Buy Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB MP3 Player (Blue)Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB MP3 Player (Blue) Product Description:
- Personal MP3 player with 1 GB internal flash memory
- Integrated FM tuner, voice/FM recording, and line-in encoding
- Super-slim, lightweight design and high-speed USB 2.0 connectivity
- Drive mode lets you store data files such as photos and presentations
- Measures 1.32 x 2.58 x 0.51 inches (W x H x D); 1-year parts warranty
Product Description
The Zen Nano Plus 1GB MP3/WMA Player blends functionality wth style, for a practical MP3 player that fits your life. This slim, trendy MP3 player was designed to fit perfectly in a pocket or backpack, or on your armband. Bring your favorite tunes with you everywhere, without having to lug around space-eating CDs. Signal-to-Noise Ratio - Up to 90dB Frequency Response - 20Hz-20KHz Harmonic Response Output - <0.1% Requires 1 AAA Battery System Requirements - Windows 98SE to XP, Pentium 350 MHz or AMD 450 MHz processor Dimensions(WxHxD) - 1.32 x 2.58 x 0.51 Weight - 0.8 oz. (without battery)
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
377 of 381 people found the following review helpful.
Very Good MP3 Player - but is it right for you?
By Mark Colan
I would have given Creative Zen Nano Plus (abbreviated "CZNP") 5 stars, except for two small deficiences: it does not have gapless playback (see #10 below), and the build quality and controls are kind of cheap (see #4 below). Assuming it lasts, it seems a very good unit for the money. Here's why I bought mine, and some questions to ask yourself when you're choosing. [Updated 8/28/2006]0. Do I want to make a fashion statement with my MP3 player?Some people will only buy a trendy iPod. Buying a lesser-known unit like CZNP makes a different statement, and you can choose from 10 colors. I prefer function over form, but CZNP offers some of each. I bought an orange one because it is easy to find in my black bag.1. Do I want to play more than just sound?The CZNP is a basic MP3 player, FM Radio, and recorder. It has a simple monochrome display and controls that make it a good choice for playing music, podcasts, and ebooks, and listening to local radio stations. It can record from the built-in mike or radio, or from a line input, which may be handy for some.Some players can play videos, show pictures, etc, and cost a lot more because of the required color screen and larger memory. I don't need these things and prefer not to spend the money needed to get them.Of course this player can STORE any kind of content, just like a thumb drive, but it only plays audio.2. Will I be listening to mostly music or mostly spoken content?When you switch off a unit while it is playing, or pause it and it turns off automatically after awhile, some units will resume at the beginning of the current track, and others (e.g. CZNP) resume exactly where you left off. If you are playing music, you usually prefer to start the song over again. For ebooks or long podcasts, I need to resume where it was turned off (like CZNP does), because it is hard to fast-advance back to where you were.3. What kind of accessories can I get?Creative has a set of speakers tailored to the CZNP, and there are many generic accessories that will work with it. By comparison, there are entire catalogs of accessories tailored for optimal use with an iPod (and may not work with others). I have what I need, but pine for some things available for iPod only.The best accessory of all is a cable that has a 1/8" stereo plug (like the headphone plug) on one end, and two RCA plugs on the other. Plug one of these into the auxiliary or CD input of all the stereos you use, and you can quicly plug this in and play on the speakers. Such cables are available at Radio Shack and most places selling electronics products.4. How convenient is it to use?MP3 players vary considerably on how easy they are to use. The iPod is famous for ease of use, though it does not do everything I want to do. The CZNP has relatively cheap controls that work well enough, and does what I want. You don't have to be a computer whiz to use it or its software.I have been using it while driving with reasonably good results. It is easy to pause and start it, turn it off, adjust volume, skip or repeat tracks, back up or move forward in the current track, and small enough to hold in your hand and still be able to hold onto the steering wheel.But if you want to skip to a different album, you have to skip, wait, listen, and skip until you find the first track of the desired album. Of course there is a menu way of getting there more easily, but you can't use menus while driving.It is small and light. About like a Bic cigarette lighter except twice as wide. So far I have found the size very convenient; I don't think I would want it any smaller. But being small, it might be easier to lose - which is why I bought an orange one.5. How long will it last?On Amazon, click the link "See all ... customer reviews", then look for the dropdown "Show:" and choose "Lowest review first" and click the Go button. There are a number of reports from people who had problems with their CZNP, some bad enough to throw it away. Some are real problems, others might be a lack of understanding how to use the player.Despite these complaints, the average review is high. You'll find about the same mix of reviews for most players.I decided to take a chance. My unit will be well-cared for. If I have a problem, I'll update this review.6. Can the battery be replaced?CZNP uses an AAA battery which is said to last for 15 hours and can be changed easily.The iPod Nano has a rechargeable battery that is not designed to be replaced, which means the iPod Nano becomes landfill when the battery no longer takes a charge in a couple of years. There will be millions of iPods being thrown away simply because the owner cannot make them continue to work, which has an impact on the environment. There are now battery replacement kits for iPod, with tools and instructions, so this concern is lessened for DIY people, but most won't bother.7. How does it sound?The CZNP sounds very good to when when I use good earphones like Koss "The Plug", or when plugged into a stereo.The free headphones you get with it won't give you the best sound, and you should not judge any player on how it sounds with the included headphones. Go buy quality earphones for any new player, as this will make a huge improvement in your enjoyment at relatively low cost.8. Does the player use flash memory or hard-disk for storage?CZNP uses flash memory. Flash memory is more expensive per MB/GB than hard disk memory, and flash memory players are smaller than hard disk players. I would not want a hard disk, which I think is too heavy and too fragile for a portable