Reviews for Creative Zen 4GB Flash Portable Media Player

Excellent Portable Video Player

Strengths: Excellent 2.5 inch screen Very Good Audio Quality Nice Build Quality Very Portable Expandability via SD Slot

Weakness: Not True Widescreen No Line-In or External Mic Recording FM Tuner Not as Good as Others Limited Video Formats Supported Works with Macs but not supported by Creative

After two ipods, I wanted a portable video player primarily to stay connected with some video podcasts I regularly watch. Originally I thought of the Ipod Touch or the Archos 605, both touch screen, WiFi equipped players. After thinking it through, I probably wouldn't have the chance to use the WiFi connection all that much and touch screen devices a magnet for fingerprints. When I learned of the Creative Zen player, it made sense for the intended purpose, as a portable video player to use on my daily commute.

The first thing I noticed about the Zen is that the build quality, controls, and user interface were all well done. While very different from the way Apple does things, the Zen is nearly as well made and the interface is similarly intuitive. After turning it on, the unit's most outstanding feature becomes apparent - the screen is exceptional and state of the art. So good is the resolution and color rendition of the Zen that it makes watching video on a 2.5 inch screen very satisfying. Small text and subtitles are very legible. Even on wide screen videos, where less than the entire height of the display is used, fine details remain well rendered and watchable.

Many video podcasts are now provided in the MP4 format native to the ipods. The Zen only supports the AVI and WMV video containers, all ipod format videos need to be converted. The Zen comes with a high quality WMV converter, but it is a bit slow. I mainly use third party converters and I am still looking for the best one.

The FM tuner is a nice inclusion, but reception is only fair. I also have an older iRiver player which has an FM tuner (and also line-in and external mic recording that the Zen does not have) and though smaller, gets slightly better reception. In areas where the reception is good, the sound quality is very good.

With video compression, even the smallest 4GB internal memory can still hold many videos. The inclusion of an SD slot gives this player effectively infinite memory as well as the ability to pop in a card that has been prepared on a PC with a card reader, not requiring that the Zen be attached to a machine to add content. Of course, the Zen can work as a card reader and data can be copied directly to the SD card in the Zen.

As both a PC and Mac user, it is a bit disappointing to learn that the Zen is only supported by Creative on the PC. However, using the GNU XNJB (Zen connection and copying) and some video converters for the Mac, the Zen will work with a Mac.

All in all, this new Zen player is a viable alternative to the video ipods, especially when viewing video is considered. Video performance exceeds that of even the ipod Touch. The price makes this player a great value, with extensive features and an easy to learn interface. Its size makes it very portable. Overall, its a very solid device and comes highly recommended.

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A great product but could use some improvements

Strengths: A lot of features, small and light, great screen, decent sound.

Weakness: Current firmware 1.20.02 is buggy, need to install Zencasts to work with it for podcasts.

This is a very nice video mp3 player with a lot of potential. It's small and light, with FM tuner and voice recorder. It offers a very clean way to organize zencasts (aka podcasts) similar to ipod. This is the main reason I like it. I listen to financial podcasts everyday. The only few drawback is that the current FW (as of 01/03/2007) is buggy. Every zencasts are cut off short about a minute or two at the end. I went on Creative online forum, and found out other users have similar complaints. Personally I believe this is due to the way how Zen handles podcasts. It has to convert all podcasts into a video (or video similar) file (such as .avi), under the Zencasts software that you need to install on your PC, and organize them under the video category. That's right, even just an audio podcast, it's converted to a video format. This is pretty cumbersome in my opinion.

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Amazing little MP3 player!

Strengths: Very beautiful screen, great sound quality, tons of other features, easy to use, nice softwares...

Weakness: Ridiculously-short USB cable, shorter-than-expected battery life

I had done countless hours of researching on the web about this Creative MP3 player, I finally got it from Buydig.com for less than $100(shipping included). What a deal! Opened the box, nice and small player, charged via pc with my OWN usb cable(the one comes with it is WAY TOO SHORT). The sound quality is excellent. Pictures look much better than the promo ones on the website. The only thing I don't like is the battery life, should have lasted longer like they said on web(20 hours on music), but it came out only like a little longer than 13 hours...
I would recommend this mp3 player to everyone. Great job! Creative rules!

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great little media player

Strengths: small, good screen, flash base

Weakness: none

First of all, what a great player! Easy navigation, great looking video, great sound quality, and easy setup. I find the screen to be far superior to the iPod's screen and the feel is very comfortable.

I love the fact that you can use any software to get your music and video from, personally I don't care for iTunes. I love the recording and FM tuner and the programmable button. it makes life very easy. You can also use Windows Media Player to Sync.

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Nice Media Player

Strengths: Crisp video. Nice sound.

Weakness: Short battery playtime.

I wanted a flash-based player for outdoor use and chose this player because my previous good experience with the Creative Zen Vision:M and its support of SDHC cards for storage addition.

The player is small yet feels solid. Its video is crisp just as that of its cousin ZVM. It has a nice sound but not quite as warm as that of the ZVM. The user-interface design is similar to the ZVM's -- very intuitive. Creative's decision to switch to using the standard mini-USB connector with this player is highly commendable (one less proprietary cable to pack on trips).

