Creative Zen Vision M 30GB Black MP3 Player Reviews

The Zen Vision:M entered the market pitted against Apple's enormously popular iPod. I initially opted for the Vision:M as it was slightly cheaper for the same capacity and I didn't want to become dependant on Apple's iTunes software. It was one of the better decisions of my life.

The Zen Vision:M excels at everything it does. It's 2.5" screen displays videos in vibrant and immersive colour while album art is also displayed next to the songs that is playing, something which, while simple, makes the whole experience seem somehow better. A variety of themes is also available allowing you to change the colour scheme and background to your choice.

The best part of the Vision:M however is not the display. It is the sound. This simply defies belief. You get rich, deep bass and clear, crisp highs even using the headphones out of the box (which I am still using a year and a half on). The Zen supports high quality and even lossless audio to make the experience even better. It also has a range of different equaliser settings allowing you to change dynamics depending on what type of music you are listening to. One small criticism is that the Vision:M does not support gapless playback.

The interface is very easy to get used to and can be customised to remove options you don't use frequently. One of the buttons can also be set as a shortcut button to skip to your most frequently used feature. The buttons are intuitively laid out and the whole thing has a solid feel to it. My main criticism is that Creative have used a plastic material for the screen and this scratches very easily. Screen protectors can be bought though (the Vision:M comes with one already attached) which will remedy this problem though.

The Vision:M is slightly thicker than the iPod and a tad heavier but looks beautiful and works even better. It can be used to store and display photos and videos and it has an inbuilt radio which is very clear. The Vision:M runs for a very long time off a single charge: up to 14 hours if it is just playing music. The player supports high-speed USB which means your entire music library can be transferred in a very short time.

Overall the Zen Vision:M is a brilliant mp3 player. It's battery life outstrips that of it's competitors and audio quality is excellent. Coming down in price but still one of the best players on the market today.