Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Cool
Review: I spent a lot of time trying to decide between the Zen and the iPod and I think the Zen was the best choice. The only noticeable improvement was that the iPod had quicker response time on the controls. When you weigh that in with the price and compatibility of the Zen, you really can't go wrong. I use mine for working out and for long trips, so I don't really need to do a lot of track skipping and constant volume adjustment anyway. I haven't had any problems with it at all. The battery life is very good and because the hard drive is standard, upgrading isn't a problem. If you just have to spend the money get an iPod, but if you want something that's just as reliable and will save you money to invest in some good headphones and any other accessories you might want, then get the Zen. I gave it 4 stars because of the occasional delay when constantly changing tracks or changing the volume.
Rating: 
Summary: Just for sitting still...
Review: Anyone who is looking for something they can use while moving (this means walking quickly to anything more than that) need to look elsewhere. I should have paid more attention when I bought it...in the packaging it says "no running", and I am here to say, they weren't kidding. I have gone through 2 of these babies, both of which died due to shock...and in my opinion, the "shocks" I gave were not all that shocking at all. Yeah, it has tons of space and is great if you are just looking for space and portability. It just is not meant for much movement, period...give it a thought before you buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: DO NOT BUY! Splurge for the iPOD! I wish I had!
Review: I bought the zen nearly 7 mos ago, but have used it only 2 of those months because it has been in for repair the rest of the time. Each time it has come back from "repair" there has been a new problem. I just got it back from its THIRD repair and the problem has not been fixed. Further, it is impossible to get a hold of anyone but the useless sales reps and there is not place to file a complaint (rather presumptuous, I think). You have to call long-distance for tech support, which consists of an automated phone system!
Here's what happened:
OS crashed after 2 mos of use. I could not boot it; just lulled on the splash screen. I got to the emergency boot menu and wiped the thing clean and replaced the OS 4 times before sending it in. I got it back, and the headphone jack buzzed and the sound went in and out. I thought it was my headphones, so I bought a new pair. Still cracked and fizzled and came out of only one side. Tried it on a total of 5 stereos just to be sure it was the zen, and it was. They sent me a refurbished unit to replace the faulty jack unit. But the skip/forward button didn't work. It would pause, turn up the volume, go back, switch menus... anything but skip forward. Sent it in for the third time and it came back with the same problem, albeit better. Now it skips 5 out of 6 times. I've been calling asking for a new one or my money, but haven't heard much. I've complained with the better business bureau.
Rating: 
Summary: This one is perfect!
Review: I am really happy with this purchase. Got it around the beginning of the year and use it consistently daily at the gym. The only thing I can think of that is a negative is that it does not have a good clip or device that can hold the player on gym shorts or something.Sound quality, software, and the player itself are perfect and the batteries last for a very long time.
Rating:
Summary: amazing...the best mp3 player period..
Review: i had a few cd mp3 players and they all had its problems...from skipping,to clipping, to not enough volume ouput...the zen just take all the problems and makes the perfect player.....i jog for 1 mile the other day and no skipping...
Rating:
Summary: Great toy for music lovers everywhere!
Review: First, let me start by saying that I am NOT a computer person and I still got this thing to work. I love this machine because I can take all my music everywhere with me. Not more fumbling with a zillion tapes in my car or airplane. No more deciding which CD's I'm going to listen to at work. I have everything in one place. As long as all songs are accurately labeled, finding songs/artists/genres/albums is fairly simple. The playlist option is a great feature as well. When you set up the software, you have your choice of several different bit rates. I chose 192 kbps and I currently have around 2000 songs, which uses about half the available memory. I have never tried any other mp3 jukebox, so I can't compare, but I am very happy with this one. Also, I have not attempted to download other things like files other than mp3's (.xls, .doc, .ppt, etc) so I can not comment on these capabilities. Even with my complaints (see below), I am satisfied with my purchase. Moving on to things I don't like about it from most irritating to least-
1) If you have Windows XP, the Nomad Zen software is not completely compatible with it. Apparently this glitch has something to do with why the CD details (artist name, album & song title) don't come up automatically, according to tech support. One of my company's IT people said that there was a way to rip songs through another Windows program that will access the CD details and then transfer them from my computer's hard drive to the Nomad, but not being a computer person, I can't figure this out so I had to type in 2000 song titles. That [is bad] so I deducted points. If you are a computer person, this may not apply to you.
2)The instructions are terrible. For someone who is not completely comfortable with computers, setting up the transfer program, and accessing the player are a challenge to learn if you're going by the enclosed pamphlet. This is rated #2 on the irritating scale because once you figure it out it's pretty simple; just setting it up and learning it was a drag. Again, if you are a computer person, this may not apply to you.
3) There is a headphone output, but no "line out" output so I can't hook it up to my existing stereo system.
4) It's kind of heavy compared to a cd or tape walkman. All things considered, it's a great little device and I would recommend it to music lovers everywhere, however if you are not good with computers or if your typing skills [are bad], you may want to consider other options.
