The device in question is the all new Creative Zen V Plus MP3 player, the unit that is set to take on Apples Nano at its own game. In this part of the MP3 player market looks are oh so important and so our first impressions of the Zen V Plus were critical.

Sliding the small player out of the protective pouch was a nervous moment, but one where nerves were replaced by a small scrum to handle the stunning little player. Creative have done a great job on both miniaturising the device but also making it achingly attractive, it reminds us of the bigger Creative Vision :M in its overall black curved shape but that's where the similarity ends as the smaller 43.5 x 67.5 x 15.9 mm 43 gram device is tiny compared to big bro.

On paper and in the hand it does feel bigger than the Nano and it is considerably thicker 15.9 mm V's 6.9mm and it's wider too, but it doesn't seem to matter too much as the character of the Zen V Plus is more of a tomboy a chubby cheeky unit. Three brash colours make it seem more fun that the more austere Nano with the central joystick nub and a slither of case available in orange, blue or green.

The 1.5 inch 128 x 128 pixel  OLED screen is very impressive too, power up and you are greeted by the latest variant of the excellent Creative user interface which is perhaps not as industry leading as the iPod but is more than capable. Driving the menu system soon becomes second nature with the bright and clear colour screen and with a mere flick of the thumb on the mobile phone like joystick, although a tad small it does have the advantage of not requiring a repetitive action to scroll through long lists.

We were impressed with the audio reproduction of the Creative Zen V Plus, the small unit has a big sound when used either with the rather cheap supplied earphones or with our Shure E2C's. Audio level is very loud, no issues with EU sound restrictions here and no distortion or hiss either just a nice clean well balanced sound which is as good as the encoded files you load it with.

Video playback looks good on the OLED screen but it is a small screen and only really suitable for watching music videos as opposed to movies. Almost all tracks need running through creative's transcode software and we managed to convert a range of WM9 and MPEG files. The screen rotates its orientation through 360 degrees which is useful, meaning you can choose the best angle for viewing either portrait or landscape.

Loading the Plus is no real chore, we opted to try and push a few tracks over using the explorer software provided by Creative, this works well but only as well as Windows media player 10 which we assume most users will opt for. Windows media player has come on leaps and bounds and is becoming more than a rival for iTunes and it has the added benefit of supporting many more devices the the Apple software.

The Zen VPlus ships in 3 variants a 1gb, 2gb and range topper 4gb model, storing and playing MP3, WMA and WAV files for audio and Creative's own video format (transcode software provided). So it should be able to handle most things thrown at it, a shame to see that Ogg Vorbis is still missing from the list but hardly surprising. Unlike the minimalist iPod which you have to bolt on extra widgets the Creative units always feature all the extras as standard and the V Plus is not about to buck the trend. Here we get a full 32 preset FM radio, direct line in encoding to WMA format from the 3.5mm line in jack, a voice recorder and the now customary JPEG viewer.

Battery life from the lithium Ion unit is a stated 15 hours in audio replay mode, which is on a par with the iPod Nano and the Zen charges from the supplied USB cable when connected to a USB powered bus on a PC or Mac. In our tests the V Plus was still playing at 18 hours so we have to assume that the Creatives figures were either at a higher bit rate or deliberately underestimated?

Up against the iRiver Clix we played with a few weeks back the Zen V Plus is a worthy contender which feels a bit more toy like. Perhaps the only edge that the Clix has over this model is the ease of operation with the unique screen corner controls of the Clix. However the price difference between the two means its far more likely you'll opt for the cute if chubby Zen V Plus.

Priced at £150 for the 4gb model and a shade under the £100 mark for the 2gb model it undercuts the Nano by at least £20 at each price point, not bad considering you get much more for your money too!

Should Apple be worried? well in a word yes, either we are set to see the price of the Nano tumble or Apple will have to launch a V2 Nano soon with some of the features that the Zen V Plus has in abundance. Apple cannot rely on its brand image to sustain such a price difference and lack of features, for us right now the Zen V Plus and iRiver Clix look like the contenders for your MP3 pound.

Published - 13/08/2006

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