Editor’s Note: This product has been removed from viewing as part of this site because has been discontinued. You can still read our original review below, but TopTenREVIEWS is no longer updating this product’s information.

Although they’re not as big, or as popular as Apple, Creative Labs is no stranger to MP3 technology. Moving away from the “Hard Drive” model and into flash technology Creative’s flagship music player is simply called Zen.

The Zen is a small, unassuming player that packs a 2.5 inch screen on to a device the size of a credit card. The Zen supports music, video, photographs, FM radio, a voice recorder and it even has a SD slot for up to 2 GB of expanded memory.

Standout Features

• Supports unprotected AAC
• Expandable memory SD slot
• Standard mini USB interface
• Functions as an external hard drive

Features

Creative Labs managed to pack a ton of fun and functional features into the Zen. The Zen features a 2.5 inch high resolution display, that’s a half-inch larger than the 4th generation Nanos, with dedicated textile buttons. It also has a hold button, built-in microphone, FM tuner and connects through standard mini USB.

Zen’s file support is one of the varied in the industry. For music it supports MP3, WMA, unprotected AAC, WAV and Audible; for video Zen natively supports MJPEG and WMV but with additional software and conversion it will also play MPEG, DivX and Xvid; and for photographs Zen supports JPEG and with additional transcoding GIF, TIFF, PNG and BMP.

A couple of our favorite Zen features are the external hard drive access and the expandable SD slot. Unlike the more popular iPod you can plug in your Zen to any MTP enabled PC an access all of your music, playlist, pictures and video by simply using your Zen like you would any other flash drive. Everything is organized in Windows folders just as they are organized on your device. This makes it extraordinarily easy to copy your library from your computer to your laptop just by using the Zen as your liaison.

The SD slot is convenient when trying to transfer pictures from your digital camera or cell phone to a computer without the corresponding connection cords. You can also store additional music or an entire movie on your SD card and not sacrifice your music collection.

The Zen weighs 2 oz., measures less than 3.5 inches, has 8 EQ settings, supports album art, has an alarm clock, approx. 30 hours of audio playback and 5 hours of video playback. You can also customize your menu with your own picture.

The Creative Zen does come bundled with software for organization and video conversion.

Summary of Reviews from across the Internet

The Creative Zen has received rave reviews across the board since its release a year ago. It is one of the few players in its class to have so many features including video support. Some critics felt that compared to iPod the Zen design interface isn’t as sleek and navigation isn’t as quick but in the end the features and price make it a great alternative. However, you’ll defiantly want to upgrade your earphones. The ones included with the player are far from great.

One of the largest complaints with this device is actually about the bundled software. Creative’s software is notorious for being clunky and unintuitive. It’s suggested you find other third-party alternatives for video conversion and media management. Zen will sync with Windows Media Player.

Summary

Creative Labs and the Zen may never overtake the behemoth that is iPod, but it is a feature packed little device that can almost do anything, except maybe fly to the moon. If you have a PC and don’t want to update the system hog known as iTunes every three weeks, the Zen is a great alternative.
 
For more information about other flash based MP3 players see TopTenREVIEWS side-by-side comparisons of the top MP3 players.