Creative Zen (8GB)

Manufacturer: Creative Labs Inc. Part number: 70PF216000111

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$119.00 - $137.95 at 5 online stores

CNET Editor rating:
4.0 stars Excellent
Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 53 reviews

More product information:: Editors' review; User reviews; Specifications; Product series; Manufacturer info

Bottom Line:: We're hard-pressed to find anything not to like about the Creative Zen. It's a great option for anyone looking for a great-sounding, pocketable MP3 player with an excellent, video-capable screen and plenty of extra features.

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CNET editors' review

Creative Zen (8GB)

price range: $119.00 - $137.95

Reviewed by: Jasmine France
Reviewed on: 09/14/2007
Updated on:04/25/2008

The good: The Creative Zen sounds fantastic and features a brilliant color screen capable of displaying photos and video. The player offers a smorgasbord of desirable extras such as an SD card expansion slot, an FM radio, a voice recorder, and a user-definable EQ. It has a slim, pocket-friendly design; is very user-friendly; supports subscription music; and sports a reasonable price tag.

The bad: The Creative Zen only comes in black, the control pad feels cheap, and it doesn't come close to matching the max 60GB offered by the player it's replacing.

The bottom line: We're hard-pressed to find anything not to like about the Creative Zen. It's a great option for anyone looking for a great-sounding, pocketable MP3 player with an excellent, video-capable screen and plenty of extra features.

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Editors' note: The body of this review has been updated to reflect added memory options and significant price drops.

Photo gallery:
Creative Zen

In a move that surprised many a Creative fan, the company has ushered in a flash-based replacement for its Zen Vision:M, a full-size, hard-drive player that offered up to 60GB of space. Though the news was not well-received by some proponents of carting around a large library of tracks, those who give the new player--dubbed simply the Zen--a chance will find that it's a completely worthy follow-up to its chunky predecessor. This new Zen--which comes in 2GB ($79.99), 4GB ($99.99), 8GB ($129.99), 16GB ($199.99), and 32GB ($299.99) versions--may not hold as much media as the 60GB Vision:M, but it offers the same, lovely screen in a much smaller body, and it packs in a couple of new features for good measure. Plus, it's an incredible value for the price.

It's all about sleek understatement
Creative has gained somewhat of a reputation for putting MP3 players in a vast array of colors, so it comes as a bit of a shock (and maybe a letdown, for some) that the Zen will be offered in just one: black. Still, it must be said that black does make an excellent frame for the awesome 2.5-inch TFT screen, which is capable of displaying 16.7 million colors. Also, while the design might not be as innovative as that of the iPod Touch and iRiver Clix--or as cute or as eye-catching as that of previous family members--the Zen has a certain understated elegance with its shiny face and brushed-metal backside. It's like a smaller, sleeker version of the Vision.

Despite its ample screen, the Zen is pleasantly compact. At just 3.3 inches by 2.1 inches by 0.4 inch, it's about 60 percent smaller than the Vision:M and it's definitely pocket-friendly. We're also pleased to note that Creative didn't skimp on the controls and has migrated completely to the user-friendly tactile variety. Main functions are handled by a four-way control square surrounding a center select button. This is flanked on the top by a back/contextual menu rocker and on the bottom by a shortcut and play/pause toggle. Sadly, there's no dedicated volume control, but the right edge of the Zen houses the ever-handy hold/power switch along with a standard mini-USB port and 3.5mm headphone jack. The reset and mic holes can be found on the bottom and top spines, respectively.

Fun features for all
Exploring the top side of the Zen also reveals one of the new extras we alluded to earlier. In another departure from the norm, Creative has built in an SD card expansion slot--a first for its MP3 players. We're happy to report that the slot can take SDHC cards, which currently go up to 16GB in the full-size SD variety. (Of course, at a price that exceeds the 16GB Zen itself, those are a bit cost-prohibitive at the moment.) Considering the move away from more capacious hard drive memory, we definitely think the addition of memory expansion was a wise--and necessary--move.

Another new feature to be found on this Zen is its support of unprotected AAC files, meaning it will play back iTunesPlus tracks, though you can't use iTunes to transfer them. The player can sync via drag-and-drop in Windows Explorer, or you can use a jukebox such as Windows Media Player or Rhapsody. Like its other family members, this Zen also supports MP3, WAV, Audible, and both protected and unprotected WMA tracks. Unfortunately, it also shares Mac incompatibility with the other players in its line. Photos must be in JPEG format, which Windows Media Player can convert to automatically during syncing. On the video side, the Zen plays WMV and Motion JPEG out of the box and MPEG4, DiVX, and XViD with conversion. Creative includes an app--Zen Media Explorer--which can take care of the conversion painlessly and (somewhat) quickly.

