Tom’s Reviews / Zen Nano Plus MP3 Player

I bought my Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB MP3 Player as a replacement for my first MP3 player, an Encross Enterprise WaveX TS300 256 MB MP3/WMA Player (FM, Voice Recorder). I bought both of these for similar reasons and both were excellent buys especially given the price. The Zen Nano Plus has more memory than the similarly priced 512 MB iPod Shuffle and added features the iPod lacks. All three products have a small size and lightweight, which is a plus. The Zen’s flat shape is an improvement over the odd round shape of the WaveX, which felt odd riding in a pocket, couldn’t clip easily to a belt and didn’t fit in spaces where the slimmer Zen fits fine. In the package I bought, the Zen came with both a belt (or pocket or belt loop) clip and an armband.

Some of the features of the Zen Nano Plus that attracted me were its easy use for non-music files and its wide compatibility with MP3,WMA and other audio formats. (It is compatible with the Windows PlaysforSure standard). I was also interested in a player that functioned as a digital voice recorder, as I wanted to produce WAV files for use with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 Preferred Speech Recognition. The WaveX and Zen Nano Plus both have a digital voice recorder with built in microphone. The Zen added an important feature with a Line-in port that I can attach to a cheaper digital voice recorder with no PC hookup to copy MP3 files indirectly to the PC. Unfortunately I will have to go that route for most purposes, as the Zen doesn’t have a microphone jack and I am mostly interested in recording notes using a clip-on mike while driving, working, etc. Anytime that I have time to go to the trouble of switching the Zen to record mode and holding it to my mouth, I have time to simply pop out my ever present Moleskine and jot a note.

Which leads me to the other negative shared by the Zen and the WaveX: navigation. Both these players feature the same combination button/switch for navigating through many menus and file folders. There’s a certain knack that I just can’t quite get for pressing the button then moving it side to side or moving it then pressing it or pressing, releasing and moving it to get a single button to perform a variety of functions. For the Gameboy generation this may work great, but I’m an elder of 36, used to multibutton combinations (remember the three finger salute?) and perfectly content with them. As it stands now, I mostly press play and occasionally fiddle with the button hoping I’ll happen onto what I want. Unfortunately this drawback seems very common with companies attempting to simplify the 1/2 ounce, multigigabyte MP3 player, so its not unique to the Zen by any means and the Zen is otherwise an excellent device.

It includes an FM tuner and you can record from FM. I wish it was AM so I could record my favorite talk radio shows, but no one is offering that, probably because MP3 players are so geared to music fans.

Here is a partial feature list:

PlaysforSure
Compatible with:
- MTV’s Urge
- Rhapsody
- Yahoo!
- MSN Music
- MusicMatch
- MusicNow
- Napster
- Wal-Mart Music Downloads
FM tuner
voice recording
FM recording
line-in encoding
high-speed USB 2.0 connectivity
Drive mode
1.32 x 2.58 x 0.51 inches
weighs 0.8 ounces (without battery)