plays MP3, WMA, and WAV files * backlit LCD displays track info * repeat and random play * adjustable 4-band EQ with 8 presets * 20GB hard drive holds approximately 666 hours of music at 64 Kbps, or 333 hours at 128 Kbps *
1 Software is abysmal
The software that comes with the Creative Zen player is surprisingly poor. While it seems anxious to create a bunch of unwanted music libraries on your computer, it was difficult and unintuitive to do what you most need it to do- load CDs onto the MP3 player. I eventually figured it out by trial and error, but I would hate to be an unsavvy computer user trying to load up this machine.
Some examples:
There are no clear, simple instructions on how to get music off a CD and onto the player.
There appears to be no easy way to override the "genre" categories provided by the "Gracenote" service. And their categories are often absurd. (I have 3 albums by Beck, and each was given a different category: Folk-rock, General Alternative, and Indie.)
There is no easy way to put all the tracks from a multiple-CD album into one album on the MP3 player.
I haven't had the machine long enough to comment on its operation.
2 Creative labs Zen Touch
This is on of the best mp3 players that I have ever bought. It is small but powerful and it is very good quality. I recomend this to everyone who wants an mp3 player a little bit less expensive than an I-pod.
3 The Best 20GB Player On The Market, Period!
After weeks of researching which 20GB player to buy, I finally bought the Creative Zen Touch. It was the best purchase I have ever made. The Zen has it all: superior audio quality, amazing battery life, an intuitive menu layout, and all at an incredible price. If you are considering buying this item, I am sure you have also considered the 20GB Apple iPod. Having used both the iPod and Zen extensively, there is no doubt in my mind that the Zen is superior. First, the music quality of the Zen is superior. I had long known this, but it wasn't until I compared them side-by-side that I found that the Zen had NOTICEABLY better sound. Second, the Zen's 24-hour battery life is great. I use my Zen every day for several hours and still only need to charge it once a week. Also, it only takes about four hours to charge! The iPod only offers a mediocre 8-hour battery life. I have found the Zen's menu layout to be very similar to an iPod, and very easy to use. Songs are organized, like the iPod, by genre, artist, album, etc. The blue backlit display is very sharp, and displays all of the names clearly. The software that the Zen uses, Creative MediaSource, is decent, if not perfect software. It is extremely easy to sync the player with your computer and transfer your files. The Zen is a touch larger and heavier than the iPod (owing to its much larger battery life), but its sleek design makes it almost unnoticeable in your pocket or in the belt clip and case included with the player. The headphones, are, as all headphones that come with players are, not very good, and will need replacing. I do not hold this against the Zen, because there are currently no players on the market that supply headphones that can be described as anything better than mediocre. The scroll pad that you use to navigate the Zen takes a little while to get used to, but in the long run it is actually much easier to use than the scroll wheel of the iPod. You can also enable it so that tapping the pad will select whatever you are scrolled on. All in all, the Creative Zen Touch is a far superior player to its competition. And priced at $225, it won't leave too big a dent in your wallet either. The arguement over iPod vs. Zen Touch is simple: Style vs. Substance. If you want a trendy, smaller player, go with the iPod. If you want superior audio quality, much better battery life, and an overall better player, go with the Zen. In conclusion, I can truly say, the Creative Zen Touch 20GB is the best MP3 player in its class on the market.
4 The real scoop
Before purchasing the zen touch i pretty much read every review on the ipod and the zen touch, my room-mate has an ipod-photo, while one of my friends recently purchased a creative zen. I did a lot of comparisons between the two and my conclusion is that there IS no best player out there, they all have their pros and cons, you just have to figure out what u're looking for in a player, and of course how much you're planning to shell out. For me, i was looking to spend less than 300 on a device, plus i'm wary of the ipod craze, so i wanted to go with something different. I've had the zen touch for about 3 weeks now, and so far its been great. I've become a sort of expert at defending it b/c the first thing people ask when they see it is... IS that an IPOD?? and i'm like NO!!! its a creative zen touch!!
The positives of the zen have been mentioned time and time again, basically the sound is great (with good headphones, company supplied one nearly split my ear-hole in two.. its way too clunky), the battery life is a dream. With usb 2.0 ripping cds, and transferring files to your zen touch is very fast. I also love the random function, it like having my own personal radio station, never know whats coming next.
Negatives are that you have to rename songs for the most part, because it only recognizes the original tags encoded in your mp3s (took me hrs to do this, but its worth it to have everything properly organized). Thats about it, i havent had any problems with having to reboot, but i've only had it for a couple of weeks, my fingers are crossed.
In summary if you want something with extra features like a calendar and games, and u have the money to spend, go ahead and get an ipod. But if u're tired of the craze, and just need a device to play ur music, get a zen touch, i think its the best alternative to the ipod out there. By the way all the whiners about the touch pad need to relax, it really isnt that bad, in fact once you get used to it, its a lot of fun to use!!
5 iPod, iPod, iPod!!!
Please, who in their right mind would DARE buy anything other than an iPod for an MP3 player? Apple is totally on top of their game, and they make the best MP3 players around. The iPod has it all: great click wheel, easy menu display, and you can store up to 1,000, 5,000, 7,500, or 15,000 songs!! PC or Mac. Creative Zen is so second rate, and they know this. They can't compete with the iPod. Apple forever!
6 Buy an I-Pod
I went the more frugal route of purchasing a Creative Labs MP3 player not once, but twice!!! On both occasions, the units have simply stopped functioning. I am now stuck with two units that are now glorified paper weights. The message is simple... Buy an I-Pod.
7 Fantaspamistical!!!
After much research I purchased this MP3 player. Besides holding a lot of songs, it sounds great. It runs smoothly, looks good, and is easy to use. I must admit the touch pad took some getting use it, but it is much better than the Ipod wheel. I am strongly statisfied with my purchase.
8 Creative Replacement Policy is Crap
I purchased this 20gig Creative Zen Touch in the begining of February and a little over two months later it has completely frozen up.
It will not repond to anything except the reset button, which takes it exactly back to the same frozen state it was already in.
In my frist call to tech support they adivsed I upgrade the firmware, which would of course not install b/c the Zen was in its frozen state. No big deal things break. However there standard return policy requires the purchasere of the product to pay for shipping, including insurance to their facility.
I think that is a lously way to treat customers and I wanted to let all you folks know that if your player breaks, this is what you will have to deal with.
As an aside, the HD seems to respond rather slow, the touch pad is WAY to sensitive (even after a months use at the least sensitive setting), and the packaged software sucks.
9 GET AN IPOD
ok, so ill admit that the main reasons i got this mp3 player were that A. it was much cheaper than the ipod, and B. because it was NOT an ipod. it took me about 2 months before i began to regret my decision. within 2 months my creative zen began to crash a lot. this isnt a big deal and even happens with ipods, but the frequency became to often. all you need to do is stick a little paperclip or something tiny, through this hole in order to reset it (much like when a computer crashes and you just have to reboot), although i was having to do this 2-3 times every week. then suddenly it completely broke. creative was great and sent me a new one very quickly, although soon enough, the same thing began happening. now i know that i need to carry aorund a paperclip wherever i go so i can reset the malfunction. now i am stuck with my zen for a while. ipod may be more expensive, but it definitely works really well and wont have nearly as many problems. also the creative software is pretty bad and even made my computer crash on a regular basis.
10 Creative Zen Touch
the most disappointing feature in this product is that it lacks the most important function called "EAX", which is included in its predecessors. please go check this "EAX" sound in zen xtra or nomad jukbox zen before u buy zen touch. u will see a big difference.
11 good deal
i just got this thing and am very pleased. my friend has a new 20gb ipod that i borrowed and checked out and the creative is definitely the better deal. it sounds better and the battery life is great. it is a bit bigger however, and certainly doesn't look as cool. so if you're out to fit in, get the ipod, looser, but if you're out to get the best product for you money, the zen touch is the way.
i'm a musician and was very concerned with the sound quality of mp3s. though there is a significant difference between mp3s and cds, i found at 256 or 320 kbps it's not too bad. so if you're as concerned with sound quality as i am, i'd get the 40gb player and do all your songs in 320 kbps.
i like the touch pad. i know a lot of people don't. i don't have a problem with it. it's no harder to get a hold of than the ipod's navigation system.
the headphones suck. but most in ear headphones suck. you'll never get as full of a sound as with studio phones. but for the sake of portability you'll need some better in ear headphones.
anyway, that's it. this is the best purchase i've made in a while and i did a lot of research before choosing the zen touch. though it's not perfect, i strongly recomend it. you can trust me. no, really, i'm a trustworthy guy. i swear. seriously. so...
start a new trend. don't be a silly little apple sucker. ipod's are for loosers. that's it.
12 A few things to consider
After reading reviews for the zen touch and getting recommendations from my friends, I bought one online. The zen looks good, feels good, and has good battery life, but it fails miserably in the area that I care about most: Music!! I had my whole mp3 collection well organized by artist, album, and track number. Unfortunately for me, the Creative Zen can't store your music the way you have it on your computer. It goes entirely by the mp3 tags, which have to be tediously edited one by one! I was forced to change the song every 3 minutes instead of letting it run in the order that I want. The only solution to this is creating a playlist, which is frustrating using the clunky Creative Labs software. If i don't use a playlist, I have to either view all the tracks at once to get a continuous flow (but then they're all out of order again) or I have to change artist by hand again. The inability of the Zen to flow from artist to artist automatically is aggravated by the touchpad which is frustrating to say the least.
If you really don't care what order your songs play or you don't mind fiddling with the player to change them every few minutes, then you can ignore some of these complaints. Otherwise, be warned that you could be spending hours and hours fixing tags and working with the Creative software.
My brother bought an Iriver Hp120 a couple years ago for around 300, and now its really hard to find (I think it's discontinued). That mp3 player has way more functionality in terms of music organization and play options. All you had to do with the Iriver was plug it in and drag the folders of music into the hard drive. They would show up exactly as you had them on your computer. Now I really wish I had looked a bit harder to find the Iriver. The Zen is frustrating beyond belief.
13 Creative Zen-The original
There's a couple of nice things about the Creative Zen.
The 20GB on average is about $50 less than the Apple iPod 20Gb, holds more songs and has a longer battery life. You can find cheaper MP3 players that are just as good or better than an iPod. I think people shouldn't take shopping around for a good player for granted.
14 iPod Wannabe!!!
In all the reviews people say "iPods suck" or "iPods cost too much money!" well if they suck so much how come Creative has clearly COPIED some of the features??????? i agree that the iPod costs a lot of money but this is kind of like buying a "fake" iPod. this shows that most people who buy it actually want an iPod but can't afford it or don't want to fish out the extra $39 (the original price for the zen is $269.99), although that is completely fine. and for those people who have both the iPod and the Zen: if u think the iPod is so expensive why do u buy BOTH the Zen AND the iPod?? as if that is going to save you any money. the zen may have a really good price and some better qualities than the iPod, but there is no denying it is an iPod WANNABE!!!!!!!
15 Brilliant.... for a while....
I got my Creative player for my birthday (just before Christmas). I absolutely loved the device, the software, even the scroll bar! However, by mid-march, things had started to go horribly wrong; the sound on the right hand side doesn't work, the battery won't stay charged (for example, I charged it, didn't use it at all, then when I turned it on a few days later the battery was dead!) and, despite never jogging or 'bouncing' it, I've had to restart the device on numerous occasions. Another downer is the lack of support from Creative - even though the product is still under warranty, they have made me contact an array of other suppliers to get a new player.
I would recommend this player however, consider all options before buying!
16 Good product for the money
I bought this product and am very happy with it. I will try to address the pros and cons of the Creative Zen Touch 20G here:
Pros:
1. The battery life is amazing and certainly lasts a lot longer than the Ipod one. Creative says it lasts up to 24 hours of continuous play, but that is a bit exagerated, because you can only achieve that without using anything but play button. Nevertheless, the battery life is superior and it will serve your purposes. I have played for about 16 hours, which compared to the mere 8 hours of the Ipod tells you a lot.
