Creative Labs NOMAD II MG 64 MB MP3 Player Silver with Docking Station

If you've been waiting for the cost of digital music technology to come down and the amount of memory to come up, now is the time to take a look at the Creative Labs Nomad II MG. This player features 64 MB of built-in memory plus a SmartMedia slot for an additional 128 MB. That means you'll get hours of playing time, plus lots of features and an FM radio tuner to boot.

With digital music players, memory is the key to a long-lasting and hassle-free relationship. The players store music on flash memory chips, so you won't have to worry about skipping or your music degrading over time. Flash memory means you can also record over and over again with no loss of sound quality. But building memory into these chips costs money, and up until recently you were lucky to get an hour of music in an affordable player.

The Nomad II MG's built-in 64 MB memory means you won't have to invest in additional memory immediately. If you do decide you need more playing time, you can choose from SmartMedia cards in a range of sizes and prices. The tiny cards easily slide into the back of the player and require no configuration or extra power to use (check out our selection of SmartMedia cards).

With the rapid pace of technological developments, Creative Labs has also made the Nomad II MG upgradeable using software that can be downloaded from their Web site. Creative Labs also complies with Digital Rights Management, which means that, to prevent copyright violations, you cannot upload certain files from your player to another device.

Linking your Nomad II MG to your computer is easy using the included docking station. The USB interface means you'll spend only seconds downloading files, using either MP3 or Windows Media Audio (WMA) formats. Turning your CDs into digital audio files is simple with the included Creative Digital Audio Center software.

If you do get tired of your playlist, the Nomad II MG allows you to switch at the touch of a button to FM radio. The player's 32 station presets save time fiddling with the tuner and you can even record from the radio with the player's built-in microphone. The microphone can also be used to record memos or conversations at one of two speeds. A 64 MB SmartMedia card will hold up to four hours of voice recording.

You can view track information on the LCD display, which is backlit for easy viewing in dim light. The Nomad II MG runs for up to 10 hours on two AAA NiMH rechargeable batteries, and comes with a case.

For an affordable and versatile introduction to the world of digital music, you can't beat the Nomad II MG.

1 This little thing works GREAT for me!!!
I've been using the Nomad 2 MG for over a year, now. When I first tried to install the software, I had some problems with the docking cradle not seeing the player. I was suspicious that it had problems with my computer hardware (motherboard, etc.). When I tried the installation on another computer, everything worked great! Shortly afterwards, I replaced that original system with a faster one and the software works fine, now, as a matter of fact, the files just FLY to the player!

I take that MP3 player with me on rough mountain bike rides, snowboarding, running, commutes to work, and (sometimes) while I'm at work. I've dropped it numerous times, but still I have had NOT ONE SINGLE PROBLEM with it, yet. My cradle has not broken- maybe I'm just lucky. For those who have none functioning cradles, there are updated drivers online for free- that could solve some of your problems. Admittedly, I have deleted a song or two, because of poor button placement, but if you're capable of learning, you're not going to do that more than a few times, at best.

For the price and the performance, this unit ROCKS! With its capabilities to expand to the 128MB card, that's a lot of songs! Get this MP3 player! It's totally worth it!

2 Still working after 2 years
Felt I had to add this after reading all these reviews. I got my II MG over 2 years ago and it still works fine. Only problem is the display sometimes flickers on and off, but if you tap it it comes back. I use this for the gym, travel and in my car. I've dropped it numerous times and gotten it wet and it still works fine. I have deleted songs accidently as others seem prone to as well, and agree button placement was poor. Overall this player has been great, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy another Creative product.

3 The other reviewers aren't lying. It stinks.
I owned this player for about 5 months before its cradle stopped functioning. There are two main faults with it that lead me to advise against this MP3 player.

The first is its poor design. All of the function buttons are located along its sides. In order to hold the thing in any natural and comfortable way, your fingers have no other place to go except over the ultra-sensitive function buttons. The slightest change in pressure will activate any button you are touching. You'll find yourself accidently pausing, stopping or (worst of all) DELETING a song as it is playing very often unless you adopt the incredibly annoying practice of locking the buttons whenever you aren't using them. But unlike some other players, this also locks the volume button- which means you'll spend lots of time unlocking-changing volume-locking-unlocking-skipping a song-locking. Ugh.

And why any designer would put a one-touch delete button right near your general function buttons is beyond me. Make sure you memorize the layout of the buttons, because it absolutely stinks to delete a song when you just wanted to pause it and there is no second chances once you hit the extremely innocuous and sensitive delete button.

The second drawback of this player is how often it seems to break inexplicably. My player is fine, but if I want to use it anymore I'll have to get a new cradle. My cradle just decided to stop functioning one day. It wasn't jostled or banged around, it wasn't dusty or submerged in soda- nothing. I'd chock it up to bad luck if I hadn't gone on the web the next day and found dozens of unsolved breakages involving this player and its cradle.

This unit is slick looking and tiny, but not worth the trouble. Look elsewhere for your MP3 player needs. You can do much better.

4 Get To Know Nomad Warranty Service
I formerly owned a Nomad II, which broke after about a year. I then purchased a Nomad II MG, which I had to return because the charging cradle didn't function. I purchased another one, and that one stopped working after about thirty days. I would steer clear of this frail product.

(P.S. Why would anyone with an IQ higher than a chimp buy three of these things? I couldn't find another one with expandable memory and an FM tuner).

5 Read the reviews: This thing [...stinks]
Even if it didn't have chronic defects, the Nomad II MG is poorly designed. It comes with a protective leather carrying case that (1) can't be clipped or attached to anything and (2) doesn't provide an easy way to access any of the buttons on the unit. I ended up taking scissors to my leather case to make it slightly usable.

The buttons are located on the sides of the unit, where most people usually grab the unit. This results in frequent accidental button presses.

A couple of months after I got mine, I had the battery-clip problem that others have described. It was easily fixed with aluminum foil, but honestly, battery clips have been manucatured for decades without much problem; why is it such a recurring problem here?

Finally, after a little over a year of use, my docking station isn't acknowledging that the unit is docked. Therefore I can neither recharge the unit nor change the songs. The player is now useless to me.

From reading the other reviews, it's obvious the problems I've had with mine aren't an isolated case. So if you want a well-designed, well-manufactured, reliable mp3 player, DON'T buy the Creative Nomad II MG.

6 Great Features, Poor Ergonomics
Purchased the Nomad about a year ago and it's worked very well. Sounds good, no problems with software, small, lightweight, and compact. Radio is a nice feature. Memory expansion worked as it was supposed to (added 64MB). Only major beef I have is that the button layout is TERRIBLE. It's very easy to accidentally hit a button when you grab it, since the buttons are all on the sides. Also makes it impossible to operate with one hand. A remote is an absolute necessity with this player.

7 O yeah this thing rocks
I love this thing its the best!!!!!!!! you cant go wrong with it the screens the perfect size its small and the batteries last for ever!!!!!! 64mb you get a least 2 hours out of it you can by a wired remote for it at americas.creative.com and there is also a travel conecter there too the case is a more stowaway case and not a case you carry it a round with this is the over all best one you can buy my friend has a Rio and we campared the sound quality and the download speed to gether and the nomad 2mg beet it hands down also for the Rios you must expencive memory backpacks for more memory this uses the cards you put in your digital camera so computer stores are allways haveing promo sales on them its got an Fm tunner whitch is great!!!!!!!!! this is the hands down best overall MP3 PLAYER OUT THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8 The best audio player i have ever had the pleasure of owning
This is the best thing i have ever bought!!!!!!!!!!! i have tried my luck with sonys and rca but nothing beats this its sound quality is awsome and the FM tuner works like a charm i dont know what the other people are complainning about this thing the best!!!!!!!!!! its small the screen the perfect size and it down loads songs super fast from my computer the only thing is the cace its more of a stoaway cace than a cace you keep it in to do stuff with o well its still AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9 still works fine
I've had mine for over 2 years now and it still works fine. I wanted dependability and that's what I got. I'd give it five starts, but there are only 2 things I didn't like: 1) The vinyl case is ridiculously unsuited to the unit. You can't access the buttons without taking it out of the case. 2) The headphones weren't that great.

