Creative Zen Vision:M (30GB, black)

Pros: Excellent Sound quality, excellent video quality, great screen, good battery life, portibility, price, fm radio, touch pad, looks really cool, etc

Cons: easily scratched

Summary: To start, this is one awesome unit. I bought this close to 2007, and it still kills even the "upgraded" ipod. I have never heard better sound quality in my life. Video is awesome too. Below is a more indepth review

Music
As I said before, the quality is awesome. Great bass, excellent mids, and crisp but not overly bright highs. Sounds sweet with a pair of Sennheiser CX300 headphones($50 in-ear headphones, great sound quality) If you are any sort of music lover, you will definitely appreciate the sound quality on this unit. It kills the Ipod in sound quality. The Ipod sounds like a sad joke compared to this. Also the added album art feature is great.
Music: 10/10

Video
Excellent video quality. Very saturated, crisp, bright, and smooth playback. Unlike the ipod, you can get your own videos on your player. The ZVM (Zen Vision M) has a great range of codecs for such a small unit. The included converter will converter basic files on your computer. You can also convert a full length DVD! Just follow this fairly simple guide: http://www.geocities.com/dvd2xvid/ (I didn't make it btw) Getting the dvd converted takes forever(like 5hrs) But it works, and it's FREE! The only complaint I have about the video is that dark scenes are low kind of low quality. I believe the problem is that the screen has a high minimum brightness. But any scene with even some brightness will look stunning. Some people complain about the small screen, I used to own a 4 inch PVP and I don't have a problem with it. Anyhow, the video quality is stunning.
Video: 9.5/10

FM Radio
Great Reception with great sound quality. Also features presets, and you can record.
Fm:9/10

Photos
Photos are crisp, clear, bright and saturated. The delay when browsing through photos is very small. Like instant with low res photos, and less than a second with 8mp photos. Also has a cool slideshow feature with transitions. Also you can have wallpapers!
Photos: 9.5/10

The unit
The ZVM is very portable, with easy browsing, fairly simple interface, and a good battery life. Although, it can easily be scratched and attracts finger prints. So, a good case is a must. Some people complain about the touch pad. I have tried the zen micro out, and it is horrible compared to this. It takes about a day to get usted to, after that, its great. The other buttons are high quality, very big, and are litup. Plus it has a customizable short-cut key. Quick, easy browsing. The screen and the gui are great. It is very simple. Nearly identical to the ipod, except for the popup menu. Battery life is great. Like cnet said, the audio life is 16 hours and the video life is 5 hours. Kills the ipod, even the "upgraded" one. Plus it just looks sweet. Cnet said that it is not as "elegant" as the ipod, it looks 10 times as sweet in person. The cnet photos make it look dumb. Finally, some people complain about the thickness compared to the ipod. I actually prefer a little extra compared to the ipod, gives you something to hang onto- plus the ZVM has a non-scratchable back. Excellent unit design.
10/10

Conclusion.
This is an excellent unit, even in 2007. It kills any other mid-sized unit on the market. Even the zune. I have never used it, but it looks just plain dumb in person. (like really dumb) I apologize for the long review, but hopefully this will encourage you to buy it. Plus the prices have dropped to just $200 at BH photo video. Great Deal, Great Unit!!!!