2. The sound is incredible. Only that you need to buy good headphones. Those that come with the player are really bad and uncomfortable. But once you get the good ones, you will notice the difference. The player also has a decent Eq, which although not great on its presets, can be modified by the user to get better sound.
3. I like the scrollbar a lot. But you need to download the latest firmware to make it more controllable.
4. You can make playlists directly from the player. Although this function is not perfect (you cannot add more songs to an already built playlist without having to write down the name and save it again, i.e.), it works fairly good.
Now to the cons:
1. The player is not recognized automatically by windows, which means that you have to install the driver and at least a program called Nomad Explorer in order to transfer songs to your player. Not that it is really the worst thing in the world, but it can be annoying.
2. Derived from my previous poing, you cannot use your Zen Touch as flash drive. Nonetheless, you can save non-mp3 archives like documents, etc.; but you cannot copy them to other machines without first installing creative's software Nomad Explorer. Now, that I find I bit annoying, so take it in consideration if you need that feature to be included. I think the Zen Micro does have that function, which is stupid, because its capacity is only 4Gig. It should be the Zen touch the one with that feature.
3. Creative is not serious enough to provide newer updates for its firmware. They have promised a lot of things in the past, but in the only update they have provided, not many of those things were included. They also promised another update by March 2005, and well, nothing yet.
4. The player has a clock, but you cannot see it when playing a song. yes! you heard correctly. It is stupid I know, but that's how it is.
Overall, the zen touch is an good portable mp3 player. It has increased its price since I last bought it (I got it for a bit more than $200), but it is still an affordable good item. I actually think that it is better than the Ipod as an mp3 player. Of course, it does not look as pretty, and the white color makes you think it was actually trying to look as an Ipod, which is unnecessary, because itis a great player by itself. In terms of functionality it is definetely better. The only thing it lacks is more support from creative to release updated firmwares. It could be a big product if some of the features I mentioned here were included. I ignore why they are concentrating so much in the Zen Micro, which is not nearly as good as this product, and could never beat the Ipod. On the other hand, the Creative Zen Touch can do it, it is already better and only needs to compensate with features for the mainstream success the Ipod has had with its design.
17 Poor Product and Even Worse Service
I received this item as a Christmas gift. By the middle of March, the unit was inoperable. It was only 8 weeks old. Based on the purchase date, which was in November, the labor warranty was already expired. Note that Creative only covers labor for 90 days. Past that point, you have to pay $40 for service and even have to pay to send it to them. Given the limited warranty, it is obvious that Creative does not have much faith in its product. I would be very hesitant to recommend this unit to anyone despite the fact that Consumer Reports rated it very highly.
18 Great Alternative to the "Evil Monopolizing iPod"
After doing extensive research on various models I decided to buy the Creative Zen Touch. Not only because it was $50 cheaper than the iPod but also because it was rated higher by several different publications, Consumer Reports included. I was interested to find that the Zen Touch is not sold at any major retailers (i.e. Best Buy, Circuit City). They carry just about every other MP3 player that Creative makes, just not this one. I assume Apple has something to do with this since they wouldnt want an MP3 player with similar features, better sound quality, much longer battery life and lower price competing with their precious (and inferior) iPod. I purchased the Zen Touch at a locally owned electronics store for $250 and am very satisfied. Almost forgot to mention, the Zen Touch comes with a leather carry case for which you'll pay an extra $30-40 if you get an iPod.
19 Good but one problem
This mp3 player is very good and the sound quality is amazing. The one problem i had was the headphone jack was non functional so i sent it to the factory which its still under warranty but i had to pay $40 for labor and its been like 2 weeks and i still havent got it back.
20 Incredible!
I've had this player two days, not even, and I am already amazed by it. I've read reviews and many seem to complain about the touch pad being hard to use. I don't understand the complaints because I unpacked it and within five minutes, I was navigating the preloaded fifty something songs with ease, never having used a Zen Touch before. Some recommend setting the sensitivity to low; it might help but even on medium I was easily able to move among menu items with precision when necessary. I'm not sure about the "sensitivity regions" described in the manual, but it seems to me that it depends more on how quickly your finger is moving. A quick few swipes from top to bottom on the pad will scroll down to the bottom of my 150 or so songs, and a slow crawl along the pad moves easily one at a time until I find the one I want. I could be using it differently than intentioned, but if so, it's easier anyway.
Aside from the interface, as noted everywhere, the sound quality is awesome, even with the included headphones (although I am being shipped a sennheiser mx-400 set..sometime). There may be no folders, but I find it easier to just put music in playlists, as some music fits in more than one category, so you put it in two playlists. And you can still load up your now playing list with songs from one album or artist as well. The included leather clip case is nice, and still allows access to the power button (and all the other ones you can't see once you get used to where they are; I already am).
If you turn off the player and plug it in to the computer with USB, but don't open any software to access it, it charges the battery (as long as the player stays off). Which is cool and useful, if perhaps slower than wall-charging.
I suppose there is one semi-flaw, in that the battery level indicator, as mentioned by others, consists of three bars, and for a battery that is reported to last 24 hours, this is very ambiguous. As long as it doesn't run out on me (which it won't), I don't mind, though.
21 Blame Canada
It's hard to say who is to blame, Microsoft or Creative. There is some problem where Windows Media Player 10 conflicts with the Zen driver for Windows XP. Otherwise this is a 5-star piece of hardware. I like the interface better than what I have seen on iPods. But now I kind of wish I'd have bought one of the iRiver 5GB players with the color screen. Those look awesome and probably work better with Media Player 10.
BUT WAIT!
I was at least a little bit tipsy when I wrote the review you see above. More tipsy than I am right now. Clearly more irate. At this point, I'd give this a better review. I have dropped my Touch Zen more than a couple of times now and it keeps on playing. It's pretty rugged, and I'm naturally hard on the equipment. Also, this thing is very easily operated with one hand. They did a great job on the ergonomics of this device and it feels just fantastic in your hand. Very solid. The touchstrip is better than you'd guess.
The problems I noted above were fixed pretty easily once I downloaded the latest versions of the software available on Creative's website. Still, the very latest mp3 players might integrate a little better with Win XP, but just a smidgen better. I'd buy this one. Those white headphone cords you get with an iPod are way too trendy.
22 Awesome MP3 Player--Highly Recommended
My co-worker had recently purchased a Creative MP3 player (not this model) and swore it was better than the iPODs. This claim caught my attention especially since I was about to begin online research into the various MP3 players on the market. Once I listened to his argument that iPOD is NOT the best nor cheapest out there, I continued to really think about what my MP3 needs would be. For starters, I knew I did not want nor care for a radio since I HATE the radio and much prefer my own personal music collection any time. I also knew that I wanted an MP3 player to hold LOTS of songs. Many of the dance songs I like have multiple remixes and I had to take that into consideration. I pretty much found myself going back to my co-worker's recommendation to check out Creative's Zen Touch in particular. Boy! Was he right all along. I ordered it online and received my product a few days later. The instructions are so easy to follow. I have had absolutely no problem for the last month and a half of owning this player. Loading the songs is truly a breeze. It has not 'freezed' on me yet, the scroll feature is great and it's very easy to get used to it especially since you can adjust its sensitivity. Also, the battery life is pretty amazing. Once you adjust all other features to minimum you really can have your battery life extend close to 20 hours (volume level DOES impact battery life). It is an attractive player, slim enough for me yet not to small as to fall out of my pocket--a big concern for me given past experiences of mine with small cell phones. Overall, I am very pleased with this product and wonder almost every day how I have gone this far without an MP3 player. One last thing, I thank my co-worker pretty much every day for the recommendation because I listen to my player every day!
23 BATTERIES
personally i'd rather have my ipod than this [...]. apparently people on this web site would rather wish for a pack of batteries than this [...](according to the most wished for items)
24 Truly beats and iPod!
I got this Zen as a 13th birthday gift! I had my eye on an Apple iPod, but 1, my computer wasn't compatable with it, 2, you could only download music from iTunes, and 3, it was so expensive! My mother showed me this, and I wanted this right away!
So what if it's SLIGHTLY bigger and heavier than an iPod? It sure beats carrying a big cd Discman or whatever, and THEN carrying a CD case! It's not heavy at all! It's like the weight of like 4 or 6 CDs! If it can fit into my smallest purse, it's perfect for me!
You pay less for a Creative Zen than for an iPod!
You can hold more songs than an iPod! You can hold 5,000 mp3's or 10,000 WMA's! I've had my Zen for like 5 months, and I have about 200 songs, both mp3's and wma's!
You can download songs from many websites! I download songs from 5 different ones, AND I copy my CD's and put the songs onto my Zen (known as "ripping" CD's. It does no harm to your CD's!).
I personalized mine! I went into the menu and typed my name into it, chose how long the blue LED screen stayed blue, got the time, and so on!
I got my Zen at a convenient time, because my older brother's CD discman broke, so I gave my cd discman to him, then ripped my cd's and put them onto my zen!
I love my Zen!
25 Creative Doesn't Tell All You'd Want to Know
I really enjoy this player but I could have loved it if only I'd known what it's limitations were. The Creative web site does not make that obvious.
Why buy an MP3 player? My goals were to listen to music, have the ability to download new music and occassionally listen to some books.
Although this player has great battery life and plays music well enough, it does not allow you to take advantage of online music or book services. Older Creative devices do, but this one is not compatible with Napster.com or Audible.com.
Why would a company make a new device and omit older features likely to become more important in the future, as napster and audible become more popular?
When I voiced concern to Creative they responded promptly but offered no solution and no hope of one anytime soon.
If you want to sign up with online services, looks like this device won't allow you to take advantage of some of the popular opportunities out there.
26 It Hangs
I won't cover the entire player since there are so many other positive reviews here. I just want to defend the touch pad. In spite of what others say, it's very effective, but it is subtle
The Product is wonderful The main problem that it hangs a lot plus the rewind & forward buttons are not functioning well all the time they are sensitive & I failed to deal with them by all means
If any one know how to deal with the rewind & forward buttons please contact me.
27 Nearly perfect except touch pad control
Everybody agrees. With an exception of far too sensitive touch pad control, Zen Touch is every music-on-the-go lovers dream machine. It is true that it really irritates when I try to navigate the songs on this beauty, but it can be overlooked by the quality and practicality of this product. Dear Creative Labs, please fix this problem in order to make this wonderful product even better one.
28 Touch pad is under-rated.
I've very pleased with my Touch but I won't cover the entire player since there are so many other positive reviews here. I just want to defend the touch pad. In spite of what others say, it's very effective, but it is subtle. It has a slow zone in the center and fast zones at the top and the bottom for fast scrolling. Many people complain that it's difficult to scroll 1 or 2 lines at a time. For slow scrolling, repeated short strokes at the center of the pad work best. Once you develop a touch for the touch pad, you're navigating like a pro. It's subtle like a musical instrument, but satisfying to use.
29 iPod shmiPod...This MP3 player takes the cake!!! Guarunteed.
Yah, so I had a brand new 4th generation iPod. I got it for christmas as a gift. I loved it. Couldn't live without it. In fact, I know that for sure, because I had to. You see, after one month of having it in my posession, it broke. And those goofballs down at Apple wouldn't replace it. So...I said "hey, you just lost a customer" and got my brand new Creative Zen Touch. IT IS AMAZING. The touch pad is innovative and easy to use and it is ten times as durrable as that other MP3 player I had. What was it called??? So anyways, if you are looking for a solid piece or machinery and are in need of superb battery life and amazing sound quality, the Creative Zen Touch is the MP3 player for you. Besides, why does Apple need more money anyways?
30 Creative Zen > Apple iPod
First, this thing is amazing, and it is so much easier to use than the apple ipod. Truthfully told, the zen is bigger, and a lil heavier but for 200% the battery life of the iPod, this is definetly worth carrying a few extra GRAMS of weight. I think people who see you with this instead of an iPod would think, wow look at how smart he is, he got something better and didn't pay and extra $50 for the name. 2nd, people who already have music and such, you HAVE to use iTunes for the music you want. And the uploading is kinda slow. With the creative zen, you can get a program is just for uploading onto your zen not a upload/download app.
