9 months back, from a consumer-to-be’s point of view, the Creative Zen Micro really caught me with its sweet aesthetics design, wide range of colour choices and positive reviews.
now, being a 9-mth-old owner of the red Zen Micro 5gb, I have developed both love & hatred for the creative brand.
the main plus point of this gadget is its aesthetics surely, which is also the main reason why I chose it over the rest. flashy red colour backed by the blue glow never fails to bring me pride whenever I hold it. definitely more characteristic than the typical ipod which seems to be in everyone’s hands nowadays.
one important factor for a audio gadget has to be the sound quality. the Zen Micro may not be as good as the korean iriver or the chinese iaudio in terms of this, but it’s certainly not far behind, and it’s also acclaimed to be better than the ipod. the bass & fidelity are commendable, and user can still fine-tune the sounds using the custom equalizer. the 98dB signal-to-noise ratio is a statistic the Micro can be proud of. the stock creative earphones are more than sufficient for normal users, but listeners with a greater hunger for audio quality can opt for better aftermarket earphones. for me i’m contemplating getting in-ear earphones to get the best out of the Micro, since the stock earbuds are not able to shut out the external noises.
other plus features include the wide range of audio compatibility with MP3, WMA, WAV (one over ipod), FM radio (another one over ipod), replaceable battery (yet another one over ipod), voice recording, and the organiser that works with Microsoft Outlook.
some potential buyers of the Zen Micro are turned off by its ’overly-sensitive’ touch pad. personally, I found it not as hard as it had initially seemed to get used to this kind of navigation. perhaps the main inconvenience of this is to always have to keep the key-lock on whenever I put the micro in my pocket, otherwise i’d easily have my track jumped or paused with every step I take.
the ownership of this Zen Micro could almost be perfect if not for reliability issues. in fact, this current set is already my 3rd set, after 2 exchanges with creative over a period of 9 months. first was the earphone jack problem, which led to distorted sounds. this is a very common problem which, according to rumours, creative has addressed with the later shipments. my second exchange with creative was due to a faulty switch, which so far I have not heard of anyone else with a similar problem. hopefully, this 3rd set is finally my lasting set, as my warranty will be expiring soon in 3 months’ time. otherwise, i’d be totally disillusioned with the reliability of creative products.
on the overall, I am still glad with my purchase of this sweet gadget. perhaps this is due to the fact that i’m more for aesthetics flavour, and the Creative Zen Micro scores 10/10 in this aspect. coupled with the stupendous sound quality, the pros easily overshadow the reliability issues of this product. anyway, is there any gadget one would remain using for more than a couple of years when there are always newer products coming every fortnight or so?