Creative Labs ZEN Touch 20gb Review

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Creative Labs ZEN Touch 20gb
3.7 stars
Average rating for this product is: 3.7 out of 5

From 5 ratings and 34 reviews

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platinum's Review of Creative Labs ZEN Touch 20gb MP3 Player

17th Apr 2006

Overall Rating

0 stars
  • Value for money
    0 stars
  • Sound Quality
    4 stars
  • Features
    2.5 stars
  • Time MP3 Player Owned
    6 - 12 Months
  • Battery Life
    4 stars
  • Memory
    20Gb
Good Points

Memory size, battery life


Bad Points

Software, being a hard-drive it will jump


General Comments

The first 6 months of Creative Labs Zen Touch ownership were reasonably problem free, apart from the touch pad, which you'll either love or hate and the track ordering:- tracks are not always stored in the correct order in the Creative Media Source player (the media player/download manager which runs on your computer). When using this player on my pc, I had to play tracks in time recorded order to overcome this. Also noticed that synchronizing the computer with the mp3 player produced errors when trying to update several albums at the same time. Workaround:- download albums one by one to the mp3 player.

After about 6 months, I did a synchronization between pc and mp3 player and discovered that several albums had lost tracks, which now appeared as albums (with just one track!). Decided to visit Creative's website to download the latest version of the CMS player. After 45 minutes my computer was still "hung". Had to abort and then discovered that the CMS player didn't work at all. Deleted off/uninstalled all Creative software and tried to reinstall from original disk, however, this wouldn't work either. Re-visited their website to discover that if you try to download the latest version of the CMS player, you cannot ever reinstall the original.

Had a bit of "bun-fight" with their customer service dept., but after I threatened legal action, they have agreed to replace both the mp3 player and all software.

I have worked with computers for over 20 years and have designed some very complex systems, used by multi-national companies round the world and am not a novice in these matters. It strikes me that by their offer to replace my product, they acknowledge that they have a problem with their software, although they have not admitted this.

Also, I had to do several "techie" things to sort out my computer, as amongst other things, my cd drive failed to work.

Not sure I can be bothered to pursue their offer of a replacement as I have already expended considerable time on their deficient software and, as my business rate is £100 per hour - I'm sure you get the picture!

I regret to say, but having heard other friends' problems with iPod, my general advice would be to steer clear of American companies. Samsung mp3 players seem to have no detractors, so will maybe try them next.

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