Creative Zen V Plus user reviews (4GB, black)

Pros Feature-packed; small and sleak; great price

Cons After a month of working perfectly, it simply shut down and stopped working; no video compression

Summary After using a few larger, hard drive-based mp3 players (iPods, Creative Jukebox Zen Xtra, Toshiba Gigabeat), I figured it was time to get a small, flash-based model that could fit and go anywhere. I did my research on what would be the best all-around flash player that would give me the most bang for the buck, and decided to buy the Creative Zen V Plus. I fell in love with it instantly. Great features, terrific design...a solid 9.5 on a 10 scale. The only gripes would be that there is no avi video compression on it (even a few-minute vid clip is over 100 MB) and no Windows 2000 support.

Earlier today, in the middle of a battery charge, the Zen V died on me. I got nothing but a black screen, and no response from the buttons. I scoured the internet - including the Creative site - to see if anyone else has had similar problems. It seems like dozens out of hundreds of Zen V Plus owners have had numerous freeze-ups or even a dead player even after only having it a short time. I tried every trick in the book to revive it - pushed the reset button numerous times; tried holding the on/off slider for extended periods of time; tried pressing various combinations of buttons; tried restarting my Zen sofwtare on my PC; rebooted my PC; reinstalled my Zen sofwtare; all to no avail. All I have is a dead piece of plastic.

I'm very disappointed. I'm torn between returning it to the store and either getting a new Zen V Plus or trying my luck with another mp3 player. Given the number of times this has happened to others (just look at the Creative forums), I say with a heavy heart that I'm leaning towards the later choice. Creative had a winner on it's hands; but due to freeze-ups/dying players, it looks like a lemon. It's only because (when it was working) it may have been the best overall player on the market that I give it a rating of 4. Otherwise, it deserves a 1 simply for reliability. Purchase this at your own risk.

Pros 4GB, Small, Gorgeous

Cons Joystick Could Be Bigger

Summary Just bought the Zen Plus a few days ago at Best Buy. Simply a wonderful masterpiece. I installed the CD Software on my PC and synched to the Zen in a matter of 10 min with no problems. I immediately started downloading songs from Napster. Napster recognized Creative Softare. Was a breeze!!The Zen Plus has a glossy black finish with accents of Blue. Very bold, yet subtle. The Zen Plus is about the size of a Tic Tac Box with the Zen being slightly thicker. Screen is very very nice. Video is also very nice. Perfect for people who work out or those who are on the move. You will not be dissapointed.

Pros Just about everything.

Cons Just about nothing.

Summary Just bought this on September 18th, 2006. Yes I live in the United States...in Ohio to be exact. I've waited for what seemed like forever for this to come out...and somehow Best Buy has them in stock. Trust me...it is the Zen V Plus 4GB brand new and sealed. Funny thing was that I even called Creative when I read a post about how someone had bought this already. They don't even sell it on their site, and they were surprised to know Best Buy was selling it already. Creative said that Best Buy probably got some of special "1st shipment special" or something to that extent. But I thoroughly checked out the box just to make sure =0).
As for the device itself...it was well worth waiting for. Again, trust me on this. I hate reading these biased articles from different people just "hyping" up products or slamming them just because they are made by so and so company. this little thing does all of the good that you've read about and more...plus it has great sound.
Since everyone already knows the specs, let me point out 1 good and 1 bad. Good: even smaller than I imagined. Bad: the headphone cord is a bit too long...that's the worst I can say about it...truthfully.
I am trully happy that I waited for this and even happier that I ran out and bought it before they are all on backorder.
An extremely nice product!

Pros Freezing player, formating only option and means starting again every time it freezes

Cons Sound Quality is fantastic, it looks great, has video and FM radio which work really well

Summary I bought the Creative Zen V Plus after reading millions of reviews and looking at loads of different MP3 players. I was looking for good battery life, good sized memory and FM radio would be a bonus.

The Zen came top in most reviews and was at a great price on Amazon. With 4GB memory it is the perfect size for loads of music and with radio + Video as a bonus. It looked great when it turned up, small shinny and stylish. I charged it, installed the software and started to copy music to the player, I was copying an album at a time, all was going fine, then around reaching the 2GB full mark it would stop the USB connection, freezed on my laptop and the player would stick on the USB docked screen. You have to reset at this stage and it tries to rebuild the library, but never completes. Tried cleaning files option, no change, only option is to format and start again. I tried to get it working for 3 days, with the same problem happening. I tested every way to copy music to it, I tried different albums. I had it working once, by copying less that 2GB to it. Great sound etc, but I wanted it for the 4GB size, tried to put more music on it when only 1.5 GB used, froze again when over 2GB mark was reached, had to format again. I am gutted, as I had spent so much time looking for the ideal player. Ebuyer has hundreds of great and fantastic reviews about it. I am sending this one back for a replacement, hoping that there are only a few dodgy one's out there, but I may get lucky the next time. I am giving it one more chance, but if the same thing happens, I will be getting my money back and looking well away from buying creative labs products.

It is not until you buy it and then go on to www.creative.com to register, that you then see that amount of freezing etc issues that everyone has had with a number of creatives players. I don't understand how they get rated so highly. There forum is full of hundreds if not thousands of complaints and fault discriptions.

If I get one that works properly with no issues i will be happy, but for a first time experience, I have to rate this player as a 2. I would give it a 9/10 for style, options, sound quality (when using different earphones)and accessories, but it's the music you need it for first and fore most. I wouldn't recommend this product, maybe the second one will change my mind, but I think I am clutching at straws.