Creative Zen Micro

[stiritup56]

These look like the best.... Does anyone know when they are going to be released?

[Ioman]

They are out now. I have one. Its a pretty impressive little player. The sound quality is very good, the screen is nice and the battery is replaceable. The touch pads are a little too sensitive and the menu navigation is not the best.

[stiritup56]

Where did you get it? It might be bc of the holidays, but i cant seem to find a website that has them for sale!

[Ioman]

Try these stores: http://designtechnica.shopping.com/xFS?FD=0&KW=zen+micro

[dang]

the battery lasts a long time too, which is great. manufacturer specs say 12 hours, which is usually a generous estimate. Mine lasted about 10 hours I think when I took on a road trip.

[stiritup56]

Well since yall have one, what is the software like? Is it just musicmatch? Can you drag and drop files? Give me some details. Thanks!!

[neato]

The rip and sync software is Mediasource, and there's also a few other bits that ship with it, including a Drag & Drop style (note the word style... the Micro is not a Drag & Drop player) software called Nomad Explorer. Mediasource works as a Zen sync'er, jukebox, ripper, CD burner and also allows you to record and encode stuff in real time (you can 'rip' cassette tapes, records, etc into MP3 using your PC and Mediasource). The usability of the software is mediocre, but it does work. I had a lot of problems with ID3 tags though using Mediasource. There are alternative third party programs avaiable, both of which I use... one's Red Chair Notmad, and the other's j.River Media Center.

As I said before, it's not drag and drop compatible as a USB Mass Storage device, although there's a data mode that allows the Micro to act as a UMS device to store files but not music. The Nomad Explorer software allows you however to treat the Zen as a drag & drop machine, but only on PC's which have Nomad Explorer installed. Confusing? A bit.

I like it, but iRiver have upped the ante recently with a drag & drop player that's the same size as the iPod Mini (so it's thinner but longer than the Zen Micro) a colour screen, voice recording, FM radio, removable batteries with 12 hour endurance and a Zen Micro like touch panel. It's expected to be launched worldwide towards the end of January. I like the Zen, but I'll probably dump it for the iRiver when it comes out. If you can wait a month, the H10 looks like a sweet player.

[stiritup56]

Ive been reading up on the H10... Looks really nice. Not sure it would be worth the money for the color screen and photo viewing capabilities however. How much do you think these are going to sell for in the US? I guess it is between the H10 and Zen Micro!

[neato]

There's the revamped iPod Mini probably due in February~April to think about as well of course :D You could end up waiting forever :P

I like the iPod Mini a lot as well, so I'm also looking forward to the new Mini. It's the only mini player which "gets out of my way", meaning that it doesn't get in the way of me selecting and playing music in the easiest way possible. Some gadget geeks find that boring, but for me it's the most important thing in a player. The major problem with the Mini is of course the battery life, so I'm hoping they boost that a lot.

[stiritup56]

Well if you get an H10 and feel like selling your Micro let me know!!

[dang]

I believe the Micro uses the window media portable sdk, which would mean any all-in-one ripper/player/organizer that supports windows media portable sdk would also support the zen micro. Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, MusicMatch, etc should all support it.

I know for sure Windows Media Player and RealPlayer do. If JRiver supports it, thats awesome. A lot of people love that app.

I just got an iPod Mini as well, and you can't deny that it's a great player. I do have weird issues with the Micro.

For instance, I just copied over about a gigs worth of music (using realplayer), used the Eject Device button on the app, then turned off the Micro. But, what really happened was that the micro went into a state were it didnt recover from (tryign to shut down.) I had to pull the battery on it. After re-inserting the battery, it was still hosed (not all the pixels showing, computer wouldnt see it, etc.) so I had to pull the battery again, which it then started working again somewhat. Now it's copying songs at what appears to be USB1 speed, even though it's using USB2 (so it's very very slow...) This is where I'm at right now. After this current transfer is done I'm going to reset it again and see what happens.

Neato, have you had any issues with yours?

