Rating: 
Summary: Great product, but cost to storage ratio gets exploited.
Review: I bought this recently without a microdrive in it for very cheap - since I cannot get an unvoided, new in the box version without paying more than retail. Creative sold it for 199, but people felt the need to open the damn things up and sell the Microdrives for a quick buck. This drove up the price from more than retail and people are paying 250+ for this unit!Moral of the story = people are greedy. However, the unit itself is teriffic. I had a Nomad IIMG LE player before this one, and it reminds me of the RCA Kazoo, only made by a better company.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent product!
Review: I have had my Muvo 4GB player for 3 weeks now and have been extremely pleased with it. This player fit my very specific needs. I have a large number of files that are MP3 and WMA (the latter purchased online), so I felt it was best to NOT get an iPod. My previous mp3 player was a MagicStar 256MB, but wanted to upgrade because I found my commute to be longer, spent a lot of time in the car or metro, and became bored with listening to only the same 60 some songs over and over again. Plus, I go to the gym, and specifically wanted something durable and not have to worry about a huge spinning hard-drive. I wanted a player that was light, small, unnoticeable, but could deliver big on functionality. The Muvo definitely hit the spot with its 4GB Toshiba Micro-drive (v compact, durable, and high capacity). First, this thing is SMALL and LIGHT... it fits perfectly in the closed unused ashtray of my car, keeping it out of site from prying eyes. I compared side-by-side with the new iPod 4GB, and the muvo is SUBSTANTIALLY smaller, lighter and compact. It probably weighs as much as my Siemens C56 cellphone. I currently have 500 songs loaded on there with 3 different playlists, and have used less than 2GB so far. On the metro and in the gym, I use the included belt holster. Its very well structured and shock-proof, but the only drawback is that the buttons are inaccessible. I can overlook that drawback since I tend to use playlists or continually shuffle my music. The buttons are small, and people with large fingers may have some difficulty. I have not had any problems manipulating the directional button (vol up/down, prev/next track), nor accessing the menu (push button straight down). A slightly annoying factor is that you need to hold the PLAY/PAUSE button down for 5 seconds straight in order to power on/off. The menu is small but readable, but I don't really read it all the time since I'm always on the go. The backlight is blue, and ID3 tags for the songs scroll across when playing. The menu includes tools, playlist, playmode (shuffle, repeat, etc), EQ, delete, radio, and microphone. You navigate using the directional button. For my basic needs, I use playlist and shuffle. I delete files using Windows Explorer. I ditched the included earbuds and use my own Koss Plugs. I did use the included earbuds for the first couple of days and found it to be sub-standard in sound and uncomfortable. The sound from this unit is great... many different equalizer settings, but I set mine to Rock and don't use the other ones. With the right set of earplugs, the bass is nice and heavy, and the sound is very crisp. I use a cassette adapter in the car with the Muvo, and it sounds just as good. I've noticed a little hissing or distortion, but that's either because of the cassette adapter, not having the player set at the proper volume, or your unit needs is almost out of juice. Just play around with the unit to find the right balance. The unit comes with a rechargable lithium ion battery. I was spoiled before because my last player was able to recharge via USB port. This battery gets a full charge in about 3 hrs with the included AC-adapter. I haven't really pushed (nor paid attention) to the full claimed 10 hour charge. Let's just say, I recharge every 2-3 days of my everyday activities. I recommend plugging in your unit to the charger when doing large song transfers; those tend to eat a lot of juice. Oh, and the battery COMES OUT, meaning that you can replace or buy an extra one if needed. The iPod batteries are non-removeable. I use MusicMatch and am able to do file/playlist transfers using the "import to portable" function in MMJB. It takes some getting used to... I initially would set up playlist folders on the Muvo using Windows Explorer, and import my playlists into each discrete folder with the proper m3u file. If I did not set up playlist folders with the m3u files, the unit would randomly read any existing mp3s in its memory regardless of playlist. I've toyed with the included Creative MediaSource software, and it is a little clumsy with too many frames and windows going on. Stick with what you're comfortable with because everything is drag and drop. You could just use Windows Explorer to drag and drop your files and m3u's directly to the Muvo, but if you do a straight drag-and-drop of your music files only, the player will play them alphabetically according to ID3 tag. File transfer by USB 2.0 is SUPER FAST. I was able to transfer my current 2GB of files on there in about 10 mins or so. I wasn't paying attention to exact duration because I was getting ready to leave and needed to do this on the fly before I left! It did the job superbly. I ran a recovery once on the unit because it froze during a transfer and the drive became undetectable to my notebook. When in doubt, there is a small pinhole in the back of the unit that will reset your unit to original state. I do recommend that you upgrade to the the firmware: http://www.nomadworld.com/downloads/firmware/
User manuals, support, etc are available on this website. PROS:
- extremely small and light (moreso than the iPod)
- Great sound
- Huge capacity with a very durable and dependable microdrive (I've dropped this thing a few times with no probs at all)
- Long battery life
- Works with MMJB
- Inexpensive compared to other comparable players
- its not an iPod! Be different! CONS:
- Small buttons take some getting used to
- Small screen
- does not support AAC files (for iTunes users out there)
- Playlist transfer (.m3u files) is not intuitive unless you play around with it and properly set up the folders just right
- Does not charge via USB (there aren't many out there that do that to begin with, and I was spoiled by my MagicStar) I am extremely happy with this item and highly recommend it to people always on the go (commuters, gym, school, driving) and for people who are tough on their toys (toss in the bag, car, drop, etc). Great value. I only gave it 4 out of 5 stars for minor quirks.
