Developer: Creative | Product Type: MP3 Player | Price: £249.90 Inc VAT

Creative’s Jukbox Zen is one of the top competing entries to the high-capacity MP3 player market and is considered by many to be a rival contender to Apple’s markedly advertised iPod player. When it comes to advertising one of Apple’s most innovating design ideas, the company has left nothing to chance. The vast marketing campaign of the iPod has spread over various media formats, including television, posters, billboards, music videos and of course the net. Apple sold over 125,000 iPod units in the first two months of the launch. Creative launched their Jukebox player in August 2000, which was one of the first high-capacity MP3 players to enter the European market.

The Jukebox series opened a new era for portable music and was widely recognized for its high-capacity capabilities. Whilst the Jukebox series might not have been the most compact, nor sophisticated looking MP3 player it was still well received by world-wide consumers. The Jukebox Zen, launched in October 2002, saw the arrival of a new compact, yet high-capacity MP3 player, which would appeal more to a wider audience and introduce a competitive edge over rival company’s, hence the arrival of Apple’s iPod.

FEATURES AND SPECIFICATIONS

Creative’s Jukebox Zen NX includes a 30Gig hard drive, which gives consumers the option to store up to 8,000 songs, in either WMA or MP3 format. With its vast storage capacity you may never need to store another song on your PC again! The Zen NX is essentially a mobile hard drive, which enables users to transfer and store other data such as, movies, applications and games. The Zen NX’s PC compatibility and easy to use software interface means consumers can also use the NX as a mobile hard drive. However, such features are also supported by other MP3 players, such as the iPod. Unlike the Zen NX the iPod comes complete with a docking station and firewire support, which enables users to transfer data at much greater speeds.

The Zen NX can provide music lovers with up to 14 hours of playback via its removable, rechargeable lithium-ion battery. The iPod will unfortunately only manage about eight hours of playback, but is said to have a more efficient recharge time of just 1 hour.

Similarly to Creative’s previous MP3 players the Jukebox Zen NX also comes with Creative’s trademark audio effects technology, otherwise known as EAX. EAX has made somewhat of a reputation for itself in the gaming industry and has also been well perceived by music fanatics for its authentic music effects. With the incorporation of EAX effects you can move from environments, such as a Cathedral, Church, Concert Hall or Stadium and if you are imaginative enough you might even think you are there!
Although we feel EAX audio technology seems to work for the PC pretty well we were uncertain if it was a necessity for on the move music listening. Nevertheless, the iPod doesn’t have it and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, is it?!

Utilizing Creative’s MediaSource software enables users to sort and categorize music under individual folders, which makes searching and playing music just as easy as it would be on your PC!

The physical look of the Zen NX appears to portray that of a rather bland and masculine looking device, which is no doubt constituted by its steel and chrome aesthetical approach, which may not necessarily appeal to the opposite sex. Whilst the Zen NX design does conform to a rather plain yet solid look it does, however give off a certain degree of durability, which the iPod player does not. It has been a well known reputation of Apple to coat all their devices in a thick layer of plastic, I guess to make it look futuristic? Or even cheap maybe? Whilst Apple’s futuristic plastic effect may work on some, it can also be misconceived by others, as being quite tacky looking. Don’t get us wrong, we are not saying we don’t like the iPod, we are just saying it looks sh*t.