Creative Technology ZEN Nano Plus (512 MB) MP3 Player
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- Number of Songs: 120
- Usage: Music Recording
- Interface: USB 2.0
- Main Storage Type: Built-in Memory
- Storage Capacity: 512 MB
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Excellent Compact MP3 Player
Pros
Extremely easy to use. Amazing sound quality. Very portable and well-designed.
Cons
Stock earbuds aren't too great. USB cord could be longer.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Terrific value, great sound quality, durable and well-designed... what more could you want?
May 26, 2006 Addition: I was recently asked by a very nice woman if this MP3 player has an auto-resume feature. That is, if you shut off the MP3 player in the middle of a song and turn it on again - it'll keep playing at the exact position that you shut the MP3 player off. The answer to that question is yes!
I'll start with some quick specifications on the MP3 player…
Creative Zen Nano
512MB Built-In Flash Memory
USB 2.0 / 1.1 Compatible Interface
18 Hour Battery Life
Supports MP3 / WMA Formats
Up to 90dB Frequency Response 20Hz to 20kHz
Package Includes: Earbud Headphones, Duracell AAA Battery, Lanyard, USB Cable, Instruction Manuals, and Driver / Software CD
For years I have been cutting lawns while enduring the sound of a roaring lawnmower. I've tried lugging around a portable CD player in my back pocket but the only thing that was achieved was pulling my pants down to my ankles. After years of consideration I finally gave in to buying an MP3 player, something that I could strap around my neck and enjoy hours of skip-free music while shoving a hunk of metal around a yard.
The hardest part about MP3 players is that there are so many to choose from! Before I made my final decision I considered the SanDisk line of MP3 players and even the Apple iPod. Through hours of research I discovered this little gem. It was small, inexpensive (for an MP3 player), and contained the features I wanted and lacked the features I rather not have.
The Creative Zen Nano is just a tad larger than a Zippo lighter to give you an idea of its size. It's not as lightweight as an Apple iPod Shuffle due to its AAA battery power source but it'll last 6 more hours! Total battery life is listed as 18 hours, just 1 hour shorter than the SanDisk Sansa m200 series MP3 players. Even due to this fact I still chose over the Sansa m230 due to poor reviews, poor sound quality, and in my opinion it has an odd shape with a cylindrical base. As for the Apple iPod Shuffle, that doesn't even have a LCD screen let alone a backlight – ouch!
Sound quality for the Creative Zen Nano is nothing short of amazing for such a small product. With proper equalizer settings and a replaced pair of earbuds the sound is almost comparable to the Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2ZS sitting in my desktop personal computer. The Zen Nano allows four predefined equalizer settings (Classical, Jazz, Pop, and Rock) and an option to customize the levels yourself. After a bit of tweaking I decided to just stick with the Jazz setting which in my opinion outputs the proper amount of treble and bass.
If you were wondering, the Creative Zen Nano does come with a set of earbud headphones. If you read other reviews for this product and see any complaints about sound quality – the earbuds are the reason. Creative shot themselves in the foot with these terrible excuses for headphones that won't fit in your ear unless you are related to Dumbo the elephant. If you decide to purchase this MP3 player, please pick up a new set of headphones (I recommend the Sony MDR-EX51LP).
Moving on I would like to comment about the overall design of the Creative Zen Nano. Most images I found while surfing the web only show the front of the MP3 player rather than the side (with the more important buttons). On the side you will find two separate buttons to increase and decrease the volume as well as their unique scroller for menu navigation and track switching. On the front, well, just a play/pause button that doubles to power the MP3 player on and off. As for the top, you have your standard headphone jack and on the bottom is where you will plug your USB cord into for file transfer. Reverse side? AAA battery slot.
Using the Creative Zen Nano is a breeze. You don't have to bother installing any software whatsoever nor do you have to figure out fancy tricks you must complete in order to control the thing. For example, to increase or decrease the volume on the Apple iPod you have to know how to magically swipe your finger across the flat, circular button layout… who would have known? I prefer labeled buttons for everything, and Creative has done just that.
Transferring files is identical to that of a thumb (portable flash memory storage) drive. Simply plug it into a USB (2.0 or 1.1) port on your computer and plug it into the Creative Zen Nano. No need to power on the Zen Nano either for it will take care of that itself! If you have Microsoft Windows XP, it'll automatically install the drivers for the MP3 player so it will display as a removable mass storage device under My Computer (this allows the nifty drag-and-down feature where you just place all your MP3 or WMA files into the root directory and you're done).
If you're more of an old school personal computer user rocking Microsoft Windows 98 and old USB 1.1 ports… just use the CD to install the drivers if necessary and the MP3 player is backwards compatible for USB 1.1 support so no need to worry about that.
