Jason Dunn
01-19-2007, 09:00 PM
Remember how I went ahead and ordered the Zen Vision:W (http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/index.php?topic_id=11606), despite what most people said in the discussion about it me not needing it? Well, I've decided to send it back to Dell (http://www.jasondunn.com/returning-products-to-dell-i-discovered-something-new-139) - not because I don't need a device like that; rather, I've found the Zen Vision:W to be less than impressive in person. It's hard to sum up why I don't like it as much as I thought I would, but I think it comes down to the fact that the engineering on it just isn't that impressive.
http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/creative-sad-panda-jan18.jpg
Get it? The sad panda versus Creative's happy panda? (http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=210&subcategory=211&product=15752)
The 30 GB Archos 604 (http://www.archos.com/products/video/archos_604/tech_specs.html?country=global&lang=en) is only 17mm thick, while the 30 GB Zen Vision:W is 22mm thick. That's 30% thicker for a device with the same sized screen and hard drive. The 60 GB Zen Vision:W is 26.4mm thick, which is just monstrous. I found that when I took it with me to CES, it was just too big. It doesn't include a kick-stand, so I had to hold it up to my face the whole time I was watching videos on it. The screen was great, ripped DVDs looked impressive, but the control pad felt cheap and was irritating to use after a while. Because I already have a great solution (http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,11492) for storing photos while travelling, I don't need the built-in CF card slot.
The Archos units look good, but the company wasn't at CES so I wasn't able to make any contacts - and they've refused to send us review units in the past. I've got my eye on the Sandisk Pocket Video Player (http://tinyurl.com/ya5bxp) (what an uninspired product name!) for a few reasons: it's only 16.9mm thick, has a 4" screen, is Flash-based (better battery life), has a built-in speaker, is PlaysForSure so should sync my Media Center TV shows, and has an SD card slot for memory expansion. Sure, it's only got 8 GB of storage space (12 GB if I slap a 4 GB SD card in there, which I will) but that's enough space for a dozen TV shows or movies with enough space left over for some photos and music. I really like the SD card slot, because you can bet we'll see 6 GB or 8 GB SD cards out this year - and the player can expand storage easily. It sounds like a good fit for my needs - thin, big screen - but we'll see how it measures up when I review it (which won't be for a few months since the Pocket Video Player isn't available yet).
http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/creative-sad-panda-jan18.jpg
Get it? The sad panda versus Creative's happy panda? (http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=210&subcategory=211&product=15752)
The 30 GB Archos 604 (http://www.archos.com/products/video/archos_604/tech_specs.html?country=global&lang=en) is only 17mm thick, while the 30 GB Zen Vision:W is 22mm thick. That's 30% thicker for a device with the same sized screen and hard drive. The 60 GB Zen Vision:W is 26.4mm thick, which is just monstrous. I found that when I took it with me to CES, it was just too big. It doesn't include a kick-stand, so I had to hold it up to my face the whole time I was watching videos on it. The screen was great, ripped DVDs looked impressive, but the control pad felt cheap and was irritating to use after a while. Because I already have a great solution (http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,11492) for storing photos while travelling, I don't need the built-in CF card slot.
The Archos units look good, but the company wasn't at CES so I wasn't able to make any contacts - and they've refused to send us review units in the past. I've got my eye on the Sandisk Pocket Video Player (http://tinyurl.com/ya5bxp) (what an uninspired product name!) for a few reasons: it's only 16.9mm thick, has a 4" screen, is Flash-based (better battery life), has a built-in speaker, is PlaysForSure so should sync my Media Center TV shows, and has an SD card slot for memory expansion. Sure, it's only got 8 GB of storage space (12 GB if I slap a 4 GB SD card in there, which I will) but that's enough space for a dozen TV shows or movies with enough space left over for some photos and music. I really like the SD card slot, because you can bet we'll see 6 GB or 8 GB SD cards out this year - and the player can expand storage easily. It sounds like a good fit for my needs - thin, big screen - but we'll see how it measures up when I review it (which won't be for a few months since the Pocket Video Player isn't available yet).