Do you want to touch the Zen Touch?
By Peter Rojas 
posted Sep 1st 2004 11:15AM
posted Sep 1st 2004 11:15AM
Declaring it to be a legitimate challenger to the iPod (as opposed to all the illegitimate ones—you know who we're
talking about), CNet gives some love to Creative's new 20GB Zen Touch MP3 player. We already knew that it had a
startlingly long battery life of 24 hours, but what we really want to know is whether that vertical touch-sensitive
scroll pad is all it's cracked up to be. Sound like it definitely makes scrolling and navigating a lot easier, but when
you're thumbing through a library of several thousand songs it's still easier to use the circular touch pad used in the
iPod.
[Thanks, Jackee1]
I got a Dell Jukebox (whose insides are manufactured by Creative) and it died after minimal use a few weeks later. Read the user feedback carefully (on a site like amazon) before buying anything from Creative. I will never buy anything made by them again.
I owned a Creative Nomad MuVo NX and it just stopped working after a year of intermittent use. I used it for the gym. I was angry when I found out that Creative only gives a one year warranty on their nomad products. After that I bought an Iriver IFP-390T and never regretted it and it is so much better (sound & built) than Creative’s mp3 players. I’ll never purchase an mp3 player from Creative again! Just their PC sound cards are good.
I bought a nomad jukebox 3...I never had a single problem until after a year and a couple of months my backlight stopped working...i sent an email to them(creative labs)and after 10 emails they asked for my warranty or else i shoud pay 250 euros for replacement..i didn't do it..i just bought an ipod..with 200euros
I wish people would quit comparing Windows-bound devices to the iPod.
None of the Zen line will connect to the Mac. There was an iTunes plugin that *almost* got released, but then Creative yanked the beta off their download site.
(Yeah, I know about libnjb)
I dont like it when people own a creative product and misuse it and then declare that they will never again purchase a product from them again. I have a Creative Jukebox 3 and its been 3 and a half years, and i use it on my way to work and back. Not a problem, and battery life lasts a long time.
In terms of sound quality, maybe your headphones just suck. Creative products have 98 (forgot the name) ratio. Thats more than ipod's 92 and irivers 96. (last time i checked). I have a 14 dollar pair of Sony earphones and the sound quality is amazing.
To the comment above, if you were using it in gym its no wonder it broke. Its a hard drive based player. You arnt supposed to knock it around and run with it. Thats like taking your laptop and shaking it like theres no tomorrow and expecting it to work the day after.
I'm sick of these ipod fanboys who pretend they've used creative products and moan about other company's competition and how it kicks ipod's ass in every possible way.
yeah i agree with Raffi. although i do love apple's ipod, design, scroll wheel, people who wont even consider other possibilities annoy me. ok the rest of the mp3 players wont go down in design history, but who cares. look at the creative's sleek design, and as for the build quality whinges. the ipod's battery life is appaling though 8 hours and also how come the zen touch can hold 10000 on 20gb and apple claims 5000 for the 20gb ipod. i know wma is smaller than whatever the ipod/itunes setup uses, but so what, who notices the difference in sound? ok ill shudup know.
Meh, notice how all the people complaining about don't actually have one?
There's a reason for that - it's an excellent player. The battery life is astounding, sound quality is very good, and the touch pad makes things so much easier. Don't listen to people moaning about how bad Creative products are ("I hit my mp3 player with a hammer, and now it doesn't work! Creative suck."), this is well worth it, and cheaper than an Ipod.
I've had an Ipod and sold it in order to buy my zen touch!
What are you people talkingb about?! Sound quality is awsome (compared to my 3rd gen ipod). The build quality is astounding and the battery life makes the ipod cry.
Buy creative!
the creative mp3 players can fit twice the amount of songs on as usual, this is because creative invented the mp3 and have a higher ratio compression technology, which sounds the same!
Sorry Creative did not invented mp3 tsts...
But they make really good players.
iPod? Yeah if you want to pay the double price for a product that is worse only because it looks good? Thats your decision.
Don't forget the iPod CopyProtectionSystem (it's a shame)
I'm not an ipod "fanboy", I'm a PC user, and I ain't PRETENDING to have used a Creative. I bought a Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen 20GB in 2002. I used it for 7 months at which point it stopped working completely and said "Firmware Problem". I didn't drop it once. I didn't even move it. I used it in my car. Creative said they would replace the body but not the hard disk - they said I had to pay $320 to replace the hard disk.
