Creative Zen Vision:M Takes Best of CES

By the Betanews Staff | Published January 9, 2006, 1:04 PM

Creative's iPod clone took top honors at CES this year, winning Best of CES in the MP3 and Portable Video category, and the overall Best in Show award. It marked the fourth consecutive year that one of the company's products won an award. The Zen Vision:M boasts a 30GB capacity and retails for $329 USD.

"This is the most powerful endorsement one can have in our industry and it is a reaffirmation of our strategy to provide the coolest-looking, most feature-rich portable media players," Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo said. The award was given by technology Web site CNET.

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"Creative's iPod clone took top honors at CES this year,"
The iPod is a crappy clone of the Zen.

"All I have to say is...if you've never seen the Zen Vision:M in person, than you should not judge it or compare it to the iPod."
I've never seen the Vision:M, but I own a Zen Touch... can someone tell me the differences :)

"Anyone have one of these? How do they compare to the 30GB iPods?"
They don't cost as much :P and work on more systems/don't require iTunes installed.

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Four consecutive years of "Best in Show" for Creative. Wow.

03: some keyboard thing
04: Zen Micro
05: Zen Micro Photo
06: Zen Vision: M

But they still can't beat the almighty iPod.

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All I have to say is...if you've never seen the Zen Vision:M in person, than you should not judge it or compare it to the iPod.

The Vision:M's screen is excellent. It actually has 4 x the colors than that of the iPod, which makes is more vivid and bright.

In regards to the interface, it is very intuitive and easy to use. If you can turn on a tv and change the chanels, there's no way you'll be confused about using the Zen Vision:M. Creative actually holds the patent for the menu system that the iPod uses, so it's actually Apple who is cloning what Creative owns the rights to.
The battery life is actually 4 hours for video and 14 hours for audio, 2 more hours than what the iPod 5G offers.

Hope that cleared up some of your misconceptions of the Zen Vision:M, which you have never even seen in person.

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For thos too lazy to google: http://www.creative.com/products/mp3/zenvisionm/

Anyone have one of these? How do they compare to the 30GB iPods?

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I havent used the Zen player, but its interface sure looks a lot harder to use than those of the iPods I've used. Plus, I like how the iPods look more than I like the look of the Zens. All the arrow buttons on the Zen also look confusing. And look, they even cloned Apple's interface. And imitation is the greatest form of flattery. I have no idea of battery life on the zen, or video quality on the zen, but I do know video quality on the iPod is excellent. I say go to BestBuy (or wherever) and fiddle with them first before you buy, though.

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ok, before you say anything about the zen,(which it kills the sh**y ipods) look at the specs. creative is going to be seuing ipod, because they took their battery, menu, video, and pic menu idea. Zen has 254,000 colors, and the ipod video only has a, wow, just a whoping 65,000 colors. the zen has way better sound quality, and i have a zen micro, and it is very very easy to use compared to an ipod. the battery life on an ipod video is only 12 hours and 2 hours of video, on the zen its 14 hours and 4 hours of video. now i ask you, which one is better, and arent you a jackass for judging a book by its cover?

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