wooaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh..... its beautiful.....
lol, im really excited about this....

would have been way better if it had a bigger screen, annoying 2,5 (4:3) inch screen. It sucks watching widescreen movies on such a screen.

If it has good battery life then I might want this over the iriver clix2.

If it comes out in September I will probably be able to get it in the USA before the 8gb clix2 and its 16gb whooohooo.

I think Creative is getting crappy with mp3 players!!

:(

i guess this is good for those who like the zen v but wanted something for high capacity video...but the navigation is like...bleh. i have a zen vision w and i almost wish they had put something like the zen vision m's navigation strip.

someone seems to be worried about the clix2 me thinks...

but will wait for the review...creative is pretty solid, so will think this might just do well...unfortunately for iriver...

Looks to be better than the clix (16gb, expandable memory). It be easier if I loved creative more than iriver or vise versa but sadly I love them both.

This comes out next month according to amazon and has 25hours of battery life. The menus look nice and clean like the clix2. I can live with the buttons over d-click.

The zen might come out before the USA clix2 8gb so it will most likely be the zen for me.

Specs have been updated at epizenter. It has 25 hours of battery life, 5 hours for video, Plays back AAC files, along with divx, xvid, and so forth.

This player is great for those who loves their creative players but has been hoping for one with higher capacity and support for iTunes Plus tracks!!

It has support for iTunes Tracks...

And someone mentioned the screen is smalll...
.The Player aint meant totally for Movie watching.

the screen res is same as the vision M .. which In most people's opinion is perfect for movies at times.

over that..
It's available in 16 GB!
and.. it has 16.7 Million!! Colors !!!

A Wiiiiiiiiide range of Codecs support.

and better Software (Firmware wise).

and Its soo sleek :D

Small Wonder for sure !

Check EpiZENter.net for more details.

whoops, my bad didn't see the expandable memory option, that's always the clincher for me...

and I just ordered my 8gb clix too...*sigh* what bad timing...

is the m going to get a new iteration or is this the only thing creative is churning out?

damn you creative!!! you should've came out with this a month earlier

seeing the videos i can say this...i like the new interface. and the fact that the buttons are that big is COOL.

Epizenter never saw a 2.5" screen with 24bit colors before? Well they sure missed out on the Cowon D2 then...

a gorgeous player with low price tag 299 is still good imo for 16 gigs.. ;) im REALLY digging the improved GUI and cool little transition effects + aac + SDHC+ most video codecs like other creative players + 24 bit screen+ fabulous price.

I have to ask one thing... why no flac or ogg support?? They're free and have been around for so long, and 16GB would be perfect for putting high quality flacs!

Also, add e-book, and 10 band EQ and it would be perfect.

dfktm I know fully well about the D2. In fact i have experience with it. If you actually read the post I said the following: "That is the highest amount of colors I've seen for a 2.5" display" Also if you were aware, this statement is not wrong. The Cowon D2 has 16 million colors, while the ZEN has 16.7 Million.

Thanks for coming out :)

Michael
epIZENter.net

Just to add to that since it came off a bit rude, I'm simply basing this on what Cowon wrote on their product page. They simply say "16 Million colors" so that's the basis I used for it. Whether they're just saying 16 million when it's really 16.7 like the ZEN, I'm not sure. It could be since it's 24-bit. Based on the comparison of specs I said this player had more colors. Simple as that. Assuming the D2 has 16.7 million colors, I will change it.

Thanks :)

Michael
epiZENter.net

24 bits per pixel => 2^24 = 16777216 possible combinations of color

It seems like someone slept in the math classes!

Totally getting this; was going to get the Cowon D2, but I think this is smaller, and as cool as some of the D2 features are, I really want Audible support and the 8 GB memory without expansion.

Thanks, Creative!

(and thanks for reporting it)

Certainly a very nice player and a new direction for Creative.. SD(HC) would be a major plus for this player... sadly no A/V-out unless some docking attachment is offered providing such..

For those of you D2 owners..a question... Would you consider the D2 primarily an audio-centric or a video-centric player? I'd guess vid.. though I am aware of Cowon's SQ advantages.. it seems the control issues in regards to audio playback (primarily) would be something of a disadvantage.

Seems to me this new Zen is more of an audio-centric device, though obviously it affords very decent video codec support.

Looks awesome, I've always complained that if creative removed the LED lights they would have a lot less thickness + EVEN MORE battery life. My brother would say "ZVM is fat" and I would respond, thats only because an ipod video has no led, no tactical buttons, and is flattened down to use the minimum when it comes to material.
This Zen will kill the ipod, because it now supports itunes- the primary reason why ipod users don't want to switch to another brand.
And Kill the Zune, because why would anyone trade 1 song at a time that only lasts for 3 plays when you can transfer LIBRARIES AT A TIME. You can take anyone's SD card stick it in your Zen and sap out all the songs that you like, then delete the ones you don't like, because you can actually do that with a Zen.
Truly outstanding, creative has sacrificed a little bit of it's uniqueness for less size as well as added features and a more dominating place in the mp3 player market.
Buyers should still wait for creative to increase capacity- I predict they will, just like they doubled the V-Plus max capacity.
BTW... QUESTIONS:
Gapless playback? - Y/N
Removable Disk? - Y/N
Can you listen to tracks on your SD card as if they were in junction with your library on the actual device?

