[Andy A.]

Personally, I love my Creative Zen.

I got a deal on the 40gig model at best buy because it was an opened package. Turns out the firmware was corrupted, and best buy never bothered to check it. I popped online, updated the firmware and was good to go. Yeah for opened packages and big discounts.

It's slightly larger then an ipod, has a large blue backlit screen and, in my view, looks great. I like the jog lever interface, although some friends who own ipods detest it. I guess it depends on which you use first. Button placement feels natural and easy for me. Battery life weighs in at around 9 hours, depending on which effects I have turned on. After a year of daily use, the battery is still going strong, although it is easy to replace if I need to. Sound quality absolutely blows ipods away, even ipod owners have admitted it. Personally, I can't tell the difference between the two most of the time, but it's nice to know it is there. It will also play various formats, like ogg vorbis, if your into that kind of thing. Playlist creation on the fly is a snap compared to ipods, and the music library feature is well organized and sortable.

My one gripe is with the software it ships with. It's pretty clunky. I've considered buying a 3rd party version that is supposedly 10 times better, but I haven't gotten around to it. Considering how I think they got the player spot on, I can forgive the clunky PC interface.

Expect to pay around $250 for a 40 gig model.

-Andy A.