Home > Consumer Reviews > Creative Zen Nano Plus 512MB - Black

I bought a Creative Zen Nano Plus 512Mb a couple of months ago and I am very pleased with it.

Positive points:
• It looks good – very small, easy to carry around and can be protected from the elements in your hand.
• Sound quality seems excellent, the headphones are good.
• Lots of functions. The ability to record radio is very useful. I can now record weekend shows that the kids normally talk through and listen to them to and from work. Can also record from a built in microphone and a line input (for an analogue source) though I haven’t tried these yet.
• Works with both wma and MP3 formats.
• Screen is excellent and shows all relevant information. This is important given the number of functions possible.
• Good storage capacity. I ripped to wma format at 64kbs, which is the recommended rate. This seems to compress music to 5% of its original size (makes you wonder why music companies charge so much if you can’t hear 95% of their product!) so I can fit approximately 150 tracks plus 3 ½ hours of radio into the 512Mb (actually memory available is 490Mb, presumably the rest is used for the software).
• Download speeds are fasts. Music can be organised in a series of folders.
• Battery life is very good. I suspect that I get close to the specified 18 hours from one alkaline AAA battery (much better than my old CD player which consumed 2 AAs every 8 hours).

Slight negative points
• The jog wheel looks slightly flimsy but is positive in operation.
• Radio quality can fluctuate when moving about. This is probably a result of the aerial moving and is likely to be a problem with all small radios. When leaving the unit to record from the radio it is very easy to position the headphone leads to give a good signal however.
• Player comes with a short multi-language printed manual which gets you going but doesn’t cover many of the functions. Probably need to print out the more comprehensive manual on the CD. This is still a bit vague in places but playing with the player for an hour or so makes most functions clear. Operation is very intuitive and the screen is very helpful.
• CD contains a number of programs for ripping, downloading and organising music. Would be helpful if some documentation explained what software was useful for what! However it is relatively easy to use the software to rip music from CDs but some explanation of more advanced features would be useful.
• Recording from the radio seems to drain the battery and eventually the level drops below that required to continue recording. With a new alkaline battery the player will record for about 2 ½ hours. If the player is then switched off the battery recovers and can be used for many more hours (although continuous recording time will be reduced). This seems to be related to the properties of alkaline batteries whose voltage falls quite rapidly during initial use. I have recently switched to rechargeable batteries which do not seem to show this problem.

None of the above negative points are serious however and the player is excellent in terms of quality, features and value for money. I would certainly buy it again although I might go for the 1Gb version next time now I know how good it is.

I bought this as a Christmas present for my eight year old son and was concerned that I would spend the rest of my life operating the thing for him! My concerns were groundless - this little player is fantastic - very simple to use, sound quality is great, it's been dropped several times - not recommended - and survived unscathed. He downloads music himself - the software that came with the player is flawlessly easy to use , I am not particularly computer literate but had no problems setting the thing up on Christmas afternoon - and changes stuff around on the menu and has no problems whatsoever working it. This little thing has changed long car journeys for our family - no more arguments and punches exchanged in the back seat and threats of eternal retribution from the front - my sons listen to their respective players in peace and harmony. I wish I had bought the 1Gb player but that's my fault and nothing to do with the Zen Nano. Also bought the Zen Micro for my eleven year old and that is brilliant too but he can't play football whilst listening to it like my younger son can when listening to his - flash drive thingy isn't affected by movement apparently!
The radio and especially the record function has provided hours of harmless fun, recording all sorts of stuff and playing it back over and over. So don't get sucked into the 'we have to have an iPod or we're a sub-species' nonsense these players are great. The creative helpline is very good too- the people working there are interested and bright and know their products.

Really small and light weight, and very easy to use. The sound quality and battery life are good too, and supplied software makes it easy to transfer mp3 or wma flies into the player. The best value small mp3 player available!

I have just purchased one of these, mostly on the basis of these great reviews from previous customers, and i too am damn chuffed. The scroll wheel's functionality is superb. As you can imagine it is used to scroll through tracks, but it also doubles as a selecting button. Though, it is true, the player is very tiny and i am worried for it's safety, so much so i have yet to peel the protective layer off of the screen.

Buy it, you will not be dissapointed, it has quality written all over it.

Had this littlebox of tricks just over 48 hrs now and its definitely love!!!
I'll just get on with my hangups first, they are few and petty. There are no accessories available yet(it could do with a case, it looks so delicate!!) and the battery compartment doesn't fill me with total confidence that it won't get broken.

Other than that it's brilliant, lets be honest if your looking to pay this sort of money you aren't looking for an ipod/zen micro beater. The FM stereo is better than expected, but like all radios will depend on wher you live.

It's easy to use and the sound quality is first class. This is my first creative MP3 but won't be my last.