10 low quality
I have had this mp3 player for just a few months and have already had three problems with it. first of all, it wouldnt play any mp3's, that problem was fixed after a 45 minute hold on a long distance phone call. then the spring contact in the battery case snapped off (while the battery was in there and the case was closed). i replaced that with a small piece of paperclip coiled into a spring. this time the up volume doesn't do anything and i am typing this review as i wait on hold to talk to creative (it's been 23 minutes so far). this is not what i would expect for [money]!!! dont get it!

11 Ok
Tech support is only written on instrucsons not adbalable anywere elsa mine just stoped working.

12 Great features, if it works
I bought this unit about 6 months ago but have only been able to use it for half that time, due to repeated battery/dock station failures. And, as previous customers stated, the customer service (is bad)(not to mention it's a long-distance number). After the warranty runs out(3 months!!!), they charge you a $20 "diagnostic" fee on top of the cost to repair it.

I did like the features and look of the unit, but it's definitely not worth the hassle of the shipping and long-distance charges to get it fixed. I'm moving on...

13 Great While It Lasted
I purchased my Nomad II in December of 2000. In October of 2001 it died on me. I threw it away and purchased an Intel player. Beware of Creative MP3 players.

14 Great While It Lasted
I purchased my Nomad II in December of 2000. In October of 2001 it died on me. I threw it away and purchased an Intel player. Beware of Creative MP3 players.

15 Stick with your name brands
I bought a silver one for myself and a blue one for my girlfriend at the same time. I worked fine first few months. One day my girl friend's Nomad 2 MG stopped working. And after few days mine stopped working. Out of warranty (...). Moral of this story is stick with your name brands like Sony whose been making portable audio players for forever. Creative Labs makes pretty good sound cards but they don't know a thing about making a portable box that is durable.

16 What's with those darn battery contacts?
I had the thing for less than a week and the battery contacts break and now I read this is not uncommon with the unit. When I sent it back to Creative they tried to screw me by claiming my warrenty was up (information I only got by constant badgering). I swear these guys must be trying to lose customers. If I do manage to get a new one it's probably only a time bomb waiting for those battery contacts to break again. A waste of money (and more importantly - time!), don't bother!

17 Can't find anything better...
About a year ago I started to look for my first MP3 player. I'm a technical person, and I took my time to look at all the specs of the players. I limited my search to the Rio 800 and Nomad II MG. I wound up buying the Nomad II MG mostly because it was released before the Rio. A month ago I lost my Nomad, and am looking for a new one. I still can't find anything better and I'm going to buy it again! Here are my list of pros and cons.

Pros:
- WMA support! Don't underestimate this format. It is about 1/3 the size of MP3 and sounds just as good. Record at 64k for smallest size, or 96k if you like a little better sound quality. With 196mb of memory I had 100 songs on the Nomad. With an avg 3min per song, that is 300 min, 5hrs of music, or ~10 full CDs. With only the internal memory you can still get about 33 songs or 3 full CDs.
- Compact Flash memory support. I bought a 128mb memory card about 6 months ago. At first, the player wouldn't recognize the card, but I upgraded to the newest flash memory and it worked immediately. It isn't very convenient to manage the songs on the flash ram card separately from the internal memory, but I don't think this is a negative because it is the same on any other player. I don't have anything negative to say about the Rio Backpack method vs. the flashcards, except that since I bought my 128mb card, the prices have dropped about 75%! Rio uses the proprietary modules and won't be able to compete on price with cheap OEM memory that the Nomad can use.
-Wired Remote. As others have noted, nobody at Creative consulted usability experts when designing the Nomad II MG. The button layout is terrible, and the included leather case doesn't expose the buttons so you need to remove it to change songs, turn it on, etc. The wired remote features the same bad button layout, but alleviates the need to take the player out of the case. Some of the "features" of the remote aren't documented very well, but if you play with the buttons you can find access to some more of the functions you get with the regular player. **TIP: To turn on the Nomad MG II from the remote when the player itself is locked, hold down the + (vol. up) while the player boots - this will override the lock. Not sure if it is a bug or feature, but it works! It is hard to find, but buy this from Creative directly at nomadworld.com. This also adds just a little too much cable length overall, but I wrap the extra cable around the player and just stick it in my pocket.
- Time. I fly a lot and never had my player run out of juice, even on cross country flights.

Cons:
- Button locations. Don't need to say any more...
- Headphones. Included headphones are terrible. I bought the Sony NC-20 (noise cancelling) and they are INCREDIBLE! If you use the player in a noisy place (plane, public transportation, etc) then this will increase sound quality by 1000%.
- Playcenter software. It isn't terrible, but not very user friendly. The good thing is you can use Windows Media as the transport and it works great! Also wanted to note, Creative has XP specific drivers on their website (one reviewer said it wouldn't be available for a long time).
- Travel charger. Creative has a travel cable to transfer songs, but with 5+ hours of music I don't need it. I do need to recharge my batteries but I can't do that. My only options are buy AAA batteries (defeats the purpose of having rechargeables) or carry the docking station (which is heavy because of the AC adapter).

The only player I still see as comparable is the Rio 800, but the reviews on that player speak for themself.

18 No Windows XP Drivers Available
If you plan on upgrading your OS to windows XP - do not bother with any Creative Labs products. They are going to take monthes to make drivers available

19 Quality issues
I have generally enjoyed this player (quirks about the layout of the buttons notwithstanding), when it works. I have had to send it back to Creative three times at about $7 a pop for different reasons (a stuck button, audio cutting out, display cutting out, volume control only going up). Generally, support has been of little help until badgered into giving me an RMA. The last time, I sent it back I was told I would receive a new player. I have no way of knowing for sure that the player is "new" or "refurbished" (they said it would _not_ be refurbished), but judging from the condition of the case, I'm a bit suspicious. The player, however, is having problems with the display cutting out. Aside from that, it functions normally, but if this is a "new" player, and given my problems with the last player, I would be wary of their quality control.

20 1 year later and still working great...
I honestly felt compelled to write this after reading many of the other reviews. It seems that everyone out there rating the product high has "just got it this morning" and everyone else seems to be complaining about repairs and such.

Well, my case is different. I bought my Nomad II MG a little over a year ago along with a friend of mine. We got them at the same time, from the same store and with an extra 64MB (total 128MB).

I use the unit every day while going to and from the office (at least 2 hours a day). In my experience, the battery will not last more than 5-6 hours (they say 8). Having said that, I have not had to replace the battery.

Let me get the bad out of the way first...
- The buttons are extremely sensitive. After a while, I wound up locking up the unit and just let it run on random.
- Random logic seems "not so random".
- Controls are not intuitive and take some getting used to.
- SmartMedia card will sometimes stop working. Shutdown, remove and replace usually solves this.
- The headphones are horrible! Extremely uncomfortable! I wound up buying Sony Phonotopia.
- There was a shutdown problem while docked which was solved when I upgraded firmware.

If after reading the previous list you think I hate this unit, think again... I love it!

This unit is extremely light, small and portable. You can carry it in a shirt pocket. Easy to carry in any season.
If you get the 128MB total, you have an average 2 hours of music to go along with you. Got tired of the same music? Switch to the FM tuner and you're good to go. (or switch to 96kbps sampling rate and cram more songs in)
This unit has great sound. I also found it to be loud enough for my taste. I always use sound level at 30 (50 max).

For the record, the sync software is very easy to use...