In addition to its media capabilities, the Zen includes Creative's usual impressive array of features, though it's worth noting that there is no line-in recording for audio or video (the latter in particular would have been a nice touch). You do get voice recording and an FM radio with autoscan and 32 preset slots. There's also basic PIM functionality: you can sync contacts, tasks, and calendar info from Outlook to the device. Plus, you get the usual shuffle and repeat playback modes, handy contextual menus, and the ability to search for artists and songs as well as rate songs on the fly and set up to 10 bookmarks. Nine preset EQs, a five-band, user-definable mode, and a bass boost function ensure that you can adjust sound to your liking.

But it's the fun visual display option that set the Zen line apart. Album art can be viewed as a thumbnail or in full-screen mode on the playback display, and Creative includes various themes for interface customization. You can also set any image on the player as wallpaper, and the photo-browsing experience is great: there's a 5x4 thumbnail grid and each one magnifies as you scroll over it. Naturally, you can view photos and slide shows while listening to music. There's even a nifty, semi-split-screen deal on the main menu that cycles through album art, photos, or video image clips, depending on which media type you are browsing.

Shining performance
No two ways about it: the Zen's screen is fabulous. Photos look vibrant and bright, with excellent color saturation and good detail. Videos are similarly impressive--clear and bright with no noticeable pixilation (though we did notice the occasional blurring around some sharp edges)--and the viewing angle from side to side is excellent. Even the interface looks stellar, right down to the transparent icons on the main menu. It's a nice screen to look at for sure.

Frankly, we've come to expect stellar audio quality from Creative's MP3 players, and the Zen did not disappoint--once we swapped in the Shure SE530 headphones. (For their part, the included headphones were passable.) Perhaps the best thing is that all genres of music sound equally great. The bass of Zeb's disco house track "Disco Patel" was tight and enveloping without overshadowing the sparkle of the high hat and minute ting of the triangle. In the Bangles' high-end heavy intro to "Hazy Shade of Winter," the detail of each instrument was crystal clear, and the relatively quiet Spanish guitar was not lost among the frantic chorus of the rest of the track. Overall, music was rich, warm, and detailed...and it just made us happy.

The Creative Zen also boasts plenty of volume to drive a full-size set of 'phones--we only had it up to about a third with some noise-isolating buds. The rated battery life of 25 hours for audio and 5 hours for video is solid, and CNET Labs pretty much matched these estimates at 24.7 hours and 5.6 hours, respectively. It may not be the longest-lasting battery on the market, but the Zen certainly offers a good value with its lovely screen, nice sound, and good combination of features

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User reviews

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Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 53 reviews
My rating: 0 stars

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 53

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3 stars

Greatly Disappointed

by bazoo on December 3, 2007

Pros: Bright Vibrant Screen

Cons: Where's my Video Playback?

Summary: I have used CL mp3 players for serveral years now, always upgrading to bigger and better. The best for me was the 30gb Zen Vision because it played all major ...

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Summary: I have used CL mp3 players for serveral years now, always upgrading to bigger and better. The best for me was the 30gb Zen Vision because it played all major video formats: mpg, avi and wmv. The only drawback to it was the non-user replaceable battery (which btw, the new Zen also sports), which I burned up by trying to upgrade the firmware after having it for roughly a year.

So I was pleased when Creative announced a new smaller player that also had the same video playback features I loved in my old one.

When I finally bought it, my initial reaction was that the player felt cheap and toy-like. The screen is awesome although small and the colors are beyond belief. And I am nerdily pleased that it shows my mp3 album art.

Imagine my surprise though when the package SAYS it will play all the same video formats as my old Vision but all the reviews say it only plays wmv (the other formats are only after conversion? wtf...)

OK, fine. Except that the converter that comes with the player won't convert my files AT ALL and even my own video converters don't seem to appease the Creative Labs gods as none of my videos will transfer.

I either get the error message that says the file "exceeds the playback capabilty" or flat out says the file was "rejected."

To top it all off, the player froze on me within the first hour of playing around with it.

I don't need this aggrevation. I'm returning the player tomorrow.

Sorry, Creative. You laid a stink bomb with this one.

