Home > Consumer Reviews > Creative Zen Stone 1gb MP3 Player - Blue

I've owned phillips HDD and a creative nano previously, but this little dude is particularly sleak and ideal if you are just wanting something to plug and go. It is much easier to transfer tracks compared to the creative nano, and is much more practical and robust than the nano. Although it only comes with a USB charger, it does fit and recharge from motorola phone chargers such as for the L7,L6 slvr models, which was a bit of a relief as I am taking it on holiday at the weekend. You definitely need to upgrade the headphones though. Battery life is pretty good and it's very quick to recharge !

This really is a little gem and is simplicity itself to use. Congratulations to Creative who have managed to produce something that is practical, simple and a triumph of design. There is no vulnerable screen to worry about and, thus, no tedious, confusing menus to wade through. You can simply drag and drop your files without the need for additional software. The buttons are conveniently placed and they are not too small for those of us with larger fingers to manage. Battery life is very good and it conveniently recharges from your USB. Equally importantly, there is plenty of volume and the sound quality is excellent. All this, combined with the fact that it is so neat & light to carry around and at a bargain price, make this a real winner. You would, however, be well advised to buy a case or silicon skin for it; there are no clips or loops on the player itself so you either have to hold on to it or put it in a pocket! A mains charger is also desirable if you aren't always going to be in reach of a computer!

Just bought this for my 6 year old daughter because from the price and reviews I thought it would be easy to put tunes on and I wouldnt panic that she would lose something expensive.

Received today and with Christmas looming I thought I would make sure I could use it...within 5 minutes I had put on plenty of tunes, really really easy to do! I have tested it out and the sound quality is pretty good too. A good deal!

I had trouble at Christmas with another MP3 player twice the price,I couldn't get it to transfer music across, the PC wouldn't recognise device and I was beginning to think it was me so gave up and returned it, much to my Son's distress as it was his gift.
I finally decided to give it another go as my Son really wanted one this time for his Birthday, what a difference.
I was drawn to this make by the reviews and they are not wrong, it is so easy to use, I didn't load software just used Windows Media Player 11 and it was up and running with music on it within 15 minutes.Well worth the money, and one very happy 12 year old.

This was purchased as a temporary replacement for my Zen Micro while it's being (hopefully) repaired by Creative and so far so good. It's certainly extremely small and lightweight however I must admit to wondering about its overall build strength and ability to take the occasional knock. Battery life appears better than average (maybe the last reviewer didn't fully charge the player before using it therefore shortening the battery's memory?) and the volume perfectly adequate. I haven't used the supplied earphones since I dislike the inner ear kind and would rather use larger and more expensive headphones. Its controls are certainly simplistic and rather than creating playlists, you merely create folders which the player goes through in turn. There is a shuffle option which I would have liked to somehow randomly play the songs within each individual folder but it appears to shuffle all songs within all folders, meaning you're as likely to get Metallica next to Madonna as you are next to Marilyn Manson!

I only ever choose MP3/WMA format players as you can usually just copy and paste music files into the devices or simply use them purely as removable storage. I've never been too sure why people rave so much over Apple products since I personally think their transfer software is vile to use and the players themselves of only average quality. Thankfully, unlike the two Philips MP3 players I've temporarily had, the Zen Stone has been flawless at connecting to my computer, the Creative Lite software very intuitive to use and it seems to play all music files regardless of which download site they came from.

I'm not entirely sure what I'll do with it once (or if!) my bigger Zen Micro comes back from Creative, whether it'll go back in the box or whether it'll even supersede its bigger brother. Not quite a five star product due to its obvious limitations, but for those looking to take their music on the move without attracting unwelcome attention, it comes highly recommended and at half the price of the iPod shuffle.