Read Part I
Creative Zen Vision W
I absolutely loved my Creative Zen Vision. It had the best of multiple worlds. A hi-res widescreen for watching video and browsing photos, lots of storage that not only stored all of my media, but also served as a back up hard drive. If I had not lost it at an ASCAP Members' meeting in New York, I'd still have this amazing device today.
What made the Creative Zen Vision W great...
30/60 GB HDD: With a choice of either 30GB or 60GB HDD variants, Creative covered all grounds by giving you enough internal storage for your media and they did all of this plus include an external storage option via Compact Flash. It didn't hurt that Windows recognized the Creative Zen Vision W as an external hard drive; very nice bonus.
Removable Storage: Support for Compact Flash II made it easy for me to transfer my pictures from my Canon Powershot to my Zen without the need for USB while also giving me a valid external storage option.
Large LCD Screen: 4.3" widescreen in 2006 was colossal compared to Apple's iPod Video which had a 2.5" screen. The Zen Vision W's screen was bright, crisp and back-lit.
Multi-Codec Audio/Video Playback: Playback support for video formats such as; AVI, WMV9, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4-SP, MJPEG, DivX4.x/ 5.x, and XviD-SP and audio formats such as; MP3, WMA, WAV, Audible, and Protected WMA made this a perfect
companion device.
FM Tuner: Any device that came with a built-in radio antenna was a winner with me. Other devices required accessories that basically nullified the portability factor.
What needed improvement...
Menu Navigation: Menu navigation was too involved for my tastes. It took too many clicks to get necessary options.
Bulk: Granted, at the time, the price point for manageable flash storage would have made this device beyond expensive; however, the size was still pretty big. Compared to the iPod and Creative's other offerings the Zen Vision W was massive and heavy. Considering it's size, it is interesting that I still managed to lose it at an ASCAP Membership Meeting.
Content Partnerships: I know that at the time the Zen Vision W debuted, content providers were not readily entering into agreements unless your name was Apple or Microsoft; however, it would have been nice to have access to content from big players like Universal or Sony.
Consensus: I honestly loved this device. I used it on a regular basis for watching videos, listening to music, viewing pictures, and most importantly, backing up my files. I was literally walking around with a backup external HDD. Due to technological limitations of the time, the Zen Vision W was enormous and bulky; however a lot of its features made up for it.
My rating, based on what was available at the time is a 3/5. The menu navigation had too much drill down and the search functionality could have been better, but all in all, I would still recommend the Creative Zen Vision W now as much as I did when I originally had it.
-ES
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What made the Creative Zen Vision W great...
30/60 GB HDD: With a choice of either 30GB or 60GB HDD variants, Creative covered all grounds by giving you enough internal storage for your media and they did all of this plus include an external storage option via Compact Flash. It didn't hurt that Windows recognized the Creative Zen Vision W as an external hard drive; very nice bonus.
Removable Storage: Support for Compact Flash II made it easy for me to transfer my pictures from my Canon Powershot to my Zen without the need for USB while also giving me a valid external storage option.
Large LCD Screen: 4.3" widescreen in 2006 was colossal compared to Apple's iPod Video which had a 2.5" screen. The Zen Vision W's screen was bright, crisp and back-lit.
Multi-Codec Audio/Video Playback: Playback support for video formats such as; AVI, WMV9, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4-SP, MJPEG, DivX4.x/ 5.x, and XviD-SP and audio formats such as; MP3, WMA, WAV, Audible, and Protected WMA made this a perfect
companion device.
FM Tuner: Any device that came with a built-in radio antenna was a winner with me. Other devices required accessories that basically nullified the portability factor.
What needed improvement...
Menu Navigation: Menu navigation was too involved for my tastes. It took too many clicks to get necessary options.
Bulk: Granted, at the time, the price point for manageable flash storage would have made this device beyond expensive; however, the size was still pretty big. Compared to the iPod and Creative's other offerings the Zen Vision W was massive and heavy. Considering it's size, it is interesting that I still managed to lose it at an ASCAP Membership Meeting.
Content Partnerships: I know that at the time the Zen Vision W debuted, content providers were not readily entering into agreements unless your name was Apple or Microsoft; however, it would have been nice to have access to content from big players like Universal or Sony.
Consensus: I honestly loved this device. I used it on a regular basis for watching videos, listening to music, viewing pictures, and most importantly, backing up my files. I was literally walking around with a backup external HDD. Due to technological limitations of the time, the Zen Vision W was enormous and bulky; however a lot of its features made up for it.
My rating, based on what was available at the time is a 3/5. The menu navigation had too much drill down and the search functionality could have been better, but all in all, I would still recommend the Creative Zen Vision W now as much as I did when I originally had it.
-ES
Follow me:
twitter.com/edmundstarbanks
facebook.com/edmundstarbanks