Creative Zen V Plus (2GB)

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Features
The difference between the Zen V and the Zen V Plus is simply that the latter has a video playback feature and FM radio. But the Zen V Plus remains an audio player at heart, so video format support is still limited natively to AVI, and any other formats will require a video conversion via the bundled Creative Media Explorer software.

	Who's smaller?

Features on the Zen V Plus run much the same as Creative's other players. There're FM radio, voice/line-in recording and photo viewing (JPEG). We liked the fact that pictures are represented as thumbnails as opposed to file names, and unlike some other MP3 players we tested out, there was no lag when we skipped from picture to picture. Even a fast-forward through 20 JPEGs produced no noticeable slowdown in performance. However, when we tried zooming in, we experienced a slight lag before we could view the full picture.

We're surprised the Zen V Plus has retained the keyword search feature of the Zen Vision:M. That's a big plus factor when it comes down to searching for a specific song. Given the 1.5-inch screen size, Creative has wisely omitted the virtual keyboard and replaced it with a scroll-down column of letters. Inputting letters is a tad slower than the Zen Vision:M, though. And like the Zen Vision:M, keyword search is limited to the confines of the specific menu that the user is in, not player-wide. So typing in the band name Jealous Sound will not yield any results in the song title field, but it will bear fruit if the search is attempted in the Artist name field.

	Or skinnier?

The Zen V Plus plays nice with Outlook as well. Calendar, task and contact data can be imported into the player though it's a view-only feature; input via the device is not possible.

For audio tweakers, there's a five-band user-defined equalizer and eight presets. More ardent dabblers will love the menu configuration option: It enables the customization of the main menu. Users can add or remove features according to usage frequency.

The Zen Vision and Zen Vision:M were both notorious for their driver installation requirements before a computer would recognize them. The Zen V Plus bears the same temperament. Even using the V Plus as an external storage device requires presetting a storage capacity (128MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 1.5GB) before the player is recognizable as an external drive.

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