![]() ![]() As shown in Figure 6, this side has a mini-USB port for connecting it to the computer, an on/off switch which has a nice blue light when in the on position, and a standard microphone port. The only other controls on the Zen are found on the right side of the device. It can also be set to bring up the volume controls, but we didn’t see much use for this as the volume can always be controlled by pressing the up or down areas of the square control when playing music or videos. It can be programmed to start/stop a recording, to random play, to play the album of the day, or to switch to the album view. The functionality of this button can be customized by the user. The left side of this rocker acts as a shortcut button. Underneath this is another two-way rocker. This is used to scroll through and choose selections as well as to perform functions like increasing and/or decreasing the volume. Under the first rocker control button is a square four-way control surrounding a center select button. It brings up a contextual menu of functions that you can perform from your current screen. Pressing the right of this button is somewhat like right-clicking on a computer. When you press the left side of this control, you go back to the previous screen. The back of the Zen has a nice matt finish to thwart fingerprints, while the front is shiny black.Īs seen in Figure 5, there are three small, but quite useable controls on the Zen. The screen is always viewable in the horizontal position.Īlthough we have seen a bubble-gum pink version of the Zen, the black version that we reviewed is more sophisticated–looking and more widely available. ![]() This player does not rotate the screen like some others. Yet, at 0.44” (11.17 mm), it is thick enough to feel good in the hand and has enough heft to keep it from getting totally lost in a stack of paper.įigure 3: The Zen has the same height and width as a credit card.Īs shown in Figure 4, the Zen has a clear and crisp 2.5" color TFT display, which handles 320 x 240 pixels and 16.7 million colors. Fortunately, the Zen has a standard headphone port, so you can attach the headphones of your choice.Īs seen in Figure 3, the Creative Zen at 3.26" x 2.16" (82.8 x 54.86 mm) is almost exactly the same dimensions as a credit card. We find these quite uncomfortable, so we immediately got out the soft Griffin ear buds that we use for everyday listening. Although the ear buds have a thin cloth covering, they are the typical hard round ear buds that are included with iPods and most other MP3 players. The contents of the box, shown in Figure 2, include an installation CD, quick start guide, USB cable, and earphones. It is also affordable.Īs shown in Figure 1, The Zen comes in a nice compact box. In fact, the Zen had all of these traits plus one more. We found that player in the Zen by Creative. So we set out to see if we could find an iPod competitor that was feature-rich, capable, and had good sound quality. Yet, there are many other brands and other types of players. In fact, iPods have become so popular that some people call all music players iPods. ![]() There is no doubt that the iPod has a strangle-hold on the digital music player industry. ![]()
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