31 Conflicts Conflicts Conflicts
It's hard to say who is to blame, Microsoft or Creative. There is some problem where Windows Media Player 10 conflicts with the Zen driver for Windows XP. Otherwise this is a 5-star piece of hardware. I like the interface better than what I have seen on iPods. But now I kind of wish I'd have bought one of the iRiver 5GB players with the color screen. Those look awesome and probably work better with Media Player 10.
32 Great Player!
I've had my Zen Touch (the 20 GB model) for about a month now, and I have to say... This is a really great player!
Pros:
1. The 24 hour battery life really does last 24 hours.... I havn't had it die on me yet!
2. It's easy to hold, and scrolling is not too hard... You do have to get used to it though.
3. The sound is crisp, clear, and makes it where one can hear every last sound in a song!
4. Comes with Creative Mediasource, which is very easy to use, and will encode songs into MP3 format quickly! Also makes it easy to burn songs directly onto a CD from the player itself.
5. It also doubles as an external hard drive to transfer various files to wherever you would like to put them
6. Tech support is great, informative, and easy to reach!
7. Comes with earphones and a carrying case
8. The player itself looks good!
Cons:
1. Earphones it's supplied with arn't the best.
2. Touchpad needs some "wearing in", or at least mine did when I got it... Not too hard though.
3. No Mac support.
Even though it's 250 usually (I got mine for 230...) its a great buy and in my opinion better than the iPod! (which usually costs about 300 bucks, depending where you get it)
33 Concur with other reviews
I found that the gist of what has been said by other reviewers is true. the Creative Zen Touch is easy to use, it has much better battery life than the equivalent size i-pod and is more durable. On the downside, the scroll bar is too sensitive and the earphones are not ergonomically designed for most ears.
You can't jog with this machine, but then you are warned about this in the manual.
I have had mine for two months now and am very pleased with it. The only advantage the i-pod has over this machine is that it looks more stylish. If this is important to you, you will probably buy the i-pod anyway.
34 Somewhat disappointing...
I bought this because most of the reviews said that it was a worthy opponant to the ipod, with twice the battery life, twice the capacity, and far less expence. At first I was quite pleased with it, but over time I have begun to notice its faults. When it erased all my music tonight, I felt it was finally time to write a review explaining the downsides. I will not list the plusses because it has been done in numerous other reviews.
Here are the problems I have noticed:
- Even after several months, the scroll bar, when set on the least sensitive setting, is still too sensitive. While it is not debilitating, it is frustrating to the point that it is somewhat of a hinderane.
- When on random, hitting the back button does not always return you to the previous song listened to. Sometimes it does, but often it brings up another random song. I understand that "random" is the setting, but when navigating through a large playlist it would still be nice to be able to go to the previous song listened to at the push of a button.
- When I transfered all my files from my computer onto the Zen Touch, somehow it reset all the ID tags on my computer to what they were when they were first ripped. As I have about 7,000 songs on my computer and had spent months changing the titles to exactly what I wanted, this was a big setback for me. I think this was caused by an option I selected when the I did the file transfer, but it should have been more clear.
- Frequently when jogging, the Zen freezes, and I need to stick a paper clip into the reset hole in the side. The actual reset button is about right in the center of the player, so it is necessary to stick the paper clip in almost an inch and a half. Last time this happened, I was unable to get it to reset - it decided that there was need to erase all my files.
I do not want to spend the time and effort to replace my entire music collection, since the Zen is unstable enough that I can almost guarentee that this will happen again.
I am not using this to say that the Ipod is better, because I have not tried it, and it is my opinion that it costs far too much. Nor am I saying not to buy the Zen Touch. Just be warned of the negative side of it, and weigh whether you think they make the Zen worth purchasing. For me they are not.
35 So Great!
I've had mine 2 months now, and I love it to death, maybe more than some of my friends...
Incredibly great, fast cd ripping time with easy to use software.
Its scrolling bar is great, much easier than the ipod.
Sound quality, depending on the headphones you have is great.
The ear buds that come with it are of poor quality, and didnt fit in my ears...maybe I just have small ears. I'd recomend getting a decent pair of your own anyways.
This is a must for anyone who likes music and doesnt want to conform with the cliche ipod...
36 Review of Zen Touch
I spent months looking at different Mp3 Players and finally decided on this one not only because it was cheaper than the ipod, but becuase everyone has an ipod and I wanted something different. This has a 24 hour battery life which is great, the touch pad is fine, but I recommend putting it on the lowest sensitivity level. Sound is great, holds all my songs. It is very easy to use, and I have had no problems with it freezing or anything like that. The carrying case that comes with it is nice too, and has a clip on it. The only thing I don't like are the headphones, they hurt when you put them in your ears, so I'm buying some new ones. Overall, I am very satisfied with this Mp3 player.
37 Dont buy it
I thought my Zen was a nifty little player until I watched a friend sync music and download new tunes on her Ipod. The Zen's software is clunky and slow and its "playcenter'' computer interface freezes all the time - not good when you are transferring songs. Often, when I plug the player into the computer the playcenter announces that it isn't connected. Go ahead and pay a couple of hundred bucks for this thing and tell yourself you got a bargain by not buying the Apple. When it doesn't work, you'll have a shiny new doorstop.
38 a decent I-pod substitute
I bought this little guy for my daughter so that she could compete with my son's i-pod. I'm not too familiar with these things, but I had no problem setting it up and working it. Touch pad is great. Very sensitive and smooth.
The sound is just awesome, that is, before it got burned in an apt fire. If you're looking for a serious replacement for the sometimes hard to get hold of i-pod, look no further. Creative is probably the only decent contender of i-pods
39 I returned it for an iPod BUT it has many positive features
Unfortunately, the Creative Labs Zen Touch player I received had a hard disk error, and I had to return it. When I first purchased it, it froze and I ended up updating the firmware. The instructions on the web site weren't very detailed so I searched forum sites (Apple doesn't do much better). Once I completed that step, the Player worked for a few weeks. The positives:
1) It comes with a leather case. The iPod I received doesn't and several sites want $20+ for this accessory.
2) The Zen Touch integrated very well with my Windows PC and transfers were lightning fast on USB2.
3) 24 hour battery says it all-most iPods last 14. Plus the battery is designed to be removable and replaceable unlike with the iPod.
4) The sound quality was great and the EQ are more easily customized than with the iPod.
5) The price is great considering the amount of storage.
Here are the negatives which led me to get an iPod:
1) The scroll bar was difficult to use at first. I thought the Zen was broken until I figured out how to customize the touch settings. I didn't have this problem with the scroll wheel on the iPod. The settings on the Zen, as others have observed, are way too sensitive and I could never find a happy medium.
2) The software that comes with the Zen requires a lot of CPU and I hated having to do control/alt/delete when it ceased functioning. I ended up keeping Musicmatch as my default MP3 player because it runs much smoother. But for transferring files, I was stuck using the Creative Labs software because Musicmatch and Windows Media Player did not link easily to the player. iTunes is so much easier to use than Mediasource.
3) The headphones are a bit pointed and not pleasant on my ears compared to the oval headphones that come with the iPod.
4) The Zen Player is bigger and takes more pocket space than the iPod. Its like having a PDA in your palm.
5) I had to move tracks to their correct spots frequently. If there is a program that organizes better than Mediasource, I'd recommend downloading it.
6) I got tired of resetting the player and the hard disk error really motivated me to find another company.
40 Wait For the Next Model
When I recieved my Creative Zen Touch as my first mp3 player, I was thrilled beyond belief.
I was happy because I knew I had to barely charge it, it had 24 hour battery life, and I didn't have to replace the batteries like the iPod, which is about 100 dollars.
However, when I began using it, I'll admit: Getting music is quite easy.
When I used the touchpad, I have to agree with everyone else.
It was quite frustrating for me to get to one song without accidently going one or two over.
I'll admit that the sound is great and the earbuds are fine with me.
The backlight could really use some help.
I do not know when the next model comes out, but because this Zen Touch came out on June 2004, the new model may come out around April.
This is still $250 dollars, unless you buy it on eBay.
I'm not saying this product is horrible, I'm saying if you wait for the next model, it might be about 20 dollars more with extra features and improvements that Creative is bound to know about.
What I like most about it is that you can put custom CD's on it, unlike the iPod, which costs money if you use iTunes.
If you are very desperate for an mp3 player, the Creative Zen Touch is a great choice, so just buy it.
You might want to go to your nearest Brookstone, because most have a Creative Zen Touch that you can use and sample, and if the touchpad gets on your nerves (they don't show earbuds), you can consider buying a new model in only two months which might be about 20 dollars more and have extra features and improvements. If you can't wait, the Creative Zen Touch is a fine alternative to the Apple iPod and Dell Pocket DJ.
41 flawless!
I fell in love with this little player as soon as I received it. I have read a lot of reviews that complained about the over sensitivity of the touch pad and decided to give it a shot. I am impressed. Not sure if it's a new firmware that they are using, but the touch pad works perfectly for me. I found the sensitivity level to be just right. It only takes seconds to locate a particular song using the touch pad, it's great. What you also get with it compared to some of the other mp3 players
24+ hour playtime
load songs with windows explorer, real player, windows media player, possibly others
data storage
ability to add voice recording/radio with a remote control
slick design
wma support
touch pad selection
intuitive operations & controls
full unicode support for international songs (particularly asian)
I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a high capacity mp3 player
42 Great! I mean when it works...
Here is the short of it:
Connects to my PC when it wants to.
Anti-Virus Software interferes with the Proprietary Software.
User un-friendly Prorietary Software.
Poor tech support and customer service.
When you are not trying to connect the device and you are just listening to music it works well (except if you plan to run with it as I had, that is not a recommended use, per Creative)
Here is the long of it:
When I first got my Zen Touch, I loved it. I didn't understand how I had lived before without such a convenient little music player.
My disappointment in the device came a couple of weeks later. I plugged the device in and the proprietary software kept saying it wasn't connected. Then, after plugging it in and unplugging it several times, it randomly began to work. A call to their tech support revealed that running anti-virus software interferes with the drivers. I followed the reinstall and update directions that the tech support person send to me, and on the third try, the worked. (My problem with this is why does a company put out a product that doesn't work with anti-virus software since theses days everyone practically has to have anti-virus software unless they have a Mac and if they have a Mac they would have bought an iPod instead of this piece of work.
The real contempt for this thing came when I got my new computer. I could get the thing to connect at all. Over the course of 10 days I updated the drivers, my bios, and did all kinds of other things as directed by the tech support at Creative (it took 10 days because Creative does not have a toll free number for tech support and they are closed by the time I get home from work). Finally, someone from ***my*** company's IT department suggested that I install the drivers through Windows Device Manager rather than use the Install Wizard on the cd. Miraculously- it connected. My joy however, was short lived. When I tried to Sync it with my new computer the software says all the files are corrupted.
AFter these last ten days I am not sure whether or not I hate this device or the Windows OS more. My hope is that a thief runs off with my new laptop and my Creative Zen Touch so that my insurance company will cut me a check and I can buy an iMac and an iPod. But until then, the laughter of my brother, who is listening to his iPod and making movies on his iMac, will torment me as I try to make this darn thing work.
43 Customizable EQ Settings
3 words convinced me to buy a Creative Zen Touch instead of an iPod: CUSTOMIZABLE EQUALIZER SETTINGS. If you're a serious music lover, you'll definitely not settle for the lousy presets that ship with the units and which oblige you to perpetually fiddle with your player to find the "best" preset. I have also had the opportunity to listen to an iPod, and I have to say that the Creative Zen Touch sound quality is much better (this is comparing 128 kbps VBR encoded music played on both units, listening with the same pair of earphones).
