~ Creative Zen Micro (5gb mp3 player)

By peterish
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peterish

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I got this player back in november 2004, when it just came out. I used to own an iPod mini, but wasn't very satisfied with it; the Zen Micro exceeds it in many areas. I use the Zen Micro primarily for commuting to/from school. So far it has been durable and fairly resistant to scratching.

Note: There's already an indepth review on this product by Andy1, but I don't agree with him in some areas and also want to add more.

To see the basic specs, visit Creative or Amazon

- SIZE & APPEARANCE

The whole player fits comfortably and securely in my palm, and is very light. It is shorter than the ipod mini but thicker. Headphone jack, lock button, and USB/Charger are all on the top. The secreen and font are extremely easy to see. When backlight comes on, the buttons and a cool decorative outer frame on the front lights up in blue. I just love the way this looks, especially at night.

- FEATURES

5 GB of space, and can also be used as a removable storage drive; but it only lets you store a max of 2 GB of removable storage for some reason.

Built in FM radio. But has bad reception. It's good to have incase you wanna listen to the radio for news or something, but there's a lotta static. Could be because I live in NYC.

Built in voice recorder is decent. I tried recording my professor's lecture once and it came out pretty well. You can upload recordings to your PC.

Removable battery is an excellent feature and one that I cannot live without.

- BATTERY POWER

One of the Zen Micro's finest features is the removable/replacable battery. When I bought mine it came with 1 extra battery, but I don't think they have that promotion anymore. (A battery is around I think 30 U.S. dollars). A battery can be fully charged in less than 4 hours. I've noticed that leaving the battery in the player during non usage sucks up power, so I just remove it at night and put it back in the morning when I need it; the small battery can be conveniently slided in/out.

This way, the battery, when fully charged, runs ~9 hours at ~80% volume with no backlight (the backlight is pretty but I don't need it when I commute during daytime). With backlight turned on, battery life is reduced by 10-30% depending on how many seconds you set it to stay on and how often you make it light up.

- INTERFACE

The menus are easy to get into; and you can customize the functions that are displayed on the main menu for easy access. For example, I have "Randomly Play All" and "Removable Storage Mode" on the main menu because I use those frequently. On the other hand, I took off "Planner" from the main menu because I don't have a need for that.

There are no buttons - all the play controls are on a touch sensitive pad. Therefore when you put it into your pocket or bag, it's important to switch on the lock; but it's a very convenient button to flip. When I first bought it it was very annoying because I was constantly pressing the wrong buttons; but now I've gotten better at using it and it's not a problem anymore.

The various preset EQ's and playlist options are typical of most mp3 players so I'm not gonna go into that. The software for managing songs or transferring files is quite easy to use.

- SOUND QUALITY

A++. Very sharp and clear and deep. I've never used the earphones that came in the box because I already had very good 40 dollar earphones, so I don't know how good the stock ones are; I've heard they're so-so. One of the reasons I got rid of my old ipod mini is because I wasn't satisfied with the sould quality; the Zen Micro in my opinion is a little better.

As is the case with all mp3 players including the iPod Mini, the bass is not strong enough. I think this is because good bass needs a powerful battery - something these kinds of players don't have. However, the quality is superb so the bass factor can be overlooked.

The Zen Micro is a counter-part to the iPod Mini. I don't think Creative is doing a good enough job of marketing their little product. Maybe 1% of my friends has ever heard of it. The Zen Micro can definitely steal lots of market shares from Apple if people knew how good it is. Unfortunately, today's society is full of trend-###### who value hipness above all else. Consider the comparison between Zen Micro and iPod Mini:

-Zen has longer batter life

-Zen has replacable battery, the Mini does not

-Zen has 1 more GB than Mini

-Zen looks cooler

-Zen is smaller

-Mini gets jacked a lot, especially here in NYC

-Prices are nearly identical.

I wholeheartedly recommend the Creative Zen Micro to anyone who's looking to buy a mp3 player in the ~5 GB range. I know there's a lot of areas that I haven't gone into detail about; if you have any specific questions just post here or PM me.

PS: On a totally unrelated note, visit my new photo gallery! :D

Edited by peterish
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matt74441

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Excellent Review (Y) A friend of mine has one and hes said nothing but good things about it.

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kak

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I'm sorry but the new iPod mini has better battery life than the Zen Micro.  You might want to edit that.

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Creative is still tampering with the batter life via firmware. They still haven't optimized it yet, and I hardly ever need to recharge. Add in the fact that it has a removable battery and the iPod is useless to me.

I obviously have a Zen Micro as well, and I love it. A lot of people have complained about their headphone jack wiggling around causing bad reception after they've had it for a while, but if you have a set of earbuds that have a 90 degree bed on the jack, they don't seem to get the problem (less leverage maybe, who knows). I never had the problem myself, so it might just be certain model numbers.

Enjoy.

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Molgar

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The newer firmware updates allow to store up to 4 GB of data in my 5 GB Zen Micro. Good review and great player.

Also, Creative is gonna release a new firmware update that reduces Sleep mode from 24 hours to 4 hours.

The Zen Micro enters into Sleep (or Standby) mode upon Power Off or after Idle Shutdown. During Sleep mode, there is a minimal amount of power consumption. This minimal power consumption is to enable some of the advanced features such as Quick Power On, with resumed playback, and the Alarm. Power consumption during Sleep mode is common in most electronic devices. Creative has been listening to and evaluating the feedback from some users in our forum to have Zen Micro's Standby Time shortened. We appreciate and value highly customer experience and feedback and will be releasing a firmware update that reduces Standby Time from the current 24 hours to 4 hours. It will be available for download by end of May. It must be noted that this reduced Standby Time will only apply when no alarm reminders have been set. Zen Micro batteries, AC Power Adaptors and Car Power Adaptors are also sold separately which allows users flexibility in extending their playtime.
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temple_treefrog

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Thx. I've done a bit research on this and compared to the iPod Mini and Olympus MR-100, and this looks by far the best. :)

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peterish

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I would definitely like to buy one of these... any idea when a new model comes out?

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Hmm I'm not sure about a new model, but there are several firmwares planned. But with all these top notch features I really don't see an urgent need for another model.

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LingeringSoul

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Looks like it's about time to retire my NetMD player and get one of these. I really can't contend with OpenMG's problems anymore.

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