My friend has had the same experience with this MP3 player as I have. We're both very happy with it and I would buy it again in a heartbeat.

21 I JUST COULDN'T BE HAPPY WITH ANYTHING LESS
Whilst i was deciding which digital audio player to buy, i just thought to myself, i want the best. Thats just what this is. It is the best. Creative have a great track record for digital audio players, everyone knows that the jukebox is the ONLY good hard drive dap, and this flashy little magnesium cased mg is no exception to their record. It is easy to use and a pleasure to own.

You say it has limited storage space? Buy a 128mb flash card, if you can afford this player you should be able to afford the flash.

My only dissapointment with this player is its anoying built in feature to shut down when it is locked. I cant turn it on when its in its pouch using the remote because i keep it locked. Im buying the new LCD remote and ive got my fingers crossed that the firmware with it may cancel this out. If creative can fix this minor hitch, then no one can dispute that this player simply is the best.

So far i have never run out of batteries. I just put it on its handy little desktop docking station every night when i get home and chose what tracks i want for the follwing day. It is amazing what a difference a small docking station can make in ease of use, no fidling with cables ever day, just place it in and im ready to go, both usb and charger cables are hooked up to the back of the small station.

I hardly use the provided software, i just use winamp, which it works perfectly with. Sometimes i use the software to edit time and radio stations quickly, which i find is very handy.

I have taken this thing everywhere with me and i love it. I spent a long time reasearching dap's before i bought this one and i am positive i got one of the best ones out there.

For peace of mind that you have got what you need (and more) just buy this player.

22 One of the best buys of 2000
Yesterday, while working out, it suddenly occured to me that the Nomad II MG was probably one of my best buys (I actually received it as a gift) of 2000. The main reasons for me are:
- Easy and fast syncronization with the PC though a cradle
- Re-chargeable batteries (through the cradle)
- Small size and light weight
- Easy to use and good 'block' feature
- Good software to be used even without Nomad player
- Extra goody: supports radio and taping of voice - what else yould you ask for?
- 'Show-off' value when showing friends ;-)

So for me, I am all around happy with this one.

23 As good as flash-based players get, but...
I really wanted to like this mp3 player, and it worked well for just over a year. I bought mine right when they first came out, and until yesterday, I'd have said it was a great mp3 player.
I listened to mine literally everyday. Walking to and from class, and while jogging, it was fantastic. The FM tuner is a definite plus--keeps you from getting too bored with the limited number of mp3's you can store.
The problem is that I bought the MG over the regular Nomad II for the added durability I thought a magnesium case would give, but it has turned out not to be so protective. I bought it to replace my already-at-the-time ancient Rio PMP 300, which had a horrible battery cover design that finally broke altogether on me. The annoying flaw in the MG's design (in my experience) is that the outer edges--where all the buttons are--is plastic. So hypothetically, if you were to drop your MG on the ground, there is nothing to keep the sides from getting bashed in, bending the button switches attached to the circuitboard. When one of these is bent (hypothetically, of course), your only recourse is to open up the case, voiding your 90-day warranty, to bend the button switch back. Do this a few times, and pop goes your switch. This is especially bad if the switch broken is the "play/pause" button, making you unable to turn your MG on.
And if you're thinking of getting the vanilla Nomad or Nomad II, you should know that those players' LCD's have a tendency to break--you should see what happened to my roommate's Nomad--and, surprise, surprise, the LCD is (A) not covered by the warranty and (B) costs well over $100 to replace.
Is someone going to make a truly durable mp3 player one of these days, not that I'll be able to afford it? My experience so far is that the life of these luxury toys (let's face it) is about one year... Is that worth it to you?

24 Nice Product . . . when it works
I'll preface this by saying that I'm extremely upset with the current situation. I was riding my bike, listening to the Nomad, when I was caught in the rain. The player stopped working, but didn't have any outward signs of damage. I called the support line and he told me that it most likely had some condensation that was making the buttons stick and it needed to dry out. Well after 72 hours, it still did not work. I was then informed that a little rain was an "Act of God" and would void the warranty. OK, I thought, fair enough. I'll pay to have it sent in and looked at. So I paid the $30 and hoped that the fix would be relatively painless and inexpensive. Fast forward a month. I called up support and was informed that the player had to be completely replaced because they suspected that it had been tampered with. As if I would attempt to fix the thing myself or something. So now I'm $150 poorer, on top of the $250 I paid for the player. Bottom line, the player isn't worth $400.

As a side note, their support people are pretty nice.

25 Great Small MP3 Player
This unit has travelled the world in the 5 months I have had it with zero problems. The size is perfect, unlike the jukebox which is bulky and doesn't fit into a pocket. It also last long. Get another 128mb card and you have 3 hours+ of music - and the batteries last that long and longer. I have zero complaints and will probably buy a second unit for my girlfriend who keeps taking mine.

26 Get ready to spend A LOT on accessories!
I replaced my Sensory Science MP2100 with this player. This is a very small and light MP3 player at its price. Sound quality was really bad with its bundled earphones but sounds excellent on a regular headphone. Yes, the case is useless unless you buy the wired remote control for 50 bucks from www.nomadworld.com (the only place that sells it at this time). I tried cutting the case so that the control buttons would be exposed but I totally messed it up :) I think Creative designed the case that way to maximize profits because users would HAVE TO buy the wired remote control to use the case.

I also upgraded this player with a 128mb SmartMedia card. Now, it could fit about 40 songs, which is GREAT! Samsung's Techno Yepp can only be upgraded with a 64mb SmartMedia that's why I choosed Creative. I'm still considering whether to purchase the wired remote control. If I do I would have spent more than 150 bucks for accessories!

Overall, I think this is the BEST MP3 player for its price range and would recommend anyone to buy it. Just be reminded that you WILL be spending a lot on accessories!

27 UNRELIABLE
Right features, bad design [bad] quality for [a high price] I would have appreciated more than a couple of months of use. Stay away from this unit and buy the next generation.

28 Great Player When it Works
I have only owned the Nomad II MG and I loved it at first - the sound is great, the software is simple to use and it's small enough to take to the gym and run with. After a few weeks one of the batteries stopped making contact and the player wouldn't work. I sent it back to Creative Labs to be fixed and purchased a new one to have as a back up. The new one that came had the same battery contact problem after one week. I have since sent that one back and am now searching for a new model. I don't recommend the purchase of the Nomad II MG until they correct the battery contact problems.