player. Get a hard disk player if you want to carry a lot of content, but make sure you have a backup. Get a flash memory player if you want to hold the content you will listen to today or this week.9. Does the player have enough memory?I use Highest Quality VBR, which gives me MP3s usually 200-250 KBPS, and I get about 10 hours of MP3 music. For podcasts or other material recorded at lower quality, you'll get a lot more. With that much space I can have some new or favorite albums left on the player, and have plenty of room for content that changes (like podcasts). If you don't use a computer regularly, you might want more memory, maybe even a hard disk, but 1GB is very convenient for my purposes.10. Does the player support gapless playback between tracks?Some albums have music that flows continously from one track to the next. Examples: Radiohead "OK Computer", Dandy Warhols, Moody Blues. The listening experience is disrupted if the tracks have a gap as the player switches from one track to another.I don't know of any portable MP3 player that offers gapless playback (without Rockbox), though it's bound to come. The CZNP has a brief gap with no clicks, but it is still somewhat disruptive. One solution is to rip the album as one continuous track. The Rockbox open-source technology essentially replaces the firmware on your player, and it features gapless playback. It is supported on a few players, including some iPods, but not CZNP.11. Does the player require proprietary software or hardware?CZNP includes software, but since it also works like a USB drive, you can manage content with Explorer / Finder if you want to. All connectors are industry-standard and you can find matching cables in electronics and computer stores.iPod can only load music using iTunes, and other players require software supplied with the unit, or with Windows. The iPod and others also use proprietary connectors, so replacing a lost cable is more expensive. I would not be happy with such restrictions. Open standards promote flexibility and interoperability. On the other hand the iPod is widely supported and it's easy to find compatible accessories.For me, at a minimum, the player needs to look like a USB drive when I connect it to the computer, so that I can load it by dragging files to the player's file system, and the CZNP does that. I want to have a program automatically create a custom listening program of various short podcasts that play in a particular order to support Radio on Demand, and I want that to happen by simply connecting the device to the computer, with no keyboard or mouse interaction involved. I have not found such a program, and may have to write it, but I can do that if I want to. With an iPod I have no choice but to use iTunes (or replace the firmware with Rockbox). iTunes will not do what I want it to do, and there is no option to use my own or third-party software.12. Is the player file-based or tag-based?The CZNP is file-based: it will play songs in alphabetical order for a given folder. Naming songs with a two-digit sequence number at the beginning of the filename ensures they play in the correct order. It also has shuffle play, etc.I had tried the SanDisk Sansa, but returned it because all content is organized and played on the basis of tags, exclusively. While my music has tags correctly set to play the way I wanted, podcasts don't use tags consistently enough to play them in a particular order that I chose. With the CZNP you can at least control the order by putting a sequence number at the beginning of each filename.Tag-based may have some advantages over file-based (though not for my uses), but only if all of the content you want to play is properly tagged.
73 of 75 people found the following review helpful.
GREAT!
By Amy
I got an orange 512MB one from another online site about a year ago. I have treated it rather badly. It has been to Turkey and Egypt with me, gotten crushed in my purse, dropped, bounced, and tossed. It just keeps on going. Now, sometimes when it drops, it opens up along the sides just a bit - I push it all back together and everything's fine. Sometimes the battery door will pop off when it drops, no problem - put it back together it just keeps going. There was a point where it needed new firmware, but CREATIVE's customer service is definitely up to par, directions were very simple, and it was soon running again. (I think it was a complication from my Audible.com audiobooks.) Very easy to use, and if you are (hypothetically) driving while it's plugged into your car stereo, and you want to change the volume, or flip to the next file, there's no need to look at it to handle the controls, as they are very intuitive. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
A nifty little device, but...
By H. Ohlson
First impressions were good. Drag-and-drop upload is a breeze. Plug in the earphones, turn on the player, and the music begins. The sound is fine.After a while, you'll probably want to change a menu setting or two, maybe go from alphabetical play to shuffle play. The menu interface is not great, but for most users this probably is no big deal.I went for shuffle play, and for a while all seemed well. But as I kept adding songs, it became clear that something was wrong. The new songs never got played. In the end, I had about 300 songs, and never heard more than about 50 of them.Before asking for help, I decided to load the latest firmware into the Zen. The result was sudden death. Do NOT try to download firmware into your Zen. The Zen has no separate loader; the firmware just tries to load itself, and if this for any reason fails, you're almost literally up the creek without a paddle. In the computer software business, this is called "unprofessional code". You can take it from me, I've done embedded programming (including a lot of loaders) for longer than I care to remember.It took a few e-mail exchanges, but eventually I got a return authorization from Creative and mailed in the player. (I think the post office charged me $2.08.) Considering the technical quality of the firmware, I had pretty much written off the thing. However, in ten days or so, a new Zen arrived. I uploaded the gigabyte, and the shuffle seems OK. Obviously Creative has a serious firmware problem, and the technical support may come across as a little grumpy, but they try. Not very smartly: fixing the loader should take no more than a few days, and would probably put an end to most of the returns.To sum it up: if you stay away from firmware operations, and don't need the menu very often, the Zen is a nifty little device for you. My guess (a little uncertain) is that you will not have my shuffle problem. If you do, you could try reloading all your music from your hard disk, in one operation.
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