Rating: 
Summary: Great Product
Review: I bought the Zen last week, quickly charged it, and have been enjoying it ever since. It was very easy to set up and has been very easy to transfer file to it. The software seems alright and the performance has been great. I have about 5GB already on it, and expect to put much more on it. The battery seems to last as promised. The only critique is being unable to find the FM Wired Remote for it. Everyone seems to be out of stock. Highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Essential for Music Addicts
Review: So great. Honestly, the only thing the iPod has on this is size and weight, which aren't even big differences. Size was an issue for me, since I walk 2 miles roundtrip to school every day, and I kept my previous MP3 player in my pocket. This still fits fine. I don't even have USB 2.0, and I thought loading files would take the same time as with my previous player. Not so. I loaded 1,355 songs on here in less than an hour, which is great, since I'm used to waiting 20 minutes to put only 1 album on. Keep in mind that with 1,355 songs, I have filled less than 1/4 of the memory, and all my MP3's are at 160kbps. This is great, becuase if you are tired of lugging around a CD case filled with CD's and your CD player with you on long vacations, you only have to "lug" around this compact nine ounce device that can hold about 350-500 of your albums. I have had no problems with this since I got it. I strongly recommend this instead of an iPod. C'mon, why spend $500 when you can get a slightly heavier, larger version for $200 less?
Rating:
Summary: super stoked on the Zen...
Review: It was either the Zen or the I-POD and I chose the Zen for a couple of reasons. Waaaayyyyyy cheaper and not an Apple product reverse engineered for a PC. Getting the songs into it was a pain because bad files can crash the transfer so I had to eliminate some junk. Once it was loaded, it killed. Also, since it has a standard lap-top drive in it, you can oper her up and pop a 60 gig in if you want (there is firmware to allow OS to see additional files). Zen is worth every penny and it beats the hell out of a 6-disk changer in the car.
Rating: 
Summary: Great for music but not much else....
Review: I originally purchase the 20Gig Archos recorder which died on me but I did love it's simplicity. Your computer basically sees it as a removable drive, something the Zen does not do. Just drag your directory stucture over an tada, done. Move your .m3u playlists with them and your in business.Creative Playcenter, the software player-interface that comes with the Zen, is a brick at best. The playcenter or zen do not support external playlists such as .m3u which is a negative. Data files and .mp3 files that you would like to listen to are copied to seperate areas of the Zen so just copying your .mp3 fils over isn't going to work. It general you have to buy "Creatives dream" of how you, your computer and your Zen should interact. Give me a break, it's just a Hard Disk The is a utility called Notmad from Red Chair that certainly address' to some extect the issues mentioned above but at a price, [amount] on top of the price of the Zen. While is supports drag and drop from your computer HD to the Zen and it allows for the import of playlist, directory structures are not kept either in the "music storage" or "file storage" areas on the Zen which is bizarre concept in itself. In general creative has made the Zen MUCH harder than it needs to be. I called them and they said if was designed this way in an attempt to comply with copyright laws. In reality this will only weed out the very amature and more that likely if you have a 20g player you are not one of them. As usual there is a way around everything. OK, now as an MP3 player it is great. It has nice sound, easy interface, some bells and whistles here and there. There are EAX environment setting which will add reverb and simulate you are listening in bathroom, cathedral, concert hall, etc. While this is cute I really don't see the need to pretend that I'm listening to Limp Bizkit in a cave... It seems to me that if they wanted to come up with something groundbreaking it would be to REMOVE the reverb from an audio recording, sounds more useful to me... In summary as a player its great, for someone who wants a player/utility drive comes up short. I think I would look for something between and Archos and Zen.
Rating:
Summary: An iPod Equivalent for PC users; AT A MUCH BETTER PRICE!
Review: The Nomad Jukebox Zen is an amazing piece of technology. It has a monstrous 20GB hard drive so you can take ALL of your music with you. The battery lasts for a whopping 14 hrs (12 hrs. on the SB1394 Firewire/USB 1.1 model) so it won't die on you during those long car rides. The USB 2.0 sends music to your Nomad Zen at an amazing 60 MegaBYTES per second. That's FASTER THAN FIREWIRE! If you haven't upgraded to USB 2.0 or your computer is older. A simple 2-port USB 2.0 PCI Card is less, and well worth it. The menu on the Zen is also amazing. You can browse your songs by Artist, Album, Track Title, and Genre. You can also have the Zen search your Music Archive under the same categories. In addition, maximize your audio quality using EAX Audio. This is a technology developed by Creative which allows you to simulate environments (such as a concert hall, indoor arena, or living room), speed up or slow down a track by up to .5x so you can catch every note of that guitar solo. My favorite EAX option is the Smart Volume Management or SVM feature. The Zen has presets for a Train, Plane, Car, or Late Night. In the "Late Night" mode, the Zen will maintain the volume so that you won't hear any sudden increases in volume at the crescendo of the song. This allows you to play all your favorite Rock music while relaxing or sleeping and not be unnerved by frequent alterations in the volume.