29 Everything I was looking for in an MP3 player
I purchased this after reading nearly all of the reviews here, as well as reviews of the Nomad IIc, the Rio 800 64MB, and the Nomad II. Some of the reviews here, notably the comments about the battery contacts breaking, scared me, but I noticed that only about 5 of 47 reviewers mentioned it, which made me think that not everyone's encountering those problems - probably just those that swapped batteries a bit. I knew I would be recharging almost daily and would rarely need to swap. When you buy it, you do have to put the rechargable batteries in, and it seems a little stiff, but I got them in OK and I am going to leave them there unless I end up on a long trip without a recharger. Anyway, I've had it a week now, and here's my attempt at a comprehensive review to save others the trouble of reading ALL the ones I did.
For starters, sound quality is excellent. I've never even used the headphones supplied, which I think is what most people are reacting to -- with a pair of fairly good third-party headphones it sounds as good as I would want. I do wish it had an equalizer built into the hardware - sometimes I want to bump the bass up or down. The memory is adequate for a good amoutn of music, and it's very cool that you can expand it to 192 MB with extra memory cards. I plan to buy another 64 and be very happy at 128 MB. Also, it's so small, I couldn't believe it. I'm sure they'll get even smaller, but this is a little smaller than a deck of cards - that's pretty cool.
The FM tuner is a great feature, and reception is just fine for me - I've experienced none of the problems getting a stereo signal others mentioned, and you don't need to use the headphones shipped with the MG to use the radio (one reviewer said the antenna was built into the headphones, which isn't true). The interface for programming a new station sucks if you want to add a new one after doing the Autoscan, but you only have to do it once. The interface throughout is not intuitive in any way, so this was one of the few electronic products I've ever bought where I had to refer to the manual to figure out how to do almost everything. But I only had to look at the manual once and then I got it. If you hate programming your VCR clock, though, you'll really hate using the MG.
I see what some people are saying about the buttons on the side, but just be sure to use the "lock" feature whenever you're stuffing it in your pocket. One real dawback there is that it's hard to unlock it when holding it in one hand, you'll tend to press buttons as you do it. Annoying. but... the flipside is it looks very nice with no buttons on the front, and slips even more easily into pockets and the like as a result.
The display screen is excellent - tiny but just big enough, and very sharp. Yeah, the MP3 song info just scrolls once like other reviewers mentioned, but then it defaults to the name of the song, which is usually what you want to see anywway . I mean, c'mon - you put the song there - you should know who did it and what it's called. The whole point of these things is listening to your favorite music, making your own playlists.
The product works very well with iTunes for the Mac, though I wish you could reorder your playlists in the iTunes interface. If you can, I haven't figured out how. It seems to kind of work by "slots" - if you delete song 3 and put a new song on the player, it'll go into slot 3 and reallocate any remaining memory. I've already taken to making a whole 64MB whole playlist in iTunes, getting it just perfect, and then throwing the whole thing over to the MG en masse (which only takes about a minute - faster than other players).
Finally, voice recording works well and is very cool, although even a tiny external speaker would be cool for that feature - you have to listen to yourself over the headphones.
One last thing: some reviewer bemoaned the choice of NiMH batteries for this, saying that they "build memory" and it made him not want to recharge him. don't listen to that guy. It's NiCAD batteries that have the memory problem - not NiMH.you can recharge these to your heart's content. don't believe me, just do a google search on NiMH and charge memory. Don't worry.
I hope this is helpful. I'd never bought an MP3 player before, but have played with every model of the Rio (still likng the 500 the best) that friends have owned as well as the HipZip. Quibbles notwithstanding, i like the MG much more than those others mentioned. I'd give it another half star if I could, reserving 5 stars for that perfect MP3 player with a nice design and intuitive interface that still hasn't come, but that I also don't feel the need to wait for.

30 The Best Mp3 Player Available
In my search for the best portable music device I've found that the Nomad 2 MG is the best out there. I have went through everything from Sony and Sharp minidisc players through alot of different mp3 players, and even though this one is a little more expensive than most other ones its well worth it trust me.

31 Mostly good
Just recieved my MG II. Beats the heck out of my Rio 600. The goods: Inexpensive, rechargeable, FM Radio, Expandable. The bad: Cheesy accesories, Unuasable case, awful headphones, Buttons placed bad. The expandability and FM radio are the main reason I purchased this unit. I like to listen to talk radio on the way to work and listen to MP3s on the way home. I tak the train so I have a couple of travel hours a day. Would have given this 5 stars had the accesories been useful.

32 Great in concept but...
...I've had many problems with the Nomad II MG. When it's working it's great, the only problem is I've had numerous problems with it. Having a problem or two isn't so bad as long as there's good support behind it. On this front, Creative Labs has REALLY dropped the ball. Their support is literally nonexistant. Go to their website (www.nomadworld.com) and you'll see what I mean. The site is extremely confusing to navigate and when you finally get to the right support area there isn't much information there. You've got to really try just to find out where to send an email to ask a question. The FAQs are useless. Their knowledgebase is also useless although I don't hold this against them, I've yet to see a useful knowledgebase. As far as the problems I've encountered I'll list them here: 1. Software for the Mac is horrible. Ok, not a "problem," but it is. They give you SoundJam but, of course, it's not a FULL version and everytime you open the software it asks you if you'd like to buy the full version. This is EXTREMELY annoying. Add to this the software isn't all that good and it gets worse. 2. I purchased a 128MB card to allow me to listen to more songs. I've yet to get the card to work in the player. I've installed the upgrade on the player that supposedly allows it to recognize that much RAM but it just locks the player up. Not sure what's happening with this one. 3. My most recent problem is the player just doesn't work now. It won't turn on, it won't charge, nothing. I've tried resetting it and I can't even do that! I have a non-functional player right now and I'm still awaiting a reply from their tech support. All in all, I couldn't tell someone to buy this product. It looks great on paper and sounds great when it's working but there seem to be too many problems. When you have a problem it's a pain to get an answer. The Rickster

33 Nice device, but not without serious flaws
Overall, this is a nice MP3 player, and I've made good use of it for the couple months I've owned it. On the plus side, it's small, light-weight, and stylish. Also: the supplied Mac software works great (there is also Windows software), and the SmartMedia capability is a welcome feature.

But now for the bad news: there are several flaws in the design of this device. First and most important, the battery contacts seem prone to failure (one of mine recently broke, rendering the device useless). Then there the annoyances: if you "lock" the device and place it in the charger, it won't charge -- you must unlock the device first. The buttons along both sides of the case are too easy to press by accident -- I've deleted several songs without intending to. The random-play feature doesn't seem very random -- it loops through a subset of your songs, but doesn't hit every song. And the FM mode seems to be a wasted feature; I haven't run into anybody that actually uses it. Finally, there is no included remote control. For all these drawbacks, the price is a bit steep. For these reasons, I give it a less-than-ideal star rating.

But if you don't mind these annoyances -- and the possibility that your battery contacts will break -- this is a decent MP3 player that looks nice and is easily expandable via additional SmartMedia cards.

34 Buyer beware
I have owned this player for 6 months and will try to be objective in my criticism.

In concept, this is a good device. It had excellent sound quality and the docking station made transfer of MP3 files easy. The software that came bundled was basic but worked. The newest release, which I had the opportunity to use once, was a great improvement, serving as both a player and transfer application. Battery life was longer than advertised and again, the docking station made recharging a breeze.

The device has some major defects though and they are the reason I have rated it so poorly.

My first problem was with the battery contacts. Based on the number of reviews that refere to this, the problem seems to be sytemic. They weakened and eventually broke. I sent the unit in under warranty and it was almost a month before I received a replacement. I called several times, as I was about to leave on a 6-month deployment, and was told that the delay was because they were waiting on "stock." The replacement had many scratches and was obviously refurbished so it appears that the "stock" that they were waiting on was that of refurbished units.

The refurbished unit worked for a month but has now frozen. It will not make the connection between player and computer.

The 90 warranty now became a real factor. Creative did offer to replace it, but at a cost of [price]. I told them I would accept that if they would replace it with a new unit but could not get them to agree to that stipulation.

I am not willing to throw more money down the drain so I am replacing it with an Intel Pocket Concert.

This product has potential, but there are some obvious problems that need to be fixed. The warranty period is too short and the company's policy regarding refurbished units make this a dangerous purchase.

35 IT'S BRILLIANT!!!!
I just got the Nomad 2 MG this morning and have listened to several mp3's. It works perfectly and the sound is even better than it looks. The size of the screen is just big enough to display all useful information. The 2 AAA batteries took 90 minutes to fully charge. With a memory slot, it can be upgraded with a 128 MB flash memory card, allowing it to have 192 MB. The docking bay is also great, allowing for an easy battery recharge and a simple connection to the PC. These are all the great aspects about the player. Don't get me wrong... there isn't anything wrong with the player. But the headphones that are included are horrible (NEVER EVER BUY FOLDING HEADPHONES!!). You would be better off buying another pair. The carrying case is also useless since you have no access to the buttons. There is a slightly higher learning curve with the software, and takes a bit of time fiddling with it, but that's no big deal. This player is otherwise perfect and worth every penny.