The player's battery can be charged rather fast even off the USB connection to the PC probably because of its small size and power storage capacity; the downside is it seems to drain also somewhat faster than I expected.

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A Good MP3 Player with Expansion Slot

Strengths: Price, Compact Size, Screen Size, Expansion Slot, FM Radio, and Voice Recorder

Weakness: Playing MP3 on the memory expansion card would not have full function that is available to the player when using internal memory.

This is a good and quality MP3 player from Creative. Unlike Zune and iPod, you can just hook it up to your computer and add songs via drag and drop. It is compact but not the smallest ones. The expansion slot makes it easy to add MP3 songs, pictures or video clips. However, many of the functions that are available to the player when using internal memory are not available to if the external memory card is used.

This is a good MP3 player for the money. I would recommend it. However, today you should also consider a tiny MP3 player called Meizu SL M6 for a better price, more functions and smaller in size.

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The bottom Line on the ZEN 4gig

Strengths: FM radio with record capability. Built in mic. Very nice picture quality for photos and videos. Easy navigation. Clean compact design.

Weakness: No backlight for control/navigation buttons. Rather small 4gig built in capacity for content.

Overall a very nice little device with lots of features.
Only 4gig capacity is mostly rectified with the SD memory card slot.
Shiny black casing with a small handprint makes it a very fashionable piece.
Excellent sound and picture quality also a plus.
Extra Kudos for the provided software. Creative seemed to have made it very easy to properly convert and load video from my laptop hard rive on to the Zen.
Lastly, the player like most at the price point only comes with a USB cord for both syncing and Charging the battery -on the plus side, when fully charged the battery life is very good.

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Creative ZEN 4GB

Strengths: Player looks and feels good, controls take getting used to. Especially like the screen size.

Weakness: Had 2 players within 3 weeks and both failed. Not very reliable.

Bought unit and after two weeks failed to keep a charge. Returned unit and got a replacement unit. This unit worked for a week before failing. Using Creative software to load music, computer froze and player stopped working. Not impressed. My son has 8GB player and has no problems, yet...

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I'm done with Creative products

Strengths: LCD screen, memory card slot

Weakness: crapped out after 4 months of limited usage

This is my fourth creative mp3 player, of which 3 stopped working. I had previously purchased the Zen Xtra 30 and 40 gigs. I decided to purchase a smaller mp3 player that was eaiser to carry around and chose the Zen 4GB. I have had this since the end of August 2008 and it stopped working for me on Christmas 2008. I am so disappointed that I am going to make the leap to an IPod.

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OK product

Strengths: Lots of features packed into product. Big Video screen, memory card support to expand memory, plays library audio books, lots of space.

Weakness: Will not stay docked. Small controls easy to mess up. Poor software. Short battery life. Memory card not well integrated. Clumsy navigation menus.

On the good side. Being able to quickly set FM station presets is really nice and easy to use. Being able to play licensed audio library books.
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On the bad side. Unable to keep the Zen docked to a computer and recognized by the computer. Repeatedly being recognized and dropped. Zen player thinks it is docked the entire time. Changing cables and computer doesn't fix the problem. Make it difficult to transfer files. When trying to rewind back a few seconds, because of the small buttons, I end up rewinding to the beginning of the track. Really difficult to figure out the software even for a technical geek. Using Windows Media Player instead. Menu navigation could be better. Need to use fingernail on controls to hit the right buttons.

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Pretty cool

Strengths: Different movie formats, Radio, Voice, Nice Screen

Weakness: Not much

This is a cool device. Has FM, Voice recorder, beautiful screen. Fits in my pocket nicely, plays so many movie kinds. I like the functioning of it. Sounds really good too. Battery life is alright. I like it a bunch.

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Good Player

Strengths: Small size, color, sound

Weakness: None so far

Bought this for my wife, she is very happy with it. Video looks good and sound is great. She uses it on the treadmill, the larger Zune we have is a little unwieldy for the gym.

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LOVE IT!

Strengths: GREAT SCREEN, SOUND, FEATURES! GOOD BATTERY AND IT TAKES MEMORY CARDS! SMALL, LITE, SLEEK TOO...

Weakness: don't care for the software so far, not super easy to figure out even for a tech savvy gal, it stalled loading a few times and had to reset but NO other problems so far and i'm willing to overlook

i'm so pleased with my new gadget! i love the size and how sleek it is. better that an ipod due to all the features that an ipod doesn't have, like radio. mic quality is great and the screen is excellent, clear & vivid.

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Creative Zen | 4GB

The Zen is Creatives answer to the iPod Nano featuring a bigger display and larger maximum storage capacity. As of April, 2008, new versions were introduced ranging in capacity from 2GB to 32GB. One of the Zens strongest features is its strong format support, providing compatibility with most popular audio and video formats removing the need for long conversion processes. The storage of all...

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Creative Zen 4GB

Creative Zen 4GB receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS score of 1.86 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #96 hard drive MP3 player of all time. The overall rating represents an intelligent balance of features, value as a function of price to features, and a summary of reviews from a variety of sources. The TopTen REVIEWS' formula gives a picture of important consumer features, market value, and a product's...

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