I will never buy anything made by Creative again. Ask any Creative MP3 player owner what they think. Buyer beware.
Easy, people! Just remember that any mass-manufactured/marketed product is bound to have some duff ones in amongst the good units. Quality control vs. profitability - the maker is gonna go for the latter every time. I've owned Creative, Archos, Apple and Cowon, and in my limited opinion, Creative still comes out on top overall. And yes, that includes the two bad experiences I've had with their players dying on me. It's the law of averages, I'm afraid. But if you care about signal-to-noise ratio and the impact this has on sound reproduction - and if you've bought your player to listen to, rather than to look at - then you'd be a fool not to give Creative products a try. Chances are they'll wow you.
i was researching mp3 players and i got excited when i found this product cos all the specs look good etc etc but for one MAJOR flaw, is it true that the only play mode it has is playlist? i.e. no all track random, repeat all etc. i need to know.
eddyboy, you've been woefully misinformed. The Zen Touch boasts not only dynamic (on-the-go) and .m3u playlist capabilities, but also shuffle (once and all), repeat (once and all), and even has a Random button on the player's front, which plays back everything randomly.
Tip: Don't know what phones you prefer, but I cannot recommend highly enough Sony's MDR-W08L's. Cost about £8.50, and sound absolutely stunning with the Zen Touch, really showing off its full capabilities. I've just bought two more pairs, having still got a (fully working) pair from 13 years ago!
I'm thinking of buying one and I've been looking up some reviews of the zen and it is better then Ipod on most aspects (at least that's what the reviews say). My wallet thinks so too.
Word to the wise: the Zen Touch is heavier (quite a bit heavier, to be completely honest), than an iPod. And slightly bulkier. But in its defence, this seems to be a good thing. My first one fell out of a second floor window - don't ask! - and sustained only a couple of dents. Believe me when I say this thing is built like a tank. And that's got to be a plus if, like me, you can be occasionally careless (or just plain stupid).
hey thanks mark il look for those headphones aswell, and good to know that it worked after that big of a fall; i am unbelievably accident prone though you seem to win hands down! the zen touchjust gets better and better the more i look up on it, i cant believe its recieved so little publicity, its fantastic! what about anti shock/jog proof stuff? i havent found much on it.
it's a hard disk mp3 player so it cannot have shocks like a CD-player, it works completely different
Let's put it this way: it ain't a bright idea to expose the Zen Touch (or any HDD player, for that matter) to 'extreme' shocks - dropping it out of a 2nd floor window included. But, as with every Creative hard disc player I've owned, a vigorous shake now and then seems to have no ill effects whatsoever. At least, that's been my experience.
The zen touch is clearly the better choice. Just because ipod has more advertising and such doesnt mean jack! Creative Labs are relying on smart buyers to buy the better product and that product is obviously the zen touch. BUY THE ZEN ... or buy the p.o.s ipod with lower battery life, uglier (my opinion), and for more money. Apple is not a good company too buy from in my experience.
The zen touch is clearly the better choice. Just because ipod has more advertising and such doesnt mean jack! Creative Labs are relying on smart buyers to buy the better product and that product is obviously the zen touch. BUY THE ZEN ... or buy the p.o.s ipod with lower battery life, uglier (my opinion), and for more money. Apple is not a good company too buy from in my experience.
after your earphones tip, Mark could you point me in the right direction for some quality speakers for the zentouch. money is an issue but i need quality sound, so a price range would be good so i can make me mind up on how much im willing to spend. thanks for your help. if anyone else has an input id be very grateful.
Hi eddyboy
These are by no means the best available - they're actually PC speakers - but they produce a beautifully rich sound. Just plug in only one of the two cables into the headphone jack, and run the master speaker off the mains electricity. They pack some punch, believe me.
http://www.labtec.com/index.cfm/gear/details/AMR/EN,crid=18,contentid=634,crid2=49
I got mine at Dixons in the UK, but I could only find the above link, which is for the US. I think Amazon.co.uk may have some still.
Hi people, I brought me a Creative Zen Touch and I had it for three days and then for no reason it came up with a Hard Drive Error. I read the manual and used the product as it should be but while I was listening it froze, I used the re-set switch as suggested in the manual turned it back on and it still would not work, it was making funny noises. I have now taken it back to the shop where i got it from and im trying to get it sorted. I love it so much and I promise I will not get an ipod! Has anyone else had this problem with the Zen Touch? leave me a reply cheers guys and gals.
