Look, we know the sound will be crap from that tiny, tiny speaker. Still, we can't help but feel a slight tug at our gadget loin by the new Zen Stone Plus with built-in speaker. Your $60 pre-order will reserve 2GB of flash with up to 20-hours of MP3 playback -- a bit less for the WMA resource hogs. For $50 you can pre-order the Zen Stone with speaker but without that four line display. The biggest rub in all this is the guaranteed up-tick of annoying tweens and teens rockin' out to their mico boombox on public transportation.
[Via
epiZENter, thanks Ramon]
Read -- Zen Stone with speaker
Read -- Zen Stone Plus with speaker
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Al @ Jan 7th 2008 3:20PM
you forgot to mention the Zen Stone+ is also getting a speaker.
Craig @ Jan 7th 2008 3:23PM
Better sell the expensive sound system then...
Itsuru @ Jan 7th 2008 3:26PM
Now I can have competitions with my friends to see who can tell the difference between Celine Dion and Led Zeppelin.
stickmanfc73_ @ Jan 7th 2008 3:29PM
That's a neat addition. Not sure who would actually care to have a tiny speaker but whatever. Looks like they are giving it a new finish instead of that glossy pebble in the lake finish from before.
Smart People Play Tuba @ Jan 7th 2008 3:38PM
If sound quality is not relevant (i.e. audiobooks, podcasts, and other spoken voice) and you don't have headphones handy, it's a good option to have.
Spyvie @ Jan 7th 2008 4:10PM
I sometimes use the "speaker" on my WM6 phone to listen to podcasts
websuperman @ Jan 7th 2008 3:30PM
What, no Veronica Belmont video? What gives?
Homeboy @ Jan 7th 2008 3:43PM
The speaker in my SE k610i is very loud and that goes for many other SE phones and the quality is pretty good too. I wonder if the new Zen Stone is on the same level. Might even pick one up, looks cute and aren't awfully expensive either.
Now where is Creative's new flagship video device???
Sam @ Jan 7th 2008 4:46PM
Every update to this thing makes me hate itunes for making my best option the $70 screenless and speakerless ipod shuffle with 1GB of storage
Anthony @ Jan 7th 2008 3:49PM
This is just what we need to replace our aging nano. Our son loves to have music around but we don't always have his "music bear" (ipod bear) speaker.
Can't wait.
Sean @ Jan 7th 2008 3:49PM
How is it people call this not expensive? $60 for 2 gigs of space is horrible. Save your loot and for the price of 2 get more than 10 times the storage.
steven @ Jan 9th 2008 8:25PM
Thats a load of bull. Let me remind you that a 1GB iPod shuffle WITHOUT A SCREEN OR SPEAKER is $79. I would way rather buy this. I would defiantly have to say that you are WRONG!
Dan @ Jan 7th 2008 5:44PM
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&node=home/ipod/ipod_shuffle
Dan @ Jan 7th 2008 5:48PM
I guess the link cut off my post?
Anywho, $60 for a 2GB flash DAP that can fit in the palm of your hand is just what some people want. In theory the price is horrible, but who is going to pay $120 for 8GB (Y2) when they could pay half of that for what they need?
Sean @ Jan 7th 2008 6:51PM
Bah you canget a 6GB for about the same price through a variety of companies without too much difference in form factor. Personaly I'd be pissed if someone threw away their loot on getting me this.
Kevin Mogee @ Jan 8th 2008 11:12AM
I would love to know where I can pick up a 20gig flash-based player for 120 bucks. Using Sean's math, that's what he is telling me I can get. Please Sean tell me where.
Sean @ Jan 8th 2008 11:45AM
Might have to wait for a flash based one that size but you can pick up 20GB hard drive based ones for 85-90 bucks. I'm not aware of any flash drives pushing the 20GB limit yet but cost to storage ratio, I'll stick with my 30 GB Archos that granted ran me almost $200, but it's so much cooler, especially with the DVR adapter. SanDisk however makes some 8GB flash drives for around $100-110 so for $40-50 more you get 4 times the space.
Sean @ Jan 9th 2008 8:43PM
If you go ipod yeah you'll pay through the teeth, but then I avoid ipods
CosterMonger @ Jan 7th 2008 4:01PM
can you join two together to get stereo
Howdy Doody @ Jan 7th 2008 5:39PM
Damn I just ordered a Stone Plus a couple of weeks ago! :(
iamdigitalman @ Jan 7th 2008 5:54PM
You know, I might just pick one of these up, or the stone+. I only need 2gb. My entire music library is 1.5gb, but I also have 3.71gb of podcasts and some purchased music and TV shows (I only get the free stuff though), and I really don't care about those, just the stuff in my actual library. Sure beats the pants off my aging 20gb 4th gen U2, who's firmware has already had to be reloaded because of a failing hard drive, and shortening battery life. I bet these things can run for days. If I had one, I would use it more. I barely listen to my music as it is. I just wish the stone had a clip like the shuffle. But then again, macworld is a week away, and I would like to see if a new shuffle with a OLED display and 2gb of storage is released.
BigDave @ Jan 7th 2008 6:48PM
I had to drop by and make a comment here. I'm sorry, but can anyone think of a good situation for wanting to listen to crap quality music by holding this little pos up to their ear? What useless tech! This is the kind of stuff I expect to see out of china on dealextreme for $20...
Are headphones that difficult to come by? Even the $5 sets at walmart will have better sq than the piezo speaker embedded in this thing...
Faithzz @ Jan 7th 2008 10:48PM
Guys c'mon I guess there are different categories of players. This is just for those who want a simple and easy to use player for listening to music, especially for the young and old ones. The additional speaker is just for the convenience of listening to music without the earphones. Looks like this device has doubled the battery life too.
Hunesei @ Jan 8th 2008 11:15PM
Yup, I think the best improvement here is the battery life which was doubled compared to the stone+ with no speakers. The improved battery life alone is already a very good improvement.
PenaltyKillah @ Jan 7th 2008 11:50PM
A $60 starting price for 2GB? That's a bargain for an audio-only player!
And is that a new grey colour for the ZEN Stone (Plus)? Hope it isn't the same old press images illusion... Remember the time when everyone thought the ZEN Vision:M was grey, when in reality, it's black? What an illusion!
James @ Jan 8th 2008 11:13AM
The most appropriate comment for this article is...
...will it blend?
Come on, a crappy 2GB of memory when just now I read SDHC cards have reached 12GB.
If you want to play music aloud, get a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone.
Sean @ Jan 8th 2008 11:50AM
Also the speaker is the only plus, you can buy a 2GB flash player for about $30-40 these days. In fact Sansa makes a model with a microSD slot for adding even mroe storage that runs for $65.
AdamB @ Jan 18th 2008 7:25PM
Erm.. am I the only person who sees a problem here? Was quite excited, ready to buy (i.e. pre-order), then realized: I wear my MP3 player on my arm, always. Soo.. if the speaker side is pressed against my arm .. muffled/silence; if the front faces my arm - buttons accidentally getting pushed every 2 seconds?
Liz @ Jan 19th 2008 10:13PM
Agh. this is frustrating. the speaker seems a little silly, but i want to get one of these just because it is one of the few players that support AAC files... i really wish they would put out a zen v plus with AAC playback as well. that would be absolutely perfect.