If that's not enough to convince anybody, then another major plus is the outstanding battery life. I have verified that it lasted more than 24 hours (and not even on a full charge).
I give it only four stars because it doesn't show up as a drive when you connect it to your PC, otherwise I am totally satisfied with it.
Bottom line is this: go for the iPod if you have money to blow and your main priority is the design, the looks, the "cool" factor; go for the Creative Zen Touch if you want excellent sound quality, battery life and better value for your hard-earned money.
44 Can't beat it for the price
Okay, okay. I bought this player based on the exceptional price-to-size ratio. But I know that Creative makes really solid products, so this wasn't a total shot in the dark. Several other reviewers noted that the transfer times are long, but I have USB 2.0 compliant hardware and I can honestly say that this unit transfers data faster than some networks I've seen. [...]. The battery life is a huge plus. The sound reproduction is true. The software included (and updated via creative.com) is intuitive. The fact that I can put 200 albums and still have a 10Gb hard drive backup is awesome.
45 Great MP3 Player!!
I received the Zen Touch MP3 player as a Christmas gift from my wife. I have been using it ever since. The sound quality is excellent. I have heard some people complain about the hypersensitivity of the touch pad. I, luckily, did not have that problem. So far, I have transferred about a quarter of my CD collection (still have about 500 CD's to go!) and I still have over 16 GB of empty space! The battery lasts for over 24 hours (I tried it, it really does!) What more can I say about this player! It's a great player. The only thing that I can complain about this player is that, every once in a while, the hard drive will freeze up. So you need to reboot it (a paper clip does the job just fine). Other than that, no complaints.
46 touch sensitive pad TOO sensitive.
I bought the zen touch player straight from the creative website. At 249.00 it seemed like a decent alternative to the ipod. At first it seemed true. Sending my 1000 songs from my comp to the player took about 2 hours... Then everything fell apart... First the earphones that came with the product snaped in half when i tried to adjust it. 2nd as I tried to sort through the player with the zen touch pad, it almost seemed possesed, it would click on a song when i tried to scroll through the listings, and vice versa. I gave up after a day of frustration, sent the player back for a refund. I will say this though, the customer service dept. over at creative were very helpful, and processed my refund pretty quickly.
47 good player, but flawed...
i wrote this originally about the 40gb model, which i own, but my comments are equally applicable to the 20gb model, since they are otherwise identical:
i really do like this player; it's great, super-fast (near-instant boot time, fast shutdown) and the battery life is stellar: i drove from austin to dallas and back--5 hours of driving--playing 128-to-320kbps VBR mp3s and the battery is still at 3 bars (out of 3.)
the problem i have with it is that the touchpad is just annoying. even at lowest sensitivity, it's far too easy to accidentally scroll up or down by 2 items instead of 1. i would say 90% of the time when i try to make the tiniest possible gesture, it either doesn't scroll or scrolls by 2 items.
what really gets me, though, is that the touchpad is just not the right mechanism for this. if it were obviously a great idea that just needed a little tuning, i'd be fine with it. but really, a set of four buttons--up, down, page up, page down--would be better in every way.
with the touchpad, you have to be looking at the player to use it. i know my way around many of the context menus without looking at them, now, but i *have* to look at them since i don't know, using the touchpad, how far i have scrolled if i don't. with buttons i could easily click 'down' 3 times and know where the cursor was. this is actually a pretty serious problem while driving.
i didn't know this until i got the player, but the touchpad is divided into 3 regions; the top third is for "fast upwards scrolling", the middle for "precise scrolling" and the bottom for "fast downwards scrolling." so they've already discretized this supposedly-analog touchpad, and even then it's often hard to use even on low sensitivity. with buttons, problem solved.
one nice thing about the touchpad is that with a very fast, full-pad swoosh downwards or upwards you can scroll through a hundred or more items instantly. but you could set up the page up and page down buttons so that if you held them for more than a few moments, they rapidly started scrolling up or down, and it would really be just as effective.
other reviews say things like "the touchpad is not bad once you get used to it" or whatever. first of all, i'm unconvinced; i've been using this thing every day for several weeks now and it's still irritating to use: i'll seriously scroll up and down by 2 items 4 or 5 times just trying to home in on the item between them, which is frustrating.
but furthermore, the fact is the touchpad is completely unnecessary. buttons would be better in every way. seems like creative made the touchpad decision more to copy the iPod than because it was actually a good design idea, which is unfortunate.
nonetheless, like i said, i love the player; the sound quality is good, the size is nice, the battery life is incredible and the integration with my windows xp machine is really pretty seamless.
48 Creative's Zen Touch is a good deal, at a price.
I've been in the market for a high-capacity MP3 player for a number of years now, but never wanted to pay more than 250 dollars for one. The Creative ZenTouch just barely slipped into the green range, and I figured I had better snap one up before they realize that they can charge so much more. When it came, I was pleased to see that it came with everything I needed to comfortably use it, including the earbud headphones. They are marvelous, despite the fact that earbuds are a pain and make my ears sore. The storage space was more than enough, with my 125+ CD collection just barely taking up a fifth of the space. The only major problem that I had was that while I wanted a way to never need CDs outside of the home again, I still end up taking them places occasionally. What I'm getting at is that the touch navigation is a hassle to use, even when you do get used to it. But it is still an amazing MP3 player at an even more amazing price.
49 The Zen Touch rocks
I've had my zen touch 20GB for about 4 months now and i love it!
I was hesitating between this and the ipod and chose the zen for the following reasons:
1. cheaper(big factor for me)
2. like Creative, i have speakers and soundcards that work great
3. Don't like the fact that ipod rules the mp3 buisness
4.want to support the underdawg
5. like the design
6. sound quality is great
This is why i bout it, i am truly very happy with it and do not regret not gettin the ipod instead.
hope this was helpful
50 something to say about ignorant dum@$$e$ and their iPoops
let me begin this by saying i am pretty ticked off cuz amazon wont let me swear in this thing so i am going to put my comments a little more subtly. a while ago i checked the 1 star reviews... dummies. first of all, why the **** do all you zen haters talk like the iPod is the "default" mp3 player and think other mp3 player are just knockoffs that try to copy ipods? you dummies. big f****** woop the ipod has a spinny wheel and their are lots of accessories. "Ooh ooh ooh, i want that one cuz its REAL EXPENSIVE and COOL LOOKING. let me tell you dummies something. there are other mp3 players out there and you should take some time to do some dam research instead of just buying an ipoop cuz their COOL and POPULAR and SPINNY and ur friend has one. Let me regrettfully admit that and iPod is a good mp3 player. But, it would help if many ignorant people actually accepted other players. Responding to one 1-star reviewer: it is supposed to make clicky noises (you can turn them off), and you can lower the sensitivity of the touchapad. The sound quality is not crappy... it is better than an ipod. Battery life is better than an ipod. You HAVE to use itunes with an ipod. And, the price of a creative zen is better than an ipod. What will you do with the $75 you save by getting a zen touch? Also, i have had my zen touch for a month and it hasnt frozen yet. People who say the zen touch does freeze probably dropped it like a dummy or peed on it... retards.
to sum it all up... the Creative Zen Touch ROCKS, and the iPod... does not. keep it real
51 Great Sound, Great Price; Better Than iPod
I got a Creative Labs for christmas and it has been great and hasn't given me any trouble. I have mut about 1000 songs and they play great. The finger slider is easier to use that the Dam iPod wheely-Thing. I bought a radio Remote adapter for it that doubles a mic for voice recordings off Creative.com. This is not even avalible for the 'FraudPod'
Bottom line is that it is a MUCH better value than iPod
52 Good stuff to know regarding the Zen Touch
Most of the positive reviews concerning this MP3 player are right on the mark. I highly recommend this, if you are looking for alternatives other than Apple's extremely popular IPod. There a couple of items that I would like to share in order to help you in making a decision on the Zen Touch, for your consideration:
1. The battery: The battery lasts at 24 hours, and still counting (estimating 25 - 28 hours). For example, my Zen is configured with mpgs ripped at 96Kbps, my backlight is set for 5 seconds and right now as I am typing, I have zero bars left on the battery indicator since 3 hours ago and the Zen is still responding extremely well. The key is to ensure that the battery is completely drained. Once this is done, recharge the Zen with the unit turned off (takes approx. 3.5 - 4 hours for a full charge). The first time I used the Zen, the player lasted up to 20 hours. Following this procedure gave me 24+ hours life on the battery. The battery is replaceable if needed. (...)
2. You are not limited to Creative's software for uploading or ripping mp3, wma or wav's into the Zen. You have the flexibility of using other 3rd party software such as Windows Media Player ("WMA") or Real Player (my preference) for your music uploads, which to me Real or WMA are more user-friendly.
3. Uploading your music into the Zen puts all your music selection alphabetically, by default. If you prefer to have your music in a specific order, the key is to create player lists and move your music in the list in your order of preference. Real and WMA allows you to create playlists, as well as Creative's proprietary software.
4. The earbuds provided give an excellent sound. Although I agree using the Sennheisers or Sony earbuds provide better sound quality.
All in all, a top notch MP3 player.
53 So far not impressed
I own a 20gb iPod. Wanted to get an MP3 for my son and this seemed like a good alternative. Gave it to him for Christmas. After charging it then downloading all seemed well. Then when he went to use the lock button for the first time it broke off and the player was stuck in locked mode and unusable. Trying to return now. Can't tell if this was a fluke or not. The button seemed flimsy, certainly compared to my iPod's. Would have liked for this to work since $100 cheaper for same size iPod. But will fork over the extra $$$ for the more durable pod...
54 Creative Zen Pros and Cons
I purchased the Creative Zen about 2 months ago. All started out well. The software is easy to install and use (Although the process of putting you CD collection on your player is time consuming!). Headphones fell apart after about a week but can always be replaced I guess. Sound quality is good and the player is easy to charge. PROBLEM: The touch pad is very sensitive. I read this from other buyers and didn't think much of it. Beleive me, it is very difficult to click certain items. You can set sensitivity on high, medium, or low. On high and medium you don't even have to touch the pad and it will scroll. On low, still, you touch it and it can go crazy sometimes. There is a big controversy over the size compared to the ipod. The size is fine. I haven't had a problem with it at all, it is by no means bulky. I'm still glad I saved money buying this (with longer battery life) than buying an ipod for another $50.00 or more (with less battery life and the same amount of space). But the touch pad definetly creates frusteration! I spent hours looking over reviews and I'm still not very satified with the Creative Zen Touch. I'd be curious to try out an ipod, but I already spent the money on the Zen Touch. The choice is yours!
55 Did my research and I'm pleased !
I read a lot of MP3 player reviews and spoke with a few people (including i-Pod owners, etc.) before choosing the Zen Touch. The conclusion from this was that the iPod was overrated and the Zen was a better choice. The case and free FM remote on the Zen and seeing a lot of iPod owners at work with crap battery times (six hours old and down to a couple of hours), was the final clincher.
I've had one lockup since I purchased it. Updating to the latest firmware got over this. No lockups since and I plug and unplug the power and USB often whilst the unit is on.
Sound was even better after ditching the standard crappy headphones. Some favorite Sony bud headphones from a CD player, made the sound even better.
The Creative MediaSource Oganiser software isn't too bad - still trying to work this out. Purchased a copy of Nomad Explorer (Red Chair) to try out, but I have some connectivity problems here which I don't think are the Zen's fault.
4,000+ songs loaded and very happy. I wanted an MP3 player and this fits that criteria.
[...]
56 Read this before you purchase...
Some things you should know (and I didn't) before you purchase this product:
1. Not compatible with Microsoft's Windows Media Player. While it is supposed to be compatible, much of the functionality doesn't work. While I emailed Creative about this, they said that they "recommend" that you use their MediaSource software with the Player. I was going to call Microsoft about it, but they charge $245 per incident (no joke!) for phone support.
2. The MediaSource software has bugs. The interface is not very intuitive, and the software has bugs in it.
3. Creative's Tech Support is inexperienced. While tech support is free for the first 60 days, I had to call three times before I got a tech support person who could address the issue I had with sync'ing the player.
