iPod vs Zen Micro, iPod mini vs Muvo2

[Xtreme $niper]

One apology is more than enough ;) It's fine, I was just wondering why i was put into the list because as far as I was concerned, I tried my best to not bash anyone or be too biast.

Anywhoo, about that WAV vs ACC post: I'd say that it all depends on the bitrate. When it gets to the high bitrates I do believe that ACC proves to be better (who can tell that much anyways) though I havent personally tested it myself.

[Timmah Veteran]

WAV vs AAC? Sorry?

:huh: :blink:

You can't compare lossless with true sound!

If you meant MP3... well, the jury's still out. But IMO OGG is better than AAC, because of the whole open-source huge fanbase thing.

[Xtreme $niper]

The Rock says he'd like to see these tests which say AAC is better than WMA because all the Rock's seen so is that WMAs are BETTER or EQUAL To AAC files!

585191001[/snapback]

I was referring to this quoted post ^

[beardly]

I did a little battery test myself with my Zen Micro here at work. I came in around 8:00 and left it playing all day. I had it randomly playing MP3s using the pop EQ(for what it's worth) and only paused it a few times. The Micro stopped playing around 3:30 giving it a total time of 7.5 hours. It was fully charged and is upgraded to the latest firmware. I don't know where Creative comes up with the 12hrs of battery life, but I did not come close to it as you can see. I forgot my extra battery at home, so I get to sit in silence for the last hour or so at work. Atleast I can change the battery if it runs out and don't have a charger handy.

So far after having it about a month and a half, I love it. If I bought an IPod instead, I would mostly likely would have loved it also.

[Xtreme $niper]

Well they advertise 12 hours meaning turn it on, play and dont touch. Dont use EQ or backlight. Dont skip songs, dont search menus. THATS when you get about 10 hours or more.

[YOHAN]

Ahem... excuse me... this is a thread about ipod vs zen. This is not a thread about THIS GUY vs THAT GUY.

Who's the one here who's calling other people 'stupid' or 'ignorant' anyway? You don't see me saying such words to other people.

You're the one who's saying all those things to other people. Not me. If you want to defend iPod so much, you don't need to attack other people. Just attack the real threat to iPod... which is the Zen.

Or, just leave MS all together and join Apple instead... if you love iPod so much.

*****************

Timmah, the Rock meant WMA vs AAC.

[Dust]

Ok, since so many people are arguing I'll just put in my two cents worth.

I build my computer with my dad. For my age, I don't think that's pretty ignorant.

I am a 14 year old girl. I have an iPod mini. I think it rocks. I bet if I had a Creative or iRiver or whatever else, i would think it rocks too.

I don't see what the fuss is about which is better. There is never going to be an answer; it's a matter of personal choice. What's better, Windows or Mac? Well, both have different features.

For me, the purpose of my mini is to listen to the music. MOST of the time, I don't care what the sound qualitly is. Hell, I don't even pay attention. I just relax and enjoy the music.

I would choose a mp3 player depending on price and capacity to suit my needs. But since (i think) all of them are around the same capacity it's just a matter of price.

The only complaint i have is the headphones. They hurt my ears. lol.

This is just my (disjointed) opinion from an average buyer. You could say I followed the crowd and bought apple.

[Xtreme $niper]

Dust, you make good points, however I'd like to point out that you bought a ipod mini. Right there, I can say that you automatically paid way too much for it... for like 80 bucks more you can get 15 more gigs on there...

I'd never get a mini of any brand name, but thats just me.

[Dust]

Dust, you make good points, however I'd like to point out that you bought a ipod mini. Right there, I can say that you automatically paid way too much for it... for like 80 bucks more you can get 15 more gigs on there...

I'd never get a mini of any brand name, but thats just me.

585198808[/snapback]

I did pay too much for it but I don't have that many songs. I don't think I would really use a 15 gig one.

[Xtreme $niper]

I use the spare space as a storage device for data.

[june bug]

The only real flaws are the battery life and price.  But you sacrifice both for form and function.

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That is simply not true...for the same price as the ipod mini creatives provide a FM stations and the ability to record from them...there is also the mentioned removable batter (with the replacement only being $40, rather than the $150 for the ipod mini...) there is also the ability to sync to outlook and I know the masses might not care but there is SUCH a difference in the sound quality. I love the way the ipod looks, but my friends who own them are disappointed when the compare the ipod mini to my Zen micro.

[DragonGC]

lol off topic but where did u guys purchase the zens? this thread has helped me in my desision (not zen or mini but zen or no zen =P) and now i want to buy one. the places that ive found so far are Amazon and Newegg. Newegg is out of the color i want (black), and Amazon is just too expensive. thanks!

