Creative Zen Touch 40 GB Audio Player

Rating:
Summary: iPod be damned...
Review: I brought this player in early January after a LOT of research. I was really looking for something in the 20gb - 40gb category that could handle all of my mp3s, as well as backing up some of my data files. And when I research, I REALLY research.

I was first interested in the Sony NW-HD1 for it's sleek, small design. Then I leaned towards an iPod for both it's popularity and it's design. At the end of the day, I went with the Zen Touch, because it claimed lengthy battery time, large disk space and exceptional sound.

So far, it has exceeded my expectations. I listen to my music as I work in 4-6 hour strecthes, and I'm still listening to that music on my first charge. Sound is fantastic. The earphones provided aren't brilliant quality, so do yourself a favor and fork our for the Sennheiser PX 100 or PX 200.

Be aware that the player recognizes audio files by their id3 tags, and not by file name. It takes a little time filling out missing ID3 tags in the supplied program, but it is well worth in the end -- because it gives you the ability to choose by song, artist, album and genre.

I have found the touch pad a breeze to work with. Maybe it's because I was forewarned about its sensitivty, but it's pretty easy to get a handle on.

Unit response time is lightning fast. I only experienced a slight lag between songs when I skipped through dozens at a time.

Now for the bad part:

The supplied software is okay for managing music, but is near impossible to manage data files. And even as a music manager, it is needlessly complicated. I uploaded all my data files, only to have them stuck there and unable to be deleted or added to. This was a problem I worked at for days, with no solution. Turned out that the 'Nomad Explorer' softwareis just generally terrible.

An ESSENTIAL program to go with your Zen Touch is Red Chair Software's NOTMAD Explorer -- it handles both music and data files easily, with a simple drag-n-drop interface. Since using Notmad Explorer, I've had no problems with the unit or its functionality.

Unlike iPod, the Zen Touch feels expensive. It's tough, well-designed and durable. I've used an iPod before and it felt like a kid's toy. The Zen Touch is something you'll feel compelled to be careful with. Although, I take mine to the gym for my weight training and cardio workouts. I wouldn't suggest sprinting with it or throwing it around, but it is very well-built.

The only reason this product gets 4 stars, instead of 5, is the terrible software included. But if you pay the extra to get the independently produced Notmad Explorer, then the software bugs are a non-issue.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: not durable
Review: I purchased this product for my husband's birthday. Unfortunately, he only had it 2 days before an accident occurred in which the belt clip slipped from his belt and the player fell about 2 feet to our tile floor. This 1 fall seems to have wrecked the player. I might have done better to purchase a $300 brick. I am currently researching methods of somehow rescuing the player without paying the exhorbitant repair fees charged by Creative (since the warranty doesn't cover anything that isn't Creative's "fault"--as if poor durability isn't their fault).

I have heard that the I-pod can sustain several falls without severe problems, and if I had known of the Zen's poor durability before my purchase, I would have bought the I-pod instead. So: head's up if you're considering this purchase.

Rating:
Summary: a good player, but flawed...
Review: i really do like this player; it's great, super-fast (near-instant boot time, fast shutdown) and the battery life is stellar: i drove from austin to dallas and back--5 hours of driving--playing 128-to-320kbps VBR mp3s and the battery is still at 3 bars (out of 3.)

the problem i have with it is that the touchpad is just annoying. even at lowest sensitivity, it's far too easy to accidentally scroll up or down by 2 items instead of 1. i would say 90% of the time when i try to make the tiniest possible gesture, it either doesn't scroll or scrolls by 2 items.

what really gets me, though, is that the touchpad is just not the right mechanism for this. if it were obviously a great idea that just needed a little tuning, i'd be fine with it. but really, a set of four buttons--up, down, page up, page down--would be better in every way.

with the touchpad, you have to be looking at the player to use it. i know my way around many of the context menus without looking at them, now, but i *have* to look at them since i don't know, using the touchpad, how far i have scrolled if i don't. with buttons i could easily click 'down' 3 times and know where the cursor was. this is actually a pretty serious problem while driving.

i didn't know this until i got the player, but the touchpad is divided into 3 regions; the top third is for "fast upwards scrolling", the middle for "precise scrolling" and the bottom for "fast downwards scrolling." so they've already discretized this supposedly-analog touchpad, and even then it's often hard to use even on low sensitivity. with buttons, problem solved.

one nice thing about the touchpad is that with a very fast, full-pad swoosh downwards or upwards you can scroll through a hundred or more items instantly. but you could set up the page up and page down buttons so that if you held them for more than a few moments, they rapidly started scrolling up or down, and it would really be just as effective.

other reviews say things like "the touchpad is not bad once you get used to it" or whatever. first of all, i'm unconvinced; i've been using this thing every day for several weeks now and it's still irritating to use: i'll seriously scroll up and down by 2 items 4 or 5 times just trying to home in on the item between them, which is frustrating.

but furthermore, the fact is the touchpad is completely unnecessary. buttons would be better in every way. seems like creative made the touchpad decision more to copy the iPod than because it was actually a good design idea, which is unfortunate.

nonetheless, like i said, i love the player; the sound quality is good, the size is nice, the battery life is incredible and the integration with my windows xp machine is really pretty seamless.

