Creative Zen Stone Plus Review
Shortly after Creative released its screenless Shuffle competitor, the Zen Stone, they upped the ante and released the Zen Stone Plus. For around thirty dollars more, the Stone Plus added a screen and a few fairly standard MP3 player features such as an FM radio, voice recording, and a stopwatch.
The Plus has some good things going for it such as a nice build quality, decent sound quality, and a nice set of features for the price. When comes down to it however, the Stone Plus is a bit of a disappointment—due mainly to its awkward interface and basic music browsing techniques.
- Quick Look
- Capacity: 2GB
- Battery Life/ Playtime: Up to 9.5 hours
- Display: 64x64 pixel Blue OLED Display
- Size: 55.6 x 35.4 x 12.8 mm
- Weight: 21g
- File Support: MP3, WMA, Audible, WAV (IMA-ADPCM 8kHz, 4-bit mono)
- Transfer Protocol: MSC
- Other Features: FM Radio, Stopwatch, Voice Recording
Accessories
Inside the box you will find the absolute basics: the player, earbuds, USB cable, and quick start guide (which pretty much tells you to go to Creative’s site and download the Media Lite and manual). There are a few official accessories for the Stone Plus from Creative such as an armband, wrist band, key chain, and skin. They also make portable speakers especially for the Stone/Stone Plus, appropriately called the TravelSound Zen Stone.
Design
Like most of Creative’s players, the design is well built. I always like to describe the build quality as a “well built toy” -- plastic all around but still very sturdy. The surface is similar to others in the Zen line up, such as Zen V, whereas it is an ultra glossy hard plastic finish. It is more scratch resistant than most players but still will mar when in constant contact with hard surfaces or objects.
The button tolerances are what would be expected from Creative. They depress nicely with a firm soft click and feel as though they will last for quite some time.
Screen
The screen is nice and bright and very readable in normal lighting condition. Once you step outside into a bright sunny day, the screen becomes difficult to read.
Transferring Media
The Zen Stone Plus is a Mass Storage Class (MSC) device, meaning that it will work just a USB flash drive in any modern OS (Windows XP/Vista, Linux, Mac). Loading music onto the player is a simple drag and drop operation. Furthermore, since it is an MSC device, data can be stored on it as well. Music can be thrown on there in folders or just in the root. Later, in the Audio section, I’ll address how they play back. Compared to other devices in its class, it’s very slow with regards to the transfer rate -- around 1MB/s.
Software
The Zen Stone Plus works with Creative Media Lite which is a basic transfer and device management piece of software. The software lets you transfer music though a very basic interface. It’s basic to the point where it is easier to open up the Stone as a storage drive and drag and drop. I would recommend avoiding the software to transfer music to the Stone.
The software will also allow you to format the device as well as rip CDs directly to the Stone, but, you cannot change the bitrate or file format. Media Lite will only rip to 128kbps MP3s.
There are a few features that require the Creative Media Lite software. There is a volume limiting feature that can be set and locked only with the software. To update your firmware you will need to use the software; you’ll also need it in order to transfer over WMDRM 9 content.
Additionally, if you’d like to use Audible files on your Zen Stone Plus you’ll have to download the Audible Manager from Creative’s website.
Interface
The interface on the Zen Stone Plus is not like Creative’s easy-to-use Zen interfaces found on its other players; it’s awkward, unintuitive and may take some time getting used to. Even after a few days of use I still find myself struggling with the navigation of features and music. To add insult to injury, the interface lags when music is playing.
The directional pad along with the center button handles almost all of the work. Pressing the center button in most of the modes will get you to the horizontal menu screen. Pressing and holding the center button will bring up the option screen for whatever mode you are in. One of the frustrating aspect of the interface is there is no back button. To escape out of a menu you have to scroll to the bottom of the list to press Cancel. You can’t even press up to go to the last menu item which is always Cancel.
There are also two other buttons on the top: the pause/play/power and a shortcut button. The pause/play/power button does just that but works other features like radio mode toggle and stopwatch start and stop. The shortcut button can be programmed to toggle between music and FM, activate microphone, activate stopwatch, and show date and time.
