A Fabulous Device. Review on Creative Zen Vision W

I have been using the Creative Zen Vision W for the past 8 months. I bought it from Germany in May 2007 and I must admit that this is the most versatile portable media device I have seen.

I had long wished to buy a portable media device. I began researching pros and cons of the media players available then. Finally, I had to choose between the Video iPod and the Zen Vision W.

No doubt the iPod has the best music quality, but I was disappointed with the size of the screen. Even the yet to be launched iPhone had a smaller screen and lesser memory for the same cost.

There are several additional features of the Vision W that attracted me the most. It comes with a 4.3" widescreen display. It has the facility to directly transfer media from a Compact Flash through a slot located on its periphery. But you'll need to buy a 5 in 1 or a 7 in 1 adapter to connect a micro or MMC or SD card. It has an A/V output, so you can directly connect the player to your TV and watch movies without compromising on the sound or video quality. The Vision W supports a gamut of video formats compared to other players(MPEG1/2/4-SP, XviD, DivX 4 and 5, AVI, MJPEG and WMV9).  Also, the Vision W comes with an AC adapter to charge the  device almost anywhere. The iPod needs a computer to charge or a separate adaptor has to be purchased with it. The Vision W also has an inbuilt mono speaker, although the output of  a Sony Ericcson Walkman phone might be louder. Another feature I liked about this device is the ability to configure a part of its memory as a removable disk. This can be directly set through the player and can then act as a normal USB removable device, although media such transferred cannot be viewed or played on the player. Thus, there is no need to keep on installing the software to transfer media from guest computers. But you'll need to transfer the media using the software from your own computer, in order to view it on the player. It is also equipped with an FM radio. But the quality is not as good as the quality of its mp3 audio.

The music quality is comparable to the iPod, if not equal. The earplugs are quite good. Creative certainly has a good reputation when it comes to quality of sound in their media players. I had already tried a Creative MP3 player earlier and found the sound quality considerably good.

As pointed out by an earlier reviewer, the Vision W looks better in reality than in the pictures. Its navigation buttons are easy to manipulate. Video and images are crystal clear and look good from narrow angles too. The battery life can be rated decent to good. I can easily watch 2 movies back to back without needing a recharge. The audio can play for upto 12-14 hours on a full charge. The feature I like the most is the A/V output. This virtually eliminates the need of a DVD player. Any movie of photo or slideshow you want to play on a big screen can simply be stored on the Vision W and played on the TV. The audio/video quality is not affected a bit. This way, even when I am travelling, I store movies and carry a charger and the A/V cable. Wherever I find a TV and spare time, I can simply watch a movie on the TV or listen to music through the TV speakers.

I have only a few only grievances about the device. The device's size is too big to easily fit it into a jeans pocket. The device is bulky and heavier than the iPod. You must also have XP service pack installed on your computer in order to install and run the software. Using the software is pretty simple though. Its just like a virtual windows explorer and the video conversion software comes with the installation itself. Any incompatible format can be automatically be converted to a compatible one. You can also set the resolution and bit rate depending on the quality you want. The conversion time required can be too long at times though. Apart from that, I dont think there are any other negatives from my point of view.

The Zen Vision W 30GB and Video iPod 80GB are priced almost in the same range. The 30GB Vision W is sufficient for me to store 15-20 movies and thousands of photos and songs. Considering so many versatile features of this device over the iPod and the comfort of enjoying media at any place, I have not once regretted not buying an iPod. The Vision W continues to gratify my senses all the time.