Creative Zen Vision Preview

Full Preview

Creative's first portable media player was a solid maiden-voyage effort, but the company's next iteration, the Creative Zen Vision, is already attracting plenty of attention. We got our hands on an early production unit to see what the buzz is about, and our first impression is that there's quite a bit to like.

The sleek, white magnesium case is 4.9 by 2.9 by 0.8 inches (HWD) and weighs 8.2 ounces—smaller than its predecessor, but significantly bigger than the Archos Gmini 402. It houses a 30GB hard drive and a big, beautiful 3.7-inch, 640- by 480-pixel screen (compared with the Gmini 402's 2.2-inch, 320- by 240-pixel screen) that produces 262,144 colors. The transflective LCD smudges easily, but it is extremely sharp, has a fairly wide viewing angle, and is visible even in direct sunlight.

The Zen Vision works with an optional docking cradle and a remote. The cradle is actually superfluous, since the remote works directly with the player itself; we did have to enable it in the player's menu, though. The remote, which is only 4 inches long and half an inch thick, breaks out all of the controls that are on the player, so it's a very convenient way to adjust the settings when the player's hooked up to your living-room television display.

The menus still aren't final, but what we saw is very readable, well organized, and easy to navigate. We especially like being able to browse tracks—and artists, albums, and just about anything else—by letter. A handy built-in organizer syncs with Microsoft Outlook tasks, calendar, and contacts.

Video file support includes AVI, M-JPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4-SP, and WMV, and the Zen Vision is compatible with TiVoToGo for viewing TiVo-recorded video. We watched a trailer for The Dukes of Hazzard, and the clip looked flawless, with smooth video and clear, well-synced audio. When we output the video to our TV monitor via the included A/V cables, we didn't notice any imperfections.

Photos look beautiful, and you can play individual photos or slide shows while listening to music. To create slide shows, you have to use Creative's Media Explorer on your PC. The device supports images in JPEG (progressive and baseline) formats up to 8 megapixels. And you can transfer them right from your camera via the CompactFlash (Type I and Type II) card slot, or you can purchase Creative's optional card adapter, which supports 17 other card formats.

The Zen Vision plays MP3, WAV, and WMA (though no lossless WMA) files and is PlaysForSure-compatible. It also works with WMA-based online subscription and download services. You can create playlists on the fly, and a DJ feature creates automatic playlists like Most Popular and Rarely Heard. You can also set bookmarks to return you to specific points in audio (and video) files.

Subjective audio quality is very good, with solid bass and crisp highs. The headphone output has sufficient headroom for listening in noisy environments, but the tiny built-in speaker could use a little more oomph, though we realize this will rarely be a problem for most users. Equalizer settings include eight presets as well as custom 5-band EQ sliders and a bass booster.

The FM tuner has a tough time picking up weaker stations, but you get cell phone–style bars to indicate radio reception, which is pretty cool. You can program up to 32 presets. The device can also record off the radio, and do voice recording via the built-in mic. Recording quality is fairly good, and you can split tracks while you're recording. The only downside is that we couldn't adjust the microphone sensitivity. We were mildly disappointed that the player doesn't support line-in recording.

Other details include a high-speed USB 2.0 port, a removable lithium ion battery (which provides 13 hours of audio and 4.5 hours of video per charge, according to the specs), and an included wall charger (though the player also charges via USB).

Our overall impression of the Zen Vision is that it will do quite well, though if you want to record video or audio from a line-in source you'll need something more along the lines of the Archos PMA400. The fairly compact Zen Vision is easy to use, and the screen is big and good-looking enough for watching full-length movies comfortably. As with most Creative products, the audio quality is very good, though we don't see the Zen Vision as a replacement for a dedicated music player. It will be available in pearl white or black, and the Creative site is taking preorders now for $399. We'll take another look when the final product is ready later this month.