Creative Labs Zen Vision M 30GB Black

having searched the internet bought one each for my 2 girls and have to say that although the experience and quality of using and playing the Zen is fantastic I have been disappointed with: 1 Accessories - the Zen doesn''t come with an adaptor and I think having to fork out at least £20-25 for one is excessive. the in thing these days is for an MP3 player to cradle in some speakers - yet finding these for the Zen is not so easy with i Pod seeming to hog the market. Surely Creative should be trying to make in roads into this market. 2 The massive 30GB makes ample space for saving films for watching on long journeys but the downloading of DVDs is not easy (in fact you need to be technically minded which my daughters are not) and I may as well have bought a DVD player. Shame.

Neat bit of kit. Totally agree with the other reviews that I read on this site about the picture and sound quality. However.... ....have found it''s total incompatibility with other standard accessory items (such as USB chargers and cables to plug it into a TV (to view pictures on a bigger screen without having to lug your PC with you everywhere)) intensly frustrating. You have to buy additional ZEN cables and adapters for not a small amount of money (they do not come as standard). Add to this that in the UK these are not sold all that commonly in high street stores and have to be bought off the internet. Not impressed with that since not only does it mean added unnecessary expense it also means that instead of carrying around one USB charger that I use for my mobile phone I now have to carry around a special for my MP3 player. One of the reasons I have the ZEN Creative M is the convenience (or so I thought) of being able to cut down on the quantity of gadgets and associated cablage etc - the theory being great for travelling light!

Very nice machine with good sound quality but I'd like a little more volume. The software uses four separate programs - easy but unnecessary.

I have written this review as an honest opinion of the Creative Vision M player that I have just purchased to replace an Archos Gmini 20Gb which got stolen.(I was very happy with the Archos) Sound reproduction excellent with earphones supplied.... plenty of bass and volume. Graphic equaliser built-in, with preset eq's or custom eq.... not a gimmick, realy does work. Reassuringly solid feel due to large battery which really does give hours of use between charges. File transfers really fast on USB 2.0 interface. Centre touch pad very sensitive..... sensitivity set at medium as sold, reduced it to low but still have some difficulty distinguishing between up down and select. Video reproduction excellent, (I went for this unit beceause it has better color than iPod). Software very effective although a little confusing at first. Unit does take some time to recharge the battery through the USB connection, but optional extras include mains and car chargers.