Creative Strips ZEN, Calls it ZEN MX
Similar to the LX version of the Mozaic sold at such fine electronics retailers as the Marts of Wall, Creative has found a way to sell a new player without the hassle of having to design a new one! The good news doesn’t stop there. They also didn’t worry about a new name for it, and will simply add the letters MX (apparently for Mostly Xpired) to the newer ZEN model.
The company did, however, strip out the power button (Play button acts as it now), dropped support for AAC, and (most notably) removed native AVI support. Instead of having mpg and avi files playback via drag and drop, the player now only plays .CMV videos, assuming that this is the format the Creative Video Converter outputs videos to. This should save on licensing the AVI, MPG, and AAC filetypes and save almost $5 per player. It’s troubling to see a company cut corners in such a manner.
On the plus side, kingone at epiZENter (newest staff member, congrats!) has noted that some SD features have been added- notably the ability to import music to the library. While it’s a far cry from the industry-standard integration, it’s definitely a step in the right direction. The price point is aimed directly at the low end of the spectrum, at 9800 yen for the player, which is expected to not reach United States’ shores. This is about US $99 for 8GB, which isn’t spectacular, but for a new player, it’s unlikely you’ll find any competitor at that price point with the features. Hopefully for Creative diehards, this means that the R&D team is at work on a real player, not a cheaper second generation player.
| Specifications | Details | ||||||
| Body size (Width x height x depth) |
83.2×55x11.9mm | ||||||
| Weight | Approximately 66g (including battery) | ||||||
| Storage | 8GB /16GB |
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| Battery Type | Rechargeable lithium-ion battery (not replaceable) | ||||||
| Hours charging | USB: about 4 hours Optional AC adapter: about 3 hours | ||||||
| Songs can be recorded (Calculated on a song 4 minutes) |
8GB WMA 64kbps: Up to 4,000 songs / approximately 266 hours MP3 128kbps: Approximately 2,000 songs / approximately 133 hours 16GB WMA 64kbps: Up to 4,000 songs / approximately 266 hours MP3 128kbps: Up to 4,000 songs / approximately 266 hours |
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| Playback Format |
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| Hours continuous playback | Music: about 30 hours
Videos: about 5 hours |
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| Play mode | Normal mode is added to the list and play songs to play / single track / repeat (in track / playlist) / Random (Playlist) / Shuffle (Playlist) / DJ (recommended album / all / frequency of play) | ||||||
| Equalizer | Preset x8 (Acoustic / Classical / Disco / Jazz / New Age / pop / rock / vocals) Custom x1 (5 band) Smart Volume Bass boost |
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| FM Tuner | 32 presets 76.0 ~ 108.00NHz (if the number of Japan received 76.0 ~ 90.0NHz) |
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| Voice Recording Format | IMA ADPCM4-bit 16kHz mono | ||||||
| hours voice recording | 16GB model: Approximately 532 hours 8GB model: Approximately 266 hours |
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| Headphone output | 10mW/ch ?3.5mm stereo mini jack for setting output: 10mW/ch Frequency response: 20Hz – 20kHz |
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| Display | 2.5-inch TFT Color LCD Display Resolution 320?240 pixels 1,670 million colors |
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| PC interface | USB 2.0/1.1 USB 2.0/1.1 |
Creative JP Website (Translation)