Audio
Playback
There are a few modes in which you can determine the order music is played: Normal (plays all music on the player starting with the root and going though each folder alphabetically), Repeat All (like Normal, but will start over when all are played), Repeat Track (keeps playing the same track), Repeat Folder (keeps playing the tracks in one folder), Track Once (plays track once and stops), Shuffle Repeat (shuffles all music and will not stop), Shuffle Once (shuffles all song, but will only play them one time then stop), Shuffle Folder (shuffles songs in a folder).
Browsing Music
Browsing music is a very basic file folder method. You cannot browse by hierarchical file folder structures. When music is placed on the Stone it will show up in the browser as “Root” and then as the names of the folders you put on the player, even if it is a folder within a folder. In other words, it just creates a master list of all folders on the player containing music regardless as to how they are nested within each other. If a folder contains no music but houses other folders that do, only those folders holding tracts will be listed in the music browser. If I lost you, take a look at this diagram..
I really don’t know why Creative made it this way, but I really think this ruined the overall functionality of the player. They should have taken the time to do a full file folder AND track browser.
Sound Quality
Sound quality is good, clear, and on the warm side, but on the other hand it lacks a bit of power. It will work just fine for the majority of earbuds, IEMs, and lower end headphones; it won’t, however, drive more demanding headphones as can be expected due to its small size.
I did an A/B comparison to another player in its class, the Sansa Express. I found the express to be brighter whereas the Stone Plus sounded warmer, as I had previously mentioned. I don’t think it’s fair to call one better than the other, rather it’s just a matter of personal preference.
Sound Enhancements
The Stone has a custom 5-Band EQ which is always a welcome feature, but I found it to be a little less responsive than usual. It still works well -- I’m just being picky. Other than the 5-Band, there is also a bass boost setting that will give you a little more lower end.
Features
FM Radio
The FM tuner allows you to store up to 32 presets and also has an autoscan function that will fill those presets with the strongest stations. The FM radio can be switched between step tuning, where you can manually find a station with the forward and back button, or setting it so the forward and back button flips through the preset station.
The performance of the radio was pretty weak even using the supplied earbuds. It could only find a few of the strongest local stations.
Voice Recording
Voice recording is a nice little feature to have to take quick voice notes. It may or may not fare well in a lecture recording environment. It will really depend on the room and position of the speaker. Even though I have not tested this environment I would lean toward its not working as well, based on a few tests around the house and its low quality WAV recording. You may struggle to decipher the speaker’s words during playback.
Stop Watch
There is a very basic stop watch that will record a single time in hours, minutes, seconds, and hundredths of a second. Starting and stopping is handled by the pause/play button. Resetting the clock is handled by going into the options and selecting reset.
Conclusion
First I would like to say I am a fan of Creative’s Zen line of MP3 players. Although they have their issues and deficiencies like any MP3 player, overall they are a solid product line. The Zen Stone Plus has some good things going for it such as MSC data transfer, solid build quality, a nice design, and a decent set of features in a small package. However, personally, the Stone Plus disappointed me.
There are two main reasons why the Zen Stone Plus was a disappointment. The interface is awkward and music browsing is not full featured like other players in its class. These displeasures are further complicated by a lagging interface and slow data transfer rates.
While I wouldn’t call this an absolute “Don’t Buy”, it is one of the more inexpensive players with 2GB of memory. You can find comparable players around its price range with better interfaces and more of a feature set.
If you are looking for a full fledged Zen player at $10-$20 more you should really check out the Zen V Plus.
Pros
- Solid Build
- Small form factor
- Nice selection of optional accessories
- MSC (any OS)
Cons
- Awkward interface
- Cannot browse individual songs
- Lagging interface when music is playing
- Poor FM reception
Comments
Alex M on July 14, 2007 8:51 PM
Not bad the screen is good to have. The battery life sux to me and why would they even bother showing the zen wav? lol
iamtheworld on July 14, 2007 9:57 PM
good review, i think the zen v plus is a better investment tho, almost the same size, and you get a real screen....
whats with the zen wav? when r we gonna get a review for that?
Dan on July 15, 2007 3:14 AM
Damn! And I already ordered the Stone plus, too... perhaps I should've gotten the 2GB Zen V Plus? We'll see...