I love xvid/Divx support, but Creative ought to think about adding Support for H264, then Podcasts, and content already encoded for Ipods wold work.

Toss up between this and the new Samsung YP-P2. The Samsung will have Bluetooth, but no SD. I guess the price will determine which one I pick up.

Too bad sound quality of all the creative stuff sucks compared to iAudio and iRiver, else I would have gotten this. :P

@qwerty.. That's a rather bold statement, considering we haven't even heard the audio playback of this new Zen yet..

@Xanatos... I agree, the P2 with SDHC slot/support would have been an almost un-beatable combination. Bluetooth may not matter to some, but it will be a big deciding factor for me, though lack of expandability does dampen the desire just a bit.. and Sammy has demanded a premium price on their players of late.

Should be an interesting match between the Zen, the P2 and whatever Apple shows on Sept. 5th....

well the booting up of the player is abit slow , but the screen is fantastic, currently they only available in 4GB and 8GB the 16 is coming soon.

DonDon, about your statement on the Zen supporting iTunes, which will reel in iPod users, the Zen only supports iTunes Plus tracks, which are the unprotected kind that cost a premium $1.29, so people who have purchased regular iTunes tracks will not be able to transfer those.

Michael, you obviously don't understand these things - and yes, you came off rude.

May I recommend this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_depth

16bit = 65536 colors (iPod)
18bit = 262144 colors (ZVM)
24bit = 16777216 colors (D2, Zen)

There are no displays with 23.613bit color depth, or something along these lines. Also, most companies use "64000/65000 colors" to market their 16bit displays. Most companies round these numbers, since it's useless to spell them out to the last digit. Same as with the Gigabyte vs. Gibibyte debate, etc.

Thanks for the clarification. But you say I'm rude. Do you not think there was a nicer way to say something like this:

"Epizenter never saw a 2.5" screen with 24bit colors before? Well they sure missed out on the Cowon D2 then..."

It was a simple mistake based on what Cowon wrote on their site (I saw it said 16 million of there and didn't see 24-bit till after). That does not mean I never saw the D2 does it? If you knew I'm the editor there and at DAPreview then why would you write something in such a rude saracastic way? You talk about me coming here and apparently nitpicking ABi (which is completely false btw) yet you're the first to do it. I suggest you listen to your own advice next time.

Thanks,

Michael

Why all the hostility lately?
Both of you guys have great opinions and provide excellent reviews.
At this point we are seeing some exciting players being announced by several companies. I'm sure we all will be awaiting the usual great write-ups and opinions you both always provide.
Many Thanks to both of you for work above and beyond the usual bias provided on lesser sites. :)

now that i've seen more pics of the Fabulous Gui/Screen/player, im in love with it!

Would like a complete new GUI, the one on pretty much all the previous zen's sucked.
Had a muvo a few years back and that never froze up on me ever, let alone delete it's entire library just to to piss me off, or other 'stability issues'...

my third zen micro is dieing on me as we speak :s so I would like a flash based non-crash able creative player again...PLEASE!

if all seems well I'll probably just buy the 4 gig one with an 8 gig sd card (sells now for about 70 bucks) ...as for the future:
http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2007/08/23/toshiba_unleash_1.html

hoping the prices will drop like mad.

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! After all the looking and then the purchase of the Creative Zen V plus, they come out with this! I have been waiting for something like this and to my knowledge Sandisk is the only one who had one. I chose Creative though as I have had very good luck with there products and I really like the interfaces, etc. DAMN! Now I have to figure out some way to get this one now!

Im debating which mp3 player to get, can someone help...
I use video often although not as much as music so I need a good sounding mp3 player with good video.... The price is no matterI am debating between the Zen, the possible Samsung yp-t10, and the insignia pilot.
My common sense screams to get the zen but i had a bad experience with a zen vision m. likewise, my sense screams to throw out the inisgnia idea but i have had a good experience with a previous insignia....
Im not sure about samsung but i like the layout and build although i understand its not so great for video....Will someone help me make a decision... thx

all right now I need some help I am looking to buy an mp3 player but I dont know which one I know that I want something that is at least 4 GB, Can do Video, can work with rhapsody, and is $150 or under. I have researched a lot of mp3 players but cant decide does anybody have any suggestions.

16 GB plus 16 GB SDHC - dreamland!! I only wished it had BT!

16 GB plus 16 GB SDHC - dreamland!! I only wished it had BT! Also anyone know if the battery is removable??

I think this new Zen and the new Samsung w/touch screen and Bluetooth are awesome!

This is better than iriver audio wise. In fact creative is the best with sound quality. this is an awesome player. On Amazon it is $249... folks... pre-order it there. I just did. and to heck with apple. they suck. and i don't want touch screen anything. I don't want to be cleaning the screen or scratching it. this is a great wonderful player!