Rating: 
Summary: Creative Muvo2 Mp3 Player
Review: I have owned this player for over a year and so far I havent had any problems that most others have mentioned about, unit freezing up and trouble shutting down. Overall a simple straighforward easy to use device that suprisingly is durable and when 4gb is not sufficent space for you, the drive is removable (version 1.0 only) for your other compatible digital devices. The audio quality is excellent, especially when paired with good headphones (I use the Creative HN-505 noise cancelling headphones and recommend them) Another recommendation is to buy Notmad Explorer (Universal Edition if you own more than one Creative Labs Mp3 players)from Red Chair Software and you can avoid all the gripes about the software on reviews.
The gripes I have with this player are as follows:
1. The Lcd is small and hard to read
2. No built in Tuner or recorder (Must purchase seperately)
3. The buttons are too small and cant be accessed efficiently (easy workaround is to buy the wired remote)
4. The Creative case for this unit has no window to view the lcd or access the buttons without taking the player out of it.
5. The way the player stores the files on the harddrive is inefficient and is a bit of a chore to find (workaround is to create playlists)
Some of those points are minor to me but may be the ultimate difference to many. The main thing would be to buy the wired remote to gain fm radio and voice recording capability. Another plus is you wont need to fumble with the tiny buttons on the player and you can have the lcd on the remote within view that can be clipped on anywhere. Make sure that you download and install the latest firmware and drivers for Windows XP. Additional always check the Creative Labs website for the latest accessories such as the armband case, extended run time battery and car charger.
Overall there is nothing too big to fault in this player, It has substance, capacity, small form factor, doubles as a removable disk with drag and drop functionality, microdrive is removable, and the sound quality is excellent with more than adequate volume levels.
This is not the player for those of you that value style, if you want that buy an IPOD Mini. If you want something that is cheaper, better sounding and has a removable/user replacable battery then this is the player for you.
Rating:
Summary: The good plus the bad
Review: I just got this player a few days ago so hopefully my review isn't too premature. I am overall very happy with this player, though it's a real devil to find at the moment. Anyway, on to the review. The bad: * The design, feel and interface is far inferior to the Ipods. There's no comparison. It feels pretty cheapy and the controls are way small.
* You can't get to the buttons through the case. Instead you have to buy the FM remote, which is rather expensive (and you have to do the firmware to get that to work).
* You need to get USB 2 to get the files transfered quickly, if you don't already have it.
* You'll probably want new headphones too. The good: > It sounds fantastic. I'm not kidding. It really does sound amazing.
> The microdrive seems sturdier than the larger mp3 hard drives.
> It's really small.
> It can do wma's which is a great benefit.
> With USB 2, it's fast as hell.
> I have XP and the installation/setup couldn't be easier.
> The removable battery is great (I got a cheap one on Ebay). All in all, I'd say it beats the Ipod mini, which is the chief competitor. To me, it came down to WMAs, the battery and sound quality over the interface. If you care more about the interface, you should get the Ipod.
Rating:
Summary: Good player for the price
Review: I ordered the product in February, a few days after it became available. After doing some research, and considering the fact I don't need all my music on the go, I had 3 options: The iPod Mini, Nitrus 4GB (hmm... lucky I didn't wait:-P) and the Muvo^2.
The iPod Mini has loads of features, but I wanted to buy an MP3 Player.
The Creative has a replaceable battery, which I consider a big plus , and it has a good battery life.
The Muvo^2 doesn't look as cool as the others, but I liked its look , and I don't think the iPod Mini's look is a reason for the price difference.
A good thing about the iPod Mini is its one year warranty (the Muvo^2 has 3 months). So far I haven't had any problems. A couple of times, after a bad disconnection from the computer, I had to check it for errors (takes less than 30 secs), but overall it works great.