[OPaul]

lol off topic but where did u guys purchase the zens? this thread has helped me in my desision (not zen or mini but zen or no zen =P) and now i want to buy one. the places that ive found so far are Amazon and Newegg. Newegg is out of the color i want (black), and Amazon is just too expensive. thanks!

585247537[/snapback]

I ordered directly from Creative, came with the extra free battery so it was worth paying a little extra. The batteries cost $50 by them self.

[DragonGC]

do they sell extended warrenties too? i tend to have electronics break o me...

and is it true that the darker colors show fingerprints and such more? if so ima get a silver...

[Hypoxiaicon]

I love my Zen micro :wub:

[PrototypeX2]

I love my Zen micro :wub:

585249469[/snapback]

Lol me too.

I ordered directly from Creative, came with the extra free battery so it was worth paying a little extra. The batteries cost $50 by them self.

585249469[/snapback]

Right now, all Zen Micros are Limited Edition Version. Until the number has been reached, it will include an extra battery.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Ok, since so many people are arguing I'll just put in my two cents worth.

I build my computer with my dad. For my age, I don't think that's pretty ignorant.

I am a 14 year old girl. I have an iPod mini. I think it rocks. I bet if I had a Creative or iRiver or whatever else, i would think it rocks too.

585198662[/snapback]

Damn. I wish the girls I knew could build their own computers and make such eloquent contributions to such a technical argument.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

What about the Rio Carbon? I love mine :)

[OPaul]

do they sell extended warrenties too? i tend to have electronics break o me...

and is it true that the darker colors show fingerprints and such more? if so ima get a silver...

585249462[/snapback]

I have the black and I haven't noticed it getting to grubby myself, but I do keep my hands pretty clean.

Not sure about the extended warranty from them, I didn't see anything when I ordered although that would be nice if they had one.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Just read through this entire thread (yeah I'm bored at work again).

Here's my take:

First off, I owned a first-gen iPod 5GB. Before that, I owned a Creative Nomad Jukebox (6GB original version) and a Diamond Rio (the original MP3 player, with SmartMedia!).

I loved the Rio for its size and battery life compared to a normal CD player. Even though I had something like 96MB to work with (32MB plus 64MB card).

The Jukebox was awesome for its capacity and recording capabilities. Its battery life was its achilles' heel. The size was about equilivant to a CD player at the time.

The iPod changed everything. Because of Toshiba's new super small PC card size hard drive (the Nomad Jukebox used a regular laptop hard drive), they could put 5GB in something the size of the original Rio! It was phenomenal, and the 8-10 hour battery life was very impressive. It couldn't play WMAs, but I figured that would come in time, and as it was the only choice I had I didn't really complain.

For a while the iPod reigned supreme in my mind for useability and style. Creative had their Nomad NX series and there were others... but they were bulky and inefficient. I actually bought one of the Nomad Zen NX players (when they made them slightly smaller), and loved the battery life and super fast USB 2.0 transfers (compared to the slow firewire iPod). But it had to "boot up" like the old Nomad and that really bugged me. The interface was mediocre, and it was still too bulky. So I returned it to the store.

My iPods battery was slowly dying, and while the new slimmer touch-sensitive iPods looked appealing, I found myself feeling abandoned by Apple for 1) not fixing the battery problems in the original iPod and 2) not giving us the firmware update necessary for iTunes and AAC playback.

So I waited. The next player that I purchased was the iRiver iHP-120. It was the same size as my original iPod but with a huge battery capacity and 20GB of space. And it could play several different formats including my personal preference, WMA. The menu system was good and it packed countless features. I really liked the player, except it also had to "boot up" which is really a pet peeve of mine when it comes to these things.

At that point I still thought the iPod had advantages. The iRiver interface wasn't as easy to learn and the controls were not as intuitive as the iPod's scroll wheel. And it definitely didn't look as cool.

But when I first saw the Rio Carbon I said "wow." It looks so sleek and packs so much player into such a small package. And it's so small that it can live in my jacket pocket wherever I go. I also carried a Treo 600 until recently, and now carry a Sprint PPC-6601 Pocket PC phone. So pocket real estate was at a premium for me. The Carbon was the first player that I truly felt was better than the iPod.

The Zen Micro was the second. I used one at CompUSA recently. Even thought about buying one and keeping whichever of the two I liked more. You see, the Carbon still has one flaw... That damned 5 second load time when you turn it on. The Zen Micro, however, works like the iPod... it's usually in "standby" mode and responds instantly when you want to use it. Even a reset of the device yields only a 1-2 second animation screen before it's ready to go (even faster than the iPod's reboot).

I decided to stick with the Carbon, though. I found through my own testing that I could get to the track I wanted more quickly with its interface than with the Creative. The Carbon also has better autoplaylist-like features and other "DJ" functionality, from what I've seen.

