Creative Zen 30 Gig MP3 Player Critique

Christmas 2005 I received from my wife a Creative Zen 30 Gig MP3 player. I immediately loaded it up with over 6000 songs from my music library. The player lasted just over one year. On the plane ride home from Las Vegas it froze up. Just quit working. I tried every thing in the book and some things outside the book to get it to run again but to no avail.

Creative customer service is non existent. I called and they basically said the warranty had expired and that they couldn’t do anything for me. No other information. No web sites to possibly visit to help. No apology. No customer service.

Researching on my own, I found several sites that offered help, but alas, the hard drive had taken a dive and it was now an expensive paper weight. My choices were to buy a new hard drive for the Creative, install it, download and reboot the firmware and hope it works or leave it alone. Being the cost of the replacement hard drive is $149.00, and the excellent chance of the device breaking as the previous one were, I decided to leave it alone.

When the player did function, it worked OK. The sound quality was above average, the ear buds adequate. The instructions and functions easy to learn. I didn’t like the touch sensitive area to move the files back and forth. It was too sensitive and I found myself passing by the songs I wanted to listen to. I would have liked to have a wheel like the Ipod and Sansa MP3 players.

The view screen was one color, blue, and you could adjust the contrast, but it really didn’t help the visual viewing. It was very hard to read, in light or dark area’s. Creative needs to correct this flaw. (And the flaw that the unit stops working after one year)

The battery life was very good. It stated 18 hours of battery life and although I never had it playing longer than 4 hours, (A flight to Las Vegas) it had an excellent battery life.

The cost was $249.00 including ear buds, computer cable for transfer, and a recording cord. And a snazzy leather case to protect and hold the device. If the player were still in operation, I would say that the cost was worth it. Where else can you have 6000 plus songs on a portable device? But since the device quit, the Grassy Knoll Institute does not recommend Creative Zen MP3 players and strongly advises you to be cautious when buying any creative products just because of the inadequate customer service department.

This is what the Creative Zen MP3 player came in. The box describes all the exciting features, but it doesn’t say that it will quit after one year.

End note: This player was not subjected to abusive use. It was not used for jogging, was never dropped, got wet, or hit. It was not in continual use and only used for when I traveled. Very limited use for sure. This device should have lasted for several years at least.

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