Creative Zen V+ 2GB MP3 Player with Video Playback & FM Radio
See it at Amazon.co.uk for £59.95Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(5 out of 5)Great things come in small packages
This player is fantastic. It does exactly what it says on the tin.
The player itself is absolutely tiny, much smaller than I thought it would be. The controls are very easy to use. Although the controls are not for the 'big handed'. The joystick controler is tiny, and would be awkward for a large handed person. The setup is very easy via the cd. Putting music onto the player is much easier and faster than that of the apple ipods. Simply drag and drop into the folders. You don't have to convert the track to an apple format. MP3 and WMA's play on this. Divx video is supported, and plays well. The 1.5 inch screen is also scratch resistent, unlike the ipod nano. Overall and excellent player.
(4 out of 5)Good for music - video has some misgivings
Agree with the other review on this page with one correction - the player isn't able to run Divx natively. It does run video files in an AVI wrapper but it's a really obscure uncompressed video format that requires conversion and usually means your half-hour 175MB Divx programme comes out at 500MB instead for the player! Alright for running youtube clips on this player but unless you're very patient with file conversions and don't mind sacrificing half the player (as I have the 1GB version of the Zen +) it's not worth it! Unfortunately the converter only has one setting so it's not like you can alter it to take up less space.
Don't let this put you off the player, it's great for music and is easy to use with great sound - I just don't want anyone thinking (as I did) that they'll be able to use this to watch programmes on the bus! Get the Creative Vision M for that instead!
(5 out of 5)Fantastic Player!
Some minor faults, but the Zen V+ still deserves 5+ Stars!
I have had quite a few MP3 players, most were OK, my Nokia phone is pretty good, but the Zen is fantastic!
The most important thing is the music, and the sound quality is excellent, good bass, clear middle and treble. The supplied earphones are OK, but you can do better. I am listening now, on Sony earphones. It is worth paying for decent earphones to get the best out of this excellent player.
The other minor problem is the supplied software. It works, but users not experienced with fighting software might struggle a bit. But this is not a big problem. The main thing you want to do is download your music and you can do this, just using Windows Media Player. You can take your time getting to know the Creative software.
Another good thing about the Zen, is that it is a tiny, cute, sexy unit. It looks good, it feels good, and is easy to use. A good user interface.
There are many options for navigation and you will be able to get it to do what you want. The "DJ" feature is good.
There are lots of extras with this player, I will just mention the FM radio, which works well, and again is easy to use.
So, I recommend this player. I think it is an Ipod beater!
A few extra points:
First battery life. This is excellent compared to some other players. I get about 15 hours, but it depends on how you have set the display and how loud you like your music.
I have tried out the line-in recording, by plugging in to my PC. You can record streamed audio, or anything that would come out of your PC speakers. You can monitor on the Zen earphones.
The lead, 2.5mm to 3.5mm, is supplied with the Zen. The recording quality is very good, with no digital noise from the PC. This is great for sites like the BBC, which allow "Listen Again" but do not allow downloads of the programmes.
Of course you can also plug into your hifi and record anything, but for music, it is better to do it through the PC so you get track information etc.
I have also used the microphone recording. You could record a long meeting and no one would know! The microphone is sensitive, and the quality is good (not what you would get with a big microphone, but very clear).
I was surprised to read some very negative reviews of this player, both here and elsewhere. These can mostly be summed up as, "it stopped working".
Clearly, Creative have some quality control issues to address. I understand that they are very good with replacing faulty units, but this is not the point. When we pay so much for something, we expect it to work! So come on Creative, how about a bit more testing?
Having said that, I have had no problems with mine, and I am more pleased with this than anything else I have bought for a long time. It does more than I expected, it sounds better than I expected and it is more cute than I expected. So I am a happy bunny! If you have problems, send it back. Get a replacement, not a refund. It really is a fantastic player.
