Creative Zen Micro Photo 8 GB MP3 Player

Not an iPod but still Amazing

By Carl  Mar 5, 2006 | 5 out of 6 found this Creative Zen Micro Photo 8 GB review helpful

Pros: Replacable battery, FM tuner, Vibrant colors

Cons: Sometimes slow start up time, Software is ridiculously unreliable

The zen microphoto looks amazingly sleek. I love the way that it fits in my hand, unlike an iPod, which is admittedly uber-sleek, does not fit well into the hands of most. I also thuroughl enjoy having a bright blue player that happily throbs a light...ed blue backlight when it is charging or when viewing the superbly colorful screen. The music plays like a dream and sounds great. Many different playback modes make even a small collection of music seem fresh and exciting. I also really appreciate the FM tuner, it is a great way to never run out of new music! The photo part of this player is really more of an added bonus than a full feature. Pictures, though delightfully colorful, get kind of blurred when viewed in the limited space of the micro's screen. You can't listen to music and look at photos at the same time, a natural inclination for many of us. Otherwise it's pretty cool to be able to have a picture of my friends and I as my backgorund, but that's about where the functionality stops. The software bundled with the micro took forever to install. I had to eventually quit the installation, as it was hanging on trying to install a new version of Windows Media Player. Take that as a sign of the softwares performance as well. Most of the time when I go to transfer songs to my player using the provided software, the software hangs indefintely saying "loading device..." In that time I can browse the files on my player through windows explorer, create the laborious 'new music' playlist in windows media player and then add that list to my player all before the Creative software even wakes up to do its job. That part is very frustrating, but if you don't mind waiting and/or using other software then you are set! Read more Less