Rating:
Summary: Amazed
Review: I recently received a 40 GB Creative Zen Touch for Christmas. At first I was not very excited because I was really looking forward to getting an iPOD (only because it was popular, bad judgement on my part). After doing some research, I decided that the size of the Zen did not bother me considering the 24 hour battery life that it offered.

I opened the box, charged the Zen in four hours and started to use it right away. I downloaded the software that was packaged with the product but I do not ever use it. Windows Media Player 10 has a feature that connects with many MP3 players. This feature allows me to download music in to my Zen easily.

In all the reviews that I have read, everyone has complained about the sound quality of the headphones. I have been using them since I've gotten it and I think they sound very good. My only complaint is that they are a little big so they don't fit comfortably in my ears but this isn't even a problem with the player.

I am so thankful that I chose to keep it. When I arrived to school on Monday, there was an abundance of kids with their iPODs and iPOD minis. I am glad that I am not one of them. I have even received compliments for not being like everyone else.

In conclusion, I am very grateful for my Zen and I recommend it to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Great Player - Great Value
Review: I've had my 40gb zen-touch for a week and couldn't be much happier.

In response to the review about the root structure....I think this is only an issue for the most intense 1% of users. You can locate files by artist, album or genre, so unless you REALLY need to have sub-genre folders to separate cool-jazz from be-bop in your jazz folder, it won't be an issue.

I've got 6,200 tracks loaded (that's 490 albums) and still have over 9gb of space remaining. I've been running for 20 hours on my most recent charge, and there's still a bit of juice left. The style is slick, and the convenient lock switch on the top of the player will easily eliminate any un-intentional scrolling when in transit. The touch-pad IS a bit sensitive, but that's about the only complaint I might have (and a minor inconvenience at that).

With double the memory and double the battery life of a similarly priced i-pod, the zen-touch is a great product.

Treat it with respect (i.e. avoid drops from height on hard surfaces) and you'll be pleased with your purchase.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Build Quality, Great Sound, some minor Quirks
Review: Some brief notes on the 40GB Zen Touch from Creative. I have used it now for about two weeks and am very pleased with it after I got around some quirks.

The player seems to be built very nicely. It has a very solid and quality feel and has this substantial touch to it. Another way would be to say it's heavier than expected and certainly heavier than a comparable iPod (the size difference is quite neglectable).

The sound is very good and the equalizer works well too. It's usually not necessary, but it can help to customize the sound. I do not think, like some reviews of the 20GB version suggest, that the sound isn't loud enough. I don't have to crank it up to 25 even in my MCC Smart @85 mph (a rather noisy car, trust me).

The operation of the player is on the fast side. Skipping tracks is instantaneous and selection of tracks happens without noticeable delay (my player is loaded to about 80% with 5000+ songs @192kbs).

There are a few things I didn't like about the Zen Touch though. First, the touch pad is rather sensitive and while this is great to scan through thousands of songs, it's bothersome when selecting a single entry.

The second weak point is the file organization on the player. All mp3 files are stored in one directory, which inevitably leads to some clashes for songs with the same name. I had to convert the ripped files with a little script to include the artist and album information in order to create unambiguous file names.

Battery capacity seems very good when the player is used as a player. Downloading songs or managing play lists on the other hand is using up a lot of battery power.

All things considered, I am very happy with the player so far.

Rating:
Summary: If you have an existing large mp3 collection, DO NOT BUY!
Review: Wonderous Creative Inc fails to notify buyers of the Creative Zen Touch 40GB that all files in your music library get copied to ONE single ROOT directory on the player (Read: No Subdirectory functionality whatsoever). The only way to sort your new glorious one directory jukebox is by id3 tags. For those of us who have been using mp3s since the internet was born, we made a habit of deleting id3 tags because they were RARELY uniform accross the CDDB. Sometimes they seemed like they were written by people who could only type with a rubber mallet in one hand and a basketball in the other. Or they would classify Bach under grunge.

Lessons learned: Id3 tags are as only as good as their authors, and any kind of naming/classifying standards for music have yet to be developed.

Oh yea, and the touch pad pretty much eliminates any kind of in car usage.