Creative is introducing their new Zen Vision:M, an answer to Apple's
5G iPod, and what an answer it is. We know it
gets old hearing every new player get compared to Apple's flagship offering, but can you seriously blame us here? The
specs are vaguely familiar, with a 2.5-inch screen at 320x240 resolution and a 30GB hard drive, though thankfully
Creative squeezed in 4 hours of video playback, doubling Apple's endurance on at least video. (The audio playback conks
out at 11 hours.) The size of the two players is virtually identical, with the Zen Vision:M only changing it up on
thickness — at about twice the iPod's 0.43-inches. They're also forging their own path on button placement, sporting a
layout similar to that of their Zen Micro
Photo, and including a vertical scroll pad. Creative did add their usual FM tuner and voice recording niceties, and
they have a decent list of video format support, including MPEG-4, WMV, Motion JPEG, DivX, and XviD, so this $330
player could turn out to be a worthy candidate for video capable commuting buddy — if Apple's lawyers don't have
something to say about it first. Check out some closeups of interface, erm, borrowing after the jump.
[Via
Apple Brothers]
