Creative Zen V 2GB review

Creative's latest Zen MP3 player comes in one of two models.

The Zen V reviewed here plays MP3 and WMA audio files and can display JPEG images on its colour screen, while the Zen V Plus can also play back video files, has an FM radio and costs around £10 more. At £110 including VAT, this 2GB model is about £10 less than the equivalent iPod Nano.

The Zen V is about the size of a Zippo cigarette lighter, but weighs much less. It has a similar menu system to Creative's other recent players, but uses a joystick for navigation rather than a touch-sensitive bar. This would be an improvement if the stick was bigger, but we found it hard to use accurately.

Two other buttons on the front control playback and navigate through the menu system. We sometimes found that pressing one activated the other. Creative supplies a drawstring pouch to protect the player's shiny finish from scratches, but it's about twice as big as necessary.

Both versions of the Zen V support protected WMA files bought online, or from subscription sites such as Napster To Go. Creative's software bundle contains some useful programs for creating and managing audio files, but the player appears to Windows as an MTP device, so its contents can be updated with Windows Explorer or Media Player. Copying files across in this way was slow, taking just over seven minutes to transfer 500MB of MP3 and WMA files.

For such a compact player, the Zen V has a big screen. It has wide viewing angles, but a lower resolution than players such as iRiver's U10 reviewed in our MP3 player Labs test in Shopper June 2006. Onscreen text is blocky and photos don't look particularly impressive.

We've seen the Zen V's headphones bundled with most of Creative's players. They look all right, but their drivers are deeper than normal and they feel thick and uncomfortable in the ear. The headphones have a fair amount of bass, but don't produce detailed or clear music. The player sounded good through other headphones we tried, though.

The Zen V looks neat and has a respectable battery life, but the iPod Nano is better in most respects. We would still recommend the 2GB version of Sandisk's Sansa e260, which costs £10 less, plays video and sounds better.