Minimum Tempo

This article was originally published on Arrogantics.com. June 1, 2007.

The Creative ZEN Stone is Creative’s latest effort in the MP3 market. This new player is obviously targeting the iPod Shuffle in terms of price and functionality. Unfortunately for Apple, the ZEN Stone sells at $39.99, half of the Shuffle’s price. There’s always SanDisk’s Sansa Express which puts both the Shuffle and Stone to shame, but the ZEN Stone offers a lot in such a small package.

Inside of the ZEN Stone package is the player itself, a pair of headphones, a quick start guide, warranty information, and a ridiculously short USB cable. Don’t expect a case or anything; this is all you’re getting. There are other accessories available for purchase: an armband, a keychain, and a case with clip. Creative will sell a custom TravelSound for the Stone starting in July.

The ZEN Stone has a sleek, shiny surface that comes in black, white, pink, blue, red, and green. The rounded edges give the player a look similar to a smooth river stone. The Stone’s material seemed scratch resistant, but my player ended up with a large amount of scratches on the back after a week of use.

The main controls are well placed, although people with bigger hands may experience minor difficulty. The volume controls are located at the top and bottom of a circle at the front of the player, and the previous/next track controls are located on the left and right of the circle. The play/pause button is in the center. At the very left side of the front is an LED that blinks green, orange, or red lights to indicate battery life and data transfers. On top of the player are the standard 3.5mm headphone port; a switch for Folder Skip (more on this later), normal play, and shuffle play; and a small hole for resetting the player. The USB port is located at the bottom of the player. A useful addition on the left side of the player is a place to connect a lanyard for easy carrying.

Music playback is nice, provided you get better headphones. The included headphones do a decent job, but I would have gladly paid a few extra dollars for better headphones. There are no custom equalizers, but the Stone does fine without them. The ZEN Stone plays your songs in alphabetical order, but you can organize your songs in folders. The function of Folder Skip mentioned earlier is to skip folders. The Stone can play MP3s, WMAs, Audible files, and protected WMAs (no subscription-based music files). To transfer files, you can use Creative’s free downloadable MediaSource Lite, Windows Media Player, or some other similar software to synchronize your player with your media library. You can also transfer songs manually dragging and dropping via Windows Explorer. Unfortunately, there is a file limit of 1,000 files.

(Verdict:) The ZEN Stone is a nice piece of hardware. It may not have much in terms of features, such as a screen or FM tuner, but it’s nice as a secondary MP3 player. Once higher-quality headphones are obtained, the Stone’s sound capabilities truly shine. The lack of a standard AC adapter and the low battery life (a promised 10 hours) are the main diminishing points, but the positives seem to outweigh the negatives. At a mere $39.99, the Shuffle doesn’t seem worth it.

Rating: 4/5

This post is tagged Creative Zen Stone, Hardware, Review, Technology

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