Rating: 
Summary: Buy an extended warranty - you'll need it!!! :(
Review: I'll state up front that I do not own a Zen Xtra and have not used one at all. But you might find my review useful, nonetheless. I purchased a Jukebox 3 from Creative almost a year ago. Two months ago, an internal part failed (NOT due to customer abuse; it just failed). I got an RMA from Creative, sent my player in to them for repairs. It took them twice as long to get to my unit as they said it would. Moreover, they want a total of $107 to repair it. (This includes the $20 that you have to pay up front, just to get them to look at your player.) If Creative offered a 12-month warranty on their MP3 players, I'd be covered. But they offer only a 3-month warranty (on all of their players, including the Zen Xtra). So I'm screwed. But you don't have to be. If you buy a Creative MP3 player, be sure to get the optional extended warranty. Or better yet, buy from another company that stands behind their products with a 12-month warranty. It's really a shame, because otherwise, Creative MP3 players are very good, and have the best sound quality of any players on the market.
Rating: 
Summary: CD Collection in your pocket
Review: I got this for Christmas, and it is a great gift. I have been ripping songs into it for the past few weeks, and the ease of use is wonderful. The memory will hold an amazing amount of songs, my entire collection of CD's will all fit on this great little tiny piece of digital fun. Plusses are the easy to remove battery and the terrific sound produced by the Nomad. The only two things that stop me from giving it 5 stars are the ho-hum software that comes with the system, and the traveling case it comes with. This is a powerful piece of equipment. It is great to no longer wonder what music I want to take with me for a cross country flight or a two week trip- now I just take everything. Ripping the songs, even with my 1.1 USB connection is still very quick, and the quality is very good. Considering the price and specs, this might be the best buy out there for a large memory MP3 player. Before jumping on the Ipod train, take a look at this marvel.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent way to carry your music collection!
Review: After investigating a multitude of player options, I asked for and received the 60 GB Zen Xtra for Christmas. Despite its being slightly larger than the iPod, I must say I was surprised to see how small it was when I unwrapped the box! I am ripping my CD collection into 160 kbps WMA files; this gives an average of around 60-65 MB per CD, good for about 900 CDs in the ~57,000 MB of free memory available to me. File transfers are fast, nearly a song per second via USB 2.0. Several people have complained of difficulty transferring multiple songs with the same title. THIS IS POSSIBLE!! Since the Zen Xtra does not use a folder structure, the "duplicate name" problem stems from the actual file name, NOT from the song's title/artist/album. Solution? Simply configure the MediaSource software (or Windows Media Player, or your ripper-du-jour) to create file names that include artist and (especially) album names in addition to track names. Using this method, I have not once encountered a situation where a track was rejected, and I have PLENTY of duplicate tracks on live and compilation albums. Even if there happened to be identical track titles on the same disc, you could still edit the file name manually and get them both onto the player. My one issue with the MediaSource software is that, despite pulling ID3 tag data from the CDDS service, the ripping process fails to populate the "Year" field. Weird. How does it sound? To my ears, a 160 kbps WMA file sounds just as good as the source CD, and the Zen Xtra sounds just as good as a portable CD player. No complaints there. The EAX features are pretty cool, as well, as Creative has included a number of EQ adjustments that, for example, compensate for the extraneous noise encountered in a car or on a train. Navigation could be better, but there isn't really anything the Zen Xtra can't do once you've gotten comfortable with it. At the end of the day, what I wanted was a large-capacity player which allows me to easily play any album from my collection wherever I go, and the Zen Xtra's combination of price, capacity and features easily meets those criteria.
Rating: 
Summary: Good player, bad software
Review: Pros:
* Price and capacity
* Slick-looking design and improved interface
* Removable battery Cons:
* Protective case completely useless as is since it obscures display window. Had to cut out a window using a Swiss Army knife. How did this gigantic flaw go unnoticed by Creative?
* Scroll button more cumbersome than on earlier models. Doesn't always register push-button movement.
* EAX equalizer accentuates dimished quality of mp3 files. I have to rip everything as a 160 kbps WMA file (as opposed to 128 kbps mp3) to avoid hearing digital garbling.
* Does not provide enough volume when connected to larger headphones, or external receivers (car radio).
