Creative Zen Touch 20GB MP3 Player
Product Details | Similar Products | Customer Reviews | Manufacturer: Creative Labs |
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 | Product Details: View further technical information at Amazon Release Date: 04 August 2004 Manufacturer: Creative Labs Model No: Zen Touch Rating:   Sales Rank: 13190 | | Look for similar products by category: | | Customers who bought this item also bought: | | Customer Reviews: Yesterday's Product (15 July 2010)I bought one of these 4 years ago and it's been brilliant (the battery lasts forever and it will stand being dropped) but the drivers for Windows Vista (there's a driver on their website but it doesn't work) and 7 aren't available and now I have to throw away a perfectly good mp3 player because Creative can't be bothered providing decent tech support. big up (03 July 2010)just seen some old reviews saying how the creative doesn't compare to the ipod. just want to back the creative and say, you will never find an ipod that lasts as long as the zen. its 2010 and im still using this soldier of a machine. think i bought it back when it fist came out in 2004. 6 years people!!! 6!! my friends replace ipods all the time and this zen has only crashed twice in 6 years and i use it a LOT!! Unstoppable! (26 April 2010)I've had this MP3 player for 5 years now and it's still going strong (based on an average of 2 hours a day play time). If you don't mind its weight (it's a brick by today's standards) and just want music capability then you cannot go wrong with picking one of these up instead of going for a fancy new model. That may sound barking mad, but this thing is awesome and it lasts if you treat it right. BE WARNED: IF YOU HAVE WINDOWS 7 THEN YOU WILL NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VIRTUAL PCS Drawbacks: * YOU WILL NEED WINDOWS XP IN SOME FORM. Firmware exists for Vista, but firmware updates are risky business now the player is unsupported by Creative (though by all accounts their customer support was pathetic when it was valid for this model) - one wrong move or disconnection and you can render the player unusable. The firmware it ships with is sufficient for running on XP. YOU CAN RUN THIS ON WINDOWS 7 IF YOU HAVE AN XP VIRTUAL PC - Windows 7 Professional edition upwards come shipped with one as "Windows XP mode", while the software works the same for the Home edition but you need to provide your own virtual hard disk (vhd) with a licensed copy of XP on it. The new USB support in Windows 7's VPC works fine and Creative still provide downloads for the necessary software (in the order you need to install them: Creative Media Source, Jukebox Driver, Nomad Explorer) if the install CD has gone walkabout * Heavy. Even by 2004's standards this player was bulky - in 2010 it's a beast and a half. It's still much lighter than ye olde Walkman though * Touch. Yes, this is what the player is named for so why is this in "drawbacks"? It's a little user unfriendly to start with, that's why. I run on lowest sensitivity and tap to select off - because it's all rather too twitchy otherwise Advantages: * 20 GB hard drive. This still holds its own with the storage space available with the ~£100 bracket MP3 players on the market today. You can also store other file types in a "hard drive" mode that exists in parallel with the player (shows up as an extra folder in Nomad Explorer) * Battery life is incredible. Based on volume around 15, 192 kbps mp3s and "general" menu/backlight usage, this will easily net you the advertised 24 hours. 5 years on and I still get this out of the battery - you've just got to look after it and ensure you give it regular total discharge/recharge cycles. Only top it up if it's down to 1 bar * Playback. The equaliser presets are okay, but you can customise in the 100, 800, 3000 and 12000 Hz ranges to get it just how you like it. Providing you're using 192 kbps or upwards then the sound quality is no different through decent headphones vs a decent stereo/speaker setup * Robust. Always be careful, but occasionally accidents do happen. I've dropped my player onto concrete from waist height a couple of times with no consequence, save for some scratching and minor denting to the case * With exercise. I use this player in my pocket at the gym - no skipping, jolting or refusing to play. It works exactly the same as when it's sat still * Friendly software. Nomad Explorer lets you copy and paste songs from your PC as though you were copying to an external hard drive. As long as you've tagged the MP3s correctly when you ripped them, it'll organise artist/album/song title properly. I'm sure the Creative Media Source software will sort your entire collection for you a la iTunes if you really want it to though * Unstoppable! The test of time is always the ultimate test. If you look after it (don't throw it around, ensure that when charging you charge it fully from fully drained) then it will just keep on going. Try to find someone with an iPod that's still going with full battery life after 5 years and used for 2 hours a day on average! Sure this MP3 player is a brick by today's standards and doesn't play videos or games - but it does offer equal or better storage to most affordable players, is easy to use and will just keep on going. If you want music on the move then you cannot go wrong with picking up one of these - either new if you spot one or used by someone who treated it well. It might be over 5 years old and limited to mp3 playback, but unless you want lightweight and video capability (or have no idea what a virtual PC is), this is as good as it gets. Great player but struggles with age (27 January 2010)This was my first MP3 player and it is still going after nearly 5 years, albeit slightly less portable then it used to be. Firstly Creative have developed a very well built player which is sturdy and robust, although slightly big compared to newer models on the market. The creative software it comes with is also very easy to use and makes the whole process of copying music ridiculously simple, even for those who are technophobes. Another plus is that it is very easy to adjust to your own requirements both in terms of settings of the player and usability and I have only had to reset this twice throughout its lifetime, and once done it only took a few minutes to sort itself out and start playing again. There are, however, a couple of observations now I've had it for over 4 years. Whilst the battery is fantastic when first using it, it has gradually depleted itself, as all batteries do, to the point where it now only last for about 20 minutes. Whilst this is pretty good given that I have used it almost every day for the last 4 years, I now have to keep it plugged in which is fine as I keep it connected to speakers at home, but limits its usefulness as a portable music player. The second issue I have is that it randomly stopped syncing with windows media player and limited me to only use the creative software. Whilst this wasn't particularly an issue as the creative software is very simple to use, it was slightly annoying to not have that freedom. And the creative support levels leave a lot to be desired. It may have changed now, but even during the first year of ownership, you only had 90 days worth of telephone support and after that it all had to go through their website and it takes the weeks sometimes to respond. After 4 years of happy usage with this, I am only now just thinking about getting a new MP3 player and, as I am looking for a good one and therefore won't go with Apple, I think Creative are certainly near the top of my list of players I will be checking out. creative zen touch (03 September 2009)i've owned one for about 3 and 1/2 years now and just wanted to add to the many reviews of this wonderful product. about the sensitivity of the touch pad... i wanted to download pod cast so i went to the creative website and downloaded the latest firmware for the product...what did i get?? and better mp3 player.i know can download pod cats but it has also sorted out sensitivity of the touch pad... so i would say if you find it too sensitive then donload the latest firmware. |
