- CREATIVE ZEN MP3 PLAYERS MOVIE
- CREATIVE ZEN MP3 PLAYERS FULL
- CREATIVE ZEN MP3 PLAYERS PORTABLE
- CREATIVE ZEN MP3 PLAYERS PSP
- CREATIVE ZEN MP3 PLAYERS TV
If you're not committed to video, and love MP3s, we would recommend that you test drive the interface on both the Zen Vision:M and the iPod and make your choice based on that.
CREATIVE ZEN MP3 PLAYERS MOVIE
If you're looking for an extremely compact video player that's serious about full-length movie playback, there's no question: buy the Zen Vision:M. To Creative's credit, we've never before got to the point where the control interface is a player's only major shortfall, and many users will become used to the minor quirks of the scrolling functions on the Zen Vision:M.
The absence of an infinite-scroll capability - which the iPod's circular Clickwheel offers - is a sore point with the Zen Vision:M. We often found ourselves accidentally selecting items when we intended to continue scrolling. Despite its far superior feature set, the Zen Vision:M's thumbwheel is initially frustrating to use, and later just irritating on occasion. There is, however, one caveat with the Zen Vision:M, and that's the navigation controls on the unit.
The Zen Vision:M's 4 hour battery life makes full-length movie watching a feasible enterprise.
CREATIVE ZEN MP3 PLAYERS PORTABLE
Admittedly Apple held back on proclaiming the video iPod to be a true portable video player, but given its comparative size, the Zen Vision:M embarrasses the iPod because it does portable video properly, whereas the iPod dabbles in it. In every sense this is a fully fledged portable video player. Where the Vision:M trumps the iPod is video playback.
CREATIVE ZEN MP3 PLAYERS FULL
The Vision:M certainly left us slightly shaken at full volume - we could tolerate the sound level for a few seconds before it became physically punishing. If you like cranking your MP3 player into realms that guarantee later-life tinnitus, you'll be pleased to learn that the Zen Vision:M is capable of the same dangerous volumes that the iPod can generate when driven hard. Creative's thumb-pad is good, but not perfect - more on that later. Apple's patent on the Clickwheel system means the challenge is still on for another manufacturer to design a more intuitive system. This leaves the front panel looking less integrated than the iPod's. The Zen Vision:M uses mechanical buttons and a central thumb pad to navigate tracks.
CREATIVE ZEN MP3 PLAYERS PSP
After two weeks of fairly casual treatment, the Zen Vision:M was covered in fine scratches, but this is true of every glossy consumer electronic device, from the PSP to mobile phones. Although neither player is as volatile as the notorious iPod nano, you'd be advised to carry it in a pouch. The coating on the Zen Vision:M is no more scratch resistant than the iPod's. The Zen Vision:M's cable attaches to the slim port in the base of the player.Īt the base of the player there's an ominous reset button, and on the top edge there's a power on/hold button and a standard headphone socket.
CREATIVE ZEN MP3 PLAYERS TV
Apple's AV cable is an extra £15, and the resolution of iPod-formatted video is so low you wouldn't want to watch it on TV anyway. This allows you to stream video from the Zen Vision:M onto a full-sized television screen. This is the first clue about the Zen Vision:M's more serious AV intentions the second is the video cable Creative sent us. The screens on both players are identically sized, but a big difference reveals itself when the Zen Vision:M is switched on: it has a 262k colour screen, where the iPod can only display a paltry 64k. It's also a barely-perceptible 3g heavier. The Zen Vision:M has exactly the same footprint as the iPod, but is thicker than its rival by 7mm - making it easy to slip into your pocket, but not quite as svelte as Apple's player. So, could this be the video MP3 player we've been waiting for? The iPod may be slightly cheaper at £219 (for the 30GB version) to the Zen Vision:M's £250, but Apple only dips its toes in the video shallows, whereas Creative has taken a determined cliff-dive into the waters. Many of the features on the Zen Vision:M match those you'd find on a dedicated portable PVR like those from Archos. If you're disappointed by the new iPod's limited video functionality, and want an almost iPod-sized portable video player, this is it. The difficulty iPod users face in transferring full-length video, and the limited video-playback battery life of the iPod, make the Zen Vision:M a much more viable choice for video on the move. Though it's not as small as the new iPod, and its interface doesn't trump the Clickwheel, the 30GB Zen Vision:M is a real video player - while on the iPod, video remains a novelty.
The Zen Vision:M has received an extremely warm reception from critics.
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