A couple of the additional nifty features on the Creative Zen Nano is that it contains an almost invisible microphone that allows you to record sound clips on the go. It also has an FM radio tuner and line-in encoding support for direct connection and recording from any audio source. Goodies in the menu let you manage a skip folder, delete files, choose the play mode (repeat, shuffle, and much more), customize the equalizer, record sound clips, and manage advanced settings (MP3 player information, LCD orientation, contrast/backlight settings, etc.).
The LCD display is extremely organized and stylish. I was thoroughly impressed how everything was laid out from the scrolling track title, to the large text displaying the track running time, player status, and the battery life status. Oh, and want to know what's neat? You can set the display to show upside-down for left-handed users. Neat!
Power-wise the Creative Zen Nano is a beast. With just one AAA battery it can almost match the volumes of the non-comparable Apple iPod Video (about four times more expensive). As for distortion at high volumes? If your headphones and ears can handle it, the Zen Nano sure can! Just for fun I plugged in my pair of Sony MDR-V700 headphones which dwarf the poor thing. Amazed I discovered that the Zen Nano powered them with ease, and everything sounded spectacular! To compare with the audio on my personal computer, supporting a Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2ZS, I quickly plugged in the same headphones in and barely noticed a difference besides different equalizer settings.
Included with the MP3 player is a stylish lanyard which conveniently straps around to the top of the MP3 snuggly where the headphone jack is placed. Hanging around your neck it may swing a bit but with earbud headphones the MP3 player will not sag or twist with the heaviness of the cord. Furthermore instead of a heavy hard drive for storage, flash memory is contained in the Creative Zen Nano. This means you can be rather rough with it without fear of skipping or damage to your MP3 player.
And what about transfer speeds? With USB 2.0, a single MP3 file will transfer in about 3-5 seconds depending on the length of the track. With a small capacity of only 512MB, the player can be filled within minutes after some drag-and-drop action.
To continue on the 512MB capacity, this may be a bit of a con for some considering the base Apple iPods can hold 20GB (20,000MB). Think of it this way, you may not be able to put your whole music folder into this MP3 player, but an average MP3 file is about 1MB per minute track length. Average CDs have 80 minutes worth of track length available, comparable to 80MB. If you have 512MB, that's over 6 full CDs! Save yourself some money and realize 512MB is bigger than you think!
And finally, as another added feature you can use the MP3 player to double as a thumb (portable flash memory storage) drive. Drag-and-drop any type of file to the MP3 player and it'll store them for easy file transfer between computers.
The only actual cons I could come up with for the Creative Zen Nano are the availability of all the colors… for some reason Best Buy only had the white color. Another con I came up with was the USB cord is quite short and only really suitable for a front-side USB port... this is easily fixed however with an extension cable. And those included earbud headphones? Ouch!
Bottom line? This MP3 player is amazingly top notch and I have fallen in love with it already. Who needs an Apple iPod when this MP3 player is a fraction of the size and a fraction of the cost! It may not have the capacity, but who really needs immense amount of gigabytes to be satisfied?
I'll start with some quick specifications on the MP3 player…
Creative Zen Nano
512MB Built-In Flash Memory
USB 2.0 / 1.1 Compatible Interface
18 Hour Battery Life
Supports MP3 / WMA Formats
Up to 90dB Frequency Response 20Hz to 20kHz
Package Includes: Earbud Headphones, Duracell AAA Battery, Lanyard, USB Cable, Instruction Manuals, and Driver / Software CD
For years I have been cutting lawns while enduring the sound of a roaring lawnmower. I've tried lugging around a portable CD player in my back pocket but the only thing that was achieved was pulling my pants down to my ankles. After years of consideration I finally gave in to buying an MP3 player, something that I could strap around my neck and enjoy hours of skip-free music while shoving a hunk of metal around a yard.
The hardest part about MP3 players is that there are so many to choose from! Before I made my final decision I considered the SanDisk line of MP3 players and even the Apple iPod. Through hours of research I discovered this little gem. It was small, inexpensive (for an MP3 player), and contained the features I wanted and lacked the features I rather not have.
The Creative Zen Nano is just a tad larger than a Zippo lighter to give you an idea of its size. It's not as lightweight as an Apple iPod Shuffle due to its AAA battery power source but it'll last 6 more hours! Total battery life is listed as 18 hours, just 1 hour shorter than the SanDisk Sansa m200 series MP3 players. Even due to this fact I still chose over the Sansa m230 due to poor reviews, poor sound quality, and in my opinion it has an odd shape with a cylindrical base. As for the Apple iPod Shuffle, that doesn't even have a LCD screen let alone a backlight – ouch!
Sound quality for the Creative Zen Nano is nothing short of amazing for such a small product. With proper equalizer settings and a replaced pair of earbuds the sound is almost comparable to the Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2ZS sitting in my desktop personal computer. The Zen Nano allows four predefined equalizer settings (Classical, Jazz, Pop, and Rock) and an option to customize the levels yourself. After a bit of tweaking I decided to just stick with the Jazz setting which in my opinion outputs the proper amount of treble and bass.
