Back in July I traded form a pair of one week old unused Zen V Plus
MP3 players, with FM and a michophone
and line inputs. It is a very nice unit. Zero RFI, small and it will
operate for at least 15 hours on an internal
Lithium-ion that is recharged via the USB port. My biggest gripe about
the Zen was the only OS it operates
under is XP. That can be fixed if you are determined enough. It will
operate under Windows 98SE, ME,
and 2000.

It is great for field recordings and is a very nice item.

Sadly there is a snake in the grass. It's OLED display is extremely
fragile. The case has no internal
bracing some any significant 'squeeze" along the long axis can and has
fractured the OLED display.

Creative's warranty is 90 days parts and labor and one year on parts.
They consider a fractured
OLED display to not be a warranty failure and will hit you for labor
and parts. Two of my coworkers
paid around $70 each for repair of this $100 item. Insane. Creative
will not sell individuals the OLED
display. I guess they are afraid someone will try to build something
with it.

I know all of this because my display started failing while it was
under full warranty but I didn't realize
what was happening. Knowing what I now know, I suspect that even it I
had sent it in at that time
I would still be out of luck. Creative's customer support (more like
unsupport) is clueless beyond
belief. During our week long series of correspondences I was
continuously offered products that
had nothing to do with my problem. It took 5 days to finally reach
someone who could just tell
me that "no, we do not sell repair parts". And that Email even tries
to sell me a video phone.


So if your decide to buy a Zen, still a good device, be sure to buy an
extended no fault warranty,
and to baby the Zen and never ever squeeze it very hard.

I suspect and my arm surgeon agrees that because I am trying to use my
left, non dominate,
hand, I simply do not have the fine motor control to not squeeze too
hard. At PT yesterday
I was able to test this theory with the grip meter. And I can not tell
how hard I am squeezing
with my left hand. I judged it to be about 10 LBs when it was over 60.
In spite of my probable
self inflicted damage, the fact that 2 of my coworkers have had units
fail, and that one is an older
lady who treats it like it is made of glass, not a bad idea, suggests
that the Zen has a serious
design flaw. The lack of internal ribs on the plastic case allow too
much flex and since the OLED
is very fragile this leads to display fracture and failure.

One point to keep in mind. Once Creative gets your Email you will
inundated with Email from them.
I have received over 25 emails from them since Monday. Create a
disposable account and do not
use your primary Email!

My unit still plays MP3's just fine. And I can use the dictation
feature with no problem. But with
a dead display it is impossible to navigate to use the line in or to
select a specific music track.

Terry