I await Rio's successor to the Karma, and the new batch of iRiver devices, to see what the future holds. Right now my iRiver iHP-120 is still in use in my car (it never leaves). But I think it's going to be replaced very soon.

I'm far from being an anti-iPod fanboy. But I won't buy another one until Apple gives me the features I want. If they updated the 20GB player with WMA support (including PlaysForSure) I would have a hard time resisting. Especially with the longer battery life and color screen that the iPod Photo has.

[PrototypeX2]

Just read through this entire thread (yeah I'm bored at work again).

Here's my take:

First off, I owned a first-gen iPod 5GB.  Before that, I owned a Creative Nomad Jukebox (6GB original version) and a Diamond Rio (the original MP3 player, with SmartMedia!).

I loved the Rio for its size and battery life compared to a normal CD player.  Even though I had something like 96MB to work with (32MB plus 64MB card).

The Jukebox was awesome for its capacity and recording capabilities.  Its battery life was its achilles' heel.  The size was about equilivant to a CD player at the time. 

The iPod changed everything.  Because of Toshiba's new super small PC card size hard drive (the Nomad Jukebox used a regular laptop hard drive), they could put 5GB in something the size of the original Rio!  It was phenomenal, and the 8-10 hour battery life was very impressive.  It couldn't play WMAs, but I figured that would come in time, and as it was the only choice I had I didn't really complain.

For a while the iPod reigned supreme in my mind for useability and style.  Creative had their Nomad NX series and there were others... but they were bulky and inefficient.  I actually bought one of the Nomad Zen NX players (when they made them slightly smaller), and loved the battery life and super fast USB 2.0 transfers (compared to the slow firewire iPod).  But it had to "boot up" like the old Nomad and that really bugged me.  The interface was mediocre, and it was still too bulky.  So I returned it to the store.

My iPods battery was slowly dying, and while the new slimmer touch-sensitive iPods looked appealing, I found myself feeling abandoned by Apple for 1) not fixing the battery problems in the original iPod and 2) not giving us the firmware update necessary for iTunes and AAC playback.

So I waited.  The next player that I purchased was the iRiver iHP-120.  It was the same size as my original iPod but with a huge battery capacity and 20GB of space.  And it could play several different formats including my personal preference, WMA.  The menu system was good and it packed countless features.  I really liked the player, except it also had to "boot up" which is really a pet peeve of mine when it comes to these things.

At that point I still thought the iPod had advantages.  The iRiver interface wasn't as easy to learn and the controls were not as intuitive as the iPod's scroll wheel.  And it definitely didn't look as cool.

But when I first saw the Rio Carbon I said "wow."  It looks so sleek and packs so much player into such a small package.  And it's so small that it can live in my jacket pocket wherever I go.  I also carried a Treo 600 until recently, and now carry a Sprint PPC-6601 Pocket PC phone.  So pocket real estate was at a premium for me.  The Carbon was the first player that I truly felt was better than the iPod.

The Zen Micro was the second.  I used one at CompUSA recently.  Even thought about buying one and keeping whichever of the two I liked more.  You see, the Carbon still has one flaw... That damned 5 second load time when you turn it on.  The Zen Micro, however, works like the iPod... it's usually in "standby" mode and responds instantly when you want to use it.  Even a reset of the device yields only a 1-2 second animation screen before it's ready to go (even faster than the iPod's reboot).

I decided to stick with the Carbon, though.  I found through my own testing that I could get to the track I wanted more quickly with its interface than with the Creative.  The Carbon also has better autoplaylist-like features and other "DJ" functionality, from what I've seen.

I await Rio's successor to the Karma, and the new batch of iRiver devices, to see what the future holds.  Right now my iRiver iHP-120 is still in use in my car (it never leaves).  But I think it's going to be replaced very soon.

I'm far from being an anti-iPod fanboy.  But I won't buy another one until Apple gives me the features I want.  If they updated the 20GB player with WMA support (including PlaysForSure) I would have a hard time resisting.  Especially with the longer battery life and color screen that the iPod Photo has.

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I chose ZM for its microphone and the FM Tuner which is great for me.

[NY1]

The ZEN Micro Photo is coming out soon!!!! Should be within the 250-300$ price range.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

I must say, those wireless headphones using magnetic induction from Creative look pretty awesome. I hope they build support for those into the next player (right now it's going to be an add-on for the Zen Micro).

[NY1]

I must say, those wireless headphones using magnetic induction from Creative look pretty awesome.  I hope they build support for those into the next player (right now it's going to be an add-on for the Zen Micro).

585252794[/snapback]

any pics?

[PrototypeX2]

any pics?

585252861[/snapback]

I don't think they released it yet, but you can find some info here - https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=267713