36 Great features and memory, but poor design.
I basically bought this because it was the smallest MP3 player available with the most memory and SmartMedia expandability. I was also looking at the Sensory Science Rave, but that one was not available anywhere, .... The Nomad MG was *very* similar in price and functionality.

I required SmartMedia expandability because that's what I use with my Olympus digital camera. Smartmedia works well (including 128MB SmartMedia) for both functions, and I can have both music and photographs on the card at the same time -- using the card interchangably between the two devices.

I love the small size -- it's about the size of a deck of cards -- and the fact that it comes with 64MB. With the 128MB smartmedia, I can get a total of 192MB on this device. The sound quality is great, it can record from FM radio (another nice feature) and it can record voice and play it back at different speeds (great for lectures!). Also, it came with high capacity NiMH batteries, which is a plus. Upgradable firmware is also a plus.

It has locked up on me a few times for no apparent reason. Once I had to take the batteries out and put them back in to get it to reset. However, this doesn't happen often enough to be too much of a bother.

The on-screen user interface needs some work -- for example, once a song finishes scrolling by, you can't go back and see the title of it without stopping the song and restarting it. This is frustrating when you have it in your pocket while listening, then want to see the song/artist that's currently playing.

The hardare interface leaves much to be desired, and is the reason for my 3-star rating. With a better hardware interface, this unit would easily receive 5 stars. The buttons are on the side, and it's difficult to remember which ones do what -- especially if you're just reaching into your backpack to change a song. Many buttons are multi-funciton, and to access some functions, you need to press a button for at least a second or two. You may find yourself running for the manual to figure out how to use some of the more obscure features.

Also, because there are buttons on both sides, if you hold the player in your hand both your thumb and some fingers will be resting on buttons -- press a button with your thumb and you might also press one on the other side as well. Also the "delete" button is placed right next to the "Next" button, although there is an "are you sure?" prompt. (There's also a "lock" switch that guards against accedental button-pushing.) Finally, the round stylish screen (though unique and actually higher resolution than normal) is very small -- I'd prefer a larger square screen, even if the resolution were lower.

If you want an very small SmartMedia-expandable player with excellent features and excellent sound, and can tolerate a poorly designed hardware interface (as I can) then this is the player for you. Buy it for its functionality, not its interface.

I hope this helps you with your decision!!

p.s. The "leather" case is a joke. I don't think it's actually leather, but even if it were you might try it once but it'll quickly get tossed away -- see, I almost even forgot to mention it! No belt clip, poor accessibility, etc, it's rather useless, which is a shame, because the face and corners of this player will wear with use.

37 Poor customer service
My wife bought me this player in October. In January the player failed to turn on. I called customer service and was surprised to find out that something over $400.00 comes with only a 60 day warranty. I sent it in with my $20.00 for repair and was told it could not be repaired. Their explanation of what was wrong was it would not power on (It cost me $20.00 for this technical expertise?). They would not repair or replace this unit. This player sat on my desk for 2 months was never dropped or damaged by me in any way. I will never ever buy a creative product again and caution anyone from wasting their money.

38 mp3 players are NOT made for the gym
This applies to the Iomega HipZip as well. I had two of those and one Nomad II within the span of 3 months this past year. I carried them to & from work & to the gym every day. Though I never dropped any of the players, the HipZips both stopped working in a couple of weeks. The Nomad lasted longer but did die after three weeks. I finally washed my hands. Disappointed cause I'm seeing in the reviews that all the 6gb players aren't recommended for "sports use" either. Isn't as if I want to play football with them in hand, but being able to jog on a treadmill would be nice.

One guy from mp3 devices.com tried to make me feel as if it was my fault and said, accusingly, "You should be able to throw these against the wall & they'd still work." Ya, right.

I won't buy another portable mp3 player until the technology improves.

39 Makes me very happy
My Nomad 2 MG arrived today. I've been using it all afternoon, and can report: I ordered the limited edition version of this product- the only difference is it has 256MB of internal memory (4.5 hours of mp3s) instead of 64MB. With the standard SmartMedia slot, that's expandable to 384MB, which is good. I'll list the great stuff and the bad stuff... The bad:

1. The instruction manual is limited: there're no installation instructions. I'm not a newcomer to installing hardware on my PC but it was tricky. The software installed easily. 2. the pouch is tacky and there're no holes for buttons, no clip, and the hole for the screen exposes it to damage. The wired remote solves the button problems, however... 3. ...but a 'mode' button is absent from the remote, meaning you have to work out the combination of buttons to change the mode, or take the player out of the pouch to change from, say, mp3s to FM radio. 4. Supplied headphones are crap: plasticy, low sound quality, huge

The good:

1. With good headphones (I have a mid-range Sony pair), the volume is so good you can deafen yourself with it. (That means it's loud, and many players suffer from being too quiet.) 2. My SE model stores just over 4 hours of music, and the batteries last for about 4 hours too. How nice. 3. The docking station, once installed, recharges the batteries automatically, and you can play music while it's charging. It's also small and light, and coming on holiday with me this summer. 4. recordable FM radio! 5. 4 hours of (fairly good) voice recording! 6. Unlike the Creative Jukebox, it's not the size of a brick and you can run with it without skipping. No pun. 7. It looks better than any other mp3 player, and it's literally the size of a deck of cards.

It does support WMA but in my opinion, WMA isn't what it's hyped up to be: there's a small difference in quality. I recommend mp3s. WMA format doubles the storage capacity, though. Choose. Hope that helps!

40 Good little Mp3 player.. I mean little, this baby is small
This mp3 player is small and has tons of functions.. its sturdy and works ok. only problem is these rechargeable batteries dont work...

41 Great player!!!
This is definitely a [great] player! I just added a 64MB smartmedia card to mine (after having had it for about 6 months), and it works flawlessly. I use mine primarily at the gym, where it's solid state, light weight, and small size are all much needed. I keep it in a neoprene case, and it has withstood 5-10 drops with no problem. The USB hookup provides VERY FAST transfers. The only problem I have had with it is that sometimes it will lock up on a certain song if it does not like the filename or the tag (caused by length or foreign characters, like �). Battery time is very good (circa 5 hours on a 30 minute charge), and batteries can eventually be replaced with much higher capacity batts. Definitely worth the (somewhat high) price!

42 GOOD PLAYER, HORRIBLE COMPANY !!!!
The player itself is not that bad. A coulpe of things of note: 1) No Li-ion batteries 2) No 800 line for tech support, and the help on the software sucks. 3) It is damn near impossible to get any support anywhere ! forget talking to a human 4) Volume is relatively low 5) built in mic is of very poor quality 6) the tunner is a joke, in terms of clean reception

I would recommend doing some research and finding a company that will be there to assist their customers

43 Outstanding!
This Mp3 player exceeded my expectations! The USB connection via the docking station, combined with the rechargable batteries (which can be replaced with non-rechargables when taken on long trips or if your rechargables die on you) blew my mind after having the Audiovox MP-1000 (serial port.. ) I also purchased the Viking SmartMedia 64Mb card, which worked perfectly. The FM tuner is okay, it can pick up all local stations in mono, but only one or two in constant stereo. I believe the Creative website said it has something to do with the headphones (the headphones are part of the antenna). The only other problem is the carrying case, which doesn't cover the lcd screen with anything (not even clear plastic), has no belt clip, and also covers all the buttons (meaning you have to take it out to change anything). All in all however, I'm very pleased with this product; the bookmarking features, preset and user treble and bass settings, voice recording, and overall sound and look of this Mp3 player make it one of the best! I'm very pleased with this product, and I think most people will love it too!!

