Creative Zen V Plus 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black/Green)
Creative Zen V Plus 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black/Green)
Manufacturer: Creative Labs
A seamless integration of design and functionality. Your music and your life now fit perfectly in the ZEN V Plus. Enjoy a full suite of entertainment in a petite design - loads of music, full color photos, FM radio and view short video clips.
Amazon.com Product Description:
With a tiny, eye-catching design, smooth contours, and a discreet size, the Creative Zen V Plus 2 GB Portable Media Player fits perfectly in your palm and slides effortlessly into your smallest pocket. With 2 GB of storage space,
 A 1.5-inch OLED screen displays rich and vibrant photos, as well as the easy-to-use Creative interface. View all Zen V Plus features. |
 Not much bigger than a pair of earbuds! (black and orange model shown) See the Zen V Plus in 3D. |
Another great features is the Direct CD Recording function that allows you to record songs directly from a CD player or other audio source without using a PC as an intermediary. You no longer need to burn CDs to your PC then download to your MP3 player. Just connect an audio device directly to your Zen V Plus, and record your favorite CDs, records, beats and more, directly from the source. Meanwhile, automatic track detection separates each song for you--a handy feature when you're converting analog (records and cassette tapes) to digital. If organization is a high priority, the Zen V Plus's Personal Organizer will help you stay connected and in-sync with your Microsoft Outlook information. Just connect the Zen V Plus to your PC, sync your Outlook information, and you'll be ready to carry around your contacts, calendar, and to-do lists right in your pocket. Plus, the Zen V Plus uses a handy built-in microphone to double as a voice recorder, so you can capture notes, record lectures, and more.
 No matter how you hold it, the Zen V Plus is just the right size. |
What's in the Box
Creative Zen V Plus, earphones, drawstring pouch, lanyard, USB 2.0 cable, line-in cable, neck strap, installation CD including user manual, and quick start guide.
Lowest Used Price: USD 39.95
Lowest New Price: USD 64.99
Lowest Refurbished Price: USD 38.46
- Product Type - MP3 Player
- Memory - 2GB
- Battery - Rechargeable Li-ion Battery
- Storage Capacity: 2GB (1,000 songs)
Color: Black/Green
Model: 70PF207100181
Excellent sound, scratch resistant, awkward for iPod folks
The Creative Zen V Plus is an evolutionary upgrade from the Creative Zen V which I have been using since it was released.
The Creative Zen V products use an incredibly scratch-resistant case. It seems to be made from a hard, formica-like substance that is at the same time soft enough that rubbing with your fingertips can remove what visible scratches might appear. Somehow the small scratches that have appeared all over the iPods just do not appear on the Creative Zen V unit. The glossy, mirror-like finish, on the other hand, can make it slippery.
The Zen V is impossibly small. You really do not know until you actually hold one how small it is. It is smaller than any generation iPod Nano.
Video is a disappointment, but that is expected. The Zen V uses a motion-JPEG-like video format that has a low frame rate and resolution. On an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ a movie that is 1 hour long can take 2 hours to convert. 500 megabytes can turn into 1.2 gigabytes. The Zen V does NOT support any of the MPEG4 profiles. It uses what some of the knock-off portable players have named "MP4" which is a sort of motion-JPEG. It is easier for low-power devices to play these "MP4" movies but they take an enormous amount of room. If you want to watch movies you should look at the Creative Zen (not Zen V) or the iPods which support the actual MPEG4 format (they also take hours to convert movies to the iPod but at least they don't double the file's size).
If you are an iPod user you will not like the Zen, so be prepared to pay double or triple this price for the iPod you desire. The Zen V Plus really wants you to use your computer to organize tracks and videos, but unlike the old Zen Micro, the Zen V does have the ability to organize tracks (and delete them) on the device. You can subscribe to non-iTunes-specific Podcasts by using the "Zencast Organizer" feature.
The FM radio is nothing special. It has low sensitivity to weak stations and is monaural. If you like recording programs you will be better off getting a device that is designed for recording FM programs, like an FM Radio USB device or PCI card for your computer. You're just not going to be using the Zen V Plus to listen to FM radio.
For listening to long podcasts and audio books Zen V Plus does not seem to automatically remember where you left off on most tracks. People tell me there is a way to do this but I cannot figure it out on my Zen V and Zen V Plus devices. I always just save a bookmark instead which is, thankfully, intuitive enough to get into the habit.
The Zen V Plus supports Rhapsody To Go, the heir apparent to Yahoo Unlimited To Go, which allows for unlimited music downloads on the device for a monthly subscription fee.
