• Even though the body is plasticky, it feels solid and the back side with some sort of matte finish and the wave pattern made it nice to hold.
• Its slim and light weight and the 2.5″ 16 million color 240 x 320 resolution screen was a delight to look at.
• The main menu is all icon based and the keys on the right hand side of the screen was pretty straight forward but some times inside the menu’s it was slightly confusing to access various options
• The music player was similar to zen v plus with albums / artists / genre etc, and the audio quality was good but as usual the included earphones was pretty drab and to browse music with album art thumbnails would have been cool
• The FM radio and microphone was standard and a picture browser with slideshow function are nice added features
• The video looked excellent in the 2.5″ screen but the video converter and what formats it supported was a thorn as some videos weren’t successfully converted with the creative media manager.
• Podcasts with audible support was also present and the creative podcast manager gives a easy way to manage and download podcasts
• The microSDHC card provides a easy way to extend the memory but the contents in it is to be accessed via the separate memory card option and not via the audio / video browser.
• A contact book (with sync capabilities), alarm clock are some nice additions and themes / wallpapers gives the Zen some personalization options.

So at 48$ i would say its a great buy. The box included a very short usb cable, creative cd, manuals along with the player.

So a iPod Touch is a iPhone minus Phone & Camera. But its somewhat slimmer than a iPhone. After some initial teething problems, I downloaded iTunes and got it to sync with iPod.

Music Quality: Good, with various EQ settings to enhance according to the music. Even though it would have cost almost 300$ (its a 8GB version, I cant comprehend why it isn’t bundled with a ordinary earphones).

Video Quality: The screen quality as it resembles in Iphone is amazing to watch the videos, pictures.

The in-built Safari browser is very good to use it in a Wi-Fi spot. Still whether it can use the Wi-Fi connection to wirelessly stream music from other devices in the network , I don’t know (if anyone has tried this please post your comment).

As I have said in my iPhone post, I don’t use iTunes and I dont how many people use them in India to buy music or keep a properly organised album collection in their PC. Since it doesn’t allow Plug – Copy to transfer songs , videos, pictures its somewhat a hassle for people like me.And still FM is not found in a iPod. And I couldn’t even find games, I thought other iPod’s had games in it

I know I have raised lots of questions, anyone can post your comments to clarify my queries your contributions are always welcome

• Its almost like a thumb drive with a USB port protected by the Cap on the top. Finished in a black glossy coating looks nice, but after a few minutes of playing with it my finger smudges were all over the player. Size wise its quite ok.

• Switching it on i was greeted with a monochrome (black & white) screen with bright green backlight and the text and icons were clearly visible. Song info was displayed in the 2nd line whereas 1st line had battery status indicators and other indicators.
• Transferring the songs (supports mp3, wma) was just plug & play using the USB (USB 2.0)adapter cable.Folder navigation was possible (no ID3 tagging) so putting albums in different folders will make navigation easier.Transferring 306 MB of songs took me 3:25 seconds
• Then I tried playing the songs using the given earphones, sound quality was quite good and there were 4 preset equalizers too. As every other review site would say better get a good quality earphone to enjoy your beats
• FM radio was there ,but I wasn’t able to try it because of poor FM reception in my town. Voice recording was also present.
• The GoGear was powered by a single AAA battery which makes it very easy to replace when we run out of power.

People looking for a no non-sense mp3 player at a budget of 50$ can really consider this player.

Official link

Photo courtesy of Sony Ericsson K550

For people who havent yet read the review on my Creative Zen V Plus , please read it here. For people who have already have a zen and looking for tips, help, accessories, here are some sites which provides you with good info and deals,

• Epizenter – An excellent forum for all Creative players
• Silicone Case & Screen Protector – A good deal I came across in the net so far……
• Zen V Plus Update – Official Zen firmware updates
• Zen V Plus – Creative’s Zen V Plus official homepage
• MediaMonkey – A free media management software

For good deals, there’s always Amazon and for syncing ur Zen to ur windows PC there is always Windows media player and I have found WMP 11 pretty good and easy.

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.