4. The touchpad is difficult to use. Read the other reviews posted here - it's all try. I have had the player a week and still haven't been able to use the touchpad well. The Apple iPod has a "clicking" sound which makes it easier to use.
5. You cannot jog/run with it. The instruction manual says that it is not made to absorb that kind of shock. The Apple Mini is designed for that, and includes a delay.
6. It is difficult to edit the track labels. The track information service has some funky names/titles. You have to edit all of the information for each track individually - very cumbersome.
7. There are no Smart Playlists. You can create Smart Playlists (playlists that group songs by a criteria you set up - upbeat songs, slow songs, etc.) on the software, but they don't sync with the player. The iPod has the ability to set up Smart Playlists.
If I had it to do over, I would purchase an iPod. I suggest you think twice before buying this product - and talk to someone who owns one.
57 Ipod Killer
The Zen Touch is the best digital music player out there. It's got plenty of storage space and the 24 hours of battery life is no joke. I did yardwork for 5 hours with only the last battery bar filled from the very start! The 20GB Zen Touch holds roughly the same amount of songs as the 40GB Ipod because of the Zen's ability to play WMA sound files which are about half the size of MP3's. The touch pad takes a bit of getting used to, but after using it for awhile, scrolling is no problem. It also comes with a carrying case which offers good protection, although you cannot press the buttons with it on. Syncing songs is no problem whether you use windows media player or the Creative software provided. Sound quality is excellent, given you don't use the headphones that come with it, which are not very good. Overall, it's an excellent player with incredible battery life and perfect sound quality and it deserves it's 5 stars.
58 Great Product - Mediocre interface
When you're in the market for a portable MP3 player - esp if you're looking for anything over 1GB - then the first player that WILL spring to mind is the iPod. And while the iPod is a great product and has revolutionised the way we listen to music on the go - its is no longer the best portable MP3 player around.
Enter Creative.
Creative has always made technically sound, reliable and well-priced digital audio equipment, starting from setting the std in sound cards to making excellent computer speakers (sold as Cambridge Soundworks). I have always found Creative products to be technologically superior and great value for money. So it is with the Zen. I have had my Zen Touch 20GB for a little over two weeks now and here are a few candid pros and cons of the player:-
Pros:
++Excellent Battery Life: The player is slightly bigger and heavier than the iPod but even though the iPods run out of steam in abt 6 hours - the Zen will give you a solid 20 hrs+ on a full charge.
++Superior Sound Quality: The stock pair of earpones are OK - but I use a pair of over-the-ear technics everyday. I also burn MP3s at 320 Kbps.
++Value for money: I bought my Zen touch for USD200 on amazon.
Cons
--Interface: The interface is fiddly - sp. the touch panel which is oversensitive and takes a while to master (even after changing the sensor settings). Not as snazzy as the iPod (but this is subjective). Also, the panel buttons are becoming slightly loose and this worries me a bit.
--Form factor: this player IS bigger and heavier than the iPod. Also, the look/appearance is not very chic - but I don't care about this.
--Software: The creative software supplied with the product works only on Windows. Moreover it does not understand directory structures - so you must either uniquely name all tracks or fill in the MP3 tags yourself. But this is a problem with all portable HDD based players.
Overall: a good buy. This is my first HDD player - I think there will be many more.
59 An alternative to the I Pod
I have been using my Zen Touch for appoximately one month now and it has performed flawlessly. Negatives about this unit has to be the poorly written instruction manual. The printable version, although considerably better, leaves many functions out. Having a working knowledge of computer basics (for importing CD's to the play list, etc) helps considerably. Also, the touch scroll is rather sensitive which requires a slight learning curve. I replaced the cheezy earphones with the $10 Panisonic RP-HG17 and noticed an immediate improvement in sound, especially the base region. Once mastered, importing and transfering MP3 files is an effortless process. All in all, this unit will give the considerably more expensive I Pod a run for it's money. Highly recommended.
60 The Best!
I LOVE this little player! I owned the creative labs nomad jukebox 3 for three years and i was ready to get a smaller player to take on runs and to the gym. I did a lot of research and this player was so much cheaper than an ipod and also was compatible with the accessories that i already own for my jukebox 3. I can use my FM radio/wired remote with it, and it was a breeze to transfer the songs from my jukebox to the zen! although the case that is supplied does cover the buttons on the player, if you have the wired remote it is not an issue! The battery life is also incredible, much better than an ipod... Creative Labs also supplies updated firmware for all of its mp3 players every couple of months to improve the performance of them, which is so easy to install and fixes anything that might be annoying about the interface. If you have any tech support questions creative labs' email tech support is amazing! they will email you back in a matter of minutes with a helpful answer. Great support, great accessories, great player!! I definitely recommend it!!
61 Great features but operating is shady
Bought one of these for my boyfriend for Christmas. Downloading the songs onto this unit was no problem. The sound quality is great - would definetly recommend purchasing better earphones, though, to really be able to appreciate the quality of this unit. The unit is really sleek looking and comes with a good protective carrying case. Blue light is cool, scroll feature is nice but have to pay attention because you can scroll past the song you want.
MAJOR DOWN SIDE/THE ONLY DOWN SIDE: it freezes. we had read other reviews about how the unit is great but then it freezes on them. No joke - what a pain. Brand new, all the songs downloaded, charged it up, started listening to the songs and it froze. Reset it and it's working again. Happened again shortly after that. Reset it again. Only took it out of it's package 3 days ago and it has already frozen twice! And we don't know if this has something to do with the freezing, but the letters on the screen are scrambling since we reset it....
Looks like this same freezing problem is happening to a lot of people who had purchased this unit. This is definetly a problem that Creative has GOT to look into! If you read all the reviews on here, it's crazy how many people have complained about the freezing, having to reset and some have had to reformat and lost all their music.
All in all, the unit would be fabulous if it wasn't for this freezing. I'm worried that something else will go wrong with it since we're only on day 3. Honestly, I wish I would have paid the extra money and bought my boyfriend the ipod - I haven't heard anyone complain about the ipod....
62 Excellent player, choose headphones wisely
First of all, I am not concerned very much with style of usability in an mp3 players, rather in sound quality and loudness. So my 5 star rating reflects this.
I have tried many mp3 players, among which Diva player (so and so), e-Digital MXP-100 (outstanding), Frontier Labs NexII (the worst), Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 (good but way too big), Creative Muvo NX (really good), iPod 20G (good sound but overpriced) and mpio FL-100 (so and so), Sony Hi-MD NH600 (not loud).
What I can say about the Zen Touch is that sound and loudness are the best among the ones I tried. The only ones that somehow compare to it are the iPod and the e-Digital MXP-100 (surprisingly unknown to most; this renders no justic to a fantastic-sounding player like that!). However I find that the Zen touch has surely better bass than everyone else and also overall better sound. Not to mention that when compared to the iPod it is about 100$ cheaper. I would have spent that money if the sound uality was better, but as I said it's not the case.
What I strongly recommend you is to choose wisely your headphones. It seems to perform better with earbuds (which I used to hate) rather than with other models.
My conclusion is that the best match for this player are the Koss "The Plug" earbuds: matched with this set, it just plays wonderfully. Tried also with Sennheiser MX-500 and Sony 818LP, still good results and volume, but bass were not as shining as with the Koss (outstanding performers in this area). Tried also with Sennheiser PMX-60, PX-100, HD 457, JVC HA B25BU, volume was not so satisfying (higher impedance).
So I strongly recommend this player to anyone concerned with sound quality first and foremost. It also worth mentioning that this player feels very well built and sturdy. Batteries are drained in 20 hrs if you use the volume very close to the maximum as I do, which I deem as an excellent performance.
On the minus side, I really dislike the touchpad which I deem very user unfriendly (I'd much prefer the older scroll wheel), to me the ipod in this has an edge. However, as I said in the beginning, is not usability that drives my final decision.
63 The Zen Touch has the advantage
I bought this player a few months ago, and so far I don't have any regrets buying this thing. Although I do have reservations. First of all, yes there is no perfect MP3 player. This one doesn't have a lot of extras like the Ipod. Or the 'hype' that it deservers. Secondly, the earphones really suck. The sound quality is not that good and somehow I don't feel comfortable wearing it. So buy a new and good one. And lastly, the design is not as cool as the Ipod(and the new U2 Ipod) and the touchpad sometimes gets into your nerves, but you can adjust to it in no time. But overall, with a price tag cheaper than the Ipod, sound quality much better(w/ good earphones), and is also compatible to .WAV and .WMV files, you don't have to look elsewhere. Just buy this stuff. You'll love it!
64 Best MP3 Player Around
I've had this MP3 player since Christmas. It is AMAZING.
Pros:
-Top-notch sound quality
-Customizable EQ
-Built-in Reset Button (this may not seem so good, but all MP3 players can freeze, so it is better to have a built in reset then having to wait for the battery to drain)
-LONG Battery Life, I charge it once a week and use it every day.
-Easy scrolling with the touchpad
-Dedicated Volume Buttons
-Easy to use drag-and-drop software
-Comes with a case (I don't use it since the device sits in my pocket)
-Battery can be user-replaced with a screw-driver.
-Solid design
-Doesn't Scratch
Cons:
-A little trouble installing the software at first.
-not many available accessories
-Bad earphones come with it. But that's like most music players. I just bought a pair of MDR-G42LP.
Overall, the Zen Touch is AMAZING. Some people might complain that it is bigger than an iPod, but the Zen Touch has the bigger batter (and it isn't dramatically bigger than an iPod). It has a solid, scratchless design. I would definetely recommend this awesome product.
65 AWESOME MP3
I just got this MP3 player for christmas and its GREAT. I got it and plugged it in as well as put the CD in to my computer. The software installed easily. I then googled creative zen firmware updates and got the latest update (very easily). After that I just took all the music on my Hard drive and put it on the player. I didn't have much so in about 212 songs it took a little less than 2 minutes to do. So far today I've listened to it for about 12 hours probably and it still has 2 out of 3 battery bars left. This is after a 4 hour charge. The unit is small enough and not as thick as an IPOD but wider. I like it better IMO. As other reviews say set the touch pad to LOW and update the firmware. To save battery space you might also want to make it so that after 5 seconds of in activeness the backlight turns off, but thats only if you are really into saving battery. For a 14 year old high school kid this MP3 player is great. And I think for adults it would be too. I LOVE THIS THING.
66 Touchpad Difficult and Unresponsive
My son got the Zen Touch for Christmas. After a full day of trying to get the touchpad to work consistantly, we decided to return the unit. The touchpad either did not respond to any pressure, or it skipped to the top or bottom selection and it took a lot of time to highlight the wanted item. Very frustrating. Nice concept, poor execution.
67 Started acting weird
Since the day i got my player, it started giving weird clicking noises. then it started freezing. i returned it for a refund. Amazon Rocks! Creative's Helpline is not so cool!
68 Zen 1, IPOD 0
i just got this player about a week ago and i couldnt be more hapier, on the pictures it looked like a kind of box, but in real life its is smooth and much more stylish than the IPOD. At my school, most people had IPOD's and when i showed up with my creative zen touch, they were really impressed. the sound quality is better than that of the IPOD's and most other players out there. I ordered the Sony MDR-EX71SL headphones with the zen and together they work great, because the starter headphones, like all starter headphones, are crappy. This player is much easier to use and to load songs onto than the IPOD, just install the software, hook up the player via USB and cram it with songs. If you dont want to spend $300 on an IPOD that is only well known but lacks performance, then the creative zen touch is the answer youv been looking for.
P.S. I am only comparing this great player with the IPOD because people know the IPOD. The IPOD is yesterdays news, bring the zen to your IPOD carrying friends and a week later all of them would have sold their ipods and ordered the Zen as well. :)
69 Great MP3 Player
This is the best MP3 player I have ever used. The touch pad is excellent if you are capable of moving your thumb up and down with control then you can use the touch pad like a pro. It will be difficult at first but you'll get used to it. You can also modify the sensitivity to your liking. Its small and about a 2 pounds. I have no problems so far but I've only had it for less than a day. Excellent great design, can be used with one hand, I love the blue light for the power button.Great buy if you don't want to spend 250-300 dollars for an IPOD that hold the same amount of songs. I recommend this to anyone.
