Creative Labs ZEN Touch 20gb Review

Overall Rating

Solid build.
Great battery life.
Decent file management software.
Very good sound quality.
Overall value for money.

Touch sensitive navigation pad is very sensitive.
Rubbish belt pouch.
Poor headphones.

I have owned my MP3 player (the 40Gb version) for some 18 months now, and I still love it. In fact, I can't imagine being without it.

I have read reviews complaining of "freezing" with their product, but I have yet to have any problem at all with my Creative Labs Zen Touch MP3 player.

It is heavier than the infamous Apple brand, but boy is it solid. Mine has a few dents (mainly from early experiments of trying to use the belt pouch, before I discovered how easily that item became unattached from your belt), but still it works perfectly, and not a scratch on the screen.

I have half filled my 40Gb capacity, and this has resulted in the start up time taking a "massive" 15 seconds or so.

Battery life is great. I have never tried to see if it reaches the claimed 24 hours, but certainly I use it every day and generally recharge it once a week or so. When I bought mine the mains adaptor was standard (I presume it still is) or you can charge it via USB.

The proprietary file management/ripping software has proved very reliable for me. Drag and drop. Hard to get it wrong. In fact, I tend to use the media player within the software for playing any MP3 material on my laptop, because I find it more reliable than WMP.

The headphones are poor. Switch to something like the Sennheiser C300 as a basic pair and you won't regret it.

It has equalizer facilities as well as various preset alternatives. However, once I had some good headphones I found the standard flat setting provided the best sound, which I guess, speaks well for the overall integrity of the sound it is producing.

Navigation is simple enough. However, I have to agree with anyone who says the navigation slider is over sensitive, even on its least sensitive setting. This is only really noticeable when you are seeking to scroll up or down just 1 notch. On the other hand, it is amazingly reliable and brilliant for zipping through long play lists. As well as the navigation slider there are 6 buttons (3 per side) and a central "OK" button - all very responsive and solidly made.

Setting up of personal playlists is easy-peasy.

It has a variety of play modes - normal, repeat track, repeat all, shuffle, shuffle repeat and play track once.

It is true that, like any non Apple MP3 player, it does not have the wide variety of add-ons available. However, I have connected my player to a set of HK Soundsticks through the headphone socket, and although it does not look as sexy as an iPod connected to a Bose Sound dock, the sound quality bears worthy comparison, and you are saving about £150. Similarly, there are many decent FM transmitters out there that it can hook up with to give you the perfect equivalent of the iTrip.

Overall, it does everything I want. It does it very well. And, after 18 months, it is continuing to do it all perfectly. Now that isn't bad!