Creative Zen Vision is Creative Labs’ latest addition to its highly successful line of portable media players. A 30 GB video player that plays songs, displays photos and video collections. Creative Labs is the well known CES Award winning family which, in May 2006, won the “Red Dot Design Award” for superior design quality, lightweight pocket size and innovation of Zen Vision from Essen Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen, in Germany. Also, in November 2005, he was the winner of “Top 100 Gadgets of 2005” by Gadget Magazine’s Personal Video Player, Indonesia.
Zen Vision has won awards for many reasons, the main one being its ability to enjoy 120 hours of movie projection, based on 500 Kbps MPEG4-SP formats. It is available in a 30 GB model that allows its users more than 15,000 songs and thousands of photos. The recorder allows the user to record their favorite songs live on FM radio or their favorite talk show, as well as being able to record personal notes, lectures or discussions.
Vision has the ability to support many video formats. Some are AVI, DivXTM 4 and 53, XviD4, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4-SP, WMV9, and Motion-JPEG. With so many options available to the consumer, its unrivaled video performance and excellent photography. Considered by many reviews to be the best-designed product in the PMP category: one color available, in addition to magnesium black, is the white magnesium case with a smooth pearlescent finish, with blue backlit controls. The low point seems to be the fact that it’s not made for group viewing, and also the screen, as it’s very reflective, which is a bigger problem when viewing photos rather than videos, since photos are more brighter than the videos.
Something we haven’t touched on yet is the screen size of MP3 players. When deciding between a Creative Zen Vision and the iPod Video, the iPod didn’t change the screen size, why? The iPod is known as the leader in music, not video. While the iPod’s screen is smaller, it seems to be more viewable at multiple angles, while the Creative Zen Vision is better head-on. In general, it depends on the general purpose of why you are buying the MP3 player.
Battery life and power has been a real problem with most MP3 players, and the Zen Vision seems to be on the cusp of further battery evolution. Includes the extended-life Li-ion battery pack for double playtime, which is removable, rechargeable and very lightweight. Users can enjoy up to 26 hours of music, instead of eight or 13, or up to nine hours of video. We can’t look at any MP3 video without comparing it to the iPod versions. So we’ll say the iPod offers 20 hours of battery life for music listening, and the Zen Vision only offers 13 hours. And whenever a company has something “better to offer”, there is always the other side of the coin for the X brand, so Creative Labs has made up for this lack of 7 hours by offering the extended battery pack. Apple? The ball is in your court now!