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• Creative Zen Touch 40GB MP3 Player

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• Overall Rating
  1 Star Review

  Reviewed by: cmo00

  Updated:07-13-06

  Duration of ownership:

  Strengths:

  Weaknesses: Freezes and dies after warranty expires!

  Overall Evaluation: About two months after I purchased the zen touch, it started freezing whenever I would try to skip songs. I would have to reboot it manually, and then it would work fine. Well, about 3 months after that, it froze for a final time and would not start again. Basically, I wasted $300 on this player, and I could not even get customer support from Creative, as they charge a fee for help over the phone after the 3 month warranty is up.

• Overall Rating
  5 Star Review

  Reviewed by: gnatforeva

  Updated:11-23-05

  Duration of ownership:2 Weeks

  Strengths: Sound, capacity, and price.

  Weaknesses: Could be a bit smaller in overall size, but not a problem to me. The touchpad is a bit sensitive.

  Overall Evaluation: So far I love this thing. Great price, great capacity, great sound quality. The touchpad is a bit sensitive like everyone says, but you will quickly get used to it. I had a few problems with file transfers at first, but after a firmware update and all the software updates, this thing was amazing, so make sure you visit creative's website (update the firmware before loading any music because this will format the drive). All in all a great buy.

• Overall Rating
  4 Star Review

  Reviewed by: phreekk

  Updated:09-08-05

  Duration of ownership:1 Months

  Strengths: Intuitive Interface, Sturdy construction, Long battery life

  Weaknesses: Slider takes a little time to get used to (but works very well,) Included software is not very good, Included case is poorly designed

  Overall Evaluation: I am very pleased with the Zen Touch. I've tested a few alternative players such as the iPod and have to say that this is the best out there. Sure the iPod's wheel functions a bit more smoothly, but it's storage and cost comparison don't outweigh that. The Zen Touch is similar to the iPod in appearance, but I actually think it more closely resembles my Dell Inspirion 700m. The software isn't the best, but there are alternatives out there (such as the product by Red Chair.) Other suggested accessories would be to get the BoxWave MiniSync cable which allows you to sync and charge via USB at the same time, otherwise you have to wait till the player isn't currently active for it to use the USB cable to start charging.

• Overall Rating
  5 Star Review

  Reviewed by: alvamark

  Updated:08-16-05

  Duration of ownership:6 Weeks

  Strengths: I absolutley love the whole thing. Everything that everyone says about the sensitivity of the slider bar is dumb. I learned how to use it in 3.4 seconds.

  Weaknesses: Absotivley, Posolutley nothing!

  Overall Evaluation: I love love love it! All my friends think it is adorable. The software is so easy to figure out, I had 1000+ Songs on it in the first few weeks. So much better than an I-pod.This is a splifendiferic electronic device to spend your hard earned money on.(Editorial comment: This review was written by my teenage daughter. It appears she likes it! From what I've seen of her use of this player, it seems very easy to use and it holds an incredible amount of music. Now, both of my daughters have bought one, and I kinda wish I had one, but I don't know that I would ever even get it half filled. So, I will probably use one of the Rio S10's that we got them for Christmas a couple of years ago. I'm impressed with this. It seems to me that the main thing Ipod has going for it is "device recognition.")

• Overall Rating
  5 Star Review

  Reviewed by: rbyrum

  Updated:08-12-05

  Duration of ownership:14 Days

  Strengths: Great Price (Better Value Than the IPod and I think a superior product)Great Build QualityVery High HD Capacity (40 GB in my version)Touchpad (Once used to it) Outstanding Sound

  Weaknesses: No remote!Very poor software (Just use Windows Media Player 10)Needs the firmware improvedPoor earbuds...has great sound with better headphones