70 Problems with player
I bought this player instead of an iRiver H120 (not made anymore)
it worked excellently, until it started freezing
the reset button on the player worked, but it kept on freezing, and I eventually got fed up and am trying to return it for a full refund.
71 Bad and not worth the price
dont waste your money on this just get a ipod..this music player has bad sound quality for about the same price as an ipod..no use just getting a knockoff when you can get the real thing for the same price of lower~!@ not worth $245 dont buy
72 Stopped working second day
What more can one say.
Does this happen to an IPOD
I haven't heard anyone say it if it did
Maybe too embarassed
73 unreliable
i got this new zen touch last week and scroll stopped working second day.The sound effect really made me feel good first day but second day i could not scroll anything .I did all things like reset,going through customer service steps but no use.What i feel if it is little bit costlier better go with popular one as it is more reliable.
74 Best music jukebox on the market
I received the Zen Touch about a month ago and I can't put it down. I love this thing! The sound is incredible, and I'm using (...) Sennheiser phones bought on amazon last year. The touch control is blazingly fast, the equalizer settings are plentiful, and after rebate and opening an amazon Visa card, only cost me(...)!! Using Windows Media player to transfer my collection was fairly easy and intuitive. Searching for music is a breeze, setting up playlists is also fast & easy. As you can see, I love my Zen Touch, this thing is so cool, who needs Apple and the extra cost? I do question Creative's choice of giving away 60 free songs; a nice idea, but all classical? Remember your target audience guys, they aren't listening to the Beijing Symphony Orchestra. Bottom line, get this player now, you will not be disappointed!
75 A great player
I won't repeat all of the product details other folks have listed. I would just like to address some of the issues people have complained about.
First, the touchpad takes a while getting used to, no doubt about it. I think it took me at least a week of constantly overshooting selections, choosing the wrong selection, etc. But now I rarely do any of those things, even with the touchpad sensitivity on the high setting. Having also used ipods that various friends have, I think that the touchpad is much more efficient than the clickwheel, especially when scrolling through long lists. You don't have to keep moving your thumb up and down, you simply hold your thumb at the bottom or top of the pad and it scrolls by itself. I do think it is odd that many people use it for a day and then bash it for being difficult to use.
Second, yes, it is a little bulkier then an ipod, but not much. The reason for this is obvious - it has a bigger battery! It's a trade-off - small size vs. battery life. For me, the battery is an advantage. If you are looking for smaller size but mediocre battery life, then the ipod is for you. My only qualm about the battery is that it is not removeable, which I think is ridiculus. But it is the same situation for many of the other players out there, including the ipod 20gb. For the life of my I don't understand why they do this, it's bizarre. It must be a planned obselescence sort of thing
I haven't had any problems yet in terms of hard drive failure, etc. It has frozen on me once in 3 months of use (the first day I had it) It seems like a solid, well built, excellent sounding player to me, and it is less expensive than the ipod.
I personally don't find the carrying case to be a problem. You can't use the touchpad when it is in the case, but I am able to feel all of the other buttons (forward, reverse, pause, etc) through the case and use them just fine. I don't see how any case could be devised that would allow full functionality.
I think this is a great choice for people who care about sound quality, functionality, and battery life. It is good looking, though not chic. If you are buying an mp3 player to serve as a fashion accessory, you should probably look elsewhere.
76 "What you really want to know" guide
I bought this item about 2 weeks ago. Here's my Q/A guide. If you have already read other reviews then some of this stuff will not be new. Here it is:
Q: How much did you pay for this item?
A: 200$ for zen touch + 10$ for sennheiser headphones
Q: Is it bigger than Ipod?
A: Yes
Q: Is it big?
A: No, it is small, can easily fit your pocket
Q: Does it look good?
A: Yes, indeed. It does kind of look like an Ipod though.
Q: Is the screen big?
A: Yes, big enough for anybody.
Q: Some people say contrast is too low, is that true?
A: No, you can read the screen without any problem during the day or night.
Q: Are the earphones really `that` bad?
A: Yes, they are really bad.
Q: So should I really buy new ones?(because i'm feeling lazy)
A: Yes, you should. If you pay 220$ for Creative Zen Touch, you really need to pay 10 more bucks for the earphones to get the most out of your player.
Q: One of the biggest problems seems to be the Touchpad - is it hard to use?
A: It's not as easy to get used to as the Ipod. But, you will not go crazy because you cannot stop on one song or menu item. The most that can happen is that you will have to try twice to reach something - which really shouldn't drive you mad. You can get used to it in 1 week after which you will have no problem navigating. You can also try 'high/medium/low' sensitivity settings to see which is best for you.
Q: Does the software really suck?
A: I only use it for moving files from my computer to zen touch and that is basically dragging and dropping. If that is what you are planning to do then I must say it doesn't. I play my music in Windows Media Player so I don't know anything else about Creative Software. Again, if you only use it to transfer music, it will not cause you any trouble.
Q: How is the sound quality?
A: Incredible. and I mean that. just make sure you pay extra 10 bucks for those good earphones.
Q: Can you make playlists, shuffle music, etc?
A: Yes, you can make all those in the player, just add songs to `Now playing` and then select `save as playlist` and you're done. You can choose to shuffle the songs in a playlist, repeat, play normally etc. The random button on the outside shuffles all the songs in your player. If you want to shuffle a playlist, then you just go through a few menus and select. Some people say random button is useless (i was one of these people) but then I started using it a lot. so no, it is not useless.
Q: Do I have to make playlist for every album
A: No, if two songs are in an album, the player automatically puts them together. You can select them by choosing the album. The same applies for artists - if you only want to listen to `coldplay` just select the artist and all of their songs will be in your `now playing` list.
Q: Is there a clock?
A: Yes, but you will need to go through a few menus.
Q: How about the battery, does it go for 24 hours?
A: You need to understand this: the battery goes for 24 hours if you start playing music and don't touch your player for 24 hours. But you will probably use `next` `play/stop` `back` etc. These bring it down to 20 hours if you're an average user. But believe me, 20 hours is still a lot. This player will go on for hours and days.
Q: How long does it take to charge?
A: Around 3 hours.
Q: I own a MAC computer, should I go with Zen touch or Ipod?
A: Ipod.
Q: I own a PC, should I go with Zen touch or Ipod?
A: First, check to see how many .WMA files you have. If you have a lot of these you should go with Zen touch because Ipod does not support .WMA. If you have .mp3 files - both support this common format - then it comes down to other things...
Q: ...which are?
A: Money: Zen touch costs less. You will save a minimum amount of 50$ if you choose zen touch. If you are a student, money is important.
If you DO NOT care about the money, I have to say that you should consider Ipod as an important option. The Zen touch has a higher potential to cause problems which you have to deal with. For example my touch pad sometimes stops working and i have to either use my thumb or put fabric(my tshirt) between the touchpad and my finger. Once, the software took five minutes to recognize the player after I connected it. Also I had to restart the Zen touch once - you don't lose any music and nothing happens but I lost a minute restarting it. As you can guess, these are not big issues, they will make you lose couple of minutes though. I'm not saying Ipod is perfect - probably has little problems like these from time to time BUT I think zen touch seems to have a little more potential to cause problems like these. The warranty is 1 year, not 90 days as some claim, so you can feel comfortable about that. Small problems can sometimes make you angry - for example the touchpad - but just remember that you payed 70 dolars less for 12 more hours of music (i can't even think of charging for 3 hours and then using it for 8-9 hours in return) and a higher sound quality. You do not get any games with your player, but I did not feel their absence yet.
So it will all come down to your decision. If money is an important factor, then don't even consider Ipod, go for the Zen Touch. It is also more suitable to a PC and has great sound quality and incredible battery. Now, you might face a few problems - the player might stop a few times and you'll have to restart it. The touchpad may take a while to get used to or as in my case it might not always work properly. But similar problems could always occur with an ipod, and if you don't like it or there's a problem, you have a 1 year warranty.
You make the last choice. I chose Zen touch and I am happy with it. This player is not perfect, but the fact is there is no perfect player out there yet. so overall, i would recommend this player.
77 Apple shmapple, hello Zen!
I bought a Zen Touch a couple weeks ago after drooling over an overpriced iPod for months. I am very happy with my purchase and saved about $100 compaired to an iPod 20gb. I find the interface to be far less confusing than a stupid circle wheel thingamabober. I actually think the Zen looks better to with a more "creative" design beside the white. I wish it did have color options like the micro though. Plus it cam with about 50 classical songs I didn;t already own. The onl thing is the headphones are cheap so you might want to pick a pair of those while your at it. But other than that it is a great little machine. I haven't tested the 24 hour batter claim but I used all day 2 days straight and it didn't die and another time forgot to turn it off over night and it wasn't even half dead when I woke up. You do the math.
78 Meets the approval of this hard-to-please teenager.
I'm trying to think of what I could possibly say about this player that hasn't been said repeatedly before, but this player tends to succeed words. A few key points:
-I ordered the Zen Touch after reading so many positive reviews, and I couldn't be happier. My player arrived on a Wednesday evening, and it was up and running in a matter of hours. When I went on a long trip the next day, my player was charged up and loaded with about half my music collection - uploading music with the included software is fast and easy.
-I've heard of some problems with the Creative MediaSource player, though I've had no problems with it myself. I was a Windows Media Player fanatic, but I use Creative for all my CD-ripping now. The maximum quality is amazing - 320 kbps versus 192 with WMP. Those who prefer to use WMP are still able with no problems. But with the high-quality CD ripping, the music feels so new. I pick up pieces of the background music that I would've never otherwise heard.
-Included with the media player is a service that automatically locates all information about ripped CDs so you don't have to name the files manually.
-My player survived two power surges in a row while the battery was charging. Durability, anyone?
The negatives: I'm going to purchase a new set of earbuds, because like the others have said, the ones that come with the Zen Touch aren't great. Also, the leather case covers up the controls so you have to take it out of its case every time you want to make an adjustment, but it's only a minor setback. And hey - at least you don't have to pay extra for the carrying case with this brand.
I'm afraid I'm not very technical, so I can't go into great detail about the sound quality or battery life. But the quality is excellent, the battery life really is 24 hours, and there's just something about carrying my entire music collection around in a 7 oz player that makes me all giddy on the inside. I couldn't be happier with my [early] Christmas present. I know what I like, and I adore this player.
79 ipod IN YOUR FACE!!!!
This player is not a ZEN NX!!! It does not have the same parts as the original players. It is one of the newest players from Creative and including the zen touch, it is one of the best players out their.
PROS- 1. Great battery life, I am at 17 and half hours on this player with one charge. Can most likely survive 22 hours on a flight from SFO-BLR with transit times [which is good for me].
2. Excellent bulid quality, reviews say its heavy, i say if its heavy a little bit over the ipod, wouldnt have some quality because of the HD, Screen, sound and headphone and connector jacks? I am used to MP3 CD players, and this is normal for me.
3. Sound- sounds just like the Audigy sound cards they make, come on, this company makes high end sound cards for computers like alienware and Dell.
CONS- headphones- suck, get good pair like SONY's or Sennheiser's. The headphones really bring down the qualiy of the sound.
CASE- no cover window and have to take it out, buy remote so you can look at the window without taking it out.
* it works well with WMA10 [free] and no need for the Creative software that comes with it.
no accessories other than remote and thats it more like for the I pod would be good.
clock is hard to get to but is accurate.
Overall, this player is solid and has some issues with case and headphones but can be fixed later with third-party items. Great player for a true audiophile
80 Great product with a couple of irritating aspects
I've had my Zen Touch for about two weeks now, and I love it! I'm a poor college student so the price worked for me, and I've had absolutely no problems with it. Two little irritating things though:
The touchpad is super sensitive, even on the lowest setting it's still really easy to scroll over what you're looking more. But with a little practice it get easier.
