The 6GB version is a good investment to anyone who has a lot of mp3's and hates getting cd's scratched in their coat pockets.I've read all the reviews and see people are complaining about the size and weight, so heres a test, I've got around 2500 songs on mine (in terms of cd's that's about 156, with 15 tracks per cd say. well if you lay 156 cd's on top of each other i, expect you will find it will make quite a large pile, thus showing, in comparison to a cd player, it is smaller when you consider, the full storage abilities.
The batteries are ok, all the short side maybe compared to a cd player or mini disk, but then, i usually can find a plug near where i work, I'm not walking around longer than 4hrs a day, i doubt you are when you think about it, and if you do....it doesn't take that long to charge; besides, don't forget the player comes with 2 sets of batteries totalling 8hrs of music...you really work around 8 hrs a day?!
With the new firmware out, downloadable (about 2mb) you are able to scroll much easily, and the machine is quicker.
It makes a great sound system for parties, for anyone who owns a disco business this machine would be ideal! - No more carrying boxes of cd's - the relief!
My player is used everyday 9 till 5, everyday, and I must say, I'm not the most careful person with my electronics (usually land up smashing them) but I have to state, this one sure is robust to stand the beatings I put it up to.
Adding to the comments about Customer support.
Unfortunately, when I bought it from Amazon the machine would not charge!. thus meaning I could not listen to it, so with an email to Creative Support, I had a reply in less than 3 minuets telling me they would arrange a carrier to pick it up (at a time that suited me!) and for them to fix it, free of charge.
After 4 days, it came back, (working!) and with another set of batteries too - full stars for support.
Microphone is good, I use a set of headphone and it picks up the sounds fine, after purchasing a set of Sony in-ear headphone from Argos (around 17 quid) I turned it on, and it almost made my ears bleed, the head phones that come with it, are suitable for the average listener, though me, trying to become deaf early it would seem, love to listen to my music so everyone in the next room can hear it!
The EAX - this is amazing, hook it up to a large set of speakers (I use my local theatres hehe) and play a song, then amuse yourself with the Environment settings, is great fun, live in a club etc, really get the guys at work jealous :)
The screen size is great, nice and large, colourful, you can actually read it, to the guy who said I cant read the songs names - try pressing DETAILS - says the whole song's name, the time of track, and equalizer setting.
The lock mode they added to is useful, after having a Cd player for a while, carrying it in my pocket and every time I moved the stop button would stop was annoying, with this smart button, the machine cannot be changed without unlocking it.
USB is fast, much better than the old mini disks that you use to have to wait for the whole song to record, urge the wait! - With mp3's the song is transferred in about 4 seconds, didn't take me long to fill it up. Your be surprised how much music you will find, when you want to fill it up.
To those thinking about buying the larger ones, if you don't have over 6gb's of music, don't bother - its hard enough to fill one of these up and that's including the 3 odd gb's of music that come with it, all of different styles, from rap to classical - though of course, this can be easily deleted.
Think that about raps my opinion up, a great little machine - a must buy to someone who is sick of scratching their cd's etc :)
PS - I dont work for Creative and i didn't get payed for writing this, how i wish i was :) - before i get any emails saying so, besides - who would allowe me to write a review with such terrible grammar :)
1) All your music where-ever you go - as long as where-ever you go there is a power point. The battery life on this product is a joke. I can't get from my house to the tube station on one set of rechargeables. As the manufacturers tell you not to use regular AA batteries you are pretty stuck. 2) The software is extremely poor. I cannot rip cd's with it and their technical support has no suggestions as to how to fix it. It is also not very flexible.
3) The user interface is extremely cumbersome and difficult to navigate. The soft-key function actually makes it harder to navigate. For instance, when trying to reverse up the menu tree you go back using one button and the next step requires you to use a different button. Navigation is also really slow.
4) The screen does not display full file names and does not scroll! This basic oversight means that unless your songs are briefly and perfectly tagged you can't see what the song name is!
5)The machine hangs on a regular basis, though the upgradeable firmware has reduced this problem a bit.
6) I have resigned myself to using this machine as a non-portable attachment to my hi-fi where it is a useful, though pretty average, addition to my home entertainment system.
Conclusion: this product has too many bugs to live up to its promises. I don't know if other mp3 players are any better, but I strongly advise you to look elsewhere for your mp3 solutions.