  Overall Evaluation: I have had this product for couple of weeks and I am very pleased so far. I'm glad I didn't throw more money away for a hyped Ipod. This player works well with Windows XP and will play WMA as well as MP's. It has great battery life too!On all aspects the player scores very high. I have been using WP Player 10 to transfer files. Overall it works well. My high points: 1 Price and Value over (other overpriced MP3 players) 2 Great built quality 3 Large HD capacity 4 Speed of navigation. Many reviews have commented on the touchpad. I really do like it. It's true that it is sensistive but I think it works fine. It is very easy/quick to find your songs.5 Battery life is outstanding6 Sound is very good. The bass will be much better if you change to some great headphones. My low points: 1 The firmware needs to be more improved. 2 It is thicker and heavier than an ipod 3 Headphones/Earbuds are not very good. Well that is usual! 4 Would be nice to have a remote with it too.5 Not many accessories.By the way, you can buy a skin for this device. I could only find them at the www.amazon.com (UK site), but check on eBay. (I've seen some on sale there.)Final Comments: I would defintely recommend the player if you are looking for a great price and value for your money. I think Creative is a great company and currently are producing superb products. (I have Creative speakers on my computer and they "rock the house".) Be sure to update your firmware too. And again if you want great battery life this one has it. In conclusion, this is for you if you are looking for a hard drive based MP player. You'll be saying Ipod who?

• Overall Rating
  4 Star Review

  Reviewed by: cmangrum

  Updated:07-03-05

  Duration of ownership:1 Months

  Strengths: very easy to usegood price on the price per gbmusic sounds very good and clear

  Weaknesses: not that many options to choose fromthe software can be a little tricky to learn

  Overall Evaluation: very good mp3 for the price per gb - would recommend someone to buy it very good quality productmusic sounds great and clear and its very easy to use

• Overall Rating
  5 Star Review

  Reviewed by: ramatlock

  Updated:06-17-05

  Duration of ownership:3 Weeks

  Strengths: Long Battery Life, great capacity, and easy setup / initial transfer

  Weaknesses: Low volume when using non-amplified speakers

  Overall Evaluation: I read several of the reviews. I knew I wanted a windows based MP3 player with a long battery life. I wanted one that I could use rechargeable AA or AAA batteries with, but those don't exist. Zen Touch's long battery life was the deciding factor for me - no others came close to this series. Despite hearing about problems with the desktop/laptop interface and remarks about the clumsy touch pad, I decided on the Zen Touch. I figured the Touch Pad was something I would probably get used to after having it a little while. The installation software wasn't difficult at all. After the installation, a couple minutes of work had all my MP3 files transferring over to my Zen Touch. Less than half an hour later, it had all my music loaded. The whole collection is probably around 50 CDs or so. I found the software much easier to use than expected from the other reviews. I also discovered a neat help for the touch pad. I had problems using the touch pad when I started by placing my finger in the middle and trying to scroll one way or the other. It would run away pretty quickly using this technique. However, I found that when I started at the very bottom or very top and moved by finger along the pad in the opposite direction from where I started, the selection didn't run away. If I want to scroll up, I place a finger on the bottom of the pad and move it to the top. If I need to go further up, then I repeat the process instead of holding my finger at the top. This little change helped ease the use of the Zen Touch greatly. The only problem I had was using non-amplified speakers with the Zen Touch. Even at the highest volume setting, it didn't put out very much sound for those speakers. Not really a problem, but I was not able to quickly figure out how to move a few playlists from Dell Jukebox to the Creative software. Since I don't have many playlists, I figured it would be easier to simply re-create them. Great product and great value!! I really enjoy having it on trips.

• Overall Rating
  2 Star Review

  Reviewed by: tasty_wheat

  Updated:05-27-05

  Duration of ownership:5 Months

  Strengths: Simple menu, good sound, long battery life, fast uploading, bulk tag editing via software

  Weaknesses: No format capability, scrolling too sensitive, poor headphones, annoying "Random" button, reset button hard to press, poor warranty coverage