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8 out of 10 users found this user opinion helpful.
1 stars

It's A Bust

by gjkorte on October 14, 2007

Pros: It worked great for 3.5 days. Easy to install software and create music files.

Cons: It died after 3.5 days. Hmm, longevity seems to be an issue here. It quit working as I was adding music to the device while it was attached to my PC.

Summary: I usually don't weigh in with opinions on products that I purchase, but this one was such a dud, I can't help but share my story. It didn'...

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Summary: I usually don't weigh in with opinions on products that I purchase, but this one was such a dud, I can't help but share my story. It didn't help that I returned a Creative Labs Micro Photo MP3 that "locked up" on my daughter earlier this year--it was replaced at no charge. Basically, I didn't get much of an opportunity to explore the capabilities of the Creative Zen 8GB. It died quietly, and suddenly, while songs were being added to it. This would have been MP3 #4 that I've loaded, so I'm not a novice. After working admirably for 3.5 days, it is no longer recognized by my PC. It will not take a charge via the USB. It will not take a charge, using the charger that was purchased with it. It will not turn on. It just doesn't work. From my experience, this thing just isn't ready for prime time.

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8 out of 13 users found this user opinion helpful.
7 stars

SD expansion flawed

by Truck-A-Sauras on September 26, 2007

Pros: great audio with tons of features

Cons: SD expansion is not seamlessly integrated

Summary: Being highly interested in purchasing this player I did some more research. I find out that the SD expansion slot is designed poorly. Consumer beware! You think you are going ...

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Summary: Being highly interested in purchasing this player I did some more research. I find out that the SD expansion slot is designed poorly. Consumer beware! You think you are going to just pop in an SD card and jack up the memory of this unit.....sort of.

All data stored on the SD is kept separate from the main on-board memory. So all those extra songs you put on the SD will be hidden away in their own lists.

Pray for a firmware update to make the data on the SD expansion seamlessly integrated with all your other data.

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6 out of 9 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

Amazing, 100% Amazing, 10x better than Ipod nano!!

by resvelvet on February 19, 2008

Pros: Excellent screen, video and mp3 playback, Lets you add extra SD mem, Sleek, great design, voice recorder, FM Radio, the list goes on!!

Cons: NONE, People are cry babies!! Oh boo hoo about little things! NO CONS AT ALL!!!

Summary: Okay, the main reason people have been complaining about the Zen, is that the SD card function is not integrated into your actually file library..That is NO LONGER TRUE...! ...

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Summary: Okay, the main reason people have been complaining about the Zen, is that the SD card function is not integrated into your actually file library..That is NO LONGER TRUE...! I just updated my firmware and stuck a bunch of movies, songs and pictures on my extra 4GB SDHC mem card and then imported them all to my library..god forbid I have to take an extra 2 seconds out of my life to import them from the SD card to the Zen library...people are such cry babies.....for 150$ you get an amazing little gadget with no flaws....The apple ipod nano video is a freaking joke compared the Zen...Apple charges 200$+ for an 8gb with no FM radio, and the video quality is not great...The Zen is 150$ for 8GB with an SD slot to make it upgradeable for life..I now have 12Gigs of music and video and pictures..The FM radio is great, the calendar, time, jpeg wallpaper features are excellent....Everything about this Zen is amazing....it's a 10/10 on everything, sound quality, Creative is a very underrated company..Think about this, if you build a nice computer and you want excellent sound, where do you buy from??? CREATIVE SOUND BLASTER...not Apple.... The Zen lets you add any file, music mp3, wma or video, avi wmv etc...with easy conversion program...If you want a cheap mp3 player with tons of extras, great sound and video quality , I would recomend this to anyone...the firmware update fixed any and all bugs it used to have...I work at a dog hotel and I can listen to tons of music and watch tv all day with the Zen..and then listen to talk radio or view nice pictures I took the day before with a nice slide show or I can make them my wallpaper, which is very cool. The buttons do feel a little cheap, but I like how many options they give you...the screen is very nice, colorful and I love the widescreen and size of the Zen....the Apple nano sucks... seriously...the Iphone is amazing..have the 32gig version, but the ZEN 8GB kills the apple nano video on all accounts....100%....don't worry about all the bad reviews, I think they all work for Apple hahah!

