It was with some delay (when compared to its rivals) that Creative finally launched a multimedia player in credit card format (55 x 83 x 11.3 mm and 62 g). Indeed, the Zen only arrived on the market at the end of summer 2007 and it was much awaited.  However, this delay now seems justified.  First of all, the Zen is equipped with 4 to 16 GB of flash memory depending on the version and also has an SD/SDHC slot which can take memory cards with capacities up to 32GB. Creative even announces AAC support (see box).  Given this manufacturer’s already established reputation for great audio quality, the Zen therefore could have what it takes to crush the competition.

In hand, we immediately feared for the worst given the somewhat shiny plastic (a bit cheap looking) that is very sensitive to finger smudges.  To remedy this problem, Creative also released a number of accessories to accompany its music player.  You can purchase a skin to cover the backside and this comes in a very nice matte plastic.  There are no tactile controls which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, while buttons are firm and very responsive.  Overall, finishing touches are nice and the design is very attractive.


Once turned on, we were a bit surprised by a new menu which breaks with the tradition of previous models.  It’s more stylish and has more graphics – an appreciable effort.  The new presentation is in fact enhanced by a glossy 2.5 inch 320 x 240 pixel screen, which is bright and very pleasant.  We didn’t notice any other changes in navigation and there is the same system as in other Creative MP3 players.

Which camp will you choose, Creative or Apple?

With a bigger screen, the Zen is better equipped than the Nano for multimedia functions.  However, there is the same hassle for transferring videos.  All of the ones we wanted to load surpassed the player’s memory capacity and the video converter provided by Creative didn’t live up to expectations for the conversion of files.   Failures were numerous and we had to carry out manual encoding to take advantage of this reader’s video capabilities.  Once this was done, videos were fluid and sharp even if we would have preferred a bigger screen (the entire surface of the device) as well as a video connection.

In terms of sound, it’s straightforward.  As usual, when we replace the standard headphones Creative’s sound quality is largely superior to Apple’s.   There is no saturation despite very good sound levels and a nice surprise for a product of this type.  Also, basses and highs are rather well produced.  We did notice a slight lack of clarity and to fully take advantage of the sound quality of this player you should increase mediums in the equalizer.

The SD/SDHC slot allowing the extension of memory (up to 32 GB) can be a bit disappointing.  Files on the memory card are separate from those in internal memory and you cannot navigate through them when listening to music.  In addition, navigation in the memory card cannot be in the various categories (artists, album, etc.).  However, we really can’t ask for too much here because memory resources and the required reading speed for this type of function would be too great.   In addition, this device would lose all of its DRM capabilities.