Creative Zen Touch 20GB MP3 Player

[Clstrphbc_donut]

Creative Zen Touch 20GB

Packaging

The Zen Touch is contained within a hard plastic package, within this packaging is a box, containing manuals, cables, etc. The Zen is at the front of the packaging, so making it look fairly easy for it to become damaged during transport, by a shock or fall, although, the Zen is held firmly is place. Within the tightly packed box is :-

A pair of stereo Headphones
1 Universal power adaptor /Charger
1 Carrying case
1 USB 2.0 Cable
Installaion CD
Quick Start Guide

Looks

I (not having seen a full size IPod, only a mini IPOD) would say the Zen Touch is about the same size as I'd expect an IPod to be. (W6.8cm x H10.5cm x D 2.2cm.) The front is white and silver, and the back is a darker silver, almost a grey. Once turned on, the blue LCD lights up, and it starts to look better. The headphones are also white and silver. Here's a few pictures, although i only have my camera phone.






LCD Close up

Usage


I'm known for being impatient. I cannot wait til i buy something and when i buy it, i want to use it that second. So as soon as i got it home, as i was installing the software and drivers onto my PC, i powered the Zen up. Upon turning on, you get the menu's. Music library, Now Playing, Play Mode (repeat, shuffle etc), Settings and Information.

Within Settings, you can adjust Touchpad sensitivity, Language, Backlight, Contrast, even somewhere to put your name in. Also, in the Touchpad menu, theres a setting known as "Tap to Select" which, instead of you having to take your finger away from the touchpad, to press OK, you can just tap the touchpad. Nice feature, but it interferes with my scrolling so i don't enable this, although my friend (Micheal) does. EQ allows you to change the equaliser, and there are plenty of Presets. I didnt really like any of them, so I went directly to "Custom EQ." I was presented with 4 bars, which i turned the low end up and the high end down, to get a bit more bass from it. Usually, MP3 players will distort when you set it to the EQ to play low frequencies at a high level, and turn it to full volume. Not the Zen. At full on the low frequency, i could find only one song that gave bass distortion, (Ashanti - Only You) and if you have ever heard the song, you will know how much it thumps. I wasn't surprised the Zen couldnt handle it, although maybe its just the headphones?

Now, within information, it gives you various things. Firmware version, Total Space, Free Space, Track Count, Album Count, and Playlist Count. This 20GB goes along way! Mine currently shows 11GB free space, and 106 albums (1803 songs). Its more space than i imagine i'll ever need, hence the next bit. Another feature of the Zen Touch, is the ability to use it as storage. If you need to carry a large amount of data across town, lets say, 8GB, the Zen can hold that for you, instead of it being burnt to DVD! The only problem i can find with this though, is that you will need the Creative drivers/person to have a Zen/drivers installed to get the data off it again!

My music taste varies, one hell of a lot. I enjoy most styles of music, rock, rap, metal, punk, trance, hardcore, alternate, and the Zen plays all with ease. My last mp3 player was a Ministry of Sound branded one, and this sounded better playing trance than anything else, probably because it's equaliser was set for that specific genre. With my current EQ settings, the bass and snare drums cut through the music like a knife on songs like Puddle of Mudd - Out Of My Head, and quite frankly, i think it sounds stunning.

Transferring to the Zen is painless. Open NOMAD, and drag and drop, easy peasy. No searching through folders via the transfer program like my old MP3 player. With USB 2.0, an album will take approximatly 20 seconds to transfer. I had an idea (being an owner of a Creative Soundcard) that the drivers and software would be 'bloated.' It was. If autorun is made to continue, and you just skip through the setup, it installs all manner of things, one of which being Media Player 10, as this can also be used to transfer to the Zen. I set everything up my own way, installing only the needed programs and drivers.

I needed something close to the Zens price range to compare it to. My friend has a Mini Ipod, and that is about the same price as the Zen. He was telling me all these "amazing things" that IPods can do, like play games, and set alarms. With myself being a bit more technical, i replied "The Zen will play .wma files, has 20GB of space, it doesn't have a distinct lack of bass, and crap equaliser settings." Now, before i get flamed, i'm not against IPods in any way. They are just too damn expensive, and I've read a lot of people complaining about the bass on them. I know its true, as soon as he heard the Zen, he looked around his IPod in an attempt to increase the bass. Then, it crashed on him! Lovely. I can live without solitaire, and other games in black and white. I can live without another alarm, i have 3, what do i need another for? So i suppose the features of his IPod appeal to him, yet the features of the Zen appeal to me.

Conclusion

The price/performance of the Zen is great. For £150-£200, you can buy the 4GB Mini IPod i compared it with, that will do all kinds of fancy stuff, but not be as good as the Zen to do what it was manufactured to do. Or, a 20GB Zen, which has no fancy stuff, just the bare essentials for its primary job, which it does extremely well.

Basically, if you want a well built, good value, no frills, great sounding MP3 player, then give the Zen Touch a look.

Pros:

MP3, WMA WAV formats supported
Nice sleek look
Good looking easy to read LCD
Fantastic sound
Value for money

Cons:

Lack of OGG support
Bloated drivers
Touchpad is fiddly to use to begin with.

[Michael]

Ade you don't listen to ogg

[Clstrphbc_donut]

Doesn't mean i havent ripped to ogg before

[slugs]

very nice review. im wondering about getting an mp3 player for my car. it does have an autochanger and can play mp3's via the headunit. but its got a line in in the glove compartment.