Home > Consumer Reviews > Creative Zen MX 16GB MP3 and Video Player with SD Card Slot

I bought a Creative Zen Micro about 5 years ago and have used it happily ever since, but grew tired of its limited memory and now barely readable screen (ageing eyesight problem).

I bought the Zen MX as an upgrade and am very pleased with it. It's wafer-thin and very light with a big, very readable screen I can glance at whilst driving and actually see what's playing which is a first!

16GB is great and the card slot can take another 16 although haven't used it yet.

I can't be bothered with the Creative Centrale software and have only used it to check for firmware updates. Windows Media Player does everything better in my view.

The MX does not support 'Playsforsure' which is the digital rights management system used by Napster and other subscription services. Neither Creative nor Napster (both of whom I e mailed) could see this being available in the near future. So if you are a Napster to go subscriber don't buy this one (or at least not yet).

One other (minor) issue, although both Windows Media Player and the Creative Centrale software show album art with the MX tracks, the art only appears erratically on the player itself (I can't find any logic to this as it does show on some tracks). This is a pity since it's a good feature (especially for those of us who like to see what we're listening to).

The biggest improvement I've found over the old Zen Micro is the quality of the FM radio which is now excellent.

Just as a final comment - the MX cost me less this year than the much lesser Micro did 5 years ago. So, value-wise I think it's excellent. By the way, Case Logoc do a neoprene(camera) pouch which fits the player nicely and protects it. I prefer this to the creative hard cases.

This was my first MP3 player. After extensive (and frankly exhausting) research, I opted for the Creative Zen firstly because of the memory card facility which seemed a good idea,not only for extra space but also for backing up. Secondly, I downloaded the instruction manual and preferred the usability compared to other players.

The player is compact as you would expect and quite easy to navigate using the player's controls. I was well prepared beforehand and made sure I downloaded all the current patches before transferring music.

As for the software, the Creative Centrale program is OK at best. The interface is confusing but I found it to be the best way to transfer CD ripped songs onto the player. However, I use Windows Media Player to transfer downloaded songs, so I find that I have to use both programs. You can drag and drop but the tag references won't transfer as well unless you use appropriate software.

You do have to be careful manipulating the files via the software because I have found on a couple of occasions, that I have myseteriously got duplicates of my songs and I then had to delete these duplicates.

I have found (1 month on) that the display unilaterally locks by itself for some reason but this is easily remedied.

Another problem is that creating a playlist is fine on the player itself, but I was not able to transfer songs into the created playlist on the player itself - you have to use Creative Centrale to do this.

The sound and volume are good enough quality for my ears. You can delete songs on the player which is good.

It is a bugbear that you do not get a paper instruction manual but, instead, you have to download it from the Creative website. It seems very miserly of manufacturers in general that they don't provide this service anymore.

In conclusion, I would recommend the player for the memory card feature at least. Buy a protective case as well and you're set.

A couple of points i would make after owning this product for a week :

(1) It **DOES** work with LINUX - appearing as a mass storage device, as does and SD card thats appears as a second drive. Of course, the creative management tools don't work under LINUX - this is a good thing as even on a high spec windows machine it very slow. Full marks here for not using some nasty propriatory interface. If you want to use the video features under linux you will have a problem as the MX only supports one video format and there is no codec for linux to convert videos from another format.

(2) The SD card does not work seemlessly. Sure you can play music directly from - that is, if you don't mind the fact that it will rebuild the cards index EVERY time you switch it on. This will take some minutes with a high capacity card but don't look away or it will power down automatically then you can do it all over again. I bet this could be fixed with a firmware update. I would give 4 or 5 stars if it wasn't for this issue.

I would have liked to know this player does not work with Linux. After a frustrating time trying to set it up I went to my neighbour who has windows. We installed and registered the player at her house.
I had bought the player to watch videos but her laptop did not have the capacity for what I wanted so I went back home thinking that having been set up the player might work. It did not.
If I had not seen the player on my screen I would have been warned, however it showed up and charged and played its demo songs. It looks lovely.
It says it is for single computer use so I don't know if I can give it to my daughter. She has a windows system.
I found an email helpline but it was absolutely no use. It gave me lots of advice about the setup I cannot access, after saying the player does not work with Linux. I would have liked to be able to speak to someone about it or at least have a personal type of reply.
I found nothing on Amazon to say the player did not work with Linux and want to warn other people.