  Overall Evaluation: First off I tried to format the player because of the songs initially loaded. There's no way to format the hard drive to my knowledge. I just used the organizer software to delete the tracks off. The menu system is pretty simple and straightforward. Once I chucked the lousy headphones I noticed there's a very good sound. The lows and highs were clearly defined and the volume was sufficient for most tracks. I haven't used the EQ very much. Using the custom EQ is difficult because of the way you have to change the levels using the touch pad. The touch pad is overly sensitive even on the lowest setting. Fine tuning the sound is pretty hard. Don't try it while you're driving! Scrolling thru menu items is way too sensitive. On low sensitivity I can scroll thru about 60 items per second. On high sensitivity I can scroll thru about 250 items per second. Get used to constantly passing the item you want to select. I like the fact they give you a carrying case but unless you put the hold switch on you'll most definitely press a button putting the player in. Usually, it's the dreaded "Random" button. Besides the fact I don't see the point of it on the front of the player, you have to go thru the main menu to switch back to normal play. Most of the songs on my player come from my CDs and I found it pretty easy to transfer the music. When you have around 400 CDs to put on your player you like the process to be as automated as possible. The quickest you can get it done is to download the CD info and drag the CD to the player. An auto-eject or auto-fetch for info would've been nice. Once the music is on the player it's very easy to edit it from the organizer software. You can even select multiple items and change the tag info in bulk. If the letter case is wrong you can't just change it directly because the player thinks it's a duplicate file. I don't have a method to use the player with my stereo but I trust that will perform very well. UPDATE #1: Suddenly the sofware on my computer wouldn't interact with the player anymore. The software would constantly freeze if I did anything other than look at the player's contents. I uninstalled and reinstalled everything but that didn't help. I killed all of the CT tasks and reopened MediaSource. Finally things were back to normal. I guess all of the software starts to conflict with itself and that's why it kept freezing. I also reset the player once, but I'm not sure if that's what actually fixed my problem. UPDATE #2: I live in a typically hot climate area and I don't think the player appreciates that. Sometimes I can hear the hard drive click incessantly and the player won't respond. In my car, if I hold it up to the a/c until the back is nice and cold it doesn't have trouble. Because of this odd behavior I've hit the reset button more than a few times. It is way too hard to press. First off, the hole is way too small and secondly it's hard to find the button. I imagine the button was covered by cheap rubber padding and I have already torn it off, making it 10 times harder to press. UPDATE #3: I'll probably just trash my player now. The majority of the songs will play, but sometimes it will just click and scratch forever. Yes, it's under warranty, but labor is only covered up to three months. I won't send my player in then have to pay $50 to get it repaired. It will be a long time before Creative gets any of my money.

• Overall Rating
  4 Star Review

  Reviewed by: SuperDeals2Buy

  Updated:05-18-05

  Duration of ownership:2 Days

  Strengths: Has Large Memory and Touch pad for easy scrolling.

  Weaknesses: The product is Heavy.

  Overall Evaluation: This is the best MP3 player I've ever had. The creative labs MP3 player is cheap and stylish compare to other MP3 players. But I had a problem when I receive the new Creative MP3 player because the hard disk was not functioning well. Therefore, I have to email the customer support of Creative for solutions for my problem. The creative customer support was fast to respond to my problem. The creative MP3 players Creative MediaSource Application and NOMAD Explorer should be an optional feature of the product because the user needs to install this application in order the user can transfer data files and MP3 files to the Creative MP3 player. Unlike other MP3 players the user just plug the USB then they can easily transfer files from one computer to another without the installing the application.

• Overall Rating
  3 Star Review

  Reviewed by: jame3200

  Updated:04-22-05

  Duration of ownership:1 Weeks

  Strengths: battery life, touch pad, easy to use, case included

  Weaknesses: software, headphones

  Overall Evaluation: I had a terrible time trying to install the Creative software, encountering a "cycilac redundancy check" each time. After three calls to technical support, I was finally able to use my Zen Touch (although, the included software still does not work, and I am using Windows Media Player). In spite of the software issues, I am satisfied with the Zen Touch. It is easy to use and the battery life is great. I would recommend using a different pair of headphones; the included "ear buds" are uncomfortable.

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Creative Zen Touch 40GB MP3 Player

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