Rating: 
Summary: Creative Yes, Practical NO!
Review: MP3 Player ... FM Radio ... Swappable Smartmedia card ... Recorder ... Made by Creative Labs and reasonably priced. Wow, what a great deal! NOT!!!I bought it, and after fumbling with it for a little over a week, couldn't wait to return it. The battery cover is very difficult to remove after you put the battery and the smartmedia card in it. In fact, I had to use a screw drive to pry it off. I thought I was doing something wrong (why did I doubt myself?) and so I called Creative's technical support. "Oh, it is an electronic device in a tight plastic case. You just have to keep working it in and out to loosen it up." (Or something like that.) HUH?? The smartmedia card was very difficult to remove while the battery was in, and so I had to take the battery out, and gingerly use my 2 fingers to wiggle it back and forth to get it out. Even then, it had scratch marks from how tight the fit was. Have you noticed how impossible it is to do anything under the hood of a car these days because of how tightly packed everything is? Have you wondered where the engineers that designed the cars like that may have gone? The answer is to the Nomad II design team. Oh, one other thing. If you use Real Jukebox, like I do (I even paid for it!), the Nomad II is not a supported device. The Rio, Lyra, and the plain old Nomad are among a few others. So unless you want even more software filling up your drives, cluttering up your registry, and adding DLLs galore ... don't get it. And to think they make such good sound cards.
Rating:
Summary: too many flaws in the design
Review: I got the nomad II toaday and it was a complete disappoinment. The memory card placement is not readily accessible compared to RIO. You can't swap smartcards with ease because you have to open the battery case in the back (not the easiest of tasks specially the one i bought)..and the headphones (backphones or whatever they call it) which looks so nice in the picture is crap. You cant even adjust the damn thing! One size fits all kinda deal.. Not really impressed with this one except for the fact that it has FM radio and a voice recorder which is kinda cool.. overall, not a good buy and I would not recommend at all....
Rating:
Summary: read this before you buy this product ......
Review: I bought the product three months ago from amazon. A month ago it just stopped working and so I called up creative, they gave me an address that I had to send my product to. I got my nomad ll back today and guess what ..... it still does not work. I am utterly disgusted at the service that has been provided. Should one buy the product if not only it fails to perform as advertised but also the support does the same?
Rating: 
Summary: Great machine!!
Review: I just got one of this gabgets this evening, finally. Great machine, very easy to install, took me about 15 minutes. The headphone comes with it is pretty darn good, except it's a little too tight for me after awhile and hurts my ears alitte. The menu is very easy to use if you have Naspter and save all musics in one folder, one bad thing however is that I can't SHIFT-HIGHLIGHT more than one song at a time in order to transfer them all at once, have to transfer them one by one. VERY fast transfer rate, takes about 10 second for a song. can store around 12-15 songs for me depends on how big they are. Very light and the belt clip is wonderful. IMPORTANT, when IF you insteall the "media talk 99" program comes with the CD, be sure to disable it at startup, if not it might use up your modem and would NOT allow you to sign on the net. It happened to me, just go to start button-run-type in "msconfig" and disable it restart the computer. Final word, if you have 250 bucks and wanting to get some great christmas present for some special person, get this!!! David
Rating:
Summary: A cool small machine - sounds great and easy to install/use
Review: The Nomad II is my first MP3 player and really had no problems getting it set up and ready. Key is that you cant have Win95 as your OS or life is impossible. If you have any later MS operating system (98, Windows ME, etc) you are set. Comes with software to get CDs encoded for MP3 into the system and also plays MP3s you get from Napster, Amazon's Free MP3 download area, and other places on the Web. Also can use/play/port Windows Media (WMA file format) which is key if you like that player (and I do). You can download a small piece of software at creativelabs.com that will allow you to sync your Windows Media player with the Nomad II easily. Also works well with all Real Jukebox and Real Player software. Like that this MP3 player also has an audio recording capability (yes, you can speak right into it and it records an MP3 file of what you just said, for playback in the player or on your PC; pretty cool). Also like the smart media card it uses that holds 64k (about 8 songs) because you can keep multiple smart media cards of songs (kind of like CDs in that sense) and then simply slide them into your MP3 player when you want to listen to them (I do this; keep 4 smart media cards of 60 or songs I like and then insert them into the player when I want to listen; no CDs, no skipping, completely configurable and can trade songs in and out). If you have the bucks and dont need a small/portable MP3 player, certainly that huge storage capability of the Nomad Jukebox (holds 6gigabytes of songs!) is the best thing to get for the fanatic. But if you are getting started with a new MP3 player and like it small and fast and portable - this is a good one and compares favorably to any of the Rio products on the market. I also strongly suggest getting the car adapter for this product that Amazon carries. Have fun!