44 Second Best gift ever
I received a Silver MG for my birthday, and this was the best present i've ever been given (Next to Allman Bros. Tix). The unit is very chic and very light, and i've gotten used to the buttons being on the side quite nicely. The headphones could be a lot better, and they pull my hair -- or my beard when i have them around my neck. But i've experienced no problems either with installation, downloading, ripping, or with the design of the hardware (some people mentioned that their battery contacts were faulty). As far as remotes go, i know you can get them from the Creative website, but i've no qualms about reaching into my pocket to change modes or volume. (The thing is only 18 inches away from your hand at any given moment -- WHY is a remote so important???) The "pleather" case that came with it was worthless, as others have mentioned, and sometimes i have to try a couple of times before it succesfully docks-on, but overall, i love this unit. Perhaps by the time mine was manufactured, the company had worked out some of the bugs mentioned in some earlier reviews. I also got a 64MB memory card, which gives me plenty of tunes to carry to the gym or on my commute to work. I don't think i'll ever need much more than that, nor will i need 32 preset FM stations (32!).

Gimme a better carrying case, perhaps with a belt clip and some holes for the buttons, and a better set of 'phones, and it's perfect for me. FWIW, i'm a novice at MP3's, and this is the really the only unit i've ever really seen/used, but i've had nothing but success with it.

45 Really great device
I purchased one of these about a week ago. I must say, I am very happy with it! The sound quality is tremendous, it has a great form-factor, and the manufacturer is very intelligent! I was having a few problems (the pause button wasn't working very well and there was a lot of background noise when the devise wasn't playing anything); but after a simple firmware update, these troubles (and more) were solved! There are, however, 3 problems (the reason why I didn't rate this 5 stars):

1) Like many others have said, the headphones are really, really bad. However, this wasn't a problem for me, because I already had better headphones that I was planning on using.

2) Again, like others have said, the case is really, really bad. Not only is the device mostly useless, but also the leather exterior and the vinyl interior are attached by very weak glue. By the time I realized this, it was too late - now some of my buttons are sticky. They really could have put more work into this aspect.

3) The 64MB of onboard RAM isn't very much. It is certainly better than the other Nomad II (which has no onboard RAM), but it could be more. I have had to purchase an extra 128MB SmartMedia card, which has solved this problem.

So, as you can see, none of these problems are monumentally bad, and all can be resolved. In reality, nothing listed above could merit not purchasing this MP3 player. Its size, functionality, and programming are well worth the [$], plus roughly [$] for the 128MB card.

P.S. On the subject of the NiMH battery (as mentioned previously), the device is programmed to detect how much of the battery has been charged when it is set into the cradle. Somehow Creative has found a way for a NiMH battery to act as a LiIon one. This definitely isn't a problem.

46 Trouble In Nomad Land
First MP3 player RCA Lyra 2. Hated it. Cheep quality and sounded funky. Returned it. Bought the Creative Nomad II MG. Loved it, at first. After one week the left channel started making strange noises. Sent it back for repair as they assured a `new' unit would be sent to me as soon as the bad unit was received. Creative had it for twenty-three days and returned the same unit with no explanation. Still bad. Called tech support, again. They said they would send me a refurbished unit. I wanted a new unit, as the one I had was only one week old when it started having problems. They assured me `refurbished was better than new as it had been thoroughly tested.' I fell for it and they drop shipped me a `refurbished' unit. Disaster! Scratched, did not work most of the time, locked up, and would not work at all with my 128MB media card. Shipped everything back to Creative..... Two months later and I still do not have a working unit. I am not alone in this, as I have read other reviews on Amazon.com and other places. Past thirty days so I can't get any money back. Don't waste your money on this one until they have the bugs out.

47 Great features/Poor HW quality-Weak battery contacts
I'm on my 2nd unit return and both units experienced the exact same problem within a matter of weeks. The battery contact weakens and eventually breaks andthis with minimal usage. Dis-appointed in this problem as the product has(had) geat feautures. The company is slow on responding to this problem...

48 Hey..yo!! This is THE best!
I saw someone wrote a review about this product and wrote about all bad things as possible. But you know what? That is all lie~~~~ I think they don't even have a nomad2MG. They are just jealous about this product. Maybe they don't even have a mp3player at all. or else they are still using 286 computers.. All most every sentence they write about "nomad2ma sucks" is all wrong! Maybe they are spies from other mp3player companies. And they wanna sell more..:)

Bottom line is --This is THE best product yo!!

49 Good for the casual user, but not the serious music listener
According to many reviews, the Nomad II MG blows away all other portable MP3 players. Sure, I'll buy that. But compared to MP3 playback on my home computer, it sounds terrible. It has a low frequency rumble that drowns out any quiet moments, even in high bitrate, LAME-encoded MP3s. A friend of mine with the same model has confirmed this. Furthermore, the sound reproduction seems to be a bit "thinner" than what I get with my home computer, even when using aftermarket, digital reference headphones. (The headphones they provide are TERRIBLE.) The interface on the Nomad is probably the clunkiest and most counterintuitive I've ever seen. It's hard to pick the unit up without pressing a button (they're on the sides). I've already accidentally deleted a song, and so has my girlfriend. The included software is extremely unstable (under Win98). I've had it crash many times just browsing available MP3s, and others have complained of this as well. The software should simply be a conduit to the device, but the Creative people have tried to make it do too much, and they've made it very user unfriendly and filled it with bugs in the process.

I suppose the Nomad is decent for use during exercise or on the train, but if you consider yourself a semi-audiophile I recommend you do not buy this product. Wait until the technology matures. Most studies find that near CD-quality is about 256kbps. The Nomad will only hold 30 minutes of music at this rate, and will reproduce it with distortion, all in a confusing little package. I don't think that's worth [the price]; do you?

50 What can i say, But It
So I broke down, and decided to spend some money on something i thought i would use. I never realized how much! Walking a mile to work each day used to take for what seemed forever, and now it's nothing. I always knew what music could do, but never realized how easy mp3 music could be. You really can't go wrong with this player. I was leary of users commenting on bad radio reception (i'm in the new york area too), but this wasn't the case. The head phones (with my long hair) are perfect, and make the player easy to throw in my pocket. With a 128 mb card in addition to the 64 mb internal, i can walk for miles or take a 4 hour plane ride before hearing the same song twice. The recording feature is handy, and is also fairly good quality. The technology is beautiful.
Good job creative labs, you guys rock.

51 Ideal
There is little to complain about. Being a college student who is always on the move, I couldn't have asked for a better purchase than the Nomad II MG. Just about all the specs have been mentioned already at one point or another, and they're clearly quality. The two things that make this player stand out are the docking port, which recharges batteries (great money saver), and the taken-for-granted fact that with the included software you can rip straight from CDs to the device with no intermediate step. The equalizer is as effective as the one on a PC MP3 player, and the style can't be beat. The lousy included headphones can be overlooked; come on, if you're buying an MP3 player, you're an avid enough music fan to already own a quality pair of headphones.

52 Nomad II MG (Blue)
I spent some time doing some research before I decided on buying this product. For the money, features and quality from the reviews that I read, this was it! I'm with USAF in Saudi serving my country, I keep myself occupied by skating and bike riding and always do it with music. Carrying a CD player or tape player is always too bulky. I had to have my wife order the MP3 from England, have Amazon ship it to New York so her sister could send it to her and in turn she would mail it to me here in Saudi....it finally got here (2-1/2 wks)and so far so good. I was very, very impressed with the size, loading the software was a breeze and getting the files to download to the player was even easier, great sound, enough base for me and plenty of feature. We get three stations here and no problems at all, crisp clear. I would recommend this to any one interested in getting a good value for money MP3...two things, the headphones are very nice, but the sound they offer are worst then a $5.00 headphones, the carrying case is a joke and definetly needs a belt clip, either on the case or the player itself, I put it in some glue from the inside got on the buttons, so they were sticky for awhile. Big plus....docking station with baterry charger, be careful not to force it when putting the player into the charger. It uses Flash Memory, not Smart Media like it's advertised...

