I recently bought a Creative Nomad Zen Xtra 40gb mp3 player, after running it a few days, heres my review! There are more cons than pros, but thats because im picky
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Pros:
- The sound quality is just awesome. Since I really can't "show" you why its awesome, let me just give you the facts, and you can take that for what its worth. The Zen boasts a 98dB SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio), which makes it #1 in the SNR category; compared to the iRiver's iHP-1X0's 90dB. Apple has chosen to not release the iPod's SNR for whatever reason.
- Price. A 40gb version can be bought from Creative's website for $299.99. A 40gb version of the iHP and iPod can be bought for $499.99. And for the record, a 60gb Zen Xtra can be bought for $399.99.
- Battery life is exceptional as well. It freaked me out a little bit cause when I first got it, I charged it up to full and then used it the following day in class for no more than 1.5 hours, and when I looked at it, the indicator showed the battery was at 60%. Maybe thats because I didn't fully charge it, or the indicator was off (i heard you have to use it a few times to "break it in"), but either way, i listened to it again today for about the same amount of time, and it still lists it as full. It hasnt run dead on me yet.
- The power adapter can be used outside of the US, by buying a plug converter (cheap). This is handy cause im going to Europe for the summer.
Cons:
- The earbuds that it comes with isn't all that great. For some reason, the left earbud is too small, or maybe its the way the wires are* (more on this later), cause it feels like its falling out a lot of the time, while the right one stays snug. Also, the insuilation on the wire is very thin, in fact, theres already a small tear near the left earbud
. I bought a pair of Sennheiser MX500 earbuds, which do the job MUCH better. Better than my current sony headphones.
* the earbuds were on the wires like this: [Left]---{Y-Split right here}------------------------------------[Right]. Yeah, the left earbud to the ysplit really is that short.
- The case it comes with. While its a nice case and all, nice black pleather, with plastic reinforcements inside the pleather to protect the front side more, it completely covers up the LCD screen. Yeah, thats right, you cant see what your doing when you use the case; you have to unhook it to see. Another thing is its really hard to put the Zen in the case at first, you push and tug really hard for it to latch on. Ive noticed its gotten easier, i still need to pull, but i dont need to push now. And because of the plastic inside the pleather, it makes it kinda bulky.
- I said how you can't see what your doing with the case latched, well, you cant
hear what youre doing either. It would be nice if there were some sort of beeps or something to indicate that your Zen is on, or that you pushed a button. I keep my Zen in my pockets, and i still havnt gotten used to controlling it from there. Sometimes i dont know if its on or not, and sometimes when i do know its on, nothing is happening cause i pressed some wrong buttons.
- Lack of remote. The original Zen had a wired remote that you could buy, which let you control your mp3 player without having to stick your hands down your pockets. Unfortuneately, the remote doesn't work with the Zen Xtra. I don't understand why Creative made it not work. The originial remote had a built in FM tuner on it, well, i don't need a FM tuner, i just want a remote to control my Xtra.
- This one isnt really a big problem, but the preloaded music is locked, meaning i cant transfer them onto my pc. My Zen came with some mp3s telling you about some of the EAX features, and about 70 mp3s of classical music. I like classical music, but not enough that i would want to carry it around with me everywhere and listen to it. The whole protected file is a con because i cant back them up on my hdd, and i cant bring myself to delete them knowing that i cant ever get them back.
- And finally, the biggest problem i see is the bugs on computer end of things. It lets you install Playcenter and/or Nomad Explorer. I had no use for Playcenter, so i just went with Nomad Explorer. I transfered files alright, then last night when I plugged my Zen to my computer, Nomad Explorer said there was nothing on the Zen's hard drive. This was untrue of course, but Nomad Explorer saw nothing. I still havnt gotten it to work yet... I hear that if you want a really good program to access the hard drive on the Zen, then you need to use Notmad Explorer, which is made by a differant company. Well, Notmad costs money ($25), and I shouldn't have to buy extra software cause the one that comes with it should be good enough as it is.
Overall, i like my Zen a lot. The thing with the earbuds didnt really bug me cause i ordered the Sennheiser MX500s the same time i ordered my Zen. Other than the bugs with Nomad Explorer, im perfectly happy with it.
Btw, for anyone who has a Zen, how exactly do you make playlists? Right now, i have it set on shuffle play all. I'd like to make some playlists of differant genres, or combinations of some songs that go together, etc.
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