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Creative Zen Vision:M (30GB)
March 1, 2006  
Portable media players are quickly becoming all the rage among music listeners and video watchers that want an all-in-one device. The Apple iPod 5G (aka- iPod Video) has become a hugely popular handheld device for both watching videos and listening to music, but some complain that the iPod's screen is too small for watching videos, so does this video/music player from Creative beat the iPod in quality? It just might, but we'll break it down for you and tell you which is better. To start, the Creative Zen Vision:M has a very sharp and colorful 2.5-inch LCD, which is the exact size of the iPod Video's display. The Zen Vision:M measures about 4 x 2.5 x 1 inches, which is just about 60 percent thicker than the iPod 5G but the same height and width. The Zen also weighs about an ounce more than the iPod 5G, weighing in at about 5.8 ounces. The Zen Vision:M also comes in many different colors, including black, white, green, blue, and pink. As with the iPod 5G Black version, the Vision:M's black model also visibly scratches easily. The back of the Vision:M is a pure white color, which looks pretty neat. The Creative Zen Vision:M's controls are almost like the Zen Micro controls, but it's a little different. The main navigational control is a touch-pad that runs vertically under the screen. There are also four other buttons on both sides of the navigation pad, Menu, Back, Play/Pause, and Shortcut. These buttons are also flush with the Vision:M's case, so you actually press the case, which leaves lots of fingerprints and smudges, but the buttons are solid and work nicely. They also light up with a neat neon blue color. The Zen Vision:M's interface is just as easy to use as the Apple iPod's. Menu's are logically located and you can easily get to whatever you want with the least amount of finger work. The Shortcut button we told you about earlier can be programmed to do whatever you want it to, such as jump to a certain playlist. One thing we didn't like at all was the clunky sync adapter, which is a brick that plugs into the bottom of the Zen Vision:M and it allows you to plug in the USB cable, power, and A/V cable. The dongle is very clunky and very easily lost, meaning you won't be able to charge the device or use the A/V cables. That also means that if you are away for any long period of time, you'll have to bring it with you. Some features of the Vision:M include a FM tuner, voice recorder, and Microsoft Outlook synchronizing capabilities. The Apple iPod limits your shopping to iTunes Music Store, but the Vision:M is Janus compatible, meaning you can fill it with tunes downloaded from subscription services such as Napster To Go. Currently, iPod users don't have this option. Also, Creative has no video store to offer its customers, which means no episodes of Lost or Desperate Housewives available for quick and easy download. Until the Creative Video store, the Vision:M does support a much wider variety of video formats than the iPod, including DivX, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV, and XviD. Users who already have a library of videos will find it pretty easy to copy them to the player because Creative's software automatically converts the files that require it. The Creative software that comes with the Vision:M isn't perfect. Unlike Apple's iTunes, which does everything in one program, Creative gives you a whole bunch of separate programs to do things for the Vision:M, such as upload music or convert video files. That is one aspect that Apple wins by a long shot. The Zen's audio and video capabilities work very well. Audio quality was great, with nice highs, lows, and everything in-between. The included earbud headphones are fine, but we do recommend buying a more substantial headphone set. Video playback is perfect too. We could easily view a movie with no glitches or freezes. The color quality is great too, blacks were very black and whites were very white. Despite its good video capabilities, the Zen Vision:M appears to be primarily an audio player, given its size and features. We were also hoping for significantly more battery life for continuous audio playback than the 12.5 hours we got. For video battery life, the player lasted about 4.5 hours, which is substantially better than the iPod's 2 hours and thirty minutes of video playback. In conclusion, the Creative Zen Vision:M is another excellent addition to the handheld media player market, but it still isn't the best out there. For avid audio listeners, we still recommend the Apple iPod 5G due to it's small size, but if you want something for lots of video playback, we recommend something like the Sony PSP. Pros: Stylish design, easy to use, great navigation & controls, great video battery life, FM tuner, voice recorder, excellent audio & video quality
Cons: Mediocre audio battery life, no compatible video store available yet, clunky dongle to sync/charge Editors' Rating:  Shop for the Creative Zen Vision:M View Images of the Creative Zen Vision:M  
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