Creative MuVo Micro N200 review (256MB, Dark Blue)

Although the Creative MuVo Micro's maximum bit rate for line-in encoding is 160Kbps, recordings sounded quite good, and the track-splitting (Sync Track) function worked accurately. Voice recordings also came out clearly, although you have to hold the player fairly close to the sound source to avoid a muffled quality. The FM tuner worked a treat too, with the autoscanner picking up all local stations.

What we were most pleased with, however, was the battery life recorded by CNET Labs. The MuVo Micro lasted more than 19 hours, beating Creative's own estimate by 4 hours. Its average transfer time of 1.76MB per second was decent for USB 2.0.

File-transfer speed
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

MB per second

Cowon iAudio U2 (1GB)

1.76 

Creative MuVo Micro N200 (512MB)

1.76 

Apple iPod Shuffle (512MB)

1.31 

MPIO FY400 (128MB)

0.79 

Battery life
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

In hours

Creative Muvo N200 (512MB; AAA)

19 

Apple iPod Shuffle (512MB; rechargeable)

15 

MPIO FY400 (128MB; AAA)

14.1 

Cowon iAudio U2 (1GB; rechargeable)

11.8 

Note: Although we experienced no playback issues on our MuVo Micro test unit, some users have reported hearing "clicks" or "squeaks" while listening to music files on the device. According to Creative, these issues will be addressed in a firmware upgrade due out in February.