Zen V Plus MP3 Player Best In Its Price Range

Creative's Zen V Plus has tons of features: you can watch videos, view color pictures, sync to Outlook contacts, calendar and tasks, record with an onboard mic or a line in, FM radio tuner, and of course play and manage music and audiobooks (with bookmarking). The interface features a joystick device, back button (hold longer for other functions) and a play/pause button. Simple to use, with intuitive software for managing data and music, and as well a nice, clean podcast management software tool. It's small, perfect for the gym, and the four-gig version costs less than the four-gig iPod nano.

While the sound quality is terrific, and I'm loving keeping half my music library in my breast pocket, my main use for the device was to manage podcasts, audio books and audio language learning programs. The Zen V Plus meets these needs and then some.

I shopped hard for this when it finally came time to upgrade from the free Shuffle I'd gotten from Audible.com. (I liked the Shuffle well enough for music, but it wasn't a good device to manage audio books - lousy, in fact. It often failed to hold your place between sessions, and the fast forward only worked at one speed—slow—which was bad if you'd lost your place half way through a 16-hour novel. I've owned two Shuffles, both came free as promotional items, and one only lasted about six months before dying. I've also had one other device by Creative, a Muvo circa I forget when—so old it took a double A battery. That also came free from Audible, and still works to this day despite much rough treatment, though with the same limitations as the Shuffle.)

After reading a bunch of reviews, most not just good but enthusiastic, it was a pretty clear choice. I was surprised, standing in the store actually looking at one, how small it is (about the size of one of those old steel lighters). But the screen quality is good despite the size, and I have little need for or intention of watching anything longer then newsy video podcast type things on this anyway. For anything longer I'd choose my laptop, desktop or the living room DVD player...

In any case, my review: Based on my research, my particular needs, and now my experience with the Zen V Plus, I'd say it's the best MP3 player out there for under $200.

Article Author: Ernesto Burden

Ernesto Burden is a digital media executive in the newspaper publishing industry. He has been an editor and reporter with daily and weekly newspapers. He is a writer, runner, musician and an avid student of the Web, technology, literature, religion …

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