Well, you know, my only problem with the Zen Touch is that it's not Mac compatible. Just like most other MP3 players out there.
(note: I don't have an iPod either :)
I've done a lot of research on the net for the past few hours looking at the best HD mp3 players competing in the market and i immediately came up with iPod because of it's compact, sleek design, and of course Apple's corporate identity. A lot of people like to own brand products and ipod surely is one. Flashy, posh, overrated (!), ugh!
However, I also found Creative's Zen Touch, which is almost similar to ipod, except it's slightly bigger, but it's positive sides are: it plays WMA which I have a large collection of, 24+ hours battery life, which is more than excellent because if I'm not home, chances are I'm always listening to music. And the wallet factor, it's cheaper! I'm from the UK, and an iPod here costs £219.99 whereas the Zen Touch costs £199.99, a pretty good deal!
I also found on many review sites and forums that the sound quality of Zen touch is a lot better than ipod. Also, for many users, including few of my mates who own ipods told me the ipod crashed ocassionally, which can be quite frustrating.
Another great thing about the Zen touch is the external volume controls which ipod lacks.
Overall, Creative Zen Touch seems like an awesome device, and I will find out for myself when I buy one tomorrow :D
I have the zen touch 20GB. Although the interface on the ipod is slightly better, everything else about the zen wins for me. Cheaper (in the UK anyway), better sound quality, well built, and it's louder than the standard i-pods that have firmware limited volume.
I'm using it with £60 shure e2c earphones and it sounds beautiful :D
I just wish they would release a firmware upgrade that lets you use a more advanced menu system, ie movable tracks in playlists and tree based sorting etc.
I bought Zen touch in Singapore en route to Australia, I started using it, about a month after I got it. It was great, I listened to it every day on the way to work, and then used it in my van while I went travelling. One day it stopped mid song and none of the buttons would work, powered it off and back on and then it just stalled on the Zen Touch screen. Got it onto the recovery menu, but what ever option I select it comes up with a "Harddisk Problem" Error. I've tried loading the firmware, but it comes up with the same error. I've been onto support and they've asked me to scan my receipt in and send it onto them, but being a disorganised back packer I've misplaced it somewhere along the way. Am very dissappointed as I only got a few months out of it, it would still be under warranty. This was never dropped so I don't see why the hard disk should just give up, as it had less than 3 months use. I'm not a happy camper.....(backpacker). If any body got this problem and had a resolution other than replacing the hard drive I'd love to know.
I got the 20 gb Zen creative touch pad for Christmas. It was wonderfull, I wondered why would anyone spend the extra money on an Ipod? The Creative touch was just as good if not better than the ipod, only difference was the touch pad to the ipods circle pad, and Ill admitt that the ipods pad was better, but that hardly seems worth almost an 80 dollar difference.
Then a month after I got my lovely mp3 player, the touch pad it self simply stopped working. It still plays constantly because its on random play, but I cant listen to what I want to when I want to. Now Im going to have to go through Creative to try to get it fixed, and no, I didnt man handle it. I babied that mp3 player and yet it just went on me, in hind sight I should have just asked for an Ipod for Christmas.
I've had the Zen since Jan 2002...I've dropped (thought it was dead) and was able to revive. That thing has taken a lickin' and kept on tickin'. It's even missing a few of the screws, but it works fine. I must have formatted and retransferred my entire collect 10 times since I purchased it. No buyer beware, just make sure you weigh the costs versus the looks. The original Zen wasn't much to look at and it about as big as a small walkman, but it works just fine from my purse. If I were to get a new one...I'd go Zen Touch. When it comes down to it, even if technology doesn't break, you want to replace in a few years and I'm not shelling out extra money for the "great design" of an iPod.
I got my Zen Touch for Christmas (2004). I think the touch pad is defective, but no stores in my area carry it so I haven't been able to try another one! It took me a couple of weeks to get enough practice to move the menu cursors as I wanted. I still have trouble moving it just one selection -- it will jump 6 or 10 entries, or if I'm very gentle will move by 2 or 3. So it has been very frustrating to operate. The other thing I've noticed is that I'm often listening at a volume level of 23 or 24 (out of 25). My headphones must be inefficient, plus I'm on a noisy plane. OK, so I have sufficient volume, but I think the amplifier is clipping because the base notes are often distorted at this volume level. I tried it with a pair of Bose noise-reducing headphones and I only had to set the volume at 15 -- it sounded awesome.