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3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
1 stars

I would be censored if I wrote what I thought.

by boatrider on December 14, 2007

Pros: It looks good on the WEB Page

Cons: It doesn't work @#$%

Summary: I purchased this MP3 player to replace my old and still functional Rio Karma. I was initially disappointed when the provided USB cable was only 4 inches long. Once I ...

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Summary: I purchased this MP3 player to replace my old and still functional Rio Karma. I was initially disappointed when the provided USB cable was only 4 inches long. Once I charged the unit and loaded the S/W I was prompted to do a firmware update. Well I downloaded the firmware the application installed it on the player and it died. No amount of resetting would bring it back. I went to the Creative WEB site for customer support, which was not very helpful...then to add insult to injury once I found the Creative Customer Support Phone number, and was connected to a call center in some 3rd world country, the "technicians" scripted remedy was to make sure I havd the player connected to a USB connection on the "Back" of the computer....with the 4 inch provided USB cable....and to hit the reset button...once we decided it wouldn't come back from the electronic graveyard, she told me to take it back where I bought it....and that's a whole other story...Looks like an IPod for me....Better luck next time (un)Creative.

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8 out of 16 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

small wonder

by paolopk2 on November 14, 2007

Pros: display, usability, design, slot sd, microphone

Cons: PC manager (creative organizer)

Summary: I am new owner of the Creative Zen 8 giga and I am really enthusiastic about it. What probably is going to be Creative's flagship product shows an attractive ...

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Summary: I am new owner of the Creative Zen 8 giga and I am really enthusiastic about it. What probably is going to be Creative's flagship product shows an attractive design, features good music and video quality and several additional features.

It is just slightly bigger in size than Apple's Ipod nano, but with also a larger screen.
The display has 16:9 proportion, making actually a nice experience to watch a movie while on the move (while I am not sure I would watch a movie on the ipod nano).

Usability have improved a lot. Navigation in the menus is easy and intuitive.

The presence of a SD slot will probably make the product lifetime longer. Why buy a new device when you can just add memory to it?

I also appreciate the presence of fm radio - it is always good to listen to the radio when you are running out of new music.

The only negative point is the quality of the software boundled with the player for PC connectivity. While I appreciate the possibility of exploring the device as it was
just another drive, and the support for podcast (renamed "zencast") is good,
the interface of the Organizer is not great (when creating a new playlist, for instance, the window will not be resizable, making hard to select the songs you want). But this is not a big deal, as you can always use third party software as Winamp to manage your device.
I would also like to be able to configure the radio channels from the PC instead directly on the device.

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2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
1 stars

terrible player

by LBJ830 on October 12, 2007

Pros: cheap, slim

Cons: Virtually every feature malfunctioned

Summary: I have never had an MP3 player disappoint me the way this one did. The controls worked only intermittently, the player constantly locked up (I had to send it back ...

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Summary: I have never had an MP3 player disappoint me the way this one did. The controls worked only intermittently, the player constantly locked up (I had to send it back to Amazon with the power still on because it would not shut down) and the software would not recognize the player, even after I downloaded all the updates from Creative. Obviously it was a defective product but I won't be getting a replacement because there have been a relatively high number of reviews (both here on Cnet and on Amazon) stating similar problems. Instead I think I will give the new iriver clix a try.

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3 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

great little player that does everything I wanted it to

by K177135 on June 24, 2008

Pros: SD card slot, sound quality, easy navigation, customizable interface

Cons: crashes occasionally, confusing zen media explorer

Summary: This is a solid player I had for just shy of one year so far. It works pretty well except one problem I encountered quite a few times:
Crashing. Particularity
...

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Summary: This is a solid player I had for just shy of one year so far. It works pretty well except one problem I encountered quite a few times:
Crashing. Particularity when I rewind videos. It just freezes and I need to insert a needle to restart it. Afterwords everything seems fine.

It has everything an iPod has and more with an FM radio, SD card slot, customizable interface (menus and the background), and microphone. and with all the standers like pictures and video.

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

Truly the IPod killer

by Stan680 on April 19, 2008

Pros: Great format compatibility

Cons: Covers on the headphones fall off easily

Summary: Brilliant player, especially for media player users. Stylish, nice interface, great sound quality. Highly recommended.

Summary: Brilliant player, especially for media player users. Stylish, nice interface, great sound quality. Highly recommended.

1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
2 stars

Wait 1 Week 2 Write a Review - Will die within a week or 2! -

by SinistaMusic on November 8, 2007

Pros: Sound, Features, Video Quality

Cons: Plastic scratches REAL easy, Dies on You anywhere from the first unconnect to the comp to a week and a half!

