Over at Digital Life I had a chance to play with the new Creative Zen Micro 5GB MP3 player, and I was impressed.
In my eyes it takes a lot to beat the iPod mini but the Zen Micro is in with a chance: it has the same small size but solid feel as the iPod mini and I'm tempted to say that after a few minutes use the navigation with the vertical scroll pad seems better than using the mini (why go round in a circle on the mini to scroll down a list when you can just scroll down on the Zen Micro).
I also like the way that the Zen Micro has a removable battery with a battery life that should be about 50% longer than the mini.
Tech specs of the Zen Micro and 5 hands-on photos are below.
(apologies for the blurring on a couple of photos: the industrial design of Creative's stand played havoc with the flash on my camera and I had to turn it off).
Specifications:
Size WxHxD: 2" x 3.3" x 0.7" / 51mm x 84mm x 19mm
Weight: 108g / 3.8oz with removable battery
Capacity: 5GB
Battery Life: Up to 12 hours of continuous playtime with removable lithium ion rechargeable battery
Song Capacity: 166 hours or 2500 songs at 64kbps WMA. 83 hours or 1250 songs at 128kbps MP3.
Interface: USB 2.0 (backward compatible with USB 1.1)
Audio Support: MPEG Audio Layer 3 (MP3), Windows Media™ Audio (WMA) and WAV
Signal-to-Noise Ratio: up to 98dB
Display: 160x104 pixel resolution, Blue LED backlit LCD
Package Contents:
ZEN MICRO player
High Fidelity earphones
Wired remote control
2 Li-Ion rechargeable batteries
Power adapter
USB 2.0 cable
Belt-clip and stand
Pouch
Neck Strap
QuickStart guide
Installation CD
it's ugly, and needs drivers, no UMS. paperweight
is there a FM transmitter so you can listen 2 the micro in the car through the radio....please emial me pimptyte13@yahoo.com