Creative Introduces Zen Krystal
One of our forum members found something interesting over at Creative's Hong Kong site; a new player called the Zen krystal. It look smore or less like a Stone Plus on its side, featuring what seems to be the same kind of display that the Stone Plus uses. The player looks pretty ordinary, but it does have some tricks up it's sleeve.
The 4GB player (no other capacities available) is a sports player that brings the sports features of the Stone Plus (read: stopwatch) some steps further and integrates a pedometer that tracks your running speed, distance and calories burnt. It's also listed to include several games, which is rather peculiar seeing it has a 0.7" 64x64 monochrome screen. Other than that it has the same basic features as the Stone Plus (hopefully with a better file browser); 10 hours of battery life, stopwatch, radio, clock and voice recorder. Accessory wise it comes with a pouch and wristband on top of the standard earbuds and USB cable, so it should be ready to use for anyone looking for a workout player. Pricing and release date will be known once Creative does an official press release of the thing, which should be soon.
[Creative HK via ABi>> Forums]
Comments
E0157H7 on July 17, 2008 10:19 AM
The guts of it may be identical to all the other tiny screened players like the Stone Plus, but that design is very impressive.
musichound on July 17, 2008 10:59 AM
Rhetorical question: With all the Sports features why in the world didn't they call it the Zen Sport?
JQuilty on July 17, 2008 12:17 PM
Something to better take on the Sansa Clip, methinks? Nice design, but they should fix the navigation quirks the Stone Plus has/had first.
Grahm on July 17, 2008 12:39 PM
agreed, zen sport would have been a good name
dragnandy on July 17, 2008 12:54 PM
the design looks VERY nice. this would work if the sound quality is superb and the build quality is solid.
Jimbo on July 17, 2008 2:40 PM
It looks like it's going to be in the same category as the Sansa Clip. They almost look the same.
Feng on July 17, 2008 7:23 PM
unless creative somehow managed to get their X-Fi chip into that thing (which i seriously doubt) it still isnt a competitor to the sansa clip.
right now, only the X-Fi can possibly compete with the sound chip against the Fuse in terms of features.
the kyrstal does makes me think of a mini Itouch with an oled screen and tactile buttons instead of the touch. concept design does look very nice however.
nywytboy68 on July 18, 2008 4:45 AM
I like the pedometer feature on it - finally a nice little USE ABLE player from Creative.
atrax on July 18, 2008 5:51 AM
Wow, Creative have really nailed a nice design. This may get my back into creative players. Nice!
macilaci457 on July 22, 2008 2:14 PM
I thought it is the new Sansa Clip. It sure would be nicer look for the clip!