So you want a stylish MP3 player that doesn't cost the earth, you want Ipod chic without that Apple size dent in your wallet, does the creative labs Jukebox Zen offer the solution or just a compromise?

Finally Creative have moved the Zen range away from mimicking a CD player as most of us now know what MP3 is, in fact the Zen is now quite a stylish number in sleek silver with large LCD screen and this little baby contains a large 60gb disk. That equates to 16,000 tracks or as the device can double as a removable hard drive it can hold 60gb of anything which is more than a lot of PC's on the market.

That's not all that's super size about the Zen, the battery life dwarfs the Ipod giving a good 14hrs of replay per charge of the lithium Ion battery which doesn't suffer the memory effect and can be replaced without having to go back to creative unlike its apple counterpart. The files can be transferred to the Zen using USB 2.0 for a fast download although the connection is USB 1.1 compatible so it will work on any PC with a port. The Media source software supplied by creative is ok but not as good as Music match supplied with the Ipod but there are many other software options that are compatible with the Zen and include plug ins to enable you to synchronise easily although you can just drag and drop to the devices drive.

Audio reproduction is good although the bass is a little weak in the supplied headphones, but as with nearly all MP3 players available a separate purchase of headphones is advisable to make the most of their capabilities, the inbuilt equalizer on the Zen does its job but is a bit gimmicky, quite why you would want to listen to your music in a "bathroom" style is beyond us but its great with the EQ switched out of circuit. The user interface is intuitive enough giving a good navigation of artist / album etc and the jog dial while not quite Apple quality serves its purpose and makes for a quick efficient method of control.

Is the Zen an Ipod beater? well on all the points above it comes second with perhaps the exception of battery life, however what you get for the money with the Zen really is the trump card, as the Zen Jukebox gives you change from a 40gb Ipod and man many more features to boot, looks like creative have done just enough to win the battle.

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