Summary: I bought this MP3 player early this month from Dell.com, I enjoyed it for about a week then BAM! As I plugged My headphones into it...It died on ...

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Summary: I bought this MP3 player early this month from Dell.com, I enjoyed it for about a week then BAM! As I plugged My headphones into it...It died on Me for somewhere around 4 hours! Then it came back to life.
2 days later it died on Me again as I was unplugging it from the computer. I asked Dell to send Me a replacement, and they did. The replacement was cosmetically damaged from poor shipment care but I decided to plug it in to make sure. Well, after I unplugged it from My Comp...It died again. Power On; but a "Black Screen" it just wouldn't work.

Dell then sent me another replacement, I got it yesterday. I opened it up. Perfect cosmetically. Tested it out, worked fine. Then I plugged it in My comp to charge it and sync My music then...BAM! As I unplugged it, it died on Me AGAIN! Same crap as the last one...Power on; But a "Black Screen". I called Dell, and They informed Me that they would only send Me >1< more replacement...

Well after that I decided 3 strikes and Your out! I'm returning this deceptive piece of crap, and have already ordered a White Zune (Only color in stock; but good enough for me.) with a protection plan!

After buying this MP3 player which was My first By the way (I know a lot about them though), I have become very aware that ANY MP3 player that I buy from now on has to include an equipment protection plan! I'll never hesitate to buy one if I ever need one anyway, I know this well from My previous experience working at Radio Shack.

Case in point...Thank You Creative Labs for making My first MP3 player experience a miserable letdown! DO NOT BUY THIS MP3 Player! I have used Creative Products in the past, and they worked pretty good; But this piece of junk should've never been released!

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3 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 53

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Specifications

Manufacturer: Creative Labs Inc.
Part number: 70PF216000111
Description: This credit card-sized ZEN has a stunning 2.5" color screen and is perfect for music, videos and photos. Enjoy up to 4,000 MP3, WMA or AAC songs, watch up to 60 hours of videos and share hundreds of photos with your friends. Even expand your portable music, video or photo collection by adding additional content through the convenient SD memory slot.

General
Width 3.3 in
Depth 0.4 in
Product type Digital player / radio
Height 2.2 in
PC interface(s) supported Hi-Speed USB
Weight 2.3 oz
Color Black
Digital player signal-to-noise ratio 97 dB
Flash memory installed 8 GB Integrated
Digital storage None
Dimensions (W x D x H) 3.3 in x 0.4 in x 2.2 in
Voice recording capable Yes
Included accessories USB 2.0 cable, Earphone
Packaged quantity 1
Software type Creative ZENcast Organizer, Creative Media Explorer, Drivers & Utilities
Digital storage media type None
Radio
Tuner type Digital Radio tuner
Station preset qty 32
Tuner bands FM
Digital Player / Recorder
Digital player supported digital audio standards WMA, WAV, ADPCM, Audible, MP3, AAC
Digital player playback modes Playlist
Video Playback Features
Video playback support WMV9, DivX 4, MPED4, MJPEG, XviD3, DivX 5
Still image format JPEG
Battery
Required Qty Lithium ion
Rechargeable Battery Rechargeable
Battery Enclosure Type Integrated
Included Qty 1
Technology Lithium ion
Battery 1 x Lithium ion Rechargeable Player batteryIntegrated
Battery Life Details Video playback Lithium ion 5 hour(s), Digital playback Lithium ion 25 hour(s)
Audio System
Sound output mode Stereo
Additional features Voice recording, USB 2.0 compatibility, Calendar, Built-in organizer, Volume limiter, Microsoft Outlook synchronization, Bass Boost
Cable(s) / Peripheral(s)
Cable(s) included 1 x USB cable - External
System Requirements
Peripheral / Interface devices USB port, CD-ROM
Min Operating system Microsoft Windows XP SP2
Min hard drive space 130 MB
Connections
Connector type 1 x Headphones, 1 x Hi-Speed USB
Slot(s) provided 1 x SD Memory Card
Slot(s) Required None

Built-in Display
Audio system built-in display TFT
Diagonal size 2.5 in
Resolution 320 x 240
Backlight display Yes

Creative Zen (8GB)

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Specifications

General

Radio

Digital Player / Recorder

Video Playback Features

Battery

Audio System

Cable(s) / Peripheral(s)

System Requirements

Connections

Built-in Display