[neato]

None so far. But then I don't use Realplayer :eww :P

[Ioman]

Almost threw mine away this morning. It was freezing up everytime I plugged it into my computer. And my system was not recognizing the player. I had to remove and reinstall the battery each time to unfreeze it and restart the computer in order for it to be recognized. I am NOT impressed.

[vaporised]

I got a Zen Micro for christmas and it's been working perfectly.
Touchpad sensitivity: You can turn the sensitivity down! but I found I got used to it after a while.
@Dang, I though Creative players were generally designed to work with Microsoft software (Media Player etc) so that might be why you are having issues with real player, even though it does support the portable SDK. Also Creative have released a firmware update the adds Play For Sure compatibility so you can turn the Micro into a Drag and Drop player, but I would advise against installing this as it didn't work for me, it would get stuck transferring files that Media Source had no problems with (you have to use WMP 10 to transfer files if you dont drag n drop)
@Ioman, didnt you get yours early? So maybe thats the trouble I don't know
anyway Im very happy with my Zen and it works perfectly for me

[ipodcity]

i have thought bout the zen micro, but i read most of the reviews and realized that it doesnt have much acssessories for it, while on the other hand it seems like ipods have millions of acssessories, so i chose the mini...

[senoryoshio]

you mean, like the socks?

[morganno]

PLEASE!!! SOMEBODY HELP ME!! I don't know what's wong!! I've had my Zen Micro for over a year...no problems until I lost my charger....I went months without using it, b/c I just used my mp3 player on my phone. Now that I've gotten a new charger, the only thing that shows up on my screen is "Hardware Problem." I do not know what is wrong and I've tried EVERYTHING!!!!!! I tried asking the CREATIVE team, but they want to charge me just for support!!!! WHAT!!!! First of all, I will never buy anything made by Creative b/c they were no help at all, plus they were rude....second of all, I will not buy there product b/c they want me to "pay" for asisstance b/c their product faulted on me?? I don't think so...but if anyone knows how to help, please contact me!!! Your help is greatly appreciated!!! Thanks--Morgan

[Ioman]

PLEASE!!! SOMEBODY HELP ME!! I don't know what's wong!! I've had my Zen Micro for over a year...no problems until I lost my charger....I went months without using it, b/c I just used my mp3 player on my phone. Now that I've gotten a new charger, the only thing that shows up on my screen is "Hardware Problem." I do not know what is wrong and I've tried EVERYTHING!!!!!! I tried asking the CREATIVE team, but they want to charge me just for support!!!! WHAT!!!! First of all, I will never buy anything made by Creative b/c they were no help at all, plus they were rude....second of all, I will not buy there product b/c they want me to "pay" for asisstance b/c their product faulted on me?? I don't think so...but if anyone knows how to help, please contact me!!! Your help is greatly appreciated!!! Thanks--Morgan

Is there a way to do a hard reset? I know that through the Creative software you can update the firmware. Maybe that can help?

[Energy jobs]

It's not difficult to deduce that Creative got the idea for its Zen Micro hard drive music player from the Apple iPod mini. Technically the two players have a fair amount in common, and they have similar price tags, so the obvious question is whether or not Creative has managed to trump the Apple icon.Creative has made the Zen Micro slightly shorter and fatter than the iPod mini, and both players are more or less the same weight, so when you consider the looks of the player it really comes down to personal preference. The Zen Micro looks similar to a small mobile phone, and Creative reinforces this by offering it in a total of ten different colours with something for everyone, although we doubt you'll see many men with the shocking pink version.

[apostilleus]

The Zen Micro digital music player from Creative Labs packs an incredible 6 GB of storage capacity into a shell small enough to sit comfortably in your jeans pocket. It also rides nicely in your hand, with a palm-fitting profile and thumb-friendly front-panel controls. It's a bit shorter than an Apple iPod Mini, yet its rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides 12 hours of continuous playback--50 percent more than iPod Mini's. The Zen Micro is compatible not merely with MP3s and WAV files, but with WMA as well. Toss in USB 2.0 connectivity and you're looking at one spiffy portable music player.