Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB MP3 Player (Blue)

I really love this little gadget. I have no interest in spending the mega bucks for an iPod, but I wanted an mp3 player to take with me when I fly, and for walking, etc. I scanned numerous products and reviews before I settled on the Zen Nano. It seemed to have everything I was looking for, including pretty good user reviews and a good price for what you get. What you get: A really versatile mp3 player that's smaller than a Zippo cigarette lighter. My family couldn't believe how eensy it is. But that makes it easy to transport in a purse or backpack. An armband is included, but I don't use it. The Nano has flash memory, which means the user can save music files on it, or with the USB cable, use it for storage as a flash drive. Flash memory is super-stable, so that's a plus if someone needs it in that capacity. 1GB of memory will hold about 500 songs, which is plenty for most people. The Nano also has a voice recorder and an FM tuner which works very well. It will not, absolutely will not skip. I haven't had any problems with the battery compartment cover, but forewarned is forearmed. I am very careful when changing the batteries. I get about 10 hours from a AAA alkaline. It's a feature with all these sorts of players, but be careful how you name the song files when you load them up. All the tracks labeled "01" will play first, in alphabetical order. There are ways to get around this, but bottom line: if you want all your album tracks to play in sequence, pay attention to the file names. Cons: Cannot scroll from one album to the next, only between tracks. The instruction manual could also use some work. No accessories available. I'd like another cover for it, but so far, Creative Labs hasn't offered one. Naturally, the earphones are blah. I like the blue around the ear version by Sony, myself, and these are what I use. Still, these are small things, and not enough to drop a star. This is a fine little player that does the main thing I want it to do: play my favorite music. I happily give it 5 stars and tell the Creative folks they've done a good job.

This mp3 player more than fills the bill for me: worksite music with no commercial interruptions or having to constantly change cd's. Creative has a great line of computer audio gear, so I'm familiar with their electronics; I also like the ability to change the battery and not worry about a charger. I have to agree with the other reviewers who've commented on the build quality, it does seem a bit light-weight, but I guess time will tell - so far, so good. The earbuds are useless, as far as I'm concerned; they sound ok, but they keep falling out! (I've just ordered a pair of V-Moda's, which should solve that problem). The one thing that sent me over the deep end with this little unit is the sound through my Sony MDR-V600's (bought for use with my home stereo); I can't believe they actually power them with one AAA battery. As I'm typing this, I have the Zen set on the #1 (lowest) setting and it sounds great. The software looks good, Creative's thrown in a few bells and whistles for you to play with, but, my audio library is all in the Windows Media Player, so I don't really need theirs. I did have some initial problems with migrating from the computer to the Zen, but that may have been my impatience. I finally just clicked the :F drive(Zen) icon and used that menu to transfer to the player. I can't think of anything bad to say about the Zen, so I'll just say, if you're looking for an alternative to the Apple gear, this is it.

I just purchased this Zen Nano player to replace my Creative Muvo 512M player that was starting to wear out after 2.5 years. I originally purchased the SanDisk SDMX3-2048 2 gig player to try something new, but when I got it I immediately returned it. Primarily because it did not offer folder/directories. You could sort your songs by artist, album, favorites, etc, but you could not do it by a pre-mixed folder, which is what I like to do. So I returned it and bought a new Creative player since I was happy with my last one. Pros - Very easy to load. Just open up Explore on your PC and drag songs or whole folders into the mp3 player. Simple. - Folders. As I mentioned, I like to create folders that have a selection of different artists for different moods. Then I just move that folder onto the mp3 player. Then I can switch to the folder I want depending on my mood. - Fairly easy to navigate. The little wheel/button could take some getting used to for some people, but it really wasn't a problem for me, and once you are used to it, it's easy. - Price: $58 for 1 gig? I paid 100+ 2.5 years ago for my 512M player. 1 gig is a good size. It does not hold a ton of songs, but enough for me and my purpose. When I get tired of the songs it is easy to swap them out and put new ones on. - Battery operated. This is a pro for me. It requires just one AAA battery and lasts for awhile. I like being able to just pop in a new battery rather than finding a computer to charge it up again. This is imporant for me when I take it on vacation. Con - This player connects to the PC through a small usb chord that comes with it. My old one was a usb device in itself. You just pulled it out of the shell and it had a usb connection that you connected directly to the computer. So with this one you will need to use a chord. But this is fairly minor. - I don't know if this is a con or not, as I am not aware how long other mp3 players usually last? But my current Creative mp3 player still plays music, but the button/wheel has worn out so I can no longer skips songs. When I try the player turns off. So now I can listen to it, I just have to listen to all the songs in the order I picked them. I cannot change folders either. But this happened after 2.5 years of pretty good use. So you will have to decide if this is a problem? I gave it 4 stars because of this, but would give it 4.5 if allowed. Other: - If you like the radio. This comes with an FM Radio. I checked it out and it scans through the radio waves and creates presets for each station it can pick up. Then you can go through and delete the presets you don't like. Then you can just use the wheel/button to move to the next preset. Seemed to pick up radio stations pretty well. - I have not used other features, such as recording, because I only use it for listening to music. So to summarize. Battery operated, makes it convenient if you will be taking it with you and not having a PC handy to recharge it. Folders makes it easy to pick the type of music you want to listen to. Very easy to load. Does not take any software. If these pros sound good to you, then definitely buy this (or other size Creative player). If these are not that important, then it still may be a good mp3 to consider, but there are others out there too that you might want to check out.