Rating:
Summary: Poor Quality
Review: I bought my Nomad Zen Jukebox a few months ago. After treating it very carfully it unexpectedly froze on me. I called customer support and they were extremely unhelpful. This is a very very fragile player. On Nomad's website they even say that you shouldn't jog with this player. This mp3 player is terrible and you will regret buying it when it breaks on you in 6 months. (Their warranty only lasts 3)
Rating:
Summary: Superior Alternative to the iPod for PC Users
Review: There is not doubt that the iPod is a wonderful and revolutionary machine, but the folks at Creative seem to have equally mastered the technology and made it greatly more affordable. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to look into buying a large-volume, compact MP3 player, so naturally I went straight for the iPod 20GB machine. I was turned off by the price and then found this product, and ended up buying it, and am now very happy with the decision. Having had some experience with the Windows iPod, I have made several observations in comparing these two solid players. First and foremost, the Zen is enourmously less expensive, for exactly the same 20GB capacity. The Zen is better-looking, and the button placements make more sense. The big touch-wheel thing on the iPod is very awkward, but the scroll wheel on the upper right corner of the Zen makes sense. The Zen battery lasts longer and charges more quickly. Both offer the same fast firewire connectability, but the Zen is also equipped with a USB port for alternate means of connecting the player to your computer. Both products come with a nice case, and both come with terrible headphones; no player ever comes with decent headphones. (For earbuds, I highly reccomend the Sennheiser MX500 or MX400). Now to address the issue of connecting the player to your computer. The iPod requires the user to use the terrible MusicMatch software, which is a nightmare every way you look at it. The only thing worse than MusicMatch is Creative's PlayCenter that comes with the Zen. This program cannot even correctly recognize the tags of MP3 files. I have my files organized this way: the name of the file is the track number, a dash, then the title, and the tracks are inside a folder entitled the name of the album, which is insided a folder that is name the name of the artist. For example, "01 - Politik" is inside "A Rush of Blood to the Head" which is inside "Coldplay". This is how most major media players record music from CDs by default. PlayCenter could not handle this, and even when I called the support people, they said that if I had always been using PlayCenter then I would not have these problems. All in all, this player does everything I want, need, and expect it to do. The only edge that the iPod has over the Zen is that it is a fair bit lighter and smaller. However, this is small enough to go in your pocket, so it works for me. I would give this product 4.5 stars if I could, just because of the software that they expect you to use. But you will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Don't be fooled...
Review: The Nomad Zen looks good on paper and the player itself has some very nice features, but I found actually transferring my music to the Zen so infuriating that I am returning it to Amazon for a refund which I plan to put towards the purchase of a 30GB iPod. Here are the reasons why I am returning my Zen: 1. The drivers. When I bought the Zen I assumed it would be as fast, stable, and reliable as my other Firewire peripherals. I was in for a huge disappointment. The Zen, unlike most firewire devices including the iPod and many other mp3 players, requires special drivers that must be installed in order for your machine to even recognize the device. But that's not the worst part, once I installed the drivers, I found that they only reccognized the Zen about half the times I plugged it in. And yes, I did download the latest drivers from Creative. Not only that, but the drivers don't allow you to access the Zen as a hard drive in windows. The iPod works as a firewire hard drive right out of the box, no driver required. Why is it that Apple's iPod works better with MS Windows better than Creative's Zen? I thought Creative was a PC hardware company, why can't they get it right? 2. The Software. Once you get your Zen drivers installed, you still can't actually transfer music to you Zen. Now you must intall a program called Creative Playcenter. Playcenter is what Musicmatch Jukebox would have looked like if it were released in 1985. It is ugly, it doesn't work very well, and crashes just about every time I try to tranfer data to or from the Zen.... 3. Creative's "support". When I received my Zen, it came in a box with two USB cables and no firewire cable. So naturally I called Creative and asked them to send me the missing firewire cable... They sent me the cable, no questions asked. Later, when I called tech support because Playcenter was crashing everytime I hit the sync button, the man on the phone explained to me that the problem was that I was trying to transfer too much data at once, and that the Zen can only handle transferring about 50 to 100 songs at a time. In other words, if you want to fill your Zen's 8000 song capacity, you will need to manually transfer your songs up to 160 times. 4. The player itself. As I said the player does have some very nice features, but it does have a few major flaws. First of all, it's big and heavy and you can't carry it around it your pocket. Also, there is no "lock" switch, if you want to lock the buttons, you have to do it from the menu, this is extremely aggravating when you lock the player to put it in you backpack and then realize you want the volume a little higher and you have to go through no less than seven steps to get this done.
Rating:
Summary: Slick
Review: I love this machine. It was difficult to decide between the Nomad Jukebox Zen and the Ipod, but I have no regrets. Before I purchased it, I read though every (yes, every...) review on this site and one other popular electronics review website. After a week and a half of constant use, I have not had a single problem that other users said they had. I read that the software sucked, so I didn't even bother installing it. I already used WMP9 to manage all my music files so I just downloaded the driver update from Creative (released March 28 2003) that gives the Nomad full compatiblity with WMP9. It works wonderfully and I have no problems. If you only have a four pin 1394 connection on your computer, I recommend getting a 4 pin to 4 pin cable. The file transfer speed vs. USB is well worth the extra money. Also, you can use this cable to connect 2 Zens together and transfer files directly to one another w/o a computer. Fun times.
|
