Review of the Creative Labs Zen V Plus 4GB MP3 Player
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Think Apple ipod Nano but better, and you’ve got the Creative Zen V Plus 4GB portable media player. It’s a great all-rounder aimed specifically for people on the move, giving you a chance to listen, watch and view photos in futuristic style. Design |
| The first noticeable aspect of the Creative Labs Zen’s V-Plus is the unusual button arrangement. The centre is dominated by a glowing orange control, containing a joystick, which doubles up as an enter option. Just to the right-hand side of this is the play/pause button and return button. The 4:3 aspect ratio 1.5” OLED screen dominates the top half of the player. It weighs 43g, and measures 43.5 (w) x 67.5 (d) x 15.9 (h) mm, so it remains completely pocketable, and perfect for commuters. Along the top you’ll find a USB port, line-in jack (for recording audio from an external CD player), and a headphone jack. All that you’ll find along the side is the volume and record keys. |
| Features |
| You can watch video, listen to music and look at your snaps using the Creative Labs Zen V-Plus. The main difference between the ‘V’ and the ‘V-Plus’ is that it now has an FM radio and video function that it lacked previously. You can check out our Creative Labs Zen-V video review for more information. So, the V-Plus offers 15-hour audio and 4-hour video playback, with a high quality 128x128-pixel resolution. It has FM radio, voice recording and Line-in recording, giving you the option to record from external sources. Other handy features are an alarm clock, calendar, and an all-important organiser to keep you up-to-date. It supports Microsoft PlayForSure and synchs easily with WMP files. The file management and conversion software that is included is ultimately easy to get on with too. It plays MP3, WMA (DRM), JPEG, AVI, MPEG4, IMA, ADPCM, and you transfer all content by simply dragging and dropping. Alternatively you can synchronise with Window’s media player, or using the Creative software included. One of our favourite features is the screen rotation, giving you the option of watching your videos and viewing your pics vertically or horizontally. |
| Performance |
| The Creative Labs Zen V-Plus is just as easy to use as the Nano, in fact the menus aren’t dissimilar either. We found it easy to navigate between files and options, using the responsive joystick. Video playback put on a great show; we were surprised by the amount of image sharpness it had to offer. Lots of full-bodied colours were present, along with superbly realistic detail. For such a small media player the V-Plus provided above average motion handling, however its pixel structure was a bit rough around the edges. Audio was well looked after, and offered a great sound performance. MP3s encoded at 192kbps were strong and clear, and the radio performance was great too. Thanks to its generous pixel offering, our photos looked smashing on-screen. Operating the V-Plus is made easier thanks to its small, ergonomic design, however most actions require the use of two hands. |
| Overall Opinion |
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We liked the Creative Labs Zen-V, but when we heard that the V-Plus was launching, it did kind of - how can we put this politely? - get the boot. Why Creative Labs launched the inferior ‘V’ model so closely to the V-Plus, we’ll never know, but they did and we are happy. The V-Plus does everything you could want a portable media player to do, and it does everything very well indeed. Forget those players that still can’t offer us FM radio, mentioning no names (starting with i and ending in Pod), and go out and but this one!
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| By Lisa Malyon |
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| FM radio Ergonomic Design Ability to record from external sources PlayForSure 15-hour audio playback 4-hour video playback Excellent all-round performance |
| Factor | Rating |
|---|---|
| Ease of Use | 4/5 |
| Durability | 4/5 |
| Style | 5/5 |
| Service & Support | 4/5 |
| Value for Money | 4/5 |
| Recommend | 1/5 |
| Overall | 4/5 |