* Software is absolutely terrible:
--> Will not automatically transfer songs with identical titles (if you have live albums or greatest hits albums, this will cause you inordinate frustration).
--> Does not recognize player at random times, despite being connected and displaying player's library.
--> Too difficult to change genre/album/track information for large number of tracks.
--> You'll be changing track information a lot because the CD database information utilized by the software is mediocre at best. If you have any multi-disc box sets, you'll notice that the artist's name, album name, and genre will often change with every disc. Final verdict: A good player at a great price with terrible software that makes ripping and transferring way more difficult than it should be.
Rating: 
Summary: yet another inferior knockoff
Review: Granted this is cheaper than an ipod. Cheaper in every way. Its far heavier and much larger which might not seem to matter except if you use it while running or keep it in your pocket. Its far more difficult to select songs and has no easy to use on the fly playlist creation such as the new ipod not to mention it doesn't sinc with contact lists, phone numbers, address books, ect. like the ipod (which eliminated my need for any kind of palm device). It also has unproven battery life. Everyone who says I can't buy the ipod because after excessive use in a short time (the man who made the ipod battery life video admitted that he had used it extensively every day and charged fully every night for those 18 months, conditions under which ANY rechargeable battery dies. Use this for 18 months every day and see what happens, Or look at a 2 year old electric razor and see if it holds the same charge as the first day you had it). While it is an alternative to the ipod and one of the few viable ones its just that, an alternative and why would anyone seek an alternative to something that really needs no alternative choice because theres nothing wrong and everything right with it. I'd like to see how well a small company supports its MP3 player in 2 years when its battery dies as all rechargeable do. Finally the software used to put all the songs into it is vastly inferior to itunes on two levels, first it is poorly integrated into the overall player and clunky to use especially with tagging and second the wma audio format sucks, flat out sucks in terms of sound quality compared with the vastly superior AAC format the apple ipod uses and it sticks you with one of the sub par paid music services such as napster instead of allowing to use the itunes store, which, if you ever plan to pay for your music, is by far the best. Before anyone says hey you haven't used the product, I have, my friend received one for christmas instead of an ipod and has since envied me for my vastly superior product.
Rating:
Summary: what a beast
Review: i got this awhile ago knowing nothing about it. it is a beast. if i wasnt a runner i would take a bullet in the foot for my nomad jukebox. now heres the stuff you should know starting with the good things: the screen is really big and the blue light in the back is perfect, fast as hell in music transfer, controls are easy to use after mastering the scroll button, GREAT sound and ive heard many mp3 players, a ton of different equilizer type deals on here. There are a couple things i didnt like though but nothing serious: a little larger than other mp3s but still light, the software takes some time to get used to (maybe 10-15 mins), and this thing would definitely be destroyed with one fall. but it comes with a tank of a case and if you cut a piece out where the screen is you can always keep it in the case and still access everything. ive seen em all, the archos, dell, ipods, everything... good price and great sound makes this one the best in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I got this player for Christmas & this was my first time using an MP3 player. I have a large collection of CDs and have loaded over 100 of them so far. The software is quick & easy to use & I found the entire process very easily mastered. As mentioned in other reviews the headphones are useless and need to be replaced right away! The unit works great with my cassette adapter for my car & is also easily worked without taking your eyes off the road! I have tried the Belkin TuneCast Mobile FM Transmitter but found there was too much interference. Overall it is a great unit & hopefully creative labs or some other vendor will soon come out with some accessories for it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Alternative
Review: I got this thing for Christmas and i have been very happy with it ever since. I was planning on getting an ipod, but i changed my mind last minute...mostly because of the whole battery issue, i don't have the patience for those sorta things. My cuzin got an ipod and i won't say it is an awful product, but i will say that for the price, apple could do better as far as storage and battery life goes. The only thing i would complain about the Zen XTRA is that the controls aren't as easy as the ipod's, or as "sexy" looking.
Rating:
Summary: A disappointment overall
Review: Its big and heavy. Fully charged the battery lasts less than 4 hours of play time. Less than an hour when downloading. The software crashes frequently during large downloads.
Rating:
Summary: Poor substitute for an iPod
Review: Simply not as friendly for functional as an iPod. Even better, iPod integrates perfectly with iTunes so that managing music is a snap.
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