Creative Zen Vision:M 60GB MP3 Player - Black (Internal Hard Drive, FM Tuner, 14 Hours)

Reviewed by: z11111

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Incredible sound quality, great flexibility and customization, hard drive storage, play wma+wmv+DivX+various other formats, FM radio, voice recording, great compression, everything ipod can do + more

Weaknesses: Doesn't hold a great charge unless you use AC adaptor, very fragile, pet peeves in the firmware, etc; Only little things. Not as good as other Creative products.

Overall Evaluation: I have been a fan of Creative MP3 players since I bought my first in early 2005, a Creative Zen Touch 20GB. When my Zen Touch started to progress into breaking, I got this Vision:M in December.The Vision:M is a great, underappreciated rival to the iPod video. Sure, it isn't as slim and the screen is less than half an inch smaller, but it has more features built in than an iPod has ever had. For example, it plays the widest variety of video and music formats, such as WMA, MP3, and WAV for audio, and WMV, DIVX AVI, XVID for video. It has great compression formatting and good software. Has GREAT quality sound, with built in Equilizer. However, the only downside to this is the battery life, and the firmware. Creative's latest firmware is from December 06, and it is badly needing an upgrade for little things like tags and such. Also, the battery life does NOT last very long when you charge it via USB port, however, if you get an AC adaptor to charge it with, it works like a charm and holds a great charge.My Vision:M just recently died from liquid damage, and sadly, I'm replacing it with an 80gb iPod, for I need more space and I just got a Mac and the Vision:M isn't compatible with Mac, unless you use a tricky 3rd party software. Nonetheless, the Vision:M is a wonderful product that I would choose over the iPod video any day.