Product Description

The Zen Micro digital music player from Creative Labs packs an incredible 5GB of storage capacity into a shell small enough to sit comfortably in your jeans pocket. It also rides nicely in your hand, with a palm-fitting profile and thumb-friendly front-panel controls. It's a bit shorter than an Apple iPod Mini, yet its rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides 12 hours of continuous playback--50 percent more than iPod mini's. The Zen Micro is compatible not merely with MP3s and WAV files, but with WMA as well. Toss in USB 2.0 connectivity and you're looking at one spiffy portable music player.

But playing isn't all the Zen Micro does. You can use it to receive FM radio (with 32 station presets to keep your favourites at the ready), and to record, either from the radio or from live sources such as voice dictation or lectures using the Zen Micro's built-in condenser microphone. Trimmed in a luminescent blue glow and with easily visible backlit buttons, this stylish silver player holds up to 1,250 songs (83 hours) at 128 kbps or 2,500 songs (166 hours) at lower-fidelity 64 kbps (MP3/WMA)--that's a solid week's worth of music listening, never playing the same song twice. Compatibility with Microsoft's WMA compressed-audio format grants access to over 2 million downloadable songs offered promotionally or for sale online. Perhaps the Zen Micro's coolest attribute is its DJ feature, which will shuffle not only all the songs you've loaded or all the songs in a given album, but, at your discretion, only the tracks you listen to most, or only those you rarely hear, taking the work out of selecting your favourites or hunting out all the music you're still getting to know.

For navigation, the device features a vertical, linear touchpad designed to make searching through songs or playlists easy, quick, and fun. The unit's blue, 160 x 104-pixel, electroluminescent LCD shows key functions and song details at a glance, and you can even customize the main menu to keep right at your fingertips the features that matter most to you. Another of the Zen Micro's handy features is its personal organizer. You'll never forget an important anniversary with the onboard calendar, and it also includes a to-do list and a contacts list, all of which sync seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook (Outlook thus required for use of these features). In addition, the device offers a sleep timer and alarm so you can drift off to sleep to the strains of one playlist and wake to a completely different one.

Zen Micro's rechargeable battery is easy to replace.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50023 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Creative Labs
• Model: Zen Micro
• Released on: 2004-10-11
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
Creative's Zen Micro is the highly anticipated killer MP3 player from the inventors of the first MP3 Jukebox. It fits naturally into the hand, placing the touch-sensitive control pad in the perfect position for navigation with just one finger. The Zen Micro will store up to 2,500* songs in WMA or 1,250* in MP3 on its 5GB hard disk, and its easy-to-remove rechargeable battery delivers up to 12 hours of high-quality digital audio. FM radio and voice recording further extend its versatility. The Zen Micro is ideal for use with on-line music services and Windows PCs, supporting downloads at up to a song per second via its USB 2.0 port. It is available in a choice of 5 colours.

• Micro Sized - Just over 3" tall and 2" wide - the attention-grabbing Zen Micro fits ergonomically in the palm of one hand.
• Long battery life - The party just keeps going with the Zen Micro. It delivers 12 hours of continuous high-quality digital audio and up to 16 hours playtime with its built-in FM radio.
• Removable, rechargeable battery - If the party lasts longer than 12 hours, users can swap-out the Zen Micro's removable, rechargeable battery and let the music play on. Simply slide the back panel away, swap the batteries (like in a mobile phone) and that's it!
• FM radio - In addition to holding your favourite songs, the Zen Micro allows you to listen to your favourite radio stations. Unlike many other players, the Zen Micro features a high quality built-in FM radio that includes 32 presets.
• Vertical Touch Pad - The Zen Micro provides intuitive scrolling hrough artists, albums and genres with a gentle stroke of a thumb over the vertical touchpad. This vertical navigation is so simple, user friendly and unique to the Zen.
• More Music - The Zen Micro stores up to 2500* songs in WMA or 1250* in MP3. Users can choose MP3 or WMA music, ripped from CDs or downloaded from on-line music sites. USB 2.0 connectivity ensures fast song transfer up to a song per second.
• Voice recording - The Zen Micro doubles as a handy voice recorder, capturing up to 10 hours of important dictations, notes or meetings.
• Take any file with you - The Zen Micro doubles as an external hard disk**. Store and transport your digital photos, presentations and spreadsheets - in fact, any file type!
• Keep Organised - In addition to all these features, the Zen Micro provides extra functionality with an on-board Address Book, Calendar, To-Do List and synchronisation with Microsoft Outlook.
• Out of the box - The Zen Micro comes complete with a belt clip that doubles as a stand; in-ear dynamic bass response headphones; a protective carrying case; USB 2.0 cable; and an AC adapter.

