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PC Advisor Best Buy

May 20, 2008

Creative Zen 8GB review

Creative's superslim Zen has an attractive 2.5in colour display, an FM tuner, a built-in microphone, robust video- and photo-viewing capabilities and the ability to import contact management information. And the Creative Zen 8GB even plays music.

The Creative Zen 8GB is about the size and shape of a standard-issue business-card case and comes in several other capacities: 2GB for £56, 16GB for £159 and the top-end 32GB for £249. All models have a built-in SD Card slot for an instant storage upgrade.

The Zen's tested signal-to-noise ratio of 77dB is decent (the higher the number, the cleaner and more hiss-free the signal). The Creative Zen 8GB's custom five-band equaliser also helped to bring out the best in a variety of high-bitrate MP3s.

This jack-of-all-trades Creative Zen 8GB can handle most audio formats, too, including unprotected iTunes AAC files. It can't play Flac or Ogg Vorbis codecs, however.

For video, the Creative Zen 8GB works with Mpeg4, DivX4, DivX5, XviD and WMV files and comes with the simple Video Converter software.

A standard mini-USB jack lets you sync and power the Creative Zen 8GB, while navigation is via a directional pad and four dedicated hardware buttons. These enable you to quickly drill down through the menus.

Another solid aspect of the Creative Zen 8GB is its long-lasting battery. Expect around a 30-hour playtime for audio files and five hours for video.

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Independent customer reviews from

Creative Zen 8GB scored:
9.0 out of 10 100% real reviews

The 2 most helpful reviews based on 13 reviews:

08 Oct 2007 Ken, Southampton

10

Good Points

Battery life. Good looks. Portability.

Bad Points

No bad points encountered.

07 Jan 2008 MARK, GLOUCESTER

9

Good Points

Reviewer left no comment

Bad Points

IT TAKES A LONG WHILE TO CHARGE UP VIA PC. REQUIRES A MAINS ADAPTOR FOR THE BEST RESULTS.

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User Reviews

Tuesday, 20 May 2008

Reviewed by alan14

Star Rating: rating of 5

Duration of ownership: 3 months

Strengths:
One really good point with Creative players is the decent earphones - far better than the tinny ones that come with the fruit-based players. It also plays Audible audio books

Weaknesses:
Not easy to obtain accessories, due mainly to the market dominance of a certain other player bought by people with no imagination

Overall Evaluation:
A good all round player, I wouldn't want to watch a full movie on the tiny screen, but it's fine for loading up with a few episodes of 'Heroes' to watch in the gym instead of watching the RnB dross showing on The Hits channel

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Creative Zen 8GB

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