53 Sweet MP3 player!
Since the day that I got my Rio 500 stolen, I was on the internet looking for new MP3 players. I came across the Nomad, and I was stuck on it right away. This is because it comes with a docking port that I hooked up to the USB port on my computer. While the batts are charging, you can upload/download sounds to and from the Nomad. This is very easy and fast for me, ..., because I like to download music at the last minute ... . By the way, the download/upload time is fast!

Another thing that I liked about it is that it came with a voice recorder and an FM radio with 32 presets.... . ... .

Another attraction to the Nomad is the sleek looking style and color. One thing that can get annoying is that the buttons are on the sides, but I don't think that that is a problem, since the button locations are easy to remember.

... .

MY ADVICE TO U: BUY THE NOMAD, IT ROCKS!

54 Engineer & Designer of Consumer Electronics
Player is great and sounds pretty good with a different set of headphones. I also like the docking station. The software is easy to use and performs all required functions. I like the ergonomic arrangement of the controls and the overall size. I do not like the cheezy vinyl case that comes with it. It has no openings to access controls, no belt clip, and closing the flap requires disconnection of the headset. Recommendations for Creative Labs: Get a case that can be worn and that allows access to controls (in leather). Get a better headset.

55 Do NOT buy this product!
Creative Labs Nomad II MP3 player. Do not buy this product! I initially bought this unit because it had "name" & several good reviews. You can imagine my dissatisfaction when the actual product arrived & did not live up to expectations. Ok, the first Nomad unit that I received was a total failure. Nothing worked. The rechargeable batteries could not be recharged, the "docking station" was "FUBAR," and the player simply did not work. OK. Trust the company. Send the unit back & get a new one. Did that. Got a new unit. Guess what? Worked for four hours & then stopped, shut down, quit, for no identifiable reason. Frustration. Conclusion. Do not buy this product. For whatever reason, design, quality control, whatever, this product is FUBAR. It is totally unreliable! Do not buy it! Do not waste your money!

56 Do NOT buy this product!
Creative Labs Nomad II MP3 player. Do not buy this product! I initially bought this unit because it had "name" & several good reviews. You can imagine my dissatisfaction when the actual product arrived & did not live up to expectations. Ok, the first Nomad unit that I received was a total failure. Nothing worked. The rechargeable batteries could not be recharged, the "docking station" was "FUBAR," and the player simply did not work. OK. Trust the company. Send the unit back & get a new one. Did that. Got a new unit. Guess what? Worked for four hours & then stopped, shut down, quit, for no identifiable reason. Frustration. Conclusion. Do not buy this product. For whatever reason, design, quality control, whatever, this product is FUBAR. It is totally unreliable! Do not buy it! Do not waste your money!

57 Best there is
This Nomad II MG is amazing! Great features, software, and the docking station is awsome. Rechargeable batteries is a huge plus. Sound is good though laks slightly in the bass dept. Overall this thing is beautiful!

58 A lot of money for features that don't work.
I was very disappointed by this product. For starters the normally ships in 24 hours ended up shipping in about a week. When it did arrive it was fairly easy to set up. The software that came with it was very good and made it very easy for a novice mp3 user to both add internet music and rip stuff from my CD's. The mp3 functions are fine and the sound is good. Now the problems- after about three hours use the unit stopped working. The battery clip wasn't holding enough tension on the battery to make contact, when I tried to fix it broke. With a small piece of tinfoil I was able to make due. Now my major complaint- The FM tuner is garbage. I'm in the NY Metro area, less than an hour from Manhattan, and I am totally unable to pull in the major stations and those that do come in switch between stereo ad mono making them un usable. For what they are charging for this unit it is ridiculous to have this kind of performance.

59 BEST MP3 I KNOW!
I have owned a RioMP300. I wanted a better player with more memory and a better display so I researched all of the players on the market and decided to go with the MG. I have been 100% happy with my purchase. The controls are very well positioned, the backlite screen looks great, and the small size is a plus. The only negative: the head phones. But with new headphones this thing is a pure beauty. The microphone for recording is a huge plus - it works and sounds great! Must have for all MP3 users.

60 GOOD PLAYER ,HORRIBLE POWER
I recently purchased this player and overall have been fairly happy. I use it primarily for recording lectures, and transcribbing. One problem I have with this player is that the record level as well as the playback level are rather low. The biggest problem for this unit is the batteries. The one key point many of theses other owners are overlooking is the fact that these "great rechargable batteries" are NiMH. THEY BUILD MEMORY !!! The bad part about this other then the usual, is the fact that you need to "dock" the unit in order to download or upload. Every time you dock, the charger automatically is set on. One could argue and say just disconnect the charger but the unit runs solely on the freakin' batteries ! If creative comes up with a way to upgrade the power to Li Ion they will have themselves one heck of a unit !

61 Best Player Ever
This is the best MP3 Player I've ever used. When I am tired with music I listen to radio. I don't like two things about it that controls are on the side of player and that it is to expensive.

62 Great Product
The Nomad II MG, is definately a good buy. I would highly recommend it to others. It is easy to use, easy to connect to your pc (it comes with a docking station) and easy to transfer MP3's back and forth. I have read many other reviews about this, and the only complaint I had heard was that there was no wired remote...well, that's not true. I purchased the wired remote for this player online at Creative.com. It works great, although I have found that with a little practice you don't even need it...you can easily manipulate the buttons on the actual device right through the case it comes with. This is a sure buy!

63 Quality at a price.
It all depends on what you're looking for. I personally did not need a price limit this time, so I went all out. I got the Nomad II and was fairly impressed with it. It has rechargable batteries... not something that many mp3 players have. It also has an upgradable firmware. However, the headphones really suck. Really. They tug at your hair and if you plug it into anything else but the mp3 player (like a laptop, like i did) it gives you a small shock in the ears. Not very safe. The sound is terrible through them as well.

I heard people complain about the remote alot. Furthermore, you might have to buy a smart media card to expaned from 64megs. Therefore, unless you don't mind spending 300 dollars on this fine piece of machine (well worth it), then find something cheaper and a little less in quality.

64 Best on the market to date
Having spent a considerable amount of time looking for the best portable MP3 player this is definitely the one. I have purchased several other brands and ended up giving them to other family members so I could find the best for myself. My only complaints are trivial: the supplied case is flimsy and doesn't have a belt clip and the earphones are good, but I prefer sportclip earphones since I run a lot. I have also had excellent customer service from Creative. When my package didn't contain the MP3 content disk, they quickly and easily sent me one. No doubt this is the best MP3 player on the market to date.

65 Wired Remote For Nomad II MG
Creative Labs has entered a wired remote control for this product on market...

66 Pros and Cons
Pros:
- very small
- amazingly nice style (magnesium case)
- buttons on side, rather then front, makes it easy to grip
- interface easy to work with
- rechargable batteries included, recharges in stand
- firmware and software upgradable
- windows 2000 support!

cons:
- magnesium case can get scratched easily
- when it's in it's leather case, hard to operate
- when it's not in the leather case, it's vulnerable
- no remote (yet)

67 Great !!
I bought this cool little gizmo in Asia. So I have different spec with you guys. First I've got digital 32 FM Presets, Headphone like NOMAD II (Sounds great!), WIRED remote. This NOMAD is very cool, and great. It can stored around 40-songs (.wma), and still sounds great. It worth to spend money on this thing.

68 Nothing better on the market that's affordable.
Over the course of about 3 weeks, I purchased and returned a total of 4 different MP3 players in serach for one that was well made, durable, affordable, and attractive/usable. I ended up paying a little bit more than I had intended to for the Nomad II MG, but it was worth every penny and I won't look back.