I bought one of these and used it on and of for 4 months. One day I got a "harddisk problem" and tried everything. Because I purchased in the US, Creative said that it was out of warranty but they would fix for £100. I looked around the web and found a thread that shows how to fix it. The solution, and this is a bit technical, is - seriously - to hit it on the right hand side very firmly on the right hand side with your hand whilst switching it on. It re-indexed and I've never had a problem since.
I bought the Zen Touch last October after reading reviews of both the Zen and the iPOD. My wife and I wanted an mp3 player that we could plug into our car's tape deck and have our entire music library to listen to while we drive to work or around town, and for listening to with headphones on long bus/train trips.
My friends (also English teachers here) bought iPODs. One said that he has to recharge his after every couple of days. Our Zen Touch will last an entire week on one charge, as long as its used primarily during drive time.
In the time that I've had it, I've probably dropped it four or five times, all by accident of course. The only problems I've had is that it has frozen on power down about three times. Each time required a simple reset.
The store where I bought the Zen sold it about $30 less than the iPOD with the same size HDD. My two regrets in buying the Zen was that I saw it for sale two days later at another store for $40 less than what I paid. (That's Japan for you.) The other is the lack of any good third party cases. The Creative case is a waste of their money. The should have left it out. It sits unused in my closet.
Overall, we've been very happy with the Zen and haven't once regretted bypassing the iPOD. (Now, if I can just get my wife to stop calling it an iPOD. She's getting better, though.)
I got a Zen Touch around Christmas and its great. I was thinking of buying an iPod but after talking to many people I know who own them discovered that they always crash and the battery sucks. The Zen has furfilled everything I expected from it. Only tip I give to buyers is to allow time to get use to the touchpad. It might feel awkward at first, but give it a week or two and you will master it.
I am planin to buy an mp3 player,
So i been doin some resarch for the last few days. the Creative Zen touch seems to be the best one (more battery life, cheaper etc. ) but the not joggin thing worries me, how come that u can buy a thing to strap u i pod shuffle arround ur arm to jog.
I have a Creative MuVo 256 MB player and I am very satisfied with it. Especially with my Koss Portapro headphones (80 EUR) the sound is awesome.
But 256 MB is not much and I am yearning for more space. The Zen Touch seems like a perfect player for me and after browsing reviews it seems a lot better than iPod. Has anybody tried it with Koss headphones? To my opinion they are the best portable headphones available.
Hi Guys, I would also like to know about the "no Jogging" problem, I bought my Zen Touch for the sole purpose of jogging and checked the creative site over and over for a disclaimer on "No Running etc" and there was none, Now i'm not too keen to go out and give it a bash (figure of speech), anyone any experience of this. Thanks guys.
yeah, so i just got one of these YESTERDAY and the software already is freezing up. Yeah, one day and it broke, not because of misuse or smashing it with a hammer or something, just bad programing, and yes, i formatted everything, including the firmware and then redownloaded the firmware and it started to freeze again. I dont know why this is happening, i wish it didnt, and right now i think creative sucks until someone helps me, contact though email. I'll never get an i-pod but i think i should just switch back to cds.
I brought the Creative Zen Touch in November 04, think ing it was plug and play...it's not. A few weeks later it died (It was saying Hard Disk Error on the screen) I sent it back and they sent me a new one, a few weeks later it froze up, I rang them and they told me to update the firmware by booting into a special menu...what a nightmare, I had to reformat it...so now I won't use it to backup stuff, which was one on the main reasons I bought originally...hey, but it looks good, even when doesn't work. Also think that the technology has a long way to go, but then these things will die out soon as mobile phones take over as your mp3 player.....more problems!
god i wish every one would shut up about the ipod. the creative zen touch is so much better in every thing sound by far, battery life, and strength. i have a friend that has an ipod and he always complains about battery life and i dont have a problem with the zen. So far all creative products i have are outstanding. i had a muvo 256 mb mp3, i have 5.1 speakers and the sound card in my computer. any way definently i would say get the zen the iPod sucks.
"how come that u can buy a thing to strap u i pod shuffle arround ur arm to jog."
The ipod shuffle is a solid state player. This means that it has no moving parts and therefore it is not prone to mechanical falure esp due to excessive motion. If you want something to jog with I reccomend buying any one of a number of solid state players: creative muvo, rca lyra, rio chiba, etc etc... They are much cheaper but do not hold as much (usually max out around 1GB), but chances are you aren't going to jog for 500 hours. I would not reccomend using a harddisk player for jogging or other exercise. The heart of these players is basically some spinning glass disks that are read much like a record. In other words, very fragile. I've also noticed that most of the people that complain about harddrive failure used their players primarily in their cars. I am not surprised becasue of the excessive vibrations from driving and temperature extremes from leaving your car in the sun or cold.
