Creative Zen Stone Plus lobbed at consumers

It was barely a month ago that Creative pelted the market with its Zen Stone, and now they're rolling out a re-upped and revamped version known as the Zen Stone Plus. While pretty much keeping the form factor the same, Creative has added a blue OLED screen, FM tuner, karaoke mode, and a stopwatch. The capacity has been increased to 2GB, doubling the original Stone's, but the color choices remain the same. Price and release date haven't been mentioned, but you'll know as soon as we do.

Update: For what it's worth, Impress tells us that the 2GB Stone Plus will hit Japan Saturday for ¥9,800 which translates to a tax-inclusive price of about $79.

[Via epiZENter]

[mike @ Jun 21st 2007 12:34AM]

HAHAHA.. they took apple's design and made it 'creative'

*vomit

[Bob Delani @ Jun 21st 2007 12:45AM]

err.

[Blackster @ Jun 21st 2007 3:57AM]

exactly what appledesign are you speaking of? *dunno*

[LordFarkward @ Jun 21st 2007 5:17AM]

well, as it is something in a solid state with electronic bits inside and buttons on the outside which can play mp3's, it is clearing ripping off apple left and right

[Hidden_Agenda @ Jun 22nd 2007 10:30AM]

@LordFarkward

"well, as it is something in a solid state with electronic bits inside and buttons on the outside which can play mp3's, it is clearing ripping off apple left and right"

Yes, and my solid state PDA was not able to all all those things and more well before the first iPod came out. I fail to see how solid state devices that can play MP3's are unique to Apple.

[paloooz @ Jun 21st 2007 12:48AM]

I'd buy one. That's pretty cool. The only problem I had with the Zen Stone was that it had no screen.

[garbuhj @ Jun 21st 2007 5:46AM]

There's still one major problem with it, it only has 9.5 hours of battery. I need longer significantly longer than that. The bare minimum that works for me is 12 hours.

[goke @ Jun 21st 2007 12:58AM]

i'll buy one,it's perfect for the gym,going biking or jogging.just read some of the epizenter comments,and their post...it kills da ipod shuffle

[goke @ Jun 21st 2007 12:59AM]

why won't creative realese zen vision m 2

[Cody @ Jun 21st 2007 1:16AM]

There is supposed to be a ZV:M successor being released sometime this year.

[food @ Jun 21st 2007 1:46AM]

cool

[Hudson Pridham @ Jun 21st 2007 2:19AM]

Yeah, I'm all about holding out for the Zen Vision M2. I'm dying here creative. DYING!

[Dustin @ Jun 21st 2007 3:02AM]

Price has been rumored at $69.99 (stiff competition for the shuffle)

hope this is a homerun for creative, their players are top-notch!!

[Rex @ Jun 21st 2007 3:15AM]

it would be nicer if they just upgraded the screen to the likes of the Zen V Plus or at least take their player designs to another level like iRiver has been doing, because i've been looking for a new player to replace my old ZenMicro, which still works :), but just willing to update to a new one... Currently it's between iRiver and Creative :)

[TheLostSwede @ Jun 21st 2007 3:39AM]

YouTube slide show video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0ajbrXtuzI

[SoulJah @ Jun 21st 2007 4:12AM]

Oh cool, thank goodness I hold off on getting a Zen Stone. I'll get this sweet thing instead!

[silentio @ Jun 21st 2007 4:37AM]

Price of the Zen Stone plus is $99 singapore dollars. There are some accessories also. Link:

http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/musicplay/ontheradar/0,39050985,62023327,00.htm

[Dustin @ Jun 21st 2007 5:25AM]

Going along with my earlier presumption,
100 singapore dollars ~~ 65 US dollars


also, I don't know much about a ZV:M2, but I know they just did a revision on the 60GB ZV:M to slim it up a bit (the original's a chunker!)

[David @ Jun 21st 2007 5:44AM]

It's now on the european site, although no mention of price and for the regular stone it was a matching $/€40 (matching in number, not exchange rate of course)

http://ie.europe.creative.com/corporate/pressroom/releases/detail.asp?ref=12762

[fat @ Jun 21st 2007 6:05AM]

anyone got STONE in hand
How's it sound quailty?

[Precious @ Jun 21st 2007 11:29PM]

By paying slightly more you get a screen and some other features such as stopwatch, clock, equalizer, fm radio and even voice recorder from the player. It's quite a good bargain.

[BIg Al @ Jun 21st 2007 7:38AM]

Why isn't there more demand for something that you can actually replace the battery on? I just hate buying something that I know I'll have to throw away in 3-4 years. I know there are a few units out there with a serviceable battery, but they are the exception and not the rule.

[D3L3T3D @ Jun 21st 2007 7:41AM]

Creative should use this marketing slogan:

"Get Stoned!"

[Galley @ Jun 21st 2007 8:38AM]

Does it support AAC?

[JASON @ Jun 21st 2007 11:18AM]

who cares if it supports AAC (below CD Format with restrictions in codics) it dose support WMA-64Kbps, MPS-128Kbps@22,000Hz, Protected WMA, and WAV-192Kbps@44,000Hz. oh and if you think it is a rip off of ipod shuffle, think again. ipods can't do anything besides, creative has been around long long long time before ipods.

[Chuckles McGee @ Jun 21st 2007 12:05PM]

I'm sure it'll rock!

[David @ Jun 21st 2007 1:07PM]

€69.99 in europe so that'll probably translate to $64.99 or $69.99

http://ie.europe.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=16696

[Cosmic @ Jun 21st 2007 1:22PM]

No need to speculate as to U.S. pricing - it's up on Amazon. It won't ship for 4-6 weeks, but you can 1-click shop your way to Zen Stone Plus ownership for a cool $69.99.

Blue: http://www.amazon.com/Creative-ZEN-Stone-Plus-Blue/dp/B000S5QIFS/ref=sr_1_8/103-7009714-6715844?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1182445791&sr=8-8
Pink: http://www.amazon.com/Creative-ZEN-Stone-Plus-Pink/dp/B000S5QIL2/ref=sr_1_1/103-7009714-6715844?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1182446393&sr=8-1
Etc (red, white, green): http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/103-7009714-6715844?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=creative+zen+stone+plus+2GB&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go+

[Dan @ Jun 21st 2007 2:35PM]

Sweet zombie Jesus! I only found six mentionings of Apple and iPod. We need a cake.

[ShadowVlican @ Jun 21st 2007 9:04PM]

awesome form factor AND comes with a screen! i'll take two!

[anthony (ipod shuffle owner) @ Jul 18th 2007 9:51PM]

it might hav a screen and more memory and all, but it doesnt hav the clip!

[rahman @ Jul 23rd 2007 1:04PM]

the sound system is not bad but improvement is still required