The USB connection truly is wicked fast. Only draw back is that for myself, a student who downloads music on campus on my laptop, I cannot dump it into my player until I get home at night. But other than that, the rechargeable battery is great and the earphones are well made.

Trust me on this one, if you're going to spend the money, buy this product. Nothing else comes close.

69 Great player, but somethings missing. Oh yeah, a remote.
This player is great. I have had no luck with other players. My Rio 500 broke after I shoveled snow outside with it. My HipZip was so loud loading and playing songs, i almost threw it against a wall. This player delivers great sound and great features, but the design leaves a bit to be desired. I have had it for 3 months without any major damage aside from a scratch or two on the case. The only small problem is that the buttons are hard to access and when in the "leather" case, is impossible to use. WE NEED A REMOTE! But all in all this is a great product and it will utterly satisfy all your needs.

PS: Can anyone post a review with an address for a site that sells the hard-to-find remote of legends?

70 perfect just about
this must be the worlds coolest mp3 player i specialy liked its built in radio get bored of ure mp3 turn on the radio i recomend finding new head phones because the mgs realy suck try to find the one with a remote i haven't been able 2 other than that its perfect

71 Almost Perfect
When I bought this mp3 player, I thought it was going to be small. When I recieved it I found out how small they really meant. This player really deserves the title MG. Transferring songs between the computer and the player was really easy. I convert all my files to .wma so I can fit more songs on the player, around 30-35 with the standard 64 megs internal memory. Each song takes only about 10 seconds or less to transfer. Some great features are the docking station for transferring songs and the fact that you can recharge the batteries saving a few dollars here and there. Overall, the performance was great and the FM radio helped a bit when I got tired of listening to my .wma files. Keep in mind that I use my behind the head headphones because the folding headphones really destroy the sound of the player. With regular headphones, you shouldn't be able to tell the difference from your CD player except if the file your playing isnt spectacular.

I gave this mp3 player 4 stars because it lacks the wired remote that a lot of people have been talking about. By four stars I really mean like 4.9 but the wired remote I think is really almost a neccesity that it lacks. The special jack is there but I cannot find anywhere to purchase it. It would be great to be able to lock the player in your pocket (lock as in the buttons are disabled)and control everything through the remote.

72 Where's the Wired Remote?!?!
Everything about this player is perfect. The specs speak for themselves. It has voice recording (perfect for recording lectures or business conferences) and then uploading to coworkers/classmates. It comes with 64MB built in memory with an extra slot for even more memory. It even comes with docking port and rechargeable batteries. It has everything an avid music listener meets "Bill Nye the Science Guy" could want. These accessories are usually stuff that comes with a CD player or a Mini-Disc player. Finally, MP3 players get the accessories that other portable audio devices get.

However, there's one thing missing that's been really inconveniencing me. I don't know about the other Nomad II MG users, but the lack of a wired remote is its Achilles Heel. Even though they say it's an "optional accessory," it is nowhere to be found. You can't purchase it anywhere. They[Creative] says it's still in development but you won't be able to switch between radio and mp3s or switch songs without it. It's been really a hassle to reach in and change stations and/or songs especially on the New York City subways. It's just a minor accessory that could've make a world of a difference.

73 Blown Away
This is my first MP3 player. I went with one that received good reviews. I'm glad I did. Within 2 hours after taking delivery, I had the software loaded, had the docking station hooked up, and was ripping the heck out of the favorite tunes from my old CD's. It was all very easy, and I didn't even read most of the instructions (until later to make sure I was doing everything correctly. The point is, I didn't have to...very smooth set-up!) The communication between the computer and the Nomad is just effortless.

I can't believe the size...literally, as big as a deck of cards. Some reviewers complained about the lack of a belt clip. That would be nice, but it's so small, and with the key lock I can just stick it in my pocket and not worry about changing any stations (FM) or changing tunes, etc.

I would recommend this unit highly. I was thinking about the regular Nomad II, but with the docking station (the ONLY way to go), the price of the MG is almost identical.

Sign me.....absolutely blown away.

74 Great Little Player
The title sums up the review, not only does this player have the quality of the other nomad products, it is much smaller. It is easily carried in one's pockets (shirt or pants) or even in a back pack. In addition to the size, the player is aesthetically pleasing with it's soft metal colors and the blue back lit screen. This screen is easily readable in bright or dark light, and is adaquetely displays song information. The screen is small, however it is much better at displaying information than I had origionally guessed it to be. Aside from looks, the player is top level in hardware quality as well, the onboard 64 megs of ram allows for the addition of an additional smart media card of any size. Also, I find the packaged docking station to be a big plus over players that require you to stick a flimsy cable into it. A frequently overlooked benefit of this player is it's choice to use removable rechargable batteries. In this case, you not only receive the benefits of the recharger, but on a long trip without the charger, you can simply throw two new AAA batteries in. A great product, like the whole nomad line.

75 Excellent
An excellent player overall. The quality is good, and the download time is really short. The software is very easy to use. The FM radio and voice recorder is a plus, however I don't find myself using the voice recorder much. There are some shortcomings however. The plastic on the docking station feels flimsy and cheap, I was expecting better quality, such as the Sony Clie. Also, all the buttons have the same shape, and it is hard to find the one you want in the dark. I think Creative could have preserved the style of the unit and still made the buttons different shapes. The headphones are cheap and uncomfortable, I reccoment a pair of Sony w.ear. And finally, to operate the unit, you have to take the player out of the "leather" case. They should have just made slots on the sides so you can access the buttons.

76 Great player, but small can be too small
I love this MP3 player. File transfer is a snap with the bundled program and USB cradle. Capacity good - it has 64MB on-board flash memory, and can take in a smart media card of up to 64MB - about 2 hours of MP3. The sound is surprisingly good...sometimes too good. If the quality of the file is not good, you will definitely hear it.

The player also has a FM receiver with 32 memory settings, which is a great bonus. It can also record voice recordings, but I believe that the capacity is less - the recorder does not compress the recordings in real time, so that it will take up more space than a MP3 file.

On the downside, the bundled headphones are really uncomfortable for extended listening sessions. Further, the sleek design of the player dictated that buttons be placed on the sides, not in the front of the unit. Therefore, pressing buttons can be a bit of hassle (you have to turn the unit to see the buttons), and one can accidentally press buttons on the opposide end of the player - it sounds confusing, but if you see a picture of the player you will understand. Finally, the headphones don't have a remote unit to control playback. That means that if you plan on using the player on the go (like carrying it in the included pouch or in some other carrier), you have to take out the player in order to change playback modes, to skip a song, etc. Finally, the included "leather" case is useless because there are no openings on the side - you have to remove the player from the tight case in order to operate it; the case also lacks a belt loop or clip to make carrying it easier.

Nevertheless, this is a fantastic little device, with excellent sound and tiny footprint.

77 Excellent Product, Almost Perfect
I bought the player about a week ago and have been very impressed with the changes made over the last model, the Nomad II. A friend had been playing with a Nomad II for the past month or so and I was able to give it a try for a couple of days. In other reviews I read that the Nomad II MG didn't match its predicessor in terms of music quality. This is far from the case! The headphones that came with the Nomad II were far superior, both in terms of sound output quality and its wired remote features. The headphones that came with the MG are garbage! I went down to the local electronics store and bought a pair of ... headphones and the player sounded 110% better (as good as the Nomad II). I'm still searching for a pair of remote wired headphones because with the leather case on the player, the control buttons located on the sides are almost impossible to function. The player is impecable in terms of sound quality, ease of use, and styley looks. Add a better set of headphones and you have a perfect MP3 player!

78 greatest mp3 player ever
ow i like this kind of mp3 player very much. you can download music from your pc also before school and when you don't want to listen to your own music you can listen to the radio in this player. I like this player more than the other before because i the design is more better than before. and you can see what you do also in dark nights with the backlight.