Nah duh… (at the title that is…) Well, if Freehostia was working last night, I could have written about my Creative ZEN Vision:M yesterday… Anyway, I picked-up my Creative ZEN Vision:M (ZVM for short) yesterday, so thus, I now have a piece of super-chunky-mega-bulk! The ZVM is thick as! Thicker than Daniel! =P The free “Leather Case” that came with it makes it even more chunky-er! So with the case, the ZVM is, we’ll say, 3cm thick? Compared to my original Creative ZEN which is only 1.1cm thick, and the iPod 3G Nano is only 0.6cm thick… But despite it’s ultra chunkiness, the ZVM is pretty nice. I’ve got a black one, 30GB model. Right now, it’s shiny, and screen is scratchless, but I give it till the end of next week before I get a nice scratch on it! =D
So, the ZVM was first released in December 2005. It has won many awards since that time, most notably “Best in Category: Portable Media Players” at CES 2006, along with “Best in Show” for CES 2006. It’s 2009 now. The ZVM is “out-of-date” as such and Creative had ceased the production of it a while back. The ZVM is said to be Creative’s best ever selling item, and at the time, it hit Apple’s iPod rather hard. Ever since, many who have owned a ZVM have been awaiting for a newer replacement model from Creative, but so far, that has not happened. I’m still hoping Creative will release a replacement this year, possibly integrating their ZMS chip from ZiiLabs. Thinking about that, if the ZMS is ultra power saving, and if they used OLED, they could have a player with an ultra-long battery life.
I spent like 2 hours last night, trying to get my computer to recognise my ZVM but it continually refused to! It became so damn painful, then suddenly, ta da! My computer finally recognised my ZVM! Now it works fine, and I’m beginning to learn how to drive this thing. I’m a little confused with the buttons, mainly because the shortcut button and the play/pause button are the top two buttons compared to my ZEN where the back and menu buttons are at the top, and visa-versa. I tell you what, I don’t like touch pads or touch screens that much. When ever I use someone’s iPod, or go to the Apple Store in Sydney, I never am able to use the touch screens like everyone else can =P. They can get a little fiddly, and like everyone says, the touch pad on the ZVM can be a little overly sensitive. And as many others have said, if you’ve used the user-interface on a ZEN, you’ve used the interface on every other ZEN Series.
So, I’ve got a refurb player. A former “reject” as such. I wonder how long it will last given that it’s a refurb, but Creative does say that refurbs are basically new, so they should last just as long as the new ones. Which would mean 3 years. I give my player 1.5 years before it dies, but my sister gives it 5… She has a ZEN Neeon which has been around for a long time now. (I’d say something like 4 years now, nearing it’s fifth?) Although she doesn’t use it that often, and it’s in very good condition still.
I still like my ZEN better, but the Vision:M is still a very nice player, and so far, I have no regrets spending my moneys on it! =D
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