I didn't get much chance to use the software, since I've already got the songs in mp3 format, and I just shuffle the songs so I don't really need the playlist, but it seems fine.
The drag-and-drop is really convenient, and I also use it to transfer data files if neccessary.
The transfer speed is very good too.
The sound quality is really good, like all Creative's products.
There's an optional remote with an FM tuner, but I haven't tried it so can't comment about it. About the person who wrote the hard-drive isn't in, that's because you bought it used, and the person you bought it from took the hard-drive off. The "real" unit comes with the HD inside:-P So basically, the player is for people who need a good mp3 player with good battery life and great sound, in a really good price, and don't want to pay extra for (in my opinion useless) additions.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely lacking in some respects, but still useful
Review: I rate this product 3.5 stars, and I'll tell you why. When I attempted to use the brand new player after charging it to capacity, kept getting recovery mode and "media error" whenever I pressed any of the buttons. The computer wouldn't recognize the player either. I shook it and hit it a few times with my palm, and after the seventh time of turning the thing on, the screen, instead of recovery mode, went to "loading music"!!! Amazing. So, now that my player was FINALLY working right, I could begin transferring music - if I could figure out how to. The Creative Media Organizer is SOO confusing. Very strange, because you'd think if the Rio Nitrus/Karma has such a great Music Manager program, the Creative one would be just as easy to use. Wrong. It took me forever to figure out how to transfer music in a way that I could group songs by Album (because you can't choose to play by track, artist, etc. on the player which is VERY annoying b/c Rio gives you all those options). But that aside, dragging and dropping folders from My Computer wasn't good b/c the ripped albums show up as "copy protected." Copying from WinMedia Player wasn't good either b/c the tracks show up on the player as separate "albums" if you will-not grouped like it should. So the only choice I had was to use the Creative program. I finally solved the problem by importing every single music file I have in the various folders of My Computer into the Creative PC Music Library. Then, naming new folders the albums' names, I dragged and dropped each group of files into their respective folders. A supposedly simple problem made difficult by the bad organization of the Muvo and features (for example, you also can't play "all files" at one time, only a folder at a time; the 4-band equalizer isn't sufficient, the screen is seriously small, as are the buttons). Otherwise, this player is really cute (cheap-feeling though) and the case is really helpful. The headphones are really cheap though. Also, if you want maximum use of this player, get the fm wired remote. I bought one and it works great. I can use the microphone to tape lectures (in fact that's what I did today), listen to the radio, record from radio, and control the player too. And a great thing about the microphone is that even though you can only record 10 hours of the .wav files, you can just copy the files into the PC Music Library and delete ones in the player so you won't lose the recording but clear the space for more recordings, you know what I mean? Now I'm used to the Creative Music Organizer and it works well enough for me. So, to sum it up, by itself the player is good with a few very annoying aspects (as I've explained what they are). But put it with the fm wired remote and you've got a tiny player that does almost everything it should. Just use caution and buy extended warranty b/c you may not be as lucky as I was. Oh, and I don't suggest you buy Rio hard drive mp3 products because lots of other ppl had the same hard drive problems with it (Nitrus - Karma, I understand, has similar probs too) as I had at about the same time frame I had it, so be aware. Hope this helped.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely lacking in some respects, but still useful
Review: I rate this product 3.5 stars, and I'll tell you why. When I attempted to use the brand new player after charging it to capacity, kept getting recovery mode and "media error" whenever I pressed any of the buttons. The computer wouldn't recognize the player either. I shook it and hit it a few times with my palm, and after the seventh time of turning the thing on, the screen, instead of recovery mode, went to "loading music"!!! Amazing. So, now that my player was FINALLY working right, I could begin transferring music - if I could figure out how to. The Creative Media Organizer is SOO confusing. Very strange, because you'd think if the Rio Nitrus/Karma has such a great Music Manager program, the Creative one would be just as easy to use. Wrong. It took me forever to figure out how to transfer music in a way that I could group songs by Album (because you can't choose to play by track, artist, etc. on the player which is VERY annoying b/c Rio gives you all those options). But that aside, dragging and dropping folders from My Computer wasn't good b/c the ripped albums show up as "copy protected." Copying from WinMedia Player wasn't good either b/c the tracks show up on the player as separate "albums" if you will-not grouped like it should. So the only choice I had was to use the Creative program. I finally solved the problem by importing every single music file I have in the various folders of My Computer into the Creative PC Music Library. Then, naming new folders the albums' names, I dragged and dropped each group of files into their respective folders. A supposedly simple problem made difficult by the bad organization of the Muvo and features (for example, you also can't play "all files" at one time, only a folder at a time; the 4-band equalizer isn't sufficient, the screen is seriously small, as are the buttons). Otherwise, this player is really cute (cheap-feeling though) and the case is really helpful. The headphones are really cheap though. Also, if you want maximum use of this player, get the fm wired remote. I bought one and it works great. I can use the microphone to tape lectures (in fact that's what I did today), listen to the radio, record from radio, and control the player too. And a great thing about the microphone is that even though you can only record 10 hours of the .wav files, you can just copy the files into the PC Music Library and delete ones in the player so you won't lose the recording but clear the space for more recordings, you know what I mean? Now I'm used to the Creative Music Organizer and it works well enough for me. So, to sum it up, by itself the player is good with a few very annoying aspects (as I've explained what they are). But put it with the fm wired remote and you've got a tiny player that does almost everything it should. Just use caution and buy extended warranty b/c you may not be as lucky as I was. Oh, and I don't suggest you buy Rio hard drive mp3 products because lots of other ppl had the same hard drive problems with it (Nitrus - Karma, I understand, has similar probs too) as I had at about the same time frame I had it, so be aware. Hope this helped.
