- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 183 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
3.5 stars
"Very Good Value"
Pros: Very good price/value ratio; excellent sound; doubles as data storage; replaceable battery; carrying case included
Cons: Cannot create playlists on the device; not for athletes
Summary: I own one of these for over a month by now. Regarding performance, I have no major complaints. This gadget delivers as promised, and sounds beautifully; even through my cheapo headphones (I could NOT bear the tinny sound of the original Creative headphones, so I replaced them with a pair of Sony low-end cans, which happen to improve the sound a lot.)
Now I will try to analyze the Zen Jukebox in some detail:
1. Performance: As I said, it is really good. I cannot wait to buy a good pair of headphones, then the sound will surely be even better. Even now I perceive some details I've never had before in some of my oldest songs, it is amazing! One point I did notice: occasionally, the sound gets scratchy, apparently for no reason. I read some other review indicating this same failure and saying that it can only be solved by removing the battery. What I do is changing the album and/or turning the Zen off (using the power button). It has solved the trouble every time and, as I said, it's been very occasional up to this moment. I assume it is related to the fact that this is basically a portable hard-drive which may suffer magnetic interference from other devices (I have a lot of electronics both at home and at work).A good pair of headphones is essential so you can really get the most out of your investment.
2. Battery: I charged it for 04 hours the first time, following the Manual's instructions. An average of 10 effective hours can be expected from a 03 hours charging. Considering I have to use a higher volume level to compensate my lack of good headphones, I guess this is acceptable.
3. Software: Many people complain about the accompanying software. It's certainly not the best they could supply. Nevertheless, it has some advantages: for example, transfer is unbeatable faster than with any alternative (Windows Media Player and Real Player, for example). And I've found a way to rip a CD and transfer the files directly to the Zen without saving to my PC hard drive (it saves time and space)! As I mentioned, you can also rip and transfer from Windows media Player and Real Player.
4. Connectivity: As the manual acknowledges, this is not intended to be an additional hard drive. But it would have been a blowout if it were. This means you cannot plug it in to any PC and expect it to receive or send files on the go. The Nomad Explorer installation is required first. Transfer speed is generally good, but amazing if you use the Creative Software: for my usual songs, it averaged a second or less per song!
5. Navigation: You can easily access any song, album, artist or genres, assuming you have taken care of ID tagging your MP3s. The bad point here is that you can only create real playlists in your PC and using the Creative SW. It is virtually impossible to do it in the device itself. But I've read some one say that you cannot play album tracks in the original order. This is not true; you only have to select the album.
Where to buy
30 GB NOMAD Jukebox Zen Xtra MP3 Player:
$129.95
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$129.95 | Yes |
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