Rating:
Summary: Ferrari of MP3 players. Well, I agree!
Review: I just bought the Nomad II and am currently considering of getting a docking station, but even without, I love it! Hmm, what else to say... the only downside... is there one? Well, today, I don't know what happened, but suddenly the music stopped, I took the Nomad out of my pocket. The software had freezed. I took the battery out and put it in again, and we were back in business... That's the ONE and ONLY thing that wasn't like "wow how cool" about Nomad, and it has only happened once. I think that this product very well deserves 5 stars. Anyone who is considering about buying an mp3 player, this is the one. You'll also find the wired remote VERY handy, and the headphones have a great sound and really stick to your head, no matter what you are doing. I forgot to mention the radio and voice noting capabilities, that make the final touch. To put it in a simple form of three words: I LOVE IT.
Rating:
Summary: Stupid People
Review: I don't understand you people. Why would you buy a product like the nomad II when products like the Rio 500 and 600 are out in the market?!?!?! Don't waste your money in this product!
Rating:
Summary: Much better than expected
Review: I got into this not knowing anything about MP3 players,, but with a bug to buy one after I read an article in a magazine. After reading numerous reviews, I narrowed down to the Nomad and the Rio. Based purely on looks (two things concerned me with this product, no expanded memory option and weak sound through the headphones) I went with the Nomad. And the price on Amazon pretty much blew away any competitive vendor. I got the product and have been incredibly impressed since then. I downloaded the software and had a number of songs downloaded and ready to go in about an hour. Use of the software can be somewhat unintuitive, but it is simple enough to master after playing around with for a while. The real joy is in the use of this product. Not only does it look like just about the coolest gadget ever, it works great. The sound is really incredible. I had no problem with the volume, but I don't blast it either. It definitely gets loud enough to drown out external noise. (And the headphone remote is surprisingly useful) I use it almost exlusively for running, and the light weight along with the skip-free nature were perfect. I bought and recommend the cradle for recharging, all I do is plug it in every night and have a full battery all the time. One negative on the product was the FM tuner. I find that the storage is enough that I have yet to have to even use the tuner, but it is a nice feature to have and works decent (as good as my old Sony anyway). Overall, you can't go wrong with this unit. It is slightly expensive, but it looks and works terrific. I am definitely sold.