The software truly is crap, which is why I only gave four stars instead of five. If you're going to transfer music I would just use Windows Media Player. It's super simple and most people already know how to use it.
81 iPod vs Creative Zen Touch Batteries
I know the flaws of the iPod, the original mp3 storage system (not to take ANYTHING away from the Creative Zen Touch).
I also hear about the complaints of the iPod battery, which I want to address.
My cousin owns an iPod, and he says you can recharge. You only have to replace the battery two years later, and the iPod includes a two-year warranty.
He has Windows XP, so the rumor that iPods only work on an Apple Computer is false.
Back to the battery, I believe he is correct.
There is no battery that lasts forever, even if it's rechargable or not.
They break, or lose all sources of energy, eventually.
I am not flawing the Creative Zen Touch, for it has a great price and the best mp3 player on the market in my opinion.
My point is that no mp3 player is perfect, so if you consider between the iPod and Creative Zen Touch, you must think wisely before making a choice.
The Creative Zen has a 1-2 year warranty, which is just as good.
I have been dreading on what to get, and the batteries are my only con.
If you are deciding and you are wondering on this controversy and you're deciding what to get, think wisely.
The choice is yours.
82 Harddisk is awful
I love a lot great features of this mp3 player. But one thing blow me off is the dard disk. I just bought it about two weeks, and the hard disk is broken. At first, I think it could be just rare defect product that I unfortunately bought it. But I see that so many reviews that talk about this problem even though when I call creative representive. I feel that they just try to shift the responsibility to their sub company. They say that inside of hard disk is not built by them. I just hope that they can really serious consider this problem. I just waste too much to install my songs into the this mp3, and finally it is all gone.
83 Rock on
Not a complaint in the world, except I managed to lose the manual like 5 seconds after I opened the package. Hopefully it turns up. The software isn't as intuitive as iTunes, and the scroll wheel does give me a little trouble, but overall it's doable and definitely worth the $75 savings. I was also pleasantly surprised- the free shipping of 5-9 days actually came in 4, on a Friday too so I got it for the whole weekend. Thanks Amazon, and thanks Creative!
84 My Zen Touch freezes and so do my friends'
Let me start by saying I purchased the Zen Touch after owning a Creative Nomad Jukebox. The Jukebox might have been clunky, but it was an absolute tank. I must have dropped it 20 times before it finally (sadly) broke, but that was my fault. It hardly ever froze or gave me any other problems. That being said, I recently purchased two Zen Touches for myself and my fiance. Both of them are freezing in the middle of songs, when I turn them off, when I try to turn them on. Bottom line--something is wrong with this product. I contacted customer support at Creative and their advice was to restart while holding in the play button, the reformat the hard drive. First of all, this requires erasing everything I've put on the mp3 player. Second of all, it hasn't stopped the player from freezing. I am reading in some of these reviews that it's a problem people have either experienced first hand or have heard of happening. All I can say is it has happened to BOTH Zen Touch players I purchased and the one my friend recently purchased. Sound quality is great but the touch pad is very difficult to use...it's too responsive in that you try to move up or down one song/artist at a time and it skips over by two or three. I would think long and hard about purchasing one of these things unless and until Creative addresses the freezing problem.
85 Gets the job done
I'm not an audiophile, but I've listened to enough music to care about what mp3/digital audio player i'm shelling out hundreds of dollars for. Choosing between the Ipod, the Zen Touch, rio karma, the Iriver h-120, and other players in today's highly competitive hard drive player market.
After strenuous research, it's fairly clear; there is no perfect mp3 player; every player has its strengths and weaknesses, its features, add-ons, etc. For me, all I wanted was an mp3 player that would sound good, offer a good degree of customability, and offer a simple interface. In the end, I hesitantly chose the Zen touch aware of its problems that certain users here have raised: the touch pad sensitivity, the player freezing, firmware problems, etc. On the other hand, the Ipod also has is flaws, such as its notoriously weak battery and allegedly poorer sound.
The touchpad interface isn't as problematic as i envisioned. It took, at most, 20 minutes to get used to the touch pad. I suggest by starting with the touch pad high on sensitivity, and then low in order to get used to the feel of navigating menus. The simplicity of the mp3 is a strength; no extra/unnecessary buttons, yet much is customizable; such as creating custom eqs, which I recommend doing in order to take advantage of the superb sound quality that the Zen touch offers. I listen to everything, from Fugazi to Iron Maiden, and i use Koss headphones. I'm not an audiophile, but listening to the rich sound of the player is noticably quite a treat.
I have yet to see whether or not the battery lasts over 24 hours. So far I haven't had any problems with "lockups" or "freezing."
The included software is also a plus. The Mediasource software included is easy and convenient to use with a simple click/drag and drop interface. It also allows the user to rip mp3s off of cds directly into the player; ripping separate files then haveing to delete them after transferring them to the player can be a nuissance, the software conveniently mitigates this.
Ergonomically, the player is satisfactory. Based on the specified dimensions, the Zen Touch is indeed larger than the Ipod, but not to a noticeable degree. It fits comfortably in my pocket and buttons are accesible with one hand. The design of the included carrying case, as others have mentionned, is flawed; for the buttons of the player cannot be reached when in the case, thus it is necessary to have the player on hold.
Supposedly, Creative plans to release a firmware upgrade soon for the player that may add additional features to the player. Creative decided to not include the EAX presets in this player, though it would have been nice for I enjoyed the environments and simulations offered by EAX on the nomad. Hopefully the firmware upgrade will no longer make installation of creative's software necessary in order to store other files like text files. Once again, I just received the player today...I hope that this player will prove to be a worthy and reliable purchase.
86 My take on the Zen...
First off, I've had this player for a few weeks now and I couldn't be happier with it. I was like many other people and read reviews, I was a ghost on forums, just about everything you could possibly imagine researching MP3 players and which one I should go with.
I have a few things I'd like to address that I have found many people to complain about regarding this player:
1. Alot of people whine and moan about how the Zen is "bulky" and "too heavy" for an MP3 player. My question to all of you is exactly how old are you? 2 or 3? Even 2 to 3 year olds could hold this and not feel any strain whatsoever...so I really don't understand the problem people are having. Honestly, I think it's quite amusing that anyone even could think about complaining about it's weight or size. I guess some people are just weaker than young infants or something.
2. While the touchpad is also another thing that people either love or hate, I can safely say that I enjoy it a lot more than I do the scroll wheel on the Ipod. It takes a bit of patience and some getting used to, but once it's on the "low" sensitivity setting, it's butter.
3. Several reviews have talked about the freezing problem and how they've had to reset. Well, upon loading about 1,000 or so songs onto the player, it froze on me but I reset it and have yet to have one single problem with it yet. I'd suggest not taking the power supply out while the player is turned on since I have read that causes the freezing to happen.
Anyways, I really love this player. Loading music onto it is incredibly simple and lightning quick using Creative MediaSource(a program which is just fine if you ask me).
Pros:
Long long battery life
Easy navigation and use
Wonderful sound quality
Sleek design and feel
The dedicated volume buttons
Cons:
Hmmm, not many at all from what I've experienced yet. I guess you could say the 2 to 3 year olds may not like the weight.
I mean, it does weigh a lot. :: rolls eyes ::
P.S. On a closing note, I'd like to say how incredibly annoying it is to read people complaining about the case and how they can't get to the buttons while it's in there. Last time I checked, a case is supposed to, you know, protect the face and general body of the product. You don't hear many people say "Well, I love this suitcase but when I shut it, the only downside is that I can't get to any of the items inside..."
87 Very happy with my purchase
I am very satisfied with this Creative Mp3 player. First off let me give you all the pro's about this player.
PRO's
-Creative software in my opinion is very easy to use, and very efficient especially when you have 2 cd drives.
-Battery Life, Battery Life, Battery life. 24 hours, who cares about a little added thickness
-Sound quality is much better than ipods
- I used the custom equalizer to adjust it to my liking
-The Screen is much bigger than previous Creative models
-Looks (not that those matter)
-portability (much better than the earlier Creative models)
-Price (I bought it for 200 dollars)
Cons:
-The touchpad takes a couple of days to get used to, but i like it a lot now
-Earbuds, I hate them anyways
Comparison's to Ipod, since everyone loves those
-My friends have grown envious of my mp3 player, realizing they spent 100 + dollars extra, for a scratched up screen, a small battery, decent sound quality, irritating software, and the essential purchase of extra neccessities to compensate for the ipod's faults.
-Sound quality is much better on the Zen touch
-Battery life is twice the life of 4th generation, and 3 times the life of 3rd generation ipod's
-the ipod software tries to control the importing of files that were downloaded under free downloading servers, basically downloading is strongly encouraged on pay-per-song servers such as itunes....which i dislike
-the ipod's screen stratches very easily resulting in the almost necessary purchose of ipod cases which can be upwards of 40 dollars.
-the 20 gig ipod no longer comes with a case
-the ipod's battery is not replacable, and it dies at times after just 6 months of use
- after the battery dies, the only thing you as the consumer can do is purchase a new ipod, or through apple send in 15 dollars for insurance and around 100 dollars to apple and they will ship you a refubished one with none of your music on it.
-I purchased my zen for 200 dollars, 100 dollars less than the 20 gig ipod
-the software on the ipod takes up more space, than the zen software. On the ipod you have 18.5 gigs for music, where as on the zen you have 19.056 gigs of room.
-The only reason it seems to get an ipod is the look, the stupid touch-wheel and because its the hot item. In my opinion its the music and functionality that comes first, not the style. Even so, the touch is a little wider and thicker than the 4th generation ipod, and about the same width but a little thicker than the third generation. But the size is a result of the large battery.
The creative zen touch is definitely a worthwhile purchase for music lovers of all ages.
88 not bad
cons - froze in the first 5 minutes i used it and had to reset it (worked fine after that)
- the random play button will play some of the same songs repeatedly, as in up to 2-3 times per 15-20 songs, even with a play list near 1000 songs
- it's a little heavy, and definitely feels bulky with the included belt clip case
- you have to buy an extra accessory ($65) to be able to listen to and record the radio and voice memos
- volume doesn't turn up very loud
- couldn't use the included earphones because a weird plastic piece had practically fused the R and L ear bud wires at different lengths
- can't use as a portable hard drive without software on the computer you're moving stuff to and from
pros - most music sounds pretty good, except the included classical music which is very faint
- good price compared to the ipod
- really easy and quick to add music
- plays most audio formats
89 A Good iPod Alternative but Undependable
I had this item for approximately one week and, while it seemed to be working fine, I turned it on one day to find a message "Firmware Problem" on the screen. The unit was completely unusable and I had to contact Creative customer service and go through the maintenance mode on the device to get it to work. In fact, the only way the machine was operable again was after formating the hard drive, thereby losing all the songs on it. This is obviously a big disappointment for a device that is so close to taking away iPod market share. Don't get me wrong--the features and song quality of this player are fantastic, and I would recommend it for those things. However, I've found since the problem with this unit occurred that this is a recurring issue with the Zen family of players, and is clearly an issue that should be at the top of Creative's priority list to fix. Hopefully they will release a new version of the firmware that will prevent other users from experiencing this.
Overall, the sound, features and battery life of this player are great, but the simple fact that there are a host of known issues that frequently arise is disappointing. I hope one of the Apple competitors will get it right soon!
90 great I-pod alternative
While I have not used an I-pod myself other than to play with one in a limited way in a store, this little unit MUST be mighty good alternative.
great interface, good software, simple as hell to load with songs, and fast. you can even rip directly from CD to the unit pretty fast.
earbuds are not my favorite but everyone uses them, and these are pretty much as good as any.
my only complaint is the belt pack case design is poor because you can't operate any of the functions while in the case.
great sound, amazing capacity, great battery, great interface, great price.
what more do you want?
