Creative Technology Zen Micro Photo Pink (8 GB) MP3 Player

If you are an audio book listener, this player will do nicely. I am a first time MP3 buyer and tried to do extensive research on the best player for audio books. There is not much written, so I decided to get my feet wet with the Creative Zen Micro Photo 8g. For the most part, it was a good decision. Volume is excellent (although it takes a while to get used to accessing it) and this can be gotten around by attaching a wired remote. There is bookmarking, which allows you to hold the place on several books if you want to listen to music or look at photos. And, the unit holds your place when you turn it off. I have downloaded audio books from the library and transferred them from my collection – the unit handles it all. It took a while to figure out how to and where to transfer the books, and understand the genres. So far, the unit has resisted my creating a new folder, which just holds audio books – I must put everything into the music library. For genres, I cannot create a new genre and call it “book” – I must use “speech”, “science fiction”, etc. and it will be mixed in the all of the music genres. So, searching for books becomes tedious if a lot of music has been transferred to the unit.

Much has been written about the “intuitive menus” on the Creative Zen Micro Photo 8g. I am 50+ and know my way around computers. This MP3 Player has multiple levels of menus and I would not call them “intuitive”. There is a snooze timer mode (a great feature if you want to listen to a book at night and fall asleep), which is buried deep in the “Player” settings. I have started to reconfigure the menu settings to what I use most, but it is going to take a long time before I get the knack of getting to a menu and finding what I want. Also, which software on my computer to use for downloading and configuring.

The on/off switch – actually a slide -- for the Creative Zen Micro Photo 8g is not easy to use. It is on top of the unit, next to the headphone plug. As an adult, just using my finger pads will not create enough friction to move it; I have to use my nails a lot. And just as the on/off slide resists sliding, the touch pad controls are exactly the opposite. The default setting is “medium”, and the sensitivity of the controls seems off the charts. Any neophyte to MP3 players should turn the sensitivity to “slow” and learn about sliding the power switch to “lock” in order to disable the player’s controls. Again, the wired remote control is a wonderful accessory in controlling the most used functions.

The battery for the Creative Zen Micro Photo 8g is charged thru the USB Port on your computer. I guarantee that you will become dissatisfied with this quickly and will order an AC and/or Car Charger. Not only does it take a long time to charge (up to 5 hours), but also the unit is unusable during the charge. I have ordered another battery, but it can only be charged in the unit (annoying).

Very little is out there in the way of accessories for the Creative Zen Micro Photo 8g. It comes with a drawstring pouch – I guess we are meant to carry it around in a pocket.

The Creative Zen Micro Photo 8g is packed with features. Beside audio books and music, I have only used the photos feature and am very disappointed – and what should I expect on the tiny screen? Use your photos as wallpaper to personalize your player and forget the rest. This MP3 Player will deliver on audio book and music playing.

Well, I've had my Creative Zen Micro Photo for about 2 months now, and I sure don't regret buying it.

The sound quality is the best (and loudest) of any player I've tried. That is probably the most important aspect of any player for me. The sound has to be able to blow me away, or take me away, depending on the music and my mood. The Zen Micro Photo definitely delivers. Most people I know have iPods of some sort, and I take pleasure in showing them my Zen Micro Photo, and watch them drool over the sound quality and volume. And even at the highest volume, the sound is crisp and clear.

The headphones that come with the player make the sound quality even better, although they are a bit large, and can be uncomfortable if used for prolonged periods of time. However, in both this model (Zen Micro Photo) and the previous model I owned (Zen Micro) the headphones didn't last long. Creative makes the headphones with a vertical jack (it comes straight up out of the player). So when I put the player in my pocket, the wire at the top of the jack works back and forth as I walk, and eventually breaks inside the insulation.

The headphones I replaced them with have an L shaped jack, which seems to prevent this problem. Even with different headphones the sound quality is still much better and louder than most other players, so I'm not complaining much.

The player also has a good FM tuner, FM recording and voice recording. I've used the FM tuner a few times with no complaints, but I've not yet used either of the recorders.

I like the interface from a design standpoint. The full color display is easy to read (unless in full sunlight) and easy to use. However, occasionally it tends to be a bit sluggish when playing large files.

Also, the playlists occasionally seem to do strange things. Twice I've had playlists that were created at nearly the same time, with different track lists, suddenly have the exact same track list a few days after creation.

The screen is a bit small to be an effective display for photos in my opinion, but the few photos I've put on the player are quite clear (just small).

The player itself is not quite as compact as some other players, but it's still quite small, fitting easily into the palm of your hand (or your pocket). I have no problems with the physical size of the player.

The space available, 8GB, is great too. I had a Zen Micro 4GB before and found it to be not enough space. I hated having to try to decide what to take off to make room for other music haha. I've not run into that problem with this player yet.

I've no complaints about the battery life. I've had it running (accidentally) for over 12 hours straight with still some green left in the battery indicator at the end. The ability to remove the battery and replace it is a great bonus too. I do miss having an AC adapter though. You need to plug the player into a running computer's USB port to charge it, unless you buy the travel charger from Creative separately.

The software interface with your computer is quite painless. It allows you to add music, create playlists, modify playlists, add files and photos etc quite easily. It even allows you to set aside some space to be used as a USB removeable storage drive.


Overall a very good player. I give it a 4/5.

I love having 8GB of my favorite music at my fingertips. I put it on shuffel, and let it surprise me with the next song I like. I call it long playing, with 6-8 hours of play time on a full charge (without smart sound leveling). I have used it with ear buds, headphones, input jack in the car, external speakers, and with noise cancelling earphones. It is easy to enable or cancel the bass boost or equalizer for each different system. Controls are easy to find and use. Software was easy to load and configure. This was my first time using a "play list" oriented player. Now I have 6 different playlists on the one player, for different moods.
I bought a replacement battery, and just bought a second one in case I wear out the first, because I like it so much!