Rating:
Summary: This thing is incredible
Review: Well, let me start off by saying this: When I first received the unit, it was working fine. However, after a few hours the buttons on the unit stopped working, but the headset remote worked fine. Then the unit would not turn on the next day, despite my replacement of the batteries. However, Amazon.com was happy to replace it as soon as possible. I advise that you do not let this hinder your opinion of the player, as all products will ship some defective units. Now about the player: I was not in a rush to go out and buy the prettiest mp3 player I saw. I decided to take my time and look into as many places as possible. I have decided that I am deeply satisfied with my decision to get the Nomad II player. The sound reproduction is crystal clear. The headphones are wonderful, the headset remote is very very handy, the oversized LCD screen is great, the USB connection makes it plug and play (no need to reboot) and the USB is blazingly fast, and I just plain like the color scheme of the player itself. The software is great, I learned how to use it in 15 minutes. There could be some improvements, like the ability to upload music from the player to the computer. But you can thank the good old RIAA (who is suing Napster and sued Diamond Rio for making mp3 players, but lost) for not allowing music uploads, because it causes "music piracy." Don't depend on using the leather case it comes with. It's really just a leather sack with strings on the top. Besides, you should get one of those MP3 cases that amazon.com offers, like I did. As with many high tech gadgets there are a few features you don't use often, such as the clock and voice recording. But hey, it doesn't hurt to have them! As these things are all great, you are probably asking "Why should I get the Nomad II over other players like the Rio 500?". Well there are some minute difference, but there is one feature the Nomad has that few (if any) players do: The ability to program. As you may know, the nomad is futureproof, with the ability to support any future music format. Don't depend on constantly using mp3's. I don't use them at all! Instead, I use WMA music, which sounds almost as good as mp3 (I really can't tell the difference) but it takes up half the space. It's like having a 128 MB mp3 card! Plus there are things like upgrading the radio display and other stuff that has to do with the player. The point is: this is a player you will be keeping for a long, long time. I highly recommend it over the others. There is one last thing I want to get in. A book about MP3's I was reading was published after the Nomad, but before the Nomad II. It says that you can display music lyrics while the song is playing on the Nomad. I wonder if you can do that with the Nomad II. There is an entry box when you edit the mp3 tag for lyrics, but I just can't figure out how to display it. If anyone knows, please e-mail me. If anyone wants to know, mail me and I'll tell you if I found out. It's just that this is such a cool feature that I don't want to overlook.
Rating: 
Summary: Gotcha's!
Review: Having used the Nomad II for a few months, I can tell you that it suffers from some serious flaws. You should be aware of them before you make a purchase. You already know about the memory size and expense, but there's more. Here's my list of Nomad II Gotcha's: o No external microphone. Sure, it can record four hours of voice, but if you planned to take it to class to record notes, you can forget about it. The mic only works well if you hold the device up to your face. Why can't I use an external mic? o Proprietary. Reprogrammable firmware? Sure, but you have to rely on Creative to decide what you're allowed to connect to. Because you must format the SmartMedia using Creative's tools, you can't use the player as you're supposed to -- as an external drive. You SHOULD be able to see the contents using Windows explorer. This would enable you to drag and drop rather than using the pathetic software supplied. o Pathetic software. Yup, the supplied software interface leaves a LOT to be desired. At first glance it looks pretty darn impressive, but that's it's problem -- it's designed to LOOK good. Navigating your hard drive with the software is slow and cumbersome. Only about a dozen files are visible at a time, on both your drive and your player! Once you've downloaded the file into the player, you can't change the order in which it plays -- a big problem if you plan on listening to voice recordings like audio books. Given the fact that once the file is in the player you can't really see its name (it looks like it uses a naming convention similar to DOS (FILE~1MP3). So just try to find the one you want -- good luck! Speaking of books, if you are halfway through a 30 minute chapter and need to stop the player, you can not bookmark your place. You have to start the MP3 at the beginning and fast forward to where you left off. o Can't download software. You're at work. You've got a new CD and want to listen to a few MP3's on your way home? Unless you brought your install disk to the office, you'll be listening to the radio my friend. You can't just download the player software from Creative. Go figure! I want a portable player I can take with me anywhere and load files anywhere. Nope! You have to install from the CD. o Poor radio reception. I've tested the unit against any number of portable radios. Because there is no external antenna, you have to be fairly close to the transmitter to get really good reception -- even in the city. (Why didn't they build an antenna into the earphones? They have just about everything else.) Am I recommending the Nomad II? Naw. I bought it so I could record interviews and play them back. Now I just load a few audio book chapters in the morning and listen to them on my way to work. It's not as good an investment as I anticipated.
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