* Based on 4-minute songs at 64kbps in WMA, 128kbps in MP3
** No drivers are required for PCs with Windows ME, XP and 2000

Box Contents

Customer Reviews

Beats the mini ipod hands down!
I just received my new silver zen micro today, after selling my pink mini ipod. All I can say is 'wow'!!! It is so much better than the mini ipod. For a start, it looks better. Instead of a metal-shiny finish, this one is super sleek and has a blue glow around the sides and a gorgeous white back. Lovely!

First of all, it is so tiny! If you think the mini ipod's are small, you ain't seen nothing yet. It is a little wider and thicker than the mini, but much shorter. The screen is also a little smaller, but it looks so good.

After charging it for 3 hours, it only took me a few minutes to get the hang of it. I prefer the up-down scrolling instead of the wheel on the ipod. Installing the software was a breeze, but I wouldn't bother too much with that, as you get Windows Media Player 10 with it, and it only takes minutes to transfer your songs over to the micro with that. The software looks a bit too complicated, so I'm just going to ignore that.

As for the sound, well, it's pretty amazing. Much, much better than the ipod. It is just so clear. And for people who have said that the volume doesn't go up high enough, you must be deaf. I put it on the highest setting and it nearly blew me off my chair. There is nothing wrong with the headphones either. They look nice, and they are comfortable.

The belt clip that you get with it also doubles as a stand with the extra attachment that comes with it, and it looks so cool. In fact, I'm actually going to get shot of my CD player, and just hook it up to my speakers, after I buy the remote for it.

The extras that come with this baby are amazing. FM Radio is a big bonus. I had no problems setting up a few radio stations, and again, I found the sound quality second to none. I love the voice recorder too. I recorded sound from both near and far, and it was great. From farther away, the sound is slightly quiet, but you can still hear every word perfectly. This is going to be great for taking to lectures with me. No more writing down notes!

The fact that the zen micro also plays WMA files as well as MP3 files was the main reason that I got this. I was so sick of only being able to buy music from itunes with my ipod, and anytime I downloaded 'illegal' music onto my ipod, it would skip. Not with this. Every track plays brilliantly.

Removable battery is a great idea too. They are still doing the limited edition, so I got a spare battery with mine. Excellent! If the battery runs out, simply swap it for another. No need to charge it straight away!

I seriously can't sing this device enough praises. It is just fantastic. If I was to complain about anything, then it would be about the manual. There are only 13 pages of english, and it tells you nothing about how to use any of the features. Luckily, this is so easy to use, so you shouldn't have too many problems. A carry case would have been nice too, instead of the pouch, but that's just being picky. I couldn't be happier. It makes me wonder why I ever bought the ipod in the first place. Cheaper, More space, looks better, more features, the list is endless.

If you are thinking of getting one of these, but you are still unsure, then please, don't worry, you won't regret it! I don't.

Great device, but some niggles
The Creative Zen Micro is great - looks good, works fine, and sound quality is super. 5Gb is well ample to store enough music to keep you going for a long time, and unlike the Zen Touch its small enough to justify carrying with you pretty much anywhere. Interface is slick, looks are cool, and the vertical touch button thingy is great after 24 hours or so of getting used to. Finally - it'll play anything: mp3, mp2, wma, wav, etc.

The only down sides are:
1) My headphones broke within 5 hours of getting it - the right phone keeps on cutting out on me, so I'm using my own set now. Maybe I'm just unlucky?
2) The software provided with it (to use on the PC) is disappointing. I've never used an iPod or any of the competition, but sorting through 5Gb of songs using the Creative tool is pretty laborious. Better to use Windows Media Player or a third party piece of kit.
3) Radio reception is ok, but a bit weak and hissy somtimes

But in summary - get a Zen Micro!

Very good and worth the money
This tiny mp3 player is extremely easy to use, which is very useful seeing as the instruction booklet tells you the bare minimum.

The 5gb of storage is enough for most users, as it equates to about 240-250 cds worth of storage.

The touch sensitive pad takes a little getting use to, but once you get going its very handy and a joy to use.

The sound quality is good, although the earphones are basic and could be better.

I received mine today and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was still a Limited Edition and contained the extra battery.

Radio reception unfortunately isn't too great. Although for me it's not much of a bother as I rarely listen to the radio.

It's very easy to put music on to the player using Windows Media 10, so I've had no need to use the specific software.

On the whole a very good little mp3 player that's easy to use and looks fantastic. It's less expensive than the ipod mini, its got more storage and I personally think it looks better.