Rating:
Summary: Great Player for the price!
Review: I really like this player. I ripped my cd collection easily and loaded onto the player. Fits easily in a pocket or in my glovebox. I use it mostly while driving to a from work. I didn't want to spend the extra money on an ipod, I also didn't need 15gb of storage.
Rating:
Summary: Good MP3 Player + Portable Storage
Review: I seriously considered both the Muvo2 4GB and the iPod Mini before making my buying decision. My needs are that I listen to a smallish music collections (about 4GB or ~800 songs), I wanted a small MP3 player that can serve as a portable storage device, and my budget was under two hundred dollars (Feb. 2004). The Muvo2 4GB fits the bill as a small MP3 player and it is recognized by Windows XP as an external drive once connected via USB (1.1 and 2.0 compatible). I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars and here's why: The Muvo2 4GB isn't smaller than the iPod Mini as one reviewer mentioned. Volumetrically, it's 1.5 times as large the Mini. The Muvo2 measures 2.6" x 2.6" x 0.8" or 5.4 cubic-in. The Mini measures 2.0" x 3.6" x 0.5" or 3.6 cubic-in. However, the difference is minute because they both easily fit in any shirt pocket. Both weigh (light!!!) about the same: 3.2-oz (Muvo2), 3.6-oz (Mini). The Muvo2 comes with the Hitachi (not Toshiba) internal CompactFlash II compatible harddrive. For a new unit, battery duration is as rated: 14 hours. I've tested the claim to hold true as I use the unit through out the day and it hasn't once run out of juice on me. I do charge it at the end of the day. You can charge the unit via the supplied AC adapter or via any self-powered USB port (not PCMCIA card). You do need to right-click on the device under My Computer (XP) and select "Eject" in order to charge it via USB. Otherwise, XP just treats it as an external drive. The Muvo's rechargeable battery is user replaceable and costs less than the Mini's. I can drag-and-drop music and other data files to the Muvo2 from my computer with ease without the use of any additional software (simply plug and play). This is one of the reasons I chose the Muvo2. However, you can still use the included MediaSource software to manage your music collections. For the iPod, I believe you need to use the iTunes software to transfer music files. If you compare the Muvo2 against the iPod Mini, the look of the Muvo2 feels a little cheap because of the plastic enclosure but it feels sturdy nonetheless (if you don't drop it). The Muvo's ergonomics can stand some improvement. The two smallish navigation buttons don't feel right. The larger joystick type button has imprecise navigation. The 3-second-hold-and-release in turning on/off the unit is annoying. After holding the smaller on/off button for 3 seconds, you MUST release the button before it turns on/off (meaning you MUST visually pay FULL attention to it when turning it on/off). Counter-intuitive comes to mind. Hence the 4 out of 5 stars. As one reviewer suggested, you should download the latest firmware to make the unit function a bit more intuitive (the root folder and playlist are now the two first choices under the menu). The latest firmware also adds support for the optional (must purchase separately) external remote/FM tuner/recorder. Why I selected the Muvo2 over the iPod Mini was entirely based on my own needs: 1.) very small, very portable MP3 player
2.) 4GB (800 songs) of music collections
3.) portable external storage device w/o need for additional software (just plug and play)
4.) two hundred dollar budget
5.) user-replaceable battery Suggestions for improvement: - need to mimic iPod Mini ergonomics (better navigation, better buttons)
- need to incorporate more software functions like the iPod (song rating, time(date), calendar, contacts, games :D)
- need sexy aluminum (real) enclosure Overall, the Muvo2 sounds great, feels very small, priced right, and meets my needs. Nothing fancy or sexy, however. March 2004
Rating:
Summary: Great deal, impressive size, unique design.
Review: I think this player was a great purchase for the price that I paid.
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