CNET editors' review
CNET Editors' ChoiceNov 05-
CNET editors' rating:
stars
Excellent
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 11/22/2005
- Updated on: 11/30/2005
The innovative touch pad that made its debut on the Creative Zen Micro carries over to the Photo, though it has been slightly improved. Foremost, Creative has decreased the sensitivity of the Low setting so that the pad doesn't seem nearly as touchy as on the original Micro's. Also, the face of the player has a textured feel to it, lending a more tactile sensation to the controls. Still, those used to pressing real buttons might need some time to adjust. The layout of the touch pad remains the same, with a vertical scroll strip flanked by Back, rewind, play/pause, fast-forward, and menu keys. This, combined with a great user interface, makes for highly intuitive navigation.
Creative recently patented the interface found on the Zen Micro Photo. In fact, the Creative interface is used on many popular MP3 players, including the Apple iPod. The interface is hierarchy-based, which means you navigate to a genre, then an artist, then an album, and finally a track. Of course, you can also go directly to any of the last three, as well as straight to a playlist that you've created on the PC, then transferred over. In addition, the Zen Micro Photo includes a DJ that will decide for you. This MP3 player's interface is a breeze to use.
The Creative Zen Micro Photo ships with a soft pouch, a USB cable (used for both transferring and charging), a pair of decent earbuds, a user manual, and an install disc. The last includes Creative's MediaSource software, a music-management app that we largely ignored, as well as Windows Media Player 10 and Adobe Acrobat Reader. The most important thing on the disc, though, is the Creative Zen Micro Photo app, which establishes the connection between player and computer. It also encompasses a digital user guide and two useful programs called Zen Micro Photo Media Explorer and Creative Media Tool Box. The first is a Windows Explorer-like program that lets you easily access and organize files on the player, while the second includes convenient tools such as an automatic tag cleaner (operating via Gracenote's Music ID service) and an automatic organizer (based on ID3 tag info).
The Creative Zen Micro Photo is certainly not lacking for features. It's an MP3 player that also accepts WAV and WMA files, including those downloaded as part of Rhapsody To Go and other on-the-go music subscription services. Additionally, it's a photo viewer with a nine-by-nine thumbnail grid for previewing and the ability to support separate albums, represented as folders on the device. Unfortunately, Creative does not successfully marry these two concepts; you can't listen to music and browse photos simultaneously--a bummer since having something to look at while you jam to your favorite tunes significantly adds to the experience. Also, album art isn't supported, but we can forgive this more easily since we'd rather see track info and time elapsed anyway. Remember, the screen is fairly small in the first place.
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