Creative Zen V Plus 2GB
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Comparisons
| Specifications | Creative Zen V Series 2GB | Apple iPod nano 2GB | Samsung YP-Z5 2GB | m-cody M-20 2GB |
| Picture |  |
 |
 |
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| Dimensions (inches) (mm) |
1.7 x 2.7 x 0.63 43.5 x 67.5 x 15.9 |
1.5 x 3.5 x 0.27 40 x 89 x 6.9 |
1.7 x 3.5 x 0.45 42.2 x 89.8 x 11.4 |
1.3 x 3.2 x 0.30 33.5 x 80.7 x 7.5 |
| Weight | 43.5g/1.5oz | 42g/1.5oz | 56g/2.0oz | 31g/1.1oz |
| Capacity | 2GB | 2GB | 2GB | 2GB |
| Battery Life | 15hrs | 14hrs | 35hrs | 11hrs |
| Battery Type | Lithium Polymer | Lithium Polymer | Lithium Polymer | Lithium Polymer |
| removable? | No | No | No | No |
| Frequency Response | 20Hz - 20KHz | 20Hz - 20KHz | 20Hz - 20KHz | 20Hz - 20kHz |
| Signal/Noise Ratio | up to 90dB | No info | 92dB | 65dB |
| FM Tuner | Yes (V Plus only) | No | No | Yes |
| Recording | Voice/Line-In | No | No | FM/Voice/Line-In |
| Realtime Encoding | Line-In (WMA) | No | No | No |
| Connectivity | USB1.1/2.0 | USB1.1/2.0 | USB2.0 | USB1.1 |
| LCD | 1.5" 128x128 262K colours |
1.5" 176x132 65,536 colours |
1.82" 128x160 |
128x64 White OLED |
| Specifications | Creative Zen V Series 2GB | Apple iPod nano 2GB | Samsung YP-Z5 2GB | m-cody M-20 2GB |
| OS Support | Windows XP | Mac OS X, Windows 2000/XP | Windows XP | Mac OS X, Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP |
| Formats | Audio:
MP3, WMA (including DRM), WAV Video: Yes, transcoded Picture: JPEG |
Audio: AAC (including Protected), MP3, Audible, Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV Picture: JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD, PNG (transcoded) |
Audio: MP3, MP2, WMA (including DRM) Picture: JPEG |
Audio: MP3, WMA (including DRM), OGG, WAV |
| Upgradeable firmware | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audio effects | 8 EQ presets 1 5-band Custom EQ Smart Volume Bass boost |
20 EQ presets | 8 EQ presets SRS WOW Street Mode |
4 EQ presets 2 5-band Custom EQ SRS WOW SRS TruBass |
| Can use as external HDD? | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Price (USD) | $149.99 $169.99 (V Plus) |
$184.95 | $169.99 | $166 |
Summary
| What's good | - Surprisingly small - Sounds great - Transcoded video may be uncompressed and unimpressive, but enough to watch, say, a video podcast - Decent battery life - Scratch-resistant coating is impressive and effective - Finally, MediaSource is Unicode friendly - Software installation is significantly faster than before - Mature software suite that caters to everyone - Reasonably priced |
| What's bad | - Slow transfer speeds - No continuous scrolling. Looking for a song starting with "Y"? Good luck - Sluggish button/joystick response sometimes - No on-the-fly rating system - All video must be transcoded, and transcoded format is unncompressed, resulting in huge files - Design lacks "Wow" factor - Not a true USB Mass Storage Device |
Conclusion
The Zen V is Creative's secret weapon in a losing battle against Apple. Sure, the design isn't likely to turn heads. But it is small, and it does have a colour screen, and it does support video playback, albeit requiring transcoding first. On most other players, if you want to select an album or artist way down below on the list, you can normally scroll up, and upon reaching the top of the list, the scrolling would continue from the bottom. The Zen V lacks this continuous scrolling, which can get irritating sometimes, although it does have "Find Track" and "Keyword Search" via the "Options" button. The Zen V is also not a true USB Mass Storage Device, although it does have the "Removable Disk" mode. Transfer speeds are painfully slow as well, and the display isn't exactly crystal clear.
If you can live with those, however, the Zen V is quite an amazing player. Sound quality is what you would expect from Creative, and the scratch-resistance is really impressive - a direct attack at Apple's iPod nano. During the course of this review, the Zen V was jiggling in pants pockets together with keys and coins. Yet the Zen V does not have a single scratch on it. Creative also cut down on the number of buttons on the player, making it less confusing and daunting for the average user. The dedicated Record button is a nice touch.
The lack of Unicode support in MediaSource was our constant complaint for past DAPs from Creative. This has been resolved, and MediaSource 5 is now able to handle Unicode files and tags. The bundled Audio Converter also supports Unicode, which makes it the second program we know that can convert audio files to WMA with Unicode tags, the first being Windows Media Player. The Media Explorer is now a mature, stable and feature-filled program that is integrated well with Windows Explorer. And the Zen V is very reasonably priced. In fact, at $149.99, it is cheaper than other players in its class. For a mere $20 more, you can get the Zen V Plus which comes with an FM tuner.
Should you get the Zen V? Well, it depends. If you are an Apple-fan, or easily succumb to peer pressure, then the Zen V may not be for you. Instead, you should join the masses and pick up an iPod nano. If you are looking for great value-for-money, and don't want to spend a bomb on accessories, you should consider the Zen V. Not only is the Zen V competitively priced, the scratch-resistant coating means you save from buying cases and screen protectors.
Click for larger picture.
8 out of 10
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