouch. I wish it had a case like the Zen Xtras, because that was perfect for my job. I clipped it onto a rack at work, and it stayed there the whole night. Now Im worried about it falling. Hopefully Creative will come out with a case that I can buy. However, those are my only real complaints with it.
PROS:
-Great sound quality
-Great price for the same space as an iPod.
-Wonderful, sexy, look.
-INSANE (up to 18 hour) battery life
-Built in radio
-Easy to use interface.
-Transfers songs fast.
CONS:
-Charging isnt very fun (for me at least)
-No real case, just a pouch.
-No color screen (Not REALLY a con, just would have been nice. -I wouldnt pay an extra $50 for it though)
-Doesnt have a user-replaceable battery like the Zen Xtras. I dont know if you have to send this in to Creative if your battery fails or not...hopefully Ill never have to find out.
All in all, this is a wonderful player, with only a few minor problems. I wish I could give it 4 1/2 stars, but I cant. The only thing holding it back from 5 stars is the horrible way to charge it. If I could pick up another one of these USB cables for under $10, Ill bump it up to 5 stars. The cable is sort of strange... it has a regular USB that plugs into a USB port, but then it has a boxy connecter on the other end that connects to your Zen Sleek. Too bad, Id just use the old cables from my Zen Xtra otherwise.
Well worth my money. Pick one up today if youre considering an MP3 player.
EIGHT MONTHS LATER
Well, 8 months later my Zen Sleek died from Hard Drive failure. I would expect this after 2-3 years, but only after 8 months? What a piece of crap. I went out and bought myself an iPod video. I already like it more than the Zen Sleek. Creative has even stoppe d supporting this product less than a year after its release. How wonderful.
1 Star.
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