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"The one thing I loved about my zen was that it came with a wall charger. With an iPod if you don't have a computer you can't charge it and I'm not willing to spend extra on a wall charger."</p>
<p>Wow, I didn't know that. Thanks for the info!
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<p>Mine didn't come with a wall charger. But since the Zen uses a standard USB Mini-B plug, instead of proprietary crap connectors like the iPods do, I was able to use my Razr's wall charger with it, as well as my digital camera USB cable to connect it to my computer (the one that came with the Zen was really short).</p>
<p>I have a creative zen vision:M w/30GB for about a year now. Overall, it's a great MP3, and after dropping it a couple of times, it still functions normally. </p>
<p>There was one problem I experienced though, where the computer didn't recognize it when it was plugged in. There was no "docking" screen. I couldn't get it to charge, so I was without my Zen for a couple of weeks. There was only a blue light flashing at the top. But then I tried plugging it into other USB ports, and it did eventually work. I think the problem was that I let the battery get too low. So if you do decide to get one, make sure you watch the battery and never let it die completely. </p>
<p>My other complaint with this is the compatibility. I have a Mac, so whenever I need to download music onto the Zen, I have to borrow my sister's computer, which has proven quite inconvenient.</p>
<p>But in my opinion, it's a better deal than an IPod, given its radio functions and voice recording function, which may prove useful in case you need to record a lecture or whatnot. Also, if you want to rip music off a CD, you can do that without any extra programs. It's easy to use and has great picture quality and the battery life isn't shabby at all. I recommend it.</p>
<p>We're a zen family. S has a 30gb, and daughter just got the 32gb in March of this year. I inherited my S's original 8gb, which his sister then had after he got the 30, and now I have after she's moved up to the 32. All are still working and no trouble at all ... the new 32, from what my d was saying, will download everything from microsoft as well as all the other formats, including the one used by IPOD's, so no trouble there.</p>
<p>my boyfriend and his roommate both have one, and they're both prettyyyy picky about their electronics, so i'm assuming they're pretty nice.
i have an ipod because i don't care about technical things & they're far more common.</p>
<p>I've had the creative zen vision M 60GB for a few years now. At least for me, the best feature is that it comes with a cable that lets you easily hook up the video player to a television (via RCA). It's a very simple and portable way to watch movies/tv shows you may have in digital format on a full sized television.</p>
<p>^ The aforementioned RCA cables are not unique Creative players and are pretty inexpensive. You just connect one to the headphone jack on video-enabled devices.</p>
<p>I have owned thus far 3 mp3 players. My first was an iPod nano first gen. Good little thing, although just 2 gigs of space was def. not worth $200 (this was back in '05). Well that got stolen, and my uncle bought me a Creative Zen Sleek Photo 20 gb for...$200. And lemme tell you, the fact that for the same price I got more storage, an FM radio, a voice recorder, fan.freaking.tastic. battery life, quick playlists, photos, and a bunch of other cool little neat surprises severely turned me off to Apple, who I thought of as a big corporate trap. I stayed with my Creative Zen for a year and a half, thoroughly enjoying being able to essetially just plug into any computer and swap music with a friend. I had one scare when I dropped it into a river of sulfur water, which I had to pay $100 to fix, but it still kept chugging. </p>
<p>Flash forward to January '08 when, as a sorry-I'm-not-going-to-your-graduation-gift, my mom buys me an iPod touch 16 gb. And oh man. I am loving the bejesus out of this thing (I'm typing this message on it). Not only is it an excellent player, but its Wifi capabilities and calendar/clock/contacts features make it an excellent PDA as well, one which I am looking forward to using extensively in college. Videos play beautifully in Widescreen mode, album art is fun to play with, and the safari browser really comes in handy when I don't feel like lugging around my laptop. I haven't gotten the 2.0 update yet, as I'm waiting for apple to work out some of the bugs I've heard of, but when I do, it'll be that much more amazing. </p>
<p>I still use my creative Zen as a USB drive and music backup, but won't forget the good times I had with it. its a very good brand with a lot of positives, and a few features that I still miss.</p>
<p>i had a green ipod mini and didn't really like the whole ipod thing then i got a creative player (forgot what it was called) and i've been with creative ever since. i had a black zen vision:m that got stolen and i was depressed for like a month but i recently got a green one on ebay and they are honestly the best mp3 players you can invest in.</p>
<p>it has everything the ipod has and more. it can record audio, you can listen to the radio, it's more customizable (choosing your own background, theme, menu configuration, etc.) it's SOOO much better then the ipod and i highly recommend it. they're not sold in regular retail anymore though (its on amazon for like $400, yikes) so you should check out ebay or craigslist (i got my 2nd one for $140).</p>
<p>my brother has the new ZEN that you're talking about but i still think the vision:m is such a classic.</p>
<p>I wanted a hard drive based ZEN Vision: M or the (so far) vaporware iAudio X7 at first as well, but that was because there were no decent sized flash-based players on the market. Unfortunately, as you mentioned, getting one from Amazon would be a waste of money. The ZEN fixed that, as it has up to 32 GB of space, which is amazing, especially when it's less than $300 for the player. You get the space of a hard drive based player, but with the smaller physical size and lower noise, heat & battery consumption of a flash-based player without having to pay through the roof.</p>
<p>Also, there seems to be a new X-Fi</a> based ZEN, along with the</a> original ZEN, which I got a while back. I'm not sure what's the difference, and there aren't any reviews on the X-Fi based one yet. The regular ZEN seems to be out of stock right now though, so I guess it's pretty popular ;/</p>
<p>Oh, and the option of adding up to another 32 GB via an SD card is really nice too :D</p>
<p>I have the 30 gb Zen Vision: M. I absolutely adore it, but about a month ago, I stopped being able to transfer anything to it. I'm looking right now for something else. I was planning on getting the iPod, but I'm re-thinking it now. If they still made the ZV:M, I'd go with it in a heartbeat.</p>