Zen V Plus Review

After using the Zen V Plus for about a month now, I would have to say that this product is rather worthy for those who are looking for a more solid, smaller capacity mp3 player with plenty of features such as the FM tuner, microphone and video playback. Another plus is its scratch-resistant chassis and better capability to keep dust out of the screen. Although, the Zen V Plus comes bundled with all sorts of software, one does not need to install any of these and can just get by with Windows Media Player or other third party software to transfer files.

Despite the size of the screen, the photos come out very clean and vibrant. For those who are left handed or simply not used to pressing the play button with the right thumb, one can always configure the menu orientation to be displayed in all four directions.

On the other hand, video playback is simply a novelty factor since it only supports RGB playback (basically playing back video as a stream of jpegs) at 15 frames per second. Also, the codec used for the Zen V Plus is usually 3 times the size of a typical divx file.

To make up for the seemingly unspectacular video performance (although it was expected from its hardware), the FM tuner and microphone as well as the audio truly makes this player shine. The FM tuner is very good in catching signals, unless one is surrounded by thick concrete walls, and has a nice feature in searching for FM channels. The microphone is very useful for making reminders and short notes, but not recommended for studio purposes. The line-in jack might come useful for recording mp3s from other players, but remains untested on my part.

Overall, this player has a lot of bang for the buck. Nonetheless, the battery lasts longer than the prescribed 15 hours depending on video and menu usage.

Another Good Review Source: http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/creative-zen-v-plus/4505-6490_7-31935066.html
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2006/10/creative-zen-v-plus-review.php