Creative makes a lot of MP3 players- basically covering the entire market segment. From the low cost, low end ones to the more expensive, higher end ones. The one that we look at today falls somewhere in between- the Zen V Plus.

The diminutive size (43.5 x 67.5 x 15.9mm) and weight of just 43.5g, the Zen V Plus is a very capable audio player offering radio and video functions along with MP3 playback. It comes in capacities of 1, 2, 4 and 8GBs in a multitude of color combinations. We received the 1GB version that is black and orange in color. The pictures don't necessarily do justice as to how tiny the unit actually is. With its rounded corners and high contrast color combinations, the Zen V Plus feels more like a toy than a dedicated MP3 player. As such, it would appeal more to the younger crowd.

The square OLED display has a resolution of 128x128 pixels and measures 1.5 inches in size. The neat thing about the screen is that it can be rotated at 90 angles so you can hold the player as you feel comfortable without messing up the screen orientation. While the screen is decent for showing MP3 tags and album art, we don’t think its one that you want to display your photos and videos on. The resolution is too little for that- even mobile phones have a higher resolution for better clarity. Also, the screen is a bit hard to read in the Dubai sun.

For navigation, Creative places an extremely tiny joystick on the player which was a little too small for my large hands. I'm sure that children and women will find it easier to use. Besides the joystick, there are two buttons on the front to help with navigation- one for play/pause while the other for going back. The joystick it used for skipping/moving between tracks as well as navigating menus. Creative places volume buttons on one side while the line-in, USB and headphones jack is on top.

Like other Creative players, you have the option of adding a bookmark that basically records the position of the track you're listening to and allows you to get back to that same spot instantly- great for long tracks such as lectures. While the Zen v Plus supports video, it doesnnullt have enough power to play compressed videos like Divx which means that your video files will be too large in size to make them feasible to carry with you even though they're encoded at a 128x128 resolution. Lastly, he Zen V Plus, again like previous Creative players, can sync with your Outlook to display contacts and calendar entries.

As with all Creative players, the sound quality is excellent. The player has eight presets as well as the option to customize the equalizer to your liking. Creative does not bundle a dedicated charger with the unit and you use your PC's USB port to charge the Zen V Plus. Unfortunately, Macs are not supported so you will need a Windows based PC to charge and transfer data to the player. Creative rates the battery life at 15 hours but we were pleasantly surprised to see it chugging along well over 17 hours.

Overall, we feel that the Zen V Plus is better suited towards the younger people. This certainly does not mean that it's a low-end player as we were impressed by its sound quality and feature set such as voice and line-in recording, FM radio as well as photos and video playback. Its just the look of it that makes us think that way. Priced at AED 350/- for 1GB version, the Zen V Plus is a decent buy.