Well its been a long time having joined mouth shut and was searching for a decent review to write...
I am frequent traveller and wanted to beat the boredom of those long haul fligths I was really looking for some decent entertainment on my hands. Well I decided that I kind of need a device that played my favourite music and also watch some comedy or movies and similar stuff.. there is not much you can do on flights or long journeys isnt it. After endless research , comparing features , prices , convenience etc I narrowed on 3 devices , the evergreen loved by world IPod , Zen vision W and the Archos series.
Well all of us by choice want to be unique in some way isnt it.. I thought that well everyone has Ipod.. and I decided that I dont want one...well was it worth taking the risk..ignoring the stable and proven product to something new.. ?. Well I again hit the breaks.. IPod is more now a commonality..it has his good and bad..best interface , battery issues and a decent screen. Well archos was expensive .. its though top of the line and I really didnt want to burn my pockets.. So..after reading and re-checking I decided that I wanted a creative. Boyo.. when I got it delivered it took me by surprise... it looks beautiful than the pictures .... well I started playing with it and found these....
its got a large screen.. in wide angle format.. crispy pictures. No lag images.
It plays wma, mp3 audio
It plays wmv , divx 4/5 and xvid formats and can view pictures from ur digi cams
Got a configurable autosensing speaker (mono) a small one but you are playing for urslef not the
world
It has a slide on power switch, simple and easy .. slide it to one side the unit powers on.. slide to the other the unit locks to prevent itslef from inadvertent setting changes.
it uses a simple menu system operated via a 4-way navigational button (left, right, up, down) with a center button for confirms.
separate buttons for volumes.
Allows videos to be viewed in 3 different formats 16:9 , full screen and original size.
Allows media to be deleted from the unit itself.
Its got a usual earout , dc power in. The battery charges in 3 hrs flat on dc power and 6 hrs on usb charge, so its got a usb cable connector which is main conduit for transfering ur media from ur laptops and desktops.
Its got a small docking connector underneath.. so that you can use it on the dock also.
One unique slot is compact flash slot which can hold a cf-adapter that can take in 5 different types of input media and costs extra.
it comes in 30 and 60 gb versions.
The best of them all it has a replacable battery pack..
The sound output on the speaker is so-so.. but on the unit provided headphones it was good.. All the low and highs of the notes were fed into my ears.. crisp and clear but I tried it with my friends sennheiser noise cancelling headphones.. it was as if the world surrounded itself around me.. its was too good.
The video playback is good , you can control the brightness of the lcd and improve the picture quality but that drinks the juice of ur battery fast.. you can ensure the longetivity of charge by controlling the brightness. A full battery given around 12-13 hrs of music and can be extended to 15hrs by locking the unit ( blanks the lcd). It almost plays 2 full indian movies on a full charge. depending on the brightness of lcd.
Well.. there are some chinks in the armour too.. the navigation buttons are bit hard.. needing a firm click spoiling the elegance of the unit. It would lose hands down to Ipods click wheel interface. Because of the size of lcd the unit is chunky and a comparitively heavier than IPOD.. you cannot put it in pocket and go around.. it fills up your plam completely.
However the quality of finish , the music and video output have made it my pet.. haha..thats what it is..
The unit comes with a rexine pouch , a creative headset and media cd. It installs creative media explorer that actually helps transfer media from and to your unit and a wall adapter to charge and usb cable.
Addition : An important aspect I missed out was that it has video component out and plays the media in your tv using the component video out cable provided with the unit. Same crisp quality.. in a 25 inch tv.. waiting to see how it behaves on LCD
Hope this helps to gain a overview to this nice player...