Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen NX MP3 Player (Creative Labs-70PD041000008)

Reviewed by: unzenophobe

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: all those that have been mentioned before

Weaknesses: Time to debunk most - I mean who is squinting at the tiny screens they all have all day long changing songs one by one - try a play list or random play all 30 gigabytes - who's pushing buttons?

Overall Evaluation: First - the software is great - most fail to mention that the software is a tremendous file editing tool - I cleaned up and edited a HUGE collection of ratty file tags in far far less time than I could have with any other resource I know of, making mass corrections and edits to files with tag commonalities. Simple recognition as a removable disk by Windows falls far short of what the software does. It does lightning transfers with USB 2 using the software and short of telepathy you have to connect it to the computer anyway. XP recognizes it as an "other" device and you can drag and drop all day long as well. So you can still get files from friends and neighbors - but with the software you can actually make them useable in short order.The earbuds - I don't get this one - the earbuds are quite good. I tried other headphones etc and the included ones were fine. Maybe that sounds a little bland as a defense but I can say that although I am not a professional musician, I play 3 instruments, have music training and have played in performing rock bands and want a good sound. The buds are fine - maybe they put the wrong ones in the package - what do I know.In closing I will say that they should fire the case designer - what a maroon as Bugs would say - but big deal - I spend a few minutes maybe getting the play set up as you would on any machine and then it hangs on my belt or sits in my pocket for 2, 3, 4, 8, 14 hours continously listening to the tunes - oh Yeah - the battery does last around 14 hours in continuous play, I have tested it, and is replaceable - big plus over the competition - but I can tell you this. I have enjoyed spending the 200 bucks less the Zen is than the competition on other cool stuff - and of the 10 gigs of xtra storage I got over the competition for 200 bucks less, I only have 8 left - and I wonder what 2 gigs I would have left out if I had the competition? More for less is definitely better.