The Zen Vision W is the latest PMP to join the Zen vision range and the W stands for Wide screen which is obvious when you break the Zen from its packaging. This is not a small player and is a monster compared to the Archos it measures 75 (h) x 134 (w) x 26mm (d) and weighs 276 grams which we would have to call chunky. Despite some effort with black and silver finishes the overall impression is of plastic and not very nice plastic at that.

The main selling point has to be the large 4.3" LCD screen 16:9 Widescreen which has a native resolution of 480 x 272 pixels which again disappointed us a little, yes it is a big and bright screen with good colour reproduction but the resolution isn't matched to the aspect ratio meaning pixels look stretched. Video replay is smooth and accomplished on the pre loaded files and the resolution is ok for the kind of action contained in these clips, we'll see how it does with our encoded samples later. Perhaps the most annoying part of the basic Zen Vision W is the lack of any form of stand to hold the unit at the correct angle to watch.

With the Zen W quickly finding ways to turn us off we decide to test the plethora of Codecs supported by the Creative PMP in the hope that this would redeem it somewhat and stop the chaps moaning about the chunky design features. Creative say that the W supports MPEG1/2/4, DivX, XviD and WMV video formats and MP3, WMA, and WMA with Digital Rights Management (DRM) audio formats with JPEG (JPG) for pictures. Our first test was to push some of the same WMV files we tested the Archos units with over to the Zen.

Transfer to the 30gb hard disk within the Zen W is rapid due to the use of USB 2.0, true to the spec the ripped fast and the furious video was soon sat ready to play on the unit and appeared with a thumbnail and metadata when browsing via the Creative interface. A single click and the movie started with the much improved mono speaker providing the audio although for any form of quality audio you'll need to use a set of headphones via the 3.5mm jack.

The movie had been encoded at 1Mbps WMV and played smoothly with no obvious pauses or data stutters, the screen did an OK job of colour reproduction and coping with the often extreme movement of the cars. There is noticeable colour blurring and when the decoder cannot cope it seems to smooth the image leading to what can only be described as mush.  Audio sounded very good and managed to capture the power of the original soundtrack. WE had less luck with MPEG-2 files of which only a few would play but this is more likely to be caused by different headers as the more standard .mpg seemed to work as opposed some of the AVI files. The DivX files again proved to be more of a mixed bag with a few test files we had refusing to play but some downloaded samples playing without issue and looking pretty fine for such low bit rates. A real improvement over the earlier standard Vision unit is the angle of acceptance you can view at, the older vision needed to be watched dead straight on where as this improved screen means you can watch at almost 45 degrees.

Audio playback is far more reliable and all the suggested formats were indeed supported and sounded pretty good too when using a set of Shure E2C's plugged up to the Zen W, WMA with DRM encryption worked fine meaning you can use files from Napster and other Windows flavoured download stores, sadly no support for Apples ACC format so iTunes will remain off limits. Getting media over is very easy and we used WM10 and the Zen appeared as a mobile device making easy work of moving a whole library, there is also Creative Media Explorer and ZENCast Organizer to help should you decide against using windows media player. This also allows for some transcoding of Video formats which as a last ditch method may help if your video is already encoded in QuickTime or other video formats.

The Creative Zen Vision W only comes in one model in the UK with a 30gb disk, this should be good to hold around 10,000 audio tracks (MP3, 128kbps) or 60 hours of 1Mbps encoded video. There is no TV recording cradle as an option so you really are looking at downloads or encoding video on a PC (running XP) to fill up your Vision. This may be an oversight that costs Creative as most of the competition offer a DVR cradle as an option.

Extras are a plenty with the Vision W, you get an FM radio, photo viewer and transfer tool, voice recorder and some basic PIM functions with an ability to sync with Microsoft outlook. The Photo viewing is enhanced by an optional 5 in 1 memory card reader which plugs into the CF card slot on the Zen. This lets you transfer photos from a digital camera and to view them full screen on the Vision W or if you connect up AV leads from the unit to a TV or LCD screen.

Battery life is critical to these devices and video playback with a large screen can be a real killer even for a lithium Ion battery such as the one in this unit. Our tests proved that Creative may let you down here with just over 12 hours of audio replay which is poor compared to most MP3 players and then a 4 hour video replay time barely enough for 2 videos and not even a full transatlantic flight. Perhaps a saving grace is that the battery is swappable so you could buy a second one.

The overall user experience is good, Creative have been at this game for some time and a bit like Apple and Nokia they know what works and gently refine it for each release. The menus are simple and intuitive with good iconised lists and a nifty sidebar which allows you to quickly scan through the stored media in multiple search modes. The 4 way pad to the right of the screen is a little small and our stubby fingers occasionally slid of the keys but this is not really a showstopper. The navigation and menu system is very Windows like which did result in the manual staying in its wrapper for the whole of our review period, this is normally a good sign.

Priced at around £230 the Creative Zen Vision W shows how far PMP's have come to try and attract MP3 player owners to upgrade, this is after all the price point that the 30gb iPod used to occupy. Perhaps the biggest barrier to owning one of these units is the size and quality, it is a big unit and won't sit in your pocket like an iPod does or for that matter the smaller Archos units. Despite trying to like it we still lacked that sense of wanting one mainly due to the choice of materials (mostly plastic) and the so so video quality when stretched to fill the large screen.

All the features that the Zen Vision W offers may well tempt some of you, however we would recommend checking out the Archos 604 first to be sure that you can make the compromise on build quality.

Published - 28/01/2007

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