Creative Zen Vision

Hot on the heels of Apple's latest iPod, Creative releases the Zen Vision. With their latest gadget, Creative hopes to compete with the iPod on similar grounds; that is, audio, photo, AND video capabilities. Portable music players have certainly come a long way, and the market is in a constant flux thanks to the myriad players out there. Will the Creative Zen Vision steal the iPod's glory and become the new king of portable media players? Let's try to find out.

Features

With ever-increasing power that could be crammed into ever-decreasing (in size) packages, a music player's feature set can make or break its chance at success in a highly competitive market. That said, the Zen Vision is no slouch when it comes to features. For starters, the Zen Vision supports the usual MP3 (up to a maximum bitrate of 320 kbps), Microsoft WMA (up to a maximum bitrate of 320 kbps), WMA with DRM, and standard PCM WAVs. Photo support is limited to JPEG-format files. For video, the Zen Vision can play the usual MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4, as well as Microsoft WMV, Motion-JPEG, DivX 4 and 5, XviD, and AVI (but AVI is a mere “container format” for other video formats, so this is a little ambiguous).

Battery life is estimated to be about 13 hours for non-stop audio playback and 4.5 hours for non-stop video. Power comes from a proprietary but user-replaceable rechargeable lithium ion battery.

One feature that we find excellent is the gorgeous, high-color 3.7” TFT display. With a display resolution of 640x480 pixels, it certainly is the one of the biggest screens around. Complement that with 262,144 simultaneous colors and you have a gorgeous screen. Put everything together with a 30 gigabyte capacity wrapped in a magnesium alloy casing that weighs 239 grams, and you got a handy little entertainment powerhouse that goes with you anywhere and everywhere.

Pros and Cons

Putting the Zen Vision through its paces, we find plenty to like about this player. The first noticeable feature is the color display. Big, bright, and vivid, the Zen Vision's screen is a joy to watch our test videos on. The transflective screen easily smudges, though, but a piece of clean flannel cloth is your friend. The sleek anodized magnesium shell is resistant to fingerprints and looks extremely chic (or professional; either way it's good).

The Zen Visions controls are conveniently laid out to the right of the screen and on the top edge of the unit. Connectors and jacks for audio-video, power adapter, headphones, compact flash, USB 2.0, and the optional docking cradle are judiciously located on the other sides.

Media format support is fairly comprehensive, but the Zen Vision lacks support for AAC-encoded audio files. That aside, audio playback is excellent, which isn't surprising as this is a device coming from Creative. The built-in equalizer is extremely handy in customizing the overall sound. There are eight EQ presets and the ability to make custom settings. The player can get sufficiently loud through earphones, but the supplied Creative simply do not do justice to the Zen Vision's audio playback quality.

Videos play back beautifully on the color screen, but there are some problems with huge video files (> 3 gigabytes in size) – files that big cause the player to freeze. We're hoping this problem gets fixed in a future firmware update from Creative. The Zen Vision also performs really well when hooked up via the supplied A/V cables to our test home theater system; video is clear and properly synchronized with audio. The tiny built-in speaker, useful only in very quiet indoor settings, could have been eliminated to simplify the overall design of the player.

Battery life of the Zen Vision is satisfyingly adequate, considering the complexity of the player and the size of its screen. Creative also offers a higher-power replacement battery cell with over twice the capacity of the supplied battery.

An extra feature that comes useful in many situations is the built-in microphone for recording. Unfortunately, the mic is lacking in the sensitivity department. There is also a slight delay before recording begins after the user starts it.

Summary and Recommendations

Creative's Zen Vision is an impressive second entry into the portable media player market, following the company's first effort, the Creative Zen Portable Media Center. The Zen Vision corrects some of the shortcomings of its predecessor and is a solid performer. While we don't feel Creative came up with a player that will dethrone the iPod as the king, the Zen Vision comes very close and is an equal to the iPod in most respects. Of course, the Zen Vision handily trounces the iPod in the display department. For the money, the Zen Vision is an excellent value. Perhaps Creative will come out with the ultimate iPod killer? Time will tell.