I do agree that right now the zen touch seems to be the best player out there if you aren't looking for lots of features beyond mp3 and wma playback. I also read a comment about no good cases...check out http://www.vaja.com for some very nice cases.
correction: the case website is http://www.vajacases.com
all of u seem to think that hard drives are super sensitve, i have an archos 15 gig and it is 2.5 years old, and i use it daily running around gets thrown in bags in the car i skate with it bmx the whole shoebang the thing is as sturdy as a rock, so u might want to go with an archos product instead
Researched MP3 players heavily before deciding on the Zen Touch 20G player. The battery life is the primary reason i settled on it. The battery does make it a little heavier but not enough to sway me. Recently used it on a one week trip to Arizona. Used it extensively on the plane and while i was there and only had to charge it once (even though the battery indicator still showed plenty of juice). So far i have not experienced any of the problems i read about in other reviews. Overall positive about my purchase
okay i think all u lozers out der who r on these forums complaining bout other players need to get a life.. dats y they have warranteys.. so if u donyt like them u can return/exchange them!! i mean if ur mp3 breaks in a year chances r its ur own fault or maybe da battery died out!! anyhoo i think all of u need to get a life if all u do ALL DAY IS COMPLAIN OR DISAGREE ABOUT PLAYERS.. i have an ZM n i would never think of taking da time to rite a review about it or any other player.. or even if i didnt like it i wold keep dat coment to myself.. this is soomething all of u should learn how to do!!:D
does the zen touch may suffer damage if i take it on my backpack to school? i would only use it to hear it while in the bus
Well, I have used both the iPod as well as the Creative Zen Touch (which I own).
iPod is certainly the canonical MP3 player - small, intuitive, and original. I wouldn't turn one down, and if the price was more competitive, I'd probably have purchased one.
But truthfully, the Zen Touch is also a very slick player. The interface, more or less, is comparable to the iPod (and many other players), but there are some perks:
1) The price is right ($285 for a 40GB player)
2) Incredible (>25 hour) battery life (in real-life, not just on paper)
3) Two-way file transfer without any special software. No problem copying songs to another computer.
4) Build custom playlists with or without the computer.
5) Hardware volume buttons
I've been using mine in a variety of settings (car, hospital, walking), and so far no problems at all. The case is very durable (much more so than the Zen Nomad).
So I can't participate in this iPod vs. Creative battle, for they both have merit. All this bickering is juvenile and annoying. Why can't you people just enjoy your toys and quit acting so jealous and defensive?
I have the 40GB Zen Touch. Overall, it's a pretty great mp3 player. I probably prefer the iPod touch-interface because it's a complete circle, so the motion of your finger can go on indefinately, where as the zen is compacted into a small area with different sort of 'zones' which can cause you to go back and forth and jump about. It's not bad though! Battery life is ubsurd. I've only ever charged it once, nearly a week ago. You will not find better battery power, especially if you encode your music below 192kbps... Keep in mind the 40GB is a lot bigger than the 20GB, and weighs a fair bit more. I still feel fine literally jumping about and cycling and stuff with it on the clip-belt thing. Earphones are fair, nice and comfortable I thought. I hate how you can't search for tracks; You can only browse. At least you can browse by artist/album/genre/filename etc. (And you can jump to any letter).
OH MY GOD Creative, what the hell is that Random Shuffle button??? You WILL NOT get this inside the supplied belt-clip case without that button getting squashed, you HAVE to put hold on during 'insertion' WOW it's annoying when you've been making a on-the-go playlist and you hit that button and lose it. SAVE those playlists!
For £150 I don't think anything really comes close. Even if I had twice the budget, I don't even know if I'd get anything else.. firmware could fix pretty much any quibble I have with it.
Somebody mentioned a problem with a Nomad player having a 'harddisk problem' up there. I came here trying to find advice as I have the same problem - but I found the solution elsewhere.
Smack the bugger. Seriously - I turned it on, and while it was whirring away i chucked it around the (carpeted) floor. Try it!
Hard Disk Error Is usually the result of low battery causing HDD failure. This can be fixed but requires Clean room attention. I work for a data recovery firm so seen a few of these.