Creative Zen Vision

Creative’s first portable video player, the Zen Portable Media Center, flopped because it was bulky, expensive, and relied too heavily on PCs running Microsoft’s Media Center operating system. We see a much brighter future for Creative’s newest model, the Zen Vision. Not only is this beauty significantly slimmer than its predecessor, it sports a stunning high-resolution screen for showing off your photos and supports a lot more video formats, all for a price that’s $100 lower. As long as you don’t need direct video recording from your TV, this is the PMP to buy.

The Zen Vision impresses the moment you lay eyes on it. Its sleek charcoal magnesium exterior is cool to the touch (a white version is also available). The Zen Vision’s menu system is easy to navigate, which is something we can’t say about a number of its competitors. The directional pad makes sense and the Zen Vision responds almost instantaneously to your input. Boot-up time, however, could be improved. There’s currently a 28-second delay between when you power up the Zen Vision and when the main menu first appears. We tested a preproduction model; hopefully this will be remedied in the final product.

Like its predecessor, the Zen Vision doesn’t record video directly. With a relatively meager list of current Hollywood movies you can download to portable devices, this means that for now the Zen Vision caters mainly to users who already have a method of recording video digitally on their PC.

The Zen Vision’s star attraction is its gorgeous 3.7-inch SharpPix screen with 640 x 480 resolution and support for 262,144 colors. It sports a shiny coating similar to Sony’s XBRITE or HP’s TruBrite laptop displays. Colors really pop, but black levels were a bit disappointing and glare was a problem depending on the location of light sources in the room.

Its crisp display makes the Zen Vision an ideal portable photo album. A CompactFlash slot transfers images from your digital camera (you’ll need to buy an adapter if your digicam uses a different kind of memory card), which are instantly laid out as thumbnails. Like Creative’s Portable Media Center, you can add music to your slideshows and output them to a TV using the composite TV-out connection.

One of the bonuses of the big screen is a pleasingly simple interface for navigating your music collection (it doesn’t display album art, which is a puzzling omission). The Zen Vision sounds clear and detailed, which is what we’d expect given Creative’s solid line of MP3 players. Because the Vision supports secure WMA files, you’ll be able to take your pick from several online music stores. Creative supplies Zen Vision Media Explorer and MediaSource Organizer software for managing your file library, but you can use Windows Media Player 10 or simply drag and drop content onto the Zen Vision.

The onboard speaker is loud enough for watching a video and doesn’t grate as bad as others we’ve heard, but for real fidelity you’ll want to use the included earbuds. Rounding out the Vision’s audio capabilities is an FM radio/recorder and voice recorder.

Battery life isn’t the Zen Vision’s strong suit. Creative reports that the unit offers up to 13 hours of music playback and 4.5 hours of video, but we only managed 7 hours and 20 minutes on an all-music endurance test (with the screen off). To compensate, Creative offers an optional extended battery pack that doubles its battery life and adds only 0.2 inches of
additional thickness.

Thanks to a ton of improvements, the Creative Zen Vision is one of the best portable media players around. If you want direct video recording, we suggest the Archos AV420 ($449), despite the fact that it has a slightly smaller 3.5-inch display and is 1.5-ounces heavier. If you want to show your digital photos on the go and have a fair amount of video sitting on your hard drive, the Zen Vision’s excellent screen and slim design are well worth the price of admission.