91 Recomended to ALL
-I love this thing.
-Only thing is that i dont think the battery life is quite 24 hours. Other reviews say it is so maybe i just got a bad battery. id say my battery is 16-20 hours...
-And when it came to me in the mail the packaging was HORRIBLE.. but thats amazon or whatever company they outsourced to's fault, not creative's.
-It did freeze once but i reset it and it worked great again.
-And putting songs on it is REAL easy...
-Cheap, lots of space, long battery life = GOOD PRODUCT
-I would have given it 5 stars but the battery life is not what i wanted (but close), but its still better than anything at this price. Sony is suppose to be 30 hours but its over a hundred bucks more.
92 Dont believe some of these reviews this thing is great!!!
OK befor i bought this thing i read reviews like crazy. I probly read atleast 100 of them and alot of them say that the backlight and display needs work beucase the back light is to dim and the display is hard to read...All that is bullcrap the back light is more than enough and the display is easy enough to read that a blind person could do it. So if your like me and u read the reviews first then i hope u read this one. Also GREAT BATTERY LIFE AND IT TRANSFERS SONGS REALLY FAST. Well theres your review from a everyday adverage teenager that loves his music and rates this thing 5 stars plus wats the point in buy an ipod and paying more for less room and crappier battery. Now i do love the ipod its great but it finnily has come compeditors which it needs!!!
93 If you use Windows, why get an Ipod?
What can I say. My Zen Touch was cheaper than an Ipod and its better than an Ipod. If you have a huge CD collection like I do 2000+ and want a better handle on all that music than this is the player for you. You can really pack a ton of music in here especially if you use the WMA format at say 80 or 64kbps. The sound quality is still great and any minor degradation is worth to be able to find the song I want to listen to when I want. The touch pad takes getting used to but is really cool. As other people have pointed out, don't unplug the power cord while the player is turned on as this will freeze it and you'll have to reset. Highly recommended. Enjoy!
94 Creative Zen Touch - user view: what's annoying
What's good
In this review I will be concentrating on things that are irritating to me or are obvious errors in software or wrong design. I assume the reader generally knows the device from leflets, advertising information but would like to know how it really works.
Before I will go to `BAD' I will say what is good or excellent for me:
* Generally Excellent analog part. Good earphones which is not so obvious among competitors. Much better sound than many competitors.
* Very fast copying operation (USB 2.0)
* Battery really lasts ages. When you load it fully it really is working and working. You can forget taking the loader with you when going for a weekend.
* The ability to load the battery from any usb port. Very usefull feature.
* It's working and it's usable.
Now let's skip to wrongs and errors
What's bad: summary (if you don't have time to read all)
* Music quality: very good analog part, good earphones, but ruined by DSP distorting the music when EQ is on, and MP3 decoder eating endings of recordings. You cannot gain suficient bass from the device despite good analog part. Despite that: much ahead many of the MP3 competitors but much below for instance sony's discmans. Also MP3 decoder is eating the endings of the recordings.
* Touchpad is a good idea but fulfilment results in very painfull operation and generally does not work . Probably great hardware but there could be more work done in software to make the hardware work as expected.
* Keys - very well placed with vol+ and vol- on the side, but with one useless button which is pain when you press it by accident (I mean the `random' key)
* Storing music - the music storage filesystem is completely flat. You have to group the music by using the `genre' `author' and `album' grouping. You have to prepare it using ID3 tag editor on PC.
* Bundled software - crashes instantly, seems to be prepared in a hurry, lot's of small weird things but the worst of those are instant crashes.
* Databank - needs separate, huge drivers, it is not really visible as a hard disk but it is in reality a standalone drag&drop application.
Now time for detailed explaination:
Sound Quality
* Lacks mega bass, or especially loudness function. The the music is rather flat, and lacks space. Especially on low volume.
* Built in equaliser can be set from +12 to -12dB in each band which theoretically seems to be more than sufficient even without `mega bass' or similar features, there is however one very large `BUT': over +6dB SOUND IS OBVIOUSLY DISTORTED so in reality the build in EQ can be used in reality only on `-` side and only a bit on `+' side if at all. So foget nice bass anyway.
* The built in MP3 decoder seams to be mis-calculating the length of recordings created by LAME 3.6x VBR (variable bit rate). I didn't test it with CBR and also did not test it with other encoders. As a result the player is eating out ends of MP3 recordings. What I mean is that it is skipping to the next recording before the end of previous track (my rough guess is about 5-10sec from the actual end of a recording). A bit annoying when listening to normal songs but very irritating and unacceptable when listening to operas, symphonies etc. where division into tracks is placed in the middle of the music.
* When you display the properties of a recording it is giving now-current bit rate rather then overall bit rate/quality and no information on VBR/CBR. Every time you press `ok' you have a different number.
Device usage ergonomy
Touchpad: this was supposed to be the strongest marketing point of the device. It's name is `touch' isn't it? The reality is more brutal.
* Touchpad is excellent when scrolling large distances but pain in the ass when you want to scroll one recording/option down or one up. You just can't make it scroll one song down from the currently hilighted one. It will skip a random between 0-3 songs up or down. You need a few retries. (Even with touchpad sensivity `low').
* Often when the user removes finger from touchpad one extra move down or up appears and upon pressing the `ok' button you land in a different place than you thought. This happens even when touchpad sensivity is set to `low'.
* The `fast up' `fast down' fields too large compared with the middle working field. For general operations it takes much more time than it would with up & down keys.
Keys: First impresssion: lack of `stop' button but later I begun to understand the idea and get used to `pause only' operation.
* There is a key wasted for an operation which is definitely not widely used. I mean the `random' button. The only function is to go to `play random ALL tracks from ALL albums and ALL genres'. I don't think many people are pressing the button with 20gig of music on the device. Instead of `random all' this should have been `play mode' button switching play mode from one to another like in all other civilised devices, or at least browse through `eq setting' presets.
Menu/firmware functionality
* Annoying: when browsing through music library very often quits to `now playing' screen. There is a timeout. Unfortunately the timeout is much too short and appears before the full title is scrolling into screen. So if you need to choose between `Jean Michel Jarre - Equinoxe part 3" and "(...)Equinoxe part 4" you will never be able to do this looking on screen. You don't have much time for counting too. Sorry, your time is over and you are back at the `now playing screen'.
* Generally the timeout of the menu browsing is much too short. I have to re-browse through menus very often. It is not giving the user much time to decide while browsing menu options or library entries'
* I do not understand the weird idea of timeouts and where exactly will the `' key bring me. This theoretically should be the last screen that was on before the timeout appeared but it is not always true.
Bundled software, uploading and handling recordings
This is the weakest part of the whole package.
* CRASHES instantly, every few operations. You can copy the music to and from a device but if you need to change `genre' `author' or any other attributes of more than a few songs - you can be sure it will crash. I have a desktop and a laptop, the same happens on both machines. I have filled the appriopriate support claim form but I have received no answer so far. I am waiting already over a month since I received a confirmation of my claim.
* When it crashes - your Windows Explorer dies too and have to be restarted, you are loosing all open file/folder windows.
* The built in filesystem for storing music is completely flat (i.e. no folders, groups). To organise the music you have to fiddle with Genres/Artists/Albums (which is the only folder-type file organisation). After a while you can learn how to use it but it means you have to prepare ID3 tags adequately to have your music organised. And it needs a bit of planning. But after all it will work generally if a limit of 3 levels of directories is enough for you (genre/artist/albums).
* Design error: whilst copying music I often see a `duplicate file name' warning. What is bad I did not guess what is duplicate: real file name, or ID3 tag and what is the second file I should rename to get rid of the message. There is no possibility to rename file immediately. I had to skip a few files becouse I wasn't able to guess which file is duplicate and what to change to copy it anyway.
* Not implemented functions: some functions which are present in the menu are not working. For instance a possiblity of changing the `welcome screen' didn't seam to work. Suddenly after a few weeks of operation my user defined welcome screen appeared as the third (not replaced but additional to the built in welcome screens).
* When you start the application you have to browse through: MyComputer->Nomad explorer->choose which zen touch->choose music or data?. It doesn't make sense for me to force the user to always browse through all this steps. I have only one Zen! And probably majority of users too! You cannot make a shortcut to concrete folder to go directly through `My ZEN music' or `My ZEN data'
* Whilst copying music from several folders - you have to confirm unsupported file type every time with `ok'. There is no possibility to ignore all non music files (unrecognised playlists etc) silently.
Databank functionality
* Zen is mot visible as a `mass storage' disk. To make it very clear: it CAN NOT operate as an external disc. The application (nomad explorer) installs itself as an extension to windows explorer but it is a standalone application. You can drag and drop files to the nomad-explorer window but cannot use it as a target for applications (even WinZip).
* To see it at all it needs installation of extra drivers. Ok you say, I will be having the drivers with me on a separate pendrive. I will reply: sorry, the drivers are huge. It's not a matter of a few megabytes to carry with you. It's 10's of megabytes.
* The part of the memory used for databank is completely separate from the music storage and Zen cannot play the mp3 files stored in databank part.
Addendum: music library
I have installed the another music library software bundled. I will start with no possibility to change ID3 tags on HD (Only view them), large player buttons which cannot be minimized. Result:
I have dumped the software quite immediately.
So I will not include it in the review.
Contact with an author
You can reach me under email address: marcin.gosiewski(at)gazeta.pl
You just have to replace (at) with an `@' in the address above
95 A few serious shortcomings
I was very happy with my 5 month old Zen Xtra until the hard drive died. The 90 day warranty from Creative didn't cover it so I was happy that I purchased an extended warranty, which I usually don't buy, that reimbursed me for the sale price. I replaced the Xtra with a Zen Touch which seemed like a nicer unit. I had expected the same or perhaps even better functionality from the Zen but was disappointed by the disappearance of what I consider to be 2 very important features.
1. The Touch does not have the for use in car setting option that automatically turns the unit off when you turn your car off.
2. The Touch does not have a replaceable battery. When the battery fails if you want to replace it you have to send it back to Creative for a minimum out of warranty charge of $45 plus the cost of the replacement. Bummer!
I could not find a disclosure of these shortcomings anywhere in the ads for the Touch or in the documentation. Otherwise I found the Touch to be an excellent MP3 player. It was light weight, easy to use and had excellent sound quality.
Regrettably, because of the above, I am returning the Touch and will probably buy another Xtra.
96 stop comparing it to the Ipod...the zen is sooo much better
People...the only reason to buy an IPod is well....to buy an IPod. When you ask anybody what they like about their IPod they say:
1) 20 Gig Hard drive
2) Sound quality
3) The touch wheel
4) Battery life
5) Its small and compact
Well....when thought about in depth...heres what you could say about the zen when comparing it to the IPod:
1) Same amout of space (20 gigs)
2) 97 DB s/a quality (11 higher then the IPod)
3) Also has a touch scroll made by the same manufacturer
4) 2x the battery life (24 hrs compered to the IPods 12 hrs)
5) Still small, however bigger, weighs slightly less
So...What now IPod people...if you can come up with anything else that you like about it let me know i'll be glad to rebut it.
oh i forgot to mention....IT'S $30.00 CHEAPER.
I rest my case.
97 A simple player with great quality and battery life !
I ordered the Zen touch mainly for its low price compared to the IPod and this is my first HD-based mp3 player. And I am very happy with the purchase.
TWO main reasons I love this player: Great sound quality and amazing battery life. I would say if you are an avid listener, just the battery life ought to win you over (24 hrs claimed, not tested by me). I have been listening to it most of the time (except sleeping), and it never ran out on me. The greatest advantage is that you can charge it when you come back at night and there is no danger of it running out. The sound quality is also amazing: I could hear much more new stuff even from songs which I had heard many times before. The supplied earphones are good enough, though Im sure it would sound just fantastic with a pair of great headphones.
Other less important plus points include: good solid build and simple and intuitive navigation system. You can create and save playlists on the player which is useful if you are away from a PC. The touch system is cool to use, though I still