(5 out of 5)Creative Zen V plus 2GB review
I bought this player just after christmas and i have to say it is a great MP3 player and in my opinion even better than the ipods!
The sound quality on this MP3 player is exellent, it is a sterio sound that comes through your headphones. The music that you have on your player is sorted into playlists which you can create and choose which music you have in them, then the music is also sorted into artists, albums, genres and play all in which you can listen to songs. On the music menu there is also a DJ option in which u can play random tunes, rarley played tunes or tune of the day, there is also a menu where all your recordings are stored. And even if you are halfway through a song but you have to put your player down you make a bookmark in that song and come back to it later.
Now if we go to the main menu the next option down after music library is now playing which just goes to your selected playlist, then after that we have the photos option. You click on the photos option and you view the photos by folders, you click onto the folders and you can view the photos small or large and if you navigate over an image and hold down the return button your photo option come up and they are start slideshow - this starts a slideshow all the photos in the selected folder, Deleate picture - this deleates the selected picture and set as wallpaper - this sets an image as your main menu wallpaper.
Next we move onto videos, you got into the videos menu from the main menu and you have 2 options, videos and recently browsed. Videos is where you browse through all your videos. The videos are encoded as .avi files which when played on the player are exellent. but the only problem is that the .avi files arnt compressed very well as a 20minute video comes out at nearly 500MB which is a bit of a problem. Then if u hold down the return button the options menu comes up, and the only option is a delete video option which deleates the video. Then if you go back to the videos menu and click on recently browsed there is a lost of your most recently watched videos.
Now if we go back to the main menu and click on FM radio you can listen to the radio, you use the joystick to navigate through the different stations. If you hold down the return button the options menu comes up and the options are Name preset - which renames a preset radio station, save as preset - Saves a radio station that you have navigated to as a preset, Deleate preset - this deleates a preset radio station and autoscan - which automatically scans for a radio station. The sound quality for the radio is very good as well.
Then we go back to the main menu and move onto the extras menu in which we have Date and time, this displays your date and time and if you hold down the return button there is a range of options to do with the clock setting it and the layout of the clock. Then there is the microphone in which you can record voice messages and if you hold down the return button you get some options which are to start recording, preview and deleate recording. Then next you have line in recording which allows you to plug a jack into another audio device and record staright off it, you can also choose the recording bit rate and this has the same options as the microphone. Next we move on to the organizer which you organize with your computer, you can only view the organizer on the player. Then the last option is removable disc in which you can set an ammount of the player to be a removable usb storage device.
Then if you go back to the main menu you have the system menu click on that and this is where you sort out your player options you can choose from audio settings, player settings, photo settings, clock settings, language choose and reset settings, I am not going to go into these in detail but some of the things you can do in this menu is give your player a name, Orintate the screen, choose the contrast, Choose a theme, configure the menu - you can personalise the home screen to have what ever options on it you want. There is also Equilser options, Bass boost, Smart volume and restrict volume. This player is also firmware updateable which means even more features could be added to this player to make it even better. The last thing i will mention is the battery it has 15 hours of life that will last you for ages which is brillaint and you can charge it through the USM port either by the computer or plug it into the mains. I would just like to say that this MP3 player is an exellent peice of kit, which is cheap for what it is and has a very nice sleak desgin. And also in my opinion this player is better than the Ipod apart from one thing which is memory space. so as i say a very very good MP3 player which i reccomend you buy! 10/10
(5 out of 5)ZenNanoPlus,2gb
The zen nano plus is a great product for the price. The accesories it comes with (pouch,usb,in-line cable, software,neckstrap,earphones) are more than most top brands supply, so saves money being spent on accesories. The screen format is bright, and actually displays pictures from song albums. Also pictures can be made as wallpapers for the menu screen, which can be self-edited to place the shortcuts you most use. Sound quality is good, even with the radio. If you are looking at getting a reliable, light, medium-storage mp3 player, I suggest this.