The Nomad Zen is quite small (although I'll admit the iPod is slightly smaller) and, contrary to most online reviews, will fit very nicely in your pants pocket. The only reason it would not fit is if you are a female and wear very tightly-fitting pants that do not have spacious pockets. If you enjoy wearing these pants, DON'T WORRY! You can strap the Zen around a belt loop using the very stylish carrying case that comes with the Zen. The Zen also comes with the USB 2.0 cable and an AC Adaptor, as well as a CD which contains the full user guide, an interactive tutorial, and Creative Play Center and Creative File Manager which are used to transfer music files and other files to the Zen's hard drive. And if you really want a remote on the headphone wire like the 20GB iPod has, then Creative has an optional FM Wired Remote which not only acts as a remote control, but adds an FM tuner with up to 30 presets and a microphone for voice recordings. You can even see track information on the Remote's backlit LCD screen. And the best thing about the Nomad Jukebox Zen is that it costs LESS THAN THE 20GB IPOD!
Rating:
Summary: BETTER AND LESS EXPENSIVE THAN Ipod
Review: This product is absolutely amazing! The blazing fast USB 2.0 connection transfers at 480 Mbits/sec which is FASTER THAN FIREWIRE AND LESS EXPENSIVE! This product will hold more songs than the $[money] iPod which only has 5GB of memory. And better yet, in May Creative plans to release an FM Wired Remote which will add an FM Tuner, Voice Recording Capabilities via a built-in microphone, and the ability to change volume, pause, play, and change the audio tracks while keeping the Zen in your pocket.
Rating:
Summary: Great mp3 jukebox
Review: I got the USB 2.0 version and I'm pleased as punch with it. It is compact (although not as compact as the IPOD), sounds great, and has a really well thought out interface. The LED is very easy to read and once you get the hang of it, you can do really cool things like creating playlists while listening to songs. I created a particularly memorable list of songs on a recent trip to Death Valley. I saved that list of Desert Songs and plan on creating a Dance List, a mellow Massage List and others. And you don't have to be at a computer to do it; I did it in the car while listening to tunes. I also listen to a lot of recorded books. I get them on CD from the library and rip them to mp3. That way I always have a few complete unabridged books on my Zen to choose from for long flights or drives. I tried two other hard drive based players before settling on this: the Neuros, which I found to be a disaster. It's big selling point is that it can transmit to a nearby fm radio like your stereo or the one in your car. Turns out the sound quality when doing so is severely degraded if your receiver can pick it up at all. The download process was USB 1.0 and just full of bugs and freezes and slow as molassis when it did work. One positive thing is downright excellent customer service and apparent complete honesty on their website about bugs they are trying to work out. I also tried the IPOD windows version. Well, I tried to. I installed two different firewire cards in my computer and still could not get a synch with the device. It is smaller and lighter but from what I read you can't create and name playlists while listening to music like with the Zen. Frankly, I didn't have any regrets returning the IPOD because I'd fallen in love so with my Zen. And the 20 mb Zen is WAY cheaper.
Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: After doing extensive research on mp3 players, i decided i should either get the zen or the 10 gig ipod. I chose the zen because of the price, and i have not been dissapointed by it. Although working the music management program was dificult at first, once i got used to it i began to love it. The player has great sound quality and transfers files very quickly. I ran around with it in my pocket for over 10 minutes, and it never skipped or showed a slowdown. I am very happy with my Nomad jukebox zen, and i reccomend it to anyone looking for a good mp3 player with a large hard drive, but not lacking portability.
Rating:
Summary: great device
Review: I checked out several players and this one was the best all around. It loads fast and sounds great. It is comparable to a PDA in size a little heavier. I skipped the software in the box and got Notmad from Red Chair instead. Their software is really easy to use and fast.
Rating: 
Summary: SOLID
Review: Great MP3 player. Easy enough interface and file transfer. Took about a half hour to comfortably operate. Got over not having a stop button just as quickly. Accidently dropped it about 3 feet on the floor and it kept playing. USB 2.0 is very fast. Definately worth the investment. IPOD's only advantage to me is being cooler looking, but in all other respects the ZEN matches or beats it. Solid workhorse MP3 player. Would give it a 5 star rating but nothing is perfect.
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