Missing in my collection of gadgets & gizmos was a ” Digital Audio Player” or according to some people “IPOD”. My wishlist for a DAP was that it should be feature packed, should act as a Mass Transfer device to just copy and paste my music from my laptop and should have a nice informative screen for viewing my music info. Looking for such a gizmo for a budget of 100 $, I had my radar set on Ipod Shuffle (1 GB), Sony NW-E005, iAudio U3, Creative Zen V / V Plus. Looking around the web for various opinions & reviews I settled for the Creative Zen V Plus (1GB) for 100$. Thanks to my brother I got it as a gift. Now to some hands on details of the ZEN V PLUS - 1GB.
In the Box
Zen V Plus, USB cable, Line-in cable,Software CD, Pouch, Manual
Music Functionality
It can play MP3, WMA and supports sorting by Albums / Artists / Genre. Customizable playlists and equalizer makes it a pleasure to hear your music. The sound quality is very good and the bass & treble are very clear. The “Now Playing” screen shows all the info of MP3 files like Title,Album , Artist and even album art if you have one. The CD has a Creative media explorer software to transfer music and setup playlist or people with Windows Media player can sync with it. Or “no-hassles” version is to just copy & paste the songs into the removable drive. It also has a FM functionality. Another cool feature is that you can use the Line-in cable to transfer music from your casette / CD player even without a PC. It supports pay per download music too.
Photo / Videos Functionality
The difference between a Zen V and V Plus is that the latter has video playback and FM. The 1.5″ OLED color screen is good for viewing photos and short video clips. At this price range the Zen has a screen to match any of its competitors. Photos can be viewed as slideshow when hearing music in the background. Videos for the Zen can be converted using the converter software given in the CD. The only drawback is that even a one minute video takes up large sizes.
Extras
The Zen has a voice recorder and you can listen to your podcast. And the CD has a podcast organizer too. It also can be synced with Outlook to view your address book, tasks and calendar schedules. It also has a alarm clock to wake you up. There are also themes and wallpapers to customize your zen. And one another cool feature is that the screen can orient itself according to the angle which we hold the player. Creative comes out with
firmware updates to correct bugs and minor improvements which we can download from the net and install it by ourselves.
Accessories
People who think IPOD has only accessories please look again, Zen has skin cover (various colors) even with a armband. And Creative has also come out with a docking station for the Zen. And for people who think it takes ages to charge with the USB cable can buy a AC Power charger.
The battery lasts for 14-15 hours and with some efficient battery management tips like - reduced screen brightness and not fiddling the player would make the player go for a bit more. Games and a TFT screen would have made it 101% perfect. But as such there is no such thing as PERFECT in this world. All in All a wothy buy for this holiday season.
So for people looking for a no - hassle DAP can go for the Zen which is available in two versions ( V & V Plus) at different capacities such as 1GB,2GB,4GB and in different colors.
written by Vignesh
Recently I came across a iPod , to be exact a iPOD TOUCH. To make one thing clear i haven’t used a iPod Nano or a iPod classic before. So when my friend came to me to transfer songs from his laptop to his Touch, I got to see whats so touchy about the ‘Touch’. For regular visitor of my Techie CockTail you would have read my IPhone in India.
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