Creative Zen Review, Part 5

Previously, I had described some of the experiences I have had with my new Creative Zen [creative.com] portable media player (PMP). This is part 5. [Go to part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 6, part 7.]

With the Creative Zen comes a comically short USB cable:


Is this a joke? Forget about using it with any USB ports on the back of your computer (laptop or otherwise). The good news is that both ends are standard USB connectors, so I already had at least one spare cable lying around that I could use. Both a previous digital camera and a previous MP3 player use those exact same connectors, so I was all set. This cable is both used to transfer data to and from the PMP, and also to recharge it.

When you connect the Creative Zen to a computer, it goes into "Docked Mode" and prepares itself to receive files. In "Docked Mode", it disables the UI on the device itself -- thus preventing you from recharging it and listening to music on it at the same time. If you want to recharge it while listening to it, you will have to plug it into a USB power adapter [amazon.com].

When you plug it into a computer, it will show up as an "other device" in Windows Explorer (see below screenshot), but doesn't get assigned a drive letter. That is annoying to me, because I use custom scripts to transfer data to my MP3 players (which require drive letters) instead of using a UI like Windows Explorer.


Transfers of files to the device are rather slow. I typically copy groups of 50MB files to the PMP. In my unscientific tests, it takes about 100 seconds to transfer just under 500MB to the Creative Zen, averaging about 4.8MB/sec (well under the theoretical max transfer rate of USB, and significantly slower than many of my other devices and older MP3 players).

One last note about data transfers... I have two WinXP SP2 computers. On one computer, I was able to transfer files to and from the Zen without installing any drivers. On the other computer, I did have to install the software suite that comes with the PMP to be able to transfer anything to it. Unlike many other devices, you can't count on being able to plug it into your friend's computer and assume that it will work.

[Go to part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 6, part 7.]