The Creative ZEN is the new line of MP3 players that shall replace the ZEN Vision W. This may disappoint some of the Creative fans and also seems like an oddball on Creative’s part to dump a 60GB player in favor of a 16 GB one. Regardless of the management decision, this little wonder here is really a marvelous thing to look at and use.
The Packaging
We received the 4 GB starter model. Inside very cleanly packed comes the main player. A little tap on the front plastic cover shall release the player and opening the remaining box like a small gift box, shall release the rest of the items included. Plastic wrapped inside are a pair of black decent sounding earphones and a small USB cable. Other items include the Software CD (which is very vital), the manuals and the warranty booklet.
The Aesthetics
We’ve already talked about the black headphones, now to the actual player. It has a buffed black matt finish for the back with embossed ripple like circles that really look very cool. At the front side though it’s still a very glossy finish which gives the screen an added protection, while at the same time prone to a lot of fingerprinting.
The screen is a very colorful (16 Million) 2.5” TFT and accentuates the body of the player very well. The switches are rockers for most of the part and a sliding one similar to the PSP switch which glows a silent blue when the player’s on. There is no stop button but a play and pause; if you pause and switch off the player then it’s basically stopped. The main buttons are the directional pad and the ok button plus a forward and back button on either side.