James on July 15, 2007 11:36 AM
Thanks for the good review. I think Zen Stone Plus is going for about $70 at a few places and that doesn't seem like a good deal seeing how the screenless Stone is half that much.
romy on July 15, 2007 12:30 PM
You lucky dogs, you've already scored the wav! I hope that review is coming soon.
David Myers on July 16, 2007 8:03 AM
hey, just so you know, there IS a 'shuffle folder' option - it's right above 'normal' in the option list. :)
EnzoTen on July 16, 2007 9:09 AM
wow... how did i miss that... thanks david... =)
creative addict on July 19, 2007 12:54 PM
this is a great detailed review. Thank you so much sparing time.
Michael Cox on July 19, 2007 1:08 PM
I have one question - does the Stone Plus fit in the liettle speaker gadget that's made for the Stone? The Stone Plus looks a little bigger.
Michael Cox on July 19, 2007 1:22 PM
Never mind, a little research answered the question, it's the other way around - the travelsound fits the Stone Plus but will also work with the Stone.
elsborg on July 25, 2007 9:48 AM
how do you switch from folder to folder?
Steve R. on July 28, 2007 7:36 PM
I have the original stone and I love it, but I think the plus moves into a price and feature range where there are better choices.
Varuna on August 3, 2007 7:09 AM
WOA....
I see a Zen Wav You guys got!!
PLs PLs PLs
Give us a review or a walk through of that !!
Varuna on August 3, 2007 7:10 AM
Nice Review of the Plus btw. !!
c-sar on August 3, 2007 12:29 PM
I read the review. Agree with most of it, except for the conclusion. It's small form factor, loud sound and large storage are perfect for me. I like it a lot.
Sam on August 10, 2007 10:13 PM
Im having trouble adding music to my Stone Plus. I want to be able to browse by Artist so ive added the tracks to the player inside their arist folder. eg
ACDC
L Thunderstruck.mp3
Aerosmith
L I dont wanna miss a thing.mp3
etc
So far i hve added 150 or so artists, however only 119 are showing up when i browse on the player, even though when i look in My Computer > G: Zen Stone Plus, the missing Artists (that dont appear when i browe in the player) are present in the Microsoft Explorer view, same with the Creative Media Lite screen...
Anyone else having similar issues? How's eveyone else organising their music?
feb on August 27, 2007 1:26 PM
Anyone had any problems with freezing?
Or, to put it the other way - does it freeze at all?
Or any problems with the player itself? I mean, not with songs org
Another question - when a track is played, does the screen display the title of the track or its name? Thx a lot)
frank on August 31, 2007 6:54 AM
Will not boot, was also have charging problems. After 6-7 charges it started showing battery level at one marker - after 6 hour charge. Needs attention of Creatives repair crew asap.
dingo698 on September 14, 2007 4:19 AM
frank, you'll have to re-format the Zen again, don't charge it for more than 2 hours at a time.
Nola on November 25, 2007 9:30 PM
I'm torn between the Sansa Clip and the Zen Stone Plus. Which would you recommend? In the review I was confused as to if the Zen Stone Plus has an external volume control feature or not. Does it?? Thanks so much!
Rob on December 2, 2007 3:33 PM
I love the look and feel of the thing but can't get it to work! I did the first charge on each of the 2 I've had for 3 hours or so. I loaded the software but then things start to go wrong. I haven't been able to load any music and my PC hangs after it has been connected for half an hour or so. I end up having to disconnect and start again. Anyone else had issues like this?
wei seong on December 11, 2007 7:40 AM
someone pls e-mail me..
why some of my song don't appear in the player even when i check in window it is inside the the player.. pls tell me
is this a problem or i need to re organize?
Lou on January 8, 2008 7:20 PM
I've only had the Zen Stone a week.
I've lost the LCD display screen. It still plays music, but no display.
Any help much appreciated.
