Creative Zen Stone MP3 player

If you never consider an MP3 unless it comes with a screen...then stop reading now. But if, on the other hand, you may be interested in a highly portable, cheaper version of the second gen iPod Shuffle, walk this way. The Zen Stone from Creative really does just what it says on the tin – it plays audio tracks and stores …

[Anonymous Coward]

Creative CEO: "Even the cheap, cheap Chinese brand today has display and has FM."

Shortly after Apple announced its iPod shuffle, Creative's CEO Sim Wong Hoo had this to say about it:

"We're expecting a good fight but they're coming out with something that's five generations older. It's our first generation MuVo One product feature, without display, just have a (shuffle feature). We had that — that's a four-year-old product. So I think the whole industry will just laugh at it, because the flash people — it's worse than the cheapest Chinese player. Even the cheap, cheap Chinese brand today has display and has FM. They don't have this kind of thing, and they expect to come out with a fight; I think it's a non-starter to begin with."

So now, 6 months later, Creative come out with their own iPod shuffle-clone, flash-based MP3 player with no screen or FM...

Will they be expecting "the whole industry to laugh at it" too?

[Adrian Jones]

I've just read this twice

Where is the capacity of this player mentioned?

OK, I know that at £20 it isn't going to be much, but surely it's a fairly important part of a review?

[Chris Wilson]

Price discrepancy

I note from the Creative product page that if you follow the link to pre-order, these are actually £28 and *not* £20 as stated in the article.

Not having a screen isn't necessarily a problem, especially on a music player with 1Gb of storage, in fact it's a plus for the more casual music listener as it means the product is cheaper and the battery life will be longer.

[Anonymous Coward]

RE: I've just read this twice

Goto page one of review, search for "1GB of storage".

Now pls tell me if the USB connection is a standard mini-B or whether it is via a non-standard cable which I'll loose within an hour...

[Scott Snowden, Reviews Editor]

USB connection and pricing...

Thanks for highlighting those points...

The connection is mini USB (1.1/2.0)...and the pricing was based on information given to us at the time of publication...but as is often the case, that can quickly change. So we'll look into exactly how much this MP3 player is being made available for and update the price information as soon as possible.

[Robert Grant]

What *does* it say on the tin?

"The Zen Stone from Creative really does just what it says on the tin – it plays audio tracks and stores digital media."

How on earth did you get all that from "Zen Stone"?

[Ishkandar]

It's simply Zen

Robert Grant,

It's simply the art of Zen; a bit like getting blood from a stone !!

[Anonymous Coward]

Another Lithium Ion battery paperweight...

I don't care how long the battery life is on a Li-ion player - when it's flat you're stuffed if away from your PC or other recharger, and when the battery dies it's game over. I have two mp3 players now, both taking standard batteries. Any manufacturer that markets devices with embedded non-user-replaceable batteries now should really know better - "design classic" or not. Hardly environmentally-friendly, eh? Why has no-one used widely available mobile phone cells for mp3 players? Apart, of course, from media-playing mobile phones...

Much as I like Creative's cards, this looks like something Gillian McKeith would wrinkle her nose over...

[Ryan Stewart]

are you really complaining about a battery on something the size of a matchbook?

Seriously? I mean the whole point of this is to make it stupid small so people who dont care about media players can have something to wear while running. People like me.

Id rather not have to go find and shell out much $$ for watch batteries every time my shuffle needs some juice.

This has a couple advantages over the shuffle. I hate the dock setup of the shuffle, a simple cable allowing a dumb interface (not needing itunes) to charge it would be great since there are countless ways to charge over USB now.

Also the folders is big for me. I would love to be able to put 30 or so songs in folders based on type of music so I could change what I wanted to listen to without having to reload my ipod. I know you can fit a bunch of songs on the ipod I just dont like the idea of having to search through 140 songs just to find a certain artist.

Im tempted to get this and let my girlfriend have the shuffle but since she gave it to me as a gift I should probably keep it.

Please, Jobs, do a flash update allowing folders to keep me out of the doghouse.