Creative Labs Zen MX 16 GB MP3 Player (Black)

I have had many Creative MP3 players. Most of them have been very satisfactory usually with a couple of minor flaws that I was able to work around. My latest Creative purchase, the Zen MX, has caused me to seriously consider whether I will ever buy another Creative product again. That Creative has not addressed a glaring flaw in the firmware of this player, blows my mind. Especially when I know they have addressed the same problem in their more recent MP3 player, the Zen X-Fi2. The problem I refer to is the playlist bug. Playlists cannot be created or imported from other players. There is an issue with the file format of the music files and the playlist doesn't recognize or can't find the music file. This causes your playlist to show as empty when you try to use it in the player. I have been on a couple of different forums and some suggest certain ideas to get by the problem, but they all require some computer know-how and some time. This problem persists with the latest firmware release for this model (version 1.02.04) as of this review. Yet a similar problem has been fixed with a firmware release for the X-Fi2. It's obvious (or seems that way to me) that Creative only cares to truly support their latest and greatest hardware and doesn't want to spend the effort to support older, less expensive mp3 players. For this reason, I am leaning toward a different brand when it comes to satisfying my music player needs. Another issue I have is with the SD card that can be plugged into the Zen MX. With the Zen X-Fi player, the SD card was accessed through the file structure on the card. What I mean by that is that you play files on the SD card by going to the necessary folder(s) and selecting the file you want to play. Music tags were not used to navigate through the files on the SD card. This was inconvenient because there were many functions not available to the user. Playlists, Random Play All, Bookmarks, etc... The Zen MX does fix this. It builds a database of tags that you can access just like you access on the main memory. Unfortunately, this list is not persistent. If you turn off the player and turn it back on, if you sync the player, or if you remove the SD card and put it back in, the Zen MX has to rebuild all the tags. I can understand rebuilding the tags when you take out and put back the SD card or when you sync it with your PC. I cannot comprehend why you would need to rebuild the tags just from powering off the player. I have an SD card with about 1500 mp3 files on it. Every time I want to play it in the Zen MX, I have to wait approximately 5 minutes for the tags to be rebuilt and stored in memory. Can you imagine how impatient a person can get when having to wait 5 minutes to access the card so that he/she can play music. I have set the Zen MX to turn off after 30 minutes so I don't inadvertently use the battery up. Every time it powers down, the player has to rebuild the list. Plus, I have to re-queue the songs I was playing as they get cleared out of the now playing list. I would rather have it the way the X-fi worked as it was instant access to the SD card albeit with limited functionality. Some other quirks that weren't as pertinent to me: * The lock mechanism is software based. You push a button on the player and you can lock the player. This is different from all the manual lock switches on previous creative Zen players. I was getting used to it though. * The manual says you are able to read e-books and RSS feeds on the Zen MX. There is no option on the player to do that. In reading some forums, it appears the option might be available if you switch the language to Chinese, but I can't confirm this as I don't know Chinese, and can't read the options. I actually have a support call to Creative on this and the support person keeps pointing me to a knowledge base entry that is non-existent. This problem isn't that big a deal to me as I didn't buy the player to read e-books though it was a nice surprise when I saw that you could in the manual. I like the interface. I like all the options in the interface. I like the sound quality and all the extras you have (microphone, FM radio, pictures, etc...). I like the form factor (it fits nice in my hand), and I like how easy it is to control it with the buttons. These have been staples with the Creative products for a while, and I am comfortable with them. I just can't get by the issue with the playlist and the SD card. If you don't think the issues I've mentioned above would apply to you then this player is a good deal for the price. For me, it's the reason I need to find another MP3 player. It's a shame because, I really do like a lot of the things about the Zen MX.

I purchased this brand on recommendation of my husband who has a more expensive model. He had tried a Zune and hated it and was very satisfied with his Zen and recommended I not continue on with a better model of Coby that I was used to and was considering purchasing. Well,when I got it the directions didn't make sense. I was unable to locate any "Starter Pack" in the player as step 2 of the directions imply. They are not in your player but in the program file in your computer. I was expecting it to use my Window Media Player to sync not realizing it uses it's own program. It took days before I figured out how to access that file and activate Creative Central. That made the difference once that was installed. But the interface still isn't that friendly. It took awhile to figure how to transfer music already in my library to the player. And I'm having problems with some of my albums stating that I'm not licensed to listen to that album. What? I own the album. So I have to delete it from my player and give the album to my husband to copy on his computer and then download onto my player...again. That's retarded. The ear buds that come with the player are not that good. I lost the spongy covering within days of owning just by pulling the player out of a pocket. Since this doesn't come with a carry case or have a strap what do you do with it while on the go? You use a pocket. And the ear buds are the kind that you have to have monster ears for or something. I hate this style. Plan on buying another set of buds if you go with this model. The casing is all black. The controls are small gray symbols, so plan to memorize quickly what does what. And your center control button has no markings. So you will have to memorize it's function. For all the bad there is good. I can read the display screen, and it uses and additional SD card for extra storage. It's compatible with my phone charger so I don't have to tie up a USB port to charge it. It seems to charge faster that way anyway. The battery life isn't that good. My Coby used one AAA battery and lasted a long time. I used my new player on an airplane flight totaling about 5 hours of use time and it was dead. I didn't think it would be a big deal to not use replaceable battery when I bought it, but now I see it is a big deal. How much easier to just pop in a new battery as needed. Especially when away from home. My husband recommended Creative Labs MP3 player based on a much more expensive model. Like I said, the only two good features are the display screen is large enough to read and it has a slot for an SD card. But it's all in what you expected. If all you want is to hold a large amount of music, photos, and extra storage then this is adequate. Once your music is in then yes...it plays music...sometimes, if it doesn't tell you you aren't licensed to listen to that album or song. If it came with a satisfaction guaranteed....I'd be asking for my money back for something different.