Creative Technology Zen (4 GB) Digital Media Player

The Creative Zen is more than an MP3 player, it plays videos, displays pictures and even has an FM Tuner. The 2.5 inch screen is larger than most of the other popular brands of MP3 players. The pictures and videos are displayed beautifully. The audio quality is also great.

The Creative Zen is absolutely packed with features. Besides the standard audio, video and picture playback options, the Zen offers FM radio, voice recording, user equalizer settings and a memory expansion slot. It even offers all the little extras like clock and calendar functions. The Zen is fully capable of syncing with Microsoft Outlook and downloading all your contacts, appointments and tasks, basically adding a daily planner function to your video MP3 player.

The Zen can play the industry standards: MP3 and WMA. But the Zen goes farther and supports audible audio books and unprotected AAC files. The Zen also supports WAV files. There are other players that support these file formats, but they usually require trans coding with special software before they will play. The Zen plays all of these right out of the box. The Zen displays JPEG pictures and plays MP4 and WMV videos, though the player can also support XviD and DivX videos with trans coding through included software. The menu background on the Zen is customizable so you can display your favorite photos as wallpaper. And the player supports album art, giving you visual cues for the music you’re listening to. The battery life is also good, with a rating of 25 hours of audio playback or 5 hours of video playback on a single charge.

All in all, this is a real small wonder! No bigger then your credit card. It has all the features you would want packed into a tiny unit at price that won't break your wallet. The software package is not garbage, really useful for converting movies and such. This also is firmware updatable. Which will keep you up to date with any OS changes or bugs they find in the unit down the road.

PROS: Very compact but has all the features you need. Large 2.5 inch TFT screen that displays brilliant pictures and video. SD Card slot, expand your memory with these very portable SD Cards. They also accept SDHC Cards, just another plus. Sound quality is great. Has all the little extras to act as a daily planner. Nice to have if you need it.

CONS: The USB cable packaged with the ZEN it is only about 5 inches in length. That could definitely have been longer. If you don't have a desktop hub, you might consider grabbing a USB cable extension. 5 inches isn't a lot to work with.

I bought this player a year ago. It was a great size, easy to navigate, great features at a good price. The first month was great. I loaded books, pictures, albums etc. I maxed out my 4G and had a sd card also. But then it happend....The white screen of death. I had read reviews talking about the white screen but never had a problem till I was about two months into using the device. You can't navigate because you cant see the screen. Music still plays but you can't change to anything else. After turning the device off and on again, sometimes it fixed the problem only to happen again in another 10 minutes. A hard reset helped the first few times. Later a reset didn't even help. I researched the issue and found a lot of reporting about this issue with no fix provided by Creative. Now I have a defunct device and had to buy another mp3. Don't be lulled by the fantastic features and size and price. Sooner or later the white screen of death will get you and your device will be useless.