TrustedReviews Looks at the Creative Labs Zen Micro

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=894' target='_blank'>http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=894</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Although the Zen Micro isn’t the first and undoubtedly not the last music device to feature a hard drive as it storage medium, it is the first pocket friendly unit with touch sensitive controls that hasn’t been manufactured by Apple. It doesn’t have a wheel though, instead it Creative has implemented a far simpler up/down scroll pad, similar to that seen on some laptops. It works pretty much like a laptop touchpad and you tap it just like a touchpad to make selections. Apart from the scroll part of the controls there are five more sections to the touch pad, a play/pause button, a skip forward/fast forward button and the same for reverse, a button labelled back and one that looks like that button on your Windows keyboard that you hardly ever use. This button brings up a small menu, just like the one on a Windows keyboard, but in this case it is much more useful since it gives you access to a wide range of settings, but more on that latter."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/2842full.jpg" /><br /><br />The Zen Micro is, simply put, an extremely impressive device. I received one a few weeks back and have really enjoyed using it - I'm actually shocked at how well it works, how great the UI is, and how much fun I had using it on a recent trip. More from me on this subject later, but for now, check out this review.

[treo007]

looks like a nice device, BUT....it obviously doesn't work with iTunes and it's DRM. Regardless of the device, it's going to be hard to knock apple off the throne.

[Felix Torres]

Customizable menus and local playlist editing?
Oh, boy!
And the black one looks great!
Hope Seagate gets those 20gb microdrives out the door before my Riot croaks...

[James Fee]

This is the first non iPod I could actually see myself owning. The capacity is too small for me, but the controls and form factor are great.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Wow, good press for a Creative product for once. =P I do wish the price of this is a bit lower..

[David Horn]

Anyone else see the funny side in having an iPod Mini ad at the bottom of the page?

[Filip Norrgard]

All the iPod models and now.....finally.....after all these years.....the Zen Micro. You'd think designing a compatent hard drive based player was Rocket Science or something. Sheesh! :roll:
Yeah, why did it take so long... :? Maybe there is a lack of designers not working for Apple... :lol:

[randalllewis]

The player for the rest of us: Borrowing Apples old slogan, the Zen Micro is a great player. Well designed, intuitive, and just the right size both physically and storage capacity wise. Plus the best part is the ability to use the many, many online music stores not tied to Apple.

Some of these stores are pretty poor but others are as good as iTunes in my opinion and the if Creative can put some marketing muscle behind the Micro, this is the device that could build traffic to those other music stores.

I am one of the lucky early adopters to receive the extra battery in my package. I also appreciate that the Micro charges through either the AC adapter or the USB cord. Creative's sofware is OK, but the Micro shines with Windows Media 10, so that's what I use.

The Micro also syncs with Outlook and I'd like to know if anyone has used that feature.

[Jason Dunn]

Thanks for the comment Randall (and welcome to Digital Media Thoughts!) - I agree completely, it's a great player. I haven't used the PIM sync yet, but will probably take it for a spin this week.

[dean_shan]

This device looks really, really, cool. That is a huge selling point for me when it comes to music devices.

[Jason Dunn]

This device looks really, really, cool. That is a huge selling point for me when it comes to music devices.

It oozes cool. When you recharge it, the Zen Micro pulses a blue light. It's wickedly cool. 8)

[Andy Manea]

It oozes cool. When you recharge it, the Zen Micro pulses a blue light. It's wickedly cool. 8)
Wow, as if it had a heart :eek: I love the metal look!