Thank you
Shane on January 16, 2008 7:34 AM
What a terrible buy that was, I got the zen stone plus, it worked(sometimes) in the very beginning and even then would shut itself down, or just stop playing after 10-30seconds if it doesnt crash before that and turn beethoven into techno, it even randomly boots itself after randomly shutting itself down!
so now when I put on music, it will start playing, but I know it will only play for a few seconds so I quickly browse through some music folders and if it doesnt hang there, it will hang anyway when I put on the next track. so, then it's crashed, and the little blue light still flashes once in a while but other than that, no life. I try to switch it on, nothing. then when I finally give up on it, and put it back on the table the critters' screen will amazingly light up asif by magic about 1 second after I put it on the table. tempting me to pick it up and go around the rollercoaster again. wich I did a few times over.
so all in all. not only does it just not work, it intuitively annoys poeple. It is, By far, THE worst mp3 player I have EVER layed my hands on. my old 20 euro mp3 player just whoops the fancy shmancy zen stone's ass.
...Ok it's got a nice shape, but so does the floater I just flushed.
GRRRRRR!!!
Carla on January 22, 2008 10:22 PM
soo i got the ZEN V PLUS for my b-daY but apperently it froze
soo i pressed the reset button
but now it won't turn on and a few days ago it told me i had problems with the firmware and apperently i have to download it back into the zen but i don't know how.
SOMEONE HELP!!!!
Jennifer on February 10, 2008 7:55 AM
I hate this thing. I just bought it for my vacation and the stupid thing won't even turn on. I plug it into my computer and i can upload music but as soon as i unplug the usb, it won't do anyting. The display doesn't light up none of the buttons do anything. What a giant waste of my time and money. I dont have time to exchange it now and by the time I get back from my holiday I probably won't be able to return it. Does anyone want a tiny pink piece of junk?!?!?!
andrew on March 2, 2008 1:54 PM
Ihave the same problem. This was a gift for achild, who threw away all the packaging and didn't say anything about it not working for months -too late to return it, but it has never worked at all. Unless plugged in to the computer it has no life.
Piece of junk!!!!!
pete on March 5, 2008 12:33 AM
Got mine working. After a few days of using mine it shut down and wouldnt light up even when hooked up to the comp, and i was pissed. After looking on the net i found that it needs specific software and when i installed that it started working. Apparantly it thought the battery was charging, which wasn't, and it needed its own program and new firmware to do that. Try the actual software if it doesn't work. It's on the Creative website.
oc on April 19, 2008 5:15 PM
i had the nano before and you were able to organise the tracks in a folder to play in a certain order, how do i do this with the zen stone? now when i add on tracks they all go to the end of the list of tracks in the folder i can't move them around. soo annoying, serves me right for buying it cos it was pink!
Jordan on April 23, 2008 4:30 AM
I recently ran into the problem of my creative stone plus not being able to turn on. It seems for the past few days every time i plugged it in to charge it would ask me to sync up the time/date with my computer and i just hit "yes" every time. The menu said the battery was charging or had a 100% but that wasn't true because i couldn't even turn the player on!
While trying random things to solve my problem, the next time i hooked it up to my computer and it asked me to sync the time/date with my computer i hit "no" and sure enough my computer finally recognized the device properly and showed that it had 0% batter life and began charging for real.
...so that solved my problem, hopefully my simple solution will help others.
And if it's of any concern i did not reset my player nor did i re-install any firmware.
james on April 27, 2008 12:46 PM
just got mine and here's some of my issues:
- sloooow
- charging is weird. it says that when it blinks, it should have like a full charge but when i turned it on, it has 1 bar charge. i charged it first time for 3 hours btw.
- it doesn't save my settings! whenever i turned it off, all of the settings i changed will just reset. presets, date/time, etc. wth?!
james on April 27, 2008 12:47 PM
just got mine and here's some of my issues:
- sloooow
- charging is weird. it says that when it blinks, it should have like a full charge but when i turned it on, it has 1 bar charge. i charged it first time for 3 hours btw.
- it doesn't save my settings! whenever i turned it off, all of the settings i changed will just reset. presets, date/time, etc. wth?!
chilukapalli on May 9, 2008 4:17 AM
I am charging zen stone plus thro usb. but in the media lite the battery indicator showing always 21% charging and no more charging and charging indicator is blinking. It is not 100% charging what is the problem can any body find out...... and assist me.