Creative Zen Touch 20 GB MP3 Player

I've had my Creative Zen Touch (20 Giger) for about a month now and this thing if friggin awesome! First and foremost, the battery life is incredible (about 20 hours on mine - but my MP3's are all at 256 kbps and I use a big pair of cans for headphones so that's probably why I'm not getting the 24 hour battery life). The interface is very comfortable to me and I like the scroll bar much better than that circle thing on the ipod (it's just the way my brain works). The sound is beautifully clear and the output is very powerful (unlike other MP3 players). The ear buds you get with it are OK, but I would recommend using high-end headphones to due this player justice (ear buds are generally crappy anyway). It has a nice EQ - nothin fancy but it does a good job. I don't bother with the "MediaSource" software that comes with it, I just use the "Zen Touch Media Explorer" that's free at the Creative Labs web site and organizes from the MP3's ID3-Tags (make sure you also get the Firmware v2.11.01 update). The Firmware update also lets any PC running XP see it as a hard drive for any kind of data storage/transfer. For ripping I use "CDex" (it reads remote CDDB info and has the new Lame encoder built in), and I also use "ID3-TagIT" (both of them are free software). This thing is also very stable. I've gone jogging with it (even though Creative Labs does not recommend it),bounced it around and dropped it by mistake and it's never stopped or skipped at all. I've heard people say it's to big, but at about the size of a pack of smokes it doesn't bother me at all and it's well worth it for the extra long battery life. I know the Creative Zen Sleek is slimmer and has an F. M. tuner, but I hate most of what they play on the radio anyway, and I prefer the Creative Zen Touch's longer battery life (the Creative Zen Sleek has about 14 hours). My only regret is that I didn't get the 40 GB version (did I mention my MP3s are encoded at 256 kbps?), but at about $80 higher in price it just wasn't in my budget. I'm still looking for an MP3 player that supports "seamless" play for mixed CDs that have tracks blended together (you can still do this but you have to rip the whole CD as one MP3 and you can't skip between tracks), but since no MP3 player can do this yet (despite what "Rio" might claim), I guess I can't lower the rating for this annoyance that all MP3 players currently have. I would recommend this to anybody looking for an MP3 player.

cons - froze in the first 5 minutes i used it and had to reset it (worked fine after that) - the random play button will play some of the same songs repeatedly, as in up to 2-3 times per 15-20 songs, even with a play list near 1000 songs - it's a little heavy, and definitely feels bulky with the included belt clip case - you have to buy an extra accessory ($65) to be able to listen to and record the radio and voice memos - volume doesn't turn up very loud - couldn't use the included earphones because a weird plastic piece had practically fused the R and L ear bud wires at different lengths - can't use as a portable hard drive without software on the computer you're moving stuff to and frompros - most music sounds pretty good, except the included classical music which is very faint - good price compared to the ipod - really easy and quick to add music - plays most audio formats

I bought this because most of the reviews said that it was a worthy opponant to the ipod, with twice the battery life, twice the capacity, and far less expence. At first I was quite pleased with it, but over time I have begun to notice its faults. When it erased all my music tonight, I felt it was finally time to write a review explaining the downsides. I will not list the plusses because it has been done in numerous other reviews.Here are the problems I have noticed:- Even after several months, the scroll bar, when set on the least sensitive setting, is still too sensitive. While it is not debilitating, it is frustrating to the point that it is somewhat of a hinderane.- When on random, hitting the back button does not always return you to the previous song listened to. Sometimes it does, but often it brings up another random song. I understand that "random" is the setting, but when navigating through a large playlist it would still be nice to be able to go to the previous song listened to at the push of a button.- When I transfered all my files from my computer onto the Zen Touch, somehow it reset all the ID tags on my computer to what they were when they were first ripped. As I have about 7,000 songs on my computer and had spent months changing the titles to exactly what I wanted, this was a big setback for me. I think this was caused by an option I selected when the I did the file transfer, but it should have been more clear.- Frequently when jogging, the Zen freezes, and I need to stick a paper clip into the reset hole in the side. The actual reset button is about right in the center of the player, so it is necessary to stick the paper clip in almost an inch and a half. Last time this happened, I was unable to get it to reset - it decided that there was need to erase all my files.I do not want to spend the time and effort to replace my entire music collection, since the Zen is unstable enough that I can almost guarentee that this will happen again.I am not using this to say that the Ipod is better, because I have not tried it, and it is my opinion that it costs far too much. Nor am I saying not to buy the Zen Touch. Just be warned of the negative side of it, and weigh whether you think they make the Zen worth purchasing. For me they are not.

I purchased this in December 2015 and could not ever get any music to transfer to it. I had a previous Zen that worked great but didn't have very much room on it for a lot of music so I thought I was upgrading, but I think this must be an older model, not a newer one. I wasted $250 on this model. Yes, I should have tried to return it sooner, but I kept trying to get it to work and never could, and now it is past the timeline of being able to return it. So, $250 down the drain :(