If you were wondering, the Creative Zen Nano does come with a set of earbud headphones. If you read other reviews for this product and see any complaints about sound quality – the earbuds are the reason. Creative shot themselves in the foot with these terrible excuses for headphones that won't fit in your ear unless you are related to Dumbo the elephant. If you decide to purchase this MP3 player, please pick up a new set of headphones (I recommend the Sony MDR-EX51LP).
Moving on I would like to comment about the overall design of the Creative Zen Nano. Most images I found while surfing the web only show the front of the MP3 player rather than the side (with the more important buttons). On the side you will find two separate buttons to increase and decrease the volume as well as their unique scroller for menu navigation and track switching. On the front, well, just a play/pause button that doubles to power the MP3 player on and off. As for the top, you have your standard headphone jack and on the bottom is where you will plug your USB cord into for file transfer. Reverse side? AAA battery slot.
Using the Creative Zen Nano is a breeze. You don't have to bother installing any software whatsoever nor do you have to figure out fancy tricks you must complete in order to control the thing. For example, to increase or decrease the volume on the Apple iPod you have to know how to magically swipe your finger across the flat, circular button layout… who would have known? I prefer labeled buttons for everything, and Creative has done just that.
Transferring files is identical to that of a thumb (portable flash memory storage) drive. Simply plug it into a USB (2.0 or 1.1) port on your computer and plug it into the Creative Zen Nano. No need to power on the Zen Nano either for it will take care of that itself! If you have Microsoft Windows XP, it'll automatically install the drivers for the MP3 player so it will display as a removable mass storage device under My Computer (this allows the nifty drag-and-down feature where you just place all your MP3 or WMA files into the root directory and you're done).
If you're more of an old school personal computer user rocking Microsoft Windows 98 and old USB 1.1 ports… just use the CD to install the drivers if necessary and the MP3 player is backwards compatible for USB 1.1 support so no need to worry about that.
A couple of the additional nifty features on the Creative Zen Nano is that it contains an almost invisible microphone that allows you to record sound clips on the go. It also has an FM radio tuner and line-in encoding support for direct connection and recording from any audio source. Goodies in the menu let you manage a skip folder, delete files, choose the play mode (repeat, shuffle, and much more), customize the equalizer, record sound clips, and manage advanced settings (MP3 player information, LCD orientation, contrast/backlight settings, etc.).
The LCD display is extremely organized and stylish. I was thoroughly impressed how everything was laid out from the scrolling track title, to the large text displaying the track running time, player status, and the battery life status. Oh, and want to know what's neat? You can set the display to show upside-down for left-handed users. Neat!
Power-wise the Creative Zen Nano is a beast. With just one AAA battery it can almost match the volumes of the non-comparable Apple iPod Video (about four times more expensive). As for distortion at high volumes? If your headphones and ears can handle it, the Zen Nano sure can! Just for fun I plugged in my pair of Sony MDR-V700 headphones which dwarf the poor thing. Amazed I discovered that the Zen Nano powered them with ease, and everything sounded spectacular! To compare with the audio on my personal computer, supporting a Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2ZS, I quickly plugged in the same headphones in and barely noticed a difference besides different equalizer settings.
Included with the MP3 player is a stylish lanyard which conveniently straps around to the top of the MP3 snuggly where the headphone jack is placed. Hanging around your neck it may swing a bit but with earbud headphones the MP3 player will not sag or twist with the heaviness of the cord. Furthermore instead of a heavy hard drive for storage, flash memory is contained in the Creative Zen Nano. This means you can be rather rough with it without fear of skipping or damage to your MP3 player.
And what about transfer speeds? With USB 2.0, a single MP3 file will transfer in about 3-5 seconds depending on the length of the track. With a small capacity of only 512MB, the player can be filled within minutes after some drag-and-drop action.
To continue on the 512MB capacity, this may be a bit of a con for some considering the base Apple iPods can hold 20GB (20,000MB). Think of it this way, you may not be able to put your whole music folder into this MP3 player, but an average MP3 file is about 1MB per minute track length. Average CDs have 80 minutes worth of track length available, comparable to 80MB. If you have 512MB, that's over 6 full CDs! Save yourself some money and realize 512MB is bigger than you think!
And finally, as another added feature you can use the MP3 player to double as a thumb (portable flash memory storage) drive. Drag-and-drop any type of file to the MP3 player and it'll store them for easy file transfer between computers.
The only actual cons I could come up with for the Creative Zen Nano are the availability of all the colors… for some reason Best Buy only had the white color. Another con I came up with was the USB cord is quite short and only really suitable for a front-side USB port... this is easily fixed however with an extension cable. And those included earbud headphones? Ouch!
Bottom line? This MP3 player is amazingly top notch and I have fallen in love with it already. Who needs an Apple iPod when this MP3 player is a fraction of the size and a fraction of the cost! It may not have the capacity, but who really needs immense amount of gigabytes to be satisfied?
