Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB MP3 Player (Blue)

I really love this little gadget. I have no interest in spending the mega bucks for an iPod, but I wanted an mp3 player to take with me when I fly, and for walking, etc.I scanned numerous products and reviews before I settled on the Zen Nano. It seemed to have everything I was looking for, including pretty good user reviews and a good price for what you get.What you get: A really versatile mp3 player that's smaller than a Zippo cigarette lighter. My family couldn't believe how eensy it is. But that makes it easy to transport in a purse or backpack. An armband is included, but I don't use it.The Nano has flash memory, which means the user can save music files on it, or with the USB cable, use it for storage as a flash drive. Flash memory is super-stable, so that's a plus if someone needs it in that capacity.1GB of memory will hold about 500 songs, which is plenty for most people. The Nano also has a voice recorder and an FM tuner which works very well.It will not, absolutely will not skip.I haven't had any problems with the battery compartment cover, but forewarned is forearmed. I am very careful when changing the batteries. I get about 10 hours from a AAA alkaline.It's a feature with all these sorts of players, but be careful how you name the song files when you load them up. All the tracks labeled "01" will play first, in alphabetical order. There are ways to get around this, but bottom line: if you want all your album tracks to play in sequence, pay attention to the file names.Cons: Cannot scroll from one album to the next, only between tracks. The instruction manual could also use some work.No accessories available. I'd like another cover for it, but so far, Creative Labs hasn't offered one.Naturally, the earphones are blah. I like the blue around the ear version by Sony, myself, and these are what I use.Still, these are small things, and not enough to drop a star. This is a fine little player that does the main thing I want it to do: play my favorite music. I happily give it 5 stars and tell the Creative folks they've done a good job.

I just purchased this Zen Nano player to replace my Creative Muvo 512M player that was starting to wear out after 2.5 years.I originally purchased the SanDisk SDMX3-2048 2 gig player to try something new, but when I got it I immediately returned it. Primarily because it did not offer folder/directories. You could sort your songs by artist, album, favorites, etc, but you could not do it by a pre-mixed folder, which is what I like to do.So I returned it and bought a new Creative player since I was happy with my last one.Pros- Very easy to load. Just open up Explore on your PC and drag songs or whole folders into the mp3 player. Simple.- Folders. As I mentioned, I like to create folders that have a selection of different artists for different moods. Then I just move that folder onto the mp3 player. Then I can switch to the folder I want depending on my mood.- Fairly easy to navigate. The little wheel/button could take some getting used to for some people, but it really wasn't a problem for me, and once you are used to it, it's easy.- Price: $58 for 1 gig? I paid 100+ 2.5 years ago for my 512M player. 1 gig is a good size. It does not hold a ton of songs, but enough for me and my purpose. When I get tired of the songs it is easy to swap them out and put new ones on.- Battery operated. This is a pro for me. It requires just one AAA battery and lasts for awhile. I like being able to just pop in a new battery rather than finding a computer to charge it up again. This is imporant for me when I take it on vacation.Con- This player connects to the PC through a small usb chord that comes with it. My old one was a usb device in itself. You just pulled it out of the shell and it had a usb connection that you connected directly to the computer. So with this one you will need to use a chord. But this is fairly minor.- I don't know if this is a con or not, as I am not aware how long other mp3 players usually last? But my current Creative mp3 player still plays music, but the button/wheel has worn out so I can no longer skips songs. When I try the player turns off. So now I can listen to it, I just have to listen to all the songs in the order I picked them. I cannot change folders either. But this happened after 2.5 years of pretty good use. So you will have to decide if this is a problem? I gave it 4 stars because of this, but would give it 4.5 if allowed.Other:- If you like the radio. This comes with an FM Radio. I checked it out and it scans through the radio waves and creates presets for each station it can pick up. Then you can go through and delete the presets you don't like. Then you can just use the wheel/button to move to the next preset. Seemed to pick up radio stations pretty well.- I have not used other features, such as recording, because I only use it for listening to music.So to summarize. Battery operated, makes it convenient if you will be taking it with you and not having a PC handy to recharge it. Folders makes it easy to pick the type of music you want to listen to. Very easy to load. Does not take any software. If these pros sound good to you, then definitely buy this (or other size Creative player). If these are not that important, then it still may be a good mp3 to consider, but there are others out there too that you might want to check out.

Well, this is by far the most extraordinary thing I've ever bought. Who would ever have thought that we could come up with something so tiny that would play music with such extraordinary sound quality, and lots of it! I've had the Zen 1 gig player two months now and have hardly any complaints. I'm mostly into classical music, and so a number of the files I listen to are large. The capacity and function of the Zen player is not compromised by this, however, and I have yet to max it out. The sound quality is great (especially with better ear buds), and the controls are easy to use and quite intuitive so long as you're not gadget phobic. The included software is quite useable, but the player will interface with a PC very well without it. Some people have complained about the flimsiness of the buttons and the relative "fragility" of the player itself. The controls are pretty easy to read, and I think the buttons are more than strong enough for a product this size. As for the player's fragility, the people who complained about breakage had also dropped it on a hard surface. WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?!?!? If electronic components come back ticking after they are dropped, you should count your blessings. If they don't, well, you shouldn't have dropped it. I travel a lot, and the player goes everywhere with me in my shirt pocket, zipped inside a carry-on bag, or clipped to my shorts in the gym. The Zen works great everywhere. The only real complaint I have (and it's small) is that I get more like 5 or 6 hours of play on a battery, not 11. Not a real problem, but I am going to switch to rechargeable batteries the first chance I get.