Home > Consumer Reviews > Creative Zen Stone Plus 2GB MP3 Player - Black

I wanted an MP3 player that was:

Small
Had a display
Didn't need any software to load music
Sounded good

I bought this as my first MP3 player as it's relatively low-cost and simple to use. I've not had to read the instructions it's so easy. The best thing is it's drag 'n' drop to load music, not requiring iTunes or the dreadful SonicStage or ConnectPlayer (I've experienced the Sony offerings and they're terrible).

The sound is good with the standard headphones, but I bought a set of Sony headphones which improved the bass.

Definitely worth the money.

This is an excellent unit as long as you can live with it's limitations. My needs are quite simple: I want to be able to carry about 500 of my favourite tracks with me when I walk the dog, or take the bus, or go to the shops. I want to be able to organise my music into folders (Blues; Rock; Jazz; Classical etc...), and then choose a type of music to listen to. I want to be able to transfer files quickly & easily from the PC to the player, without the need for over-the-top, sluggish software. This player allows me to do all of these things.

You cannot create playlists on this unit, but that's not a worry - If I want to make a "playlist", I just drag & drop the files into a folder called "playlist 1" or similar & navigate to that folder when I leave the house.

This is a list of some of the things you CAN'T do on this player:

1. You cannot cue up another track, or series of tracks on the fly.
2. You cannot browse through the songs you have whilst listening to music - as soon as you navigate to a new folder, the player starts again with the 1st track in that folder.
3. You cannot hear how your "custom" eq setting affect the sound in real time - you have to make your changes, save the new settings & then you can hear what difference they make.
4. You can't use the FM radio to listen to Terry Wogan - it won't find Radio 2, or 3, or 4. All I can pick up on my player is some awful dance/r'n'b station. This is a design flaw - as an ex marine radio officer, I can tell you that despite what ANY manufacturer claims - YOU DO NEED AN ANTENNA for FM broadcast reception; if you live in an area with strong signal reception, you should be OK, but don't let the FM radio be a reason to buy this unit alone.

It seems that Creative have got the important stuff right - Great sound quality; Easy menu system (don't listen to those who say otherwise - I've used A LOT worse), and a great price.

Oh, and battery life? I charged mine overnight and hooked it up to a set of speakers this morning at 8-30am. I pressed play, and it's still going strong now (5-45pm). The reviews which state a battery life of only a couple of hours aren't a reflection of my experience.

A couple of Christmases ago I was bought an iPod shuffle, I've been quite happy with it but my big gripe with it was that you couldn't see what track was playing. I like to mix up my tracks and I'm not one for creating playlists, however sometimes when I put new tracks on I sometimes think 'damn I can't remember the title/artist'.

For this reason I started looking at new players with an increased memory (from 1gb to 2gb). I was originally torn between the Zen V and the Stone Plus. I wouldn't want to view pictures or video on the player and 9 times out of 10 I'm on the move when listening so don't really worry about viewing album details etc, just the track name occasionally. I plumped for the Stone which has the added bonus of an FM radio. I'm very happy with it.

The general interface is so easy to use and display is clear and precise and transferring tracks and set up is a doddle. The big deal about this player though is the sound, it's so good no muffling or background noise, in fact I think it just pips the iPod in those stakes. My one moan about the package would be the headphones, it seems to be a common problem though with a lot of players and people. The headphones are too big for my ears! Luckily I have a pair of Sony headphones (which cost a packet admittedly) with the ear buds, combined with these the sound is excellent, the bass is never distorted and quality is maintained whether sound is low or high.

Oh! It looks good too, I have a white one, and I've just ordered a black one for my Brother as he was impressed with it too. It's very small and fits snuggly in the hand, pocket or bag.

I like the way it looks, it sounds pretty good, the radio works surprisingly well, but... the menu is awful and it's just too slow!

I had read previous reviews that criticised the user interface, but I thought it'd be alright once you got used to it. It isn't. I'm afraid the menu is poorly organised and the delay between pressing a button and the change happening on screen is so great that you lose track of what you're doing - seriously. This is especially bad when a song is playing, and as soon as you navigate out of the folder the song you are listening to is in, it stops playing. Most irksome. When you first switch it on, you notice that it takes a little while to fire up. But when you have loaded it to its 2g capacity, this `little while' becomes a long while. Honestly, it sometimes takes the best part of a minute between me turning this thing on and it actually being operable.

I bought this because I specifically didn't want to buy an iPod (despite being a Mac user) because I don't really like using iTunes, and the USB-drive style drag-and-drop management appealed to me. I've tried several types of MP3 player over the last few months and now I've stopped wasting time and actually bought a 2nd gen nano - they're nice and cheap now that Apple has brought out the silly video nanos. With nanos that cheap now there is really no point in buying this frustrating little product unless you really need an MP3 player that will fit into a matchbox.

One final word of warning - don't read this review and then think that the user interface can't be that bad, and then buy the product anyway. This is what I did, and I'm telling you straight - the user interface is awful and way too slow; it will drive you mad, so don't buy it. If this thing cost £10 and wasn't your main MP3 player, it'd be tolerable, but as a main player this is simply not good enough and too costly. Avoid it unless you naturally operate at a slower speed than the rest of the human race.

And as another reviewer said, it does scratch very easily - if aesthetics matter to you this may be a problem.

As for the 9-hour battery life - you'd be lucky to get a third of that.

I've had one of these for 2 weeks now and I love its vibrant sound quality, light weight, and ease of use. However, I have a few things to frown upon when recommending it to other people:

Firstly, when playing a track (and depending on the encoding of said track, high quality VBR being the worst) the user interface and menus are very slow. Sometimes when trying to change tracks while playing a song, the user interface actually times-out before it manages to register my button presses, so I am sometimes forced to pause playback to select another song.

Secondly, I bought the black model thinking it would resist scratches more than any of the other colours... I was wrong. After 2 weeks of using this, putting it in my empty pocket and sitting it on my clean desk, it has managed to become covered in scratches, which I don't mind but makes it harder to resell if I upgrade in the future.

Thirdly, I can't seem to tune in to Radio One with this even though I can with my cheap £2 mini radio very easily - digital tuning with low precision is the downfall here.

Despite these 3 bad points, I love this device and it fits my needs perfectly. I wanted a device to listen to while I walk to and from work, that is quick to upload pod casts and music to while still being a accessible as a fast USB drive. Also, my experience with Hard Drive mp3 players has been sketchy in the past, so solid state was an absolute requirement.

I recommend with 4 out of 5 to anyone who wants a small player with great functionality.

PS: I dropped this on the second day I bought it onto the pavement (I was drunk) yet it survived with only a tiny dent in the corner. Very robust!