Seems Creative has been hiding a surprise up its sleeve. After the disappointing relaunch of the Zen Neeons, the Singapore-based firm has rallied just in time to score a big one this Christmas. And though it's more expensive than the iPod (S$548) at S$598 with the same 30GB capacity, it does come with an adapter unlike the iPod USB power adapter (S$54) which is an optional extra. You do the math.

Design
Looking at the Zen Vision:M (the M likely standing for mobile), we think it rather resembles the newest iPod save for two things: A brand new vertical scroll nestled between four clickable tactile buttons.

	White attack. Click for larger image

We have long lamented that other than Apple's iconic Click Wheel, there are precious few navigation interfaces that can give it a run for the money. No doubt, there's the iRiver D-Click, Toshiba's PlusTouch and the original Vertical Scroll from Creative, but it's a fool who'd admit to being in the same league as the legendary Synaptics creation.

Here, Creative has tried to improve on things by enlarging the surface area of the Vertical Scroll, which certainly makes things easier for large-thumbed users. Vertical motion is smoother and helps to improve selection accuracy. The new Vertical Scroll is also horizontally moveable now; tapping either left or right will move menu selection laterally, though there is no clear indication when this feature can be used. We found it odd that while we could not switch folders while in folder view under the Photos menu, it worked like a "page down" button when in thumbnail view.

Our black model came with blue backlit buttons reminiscent of the Zen Micro. There were those in the CNET Asia team who felt the buttons too stiff to be comfortable, which is probably due to the single piece design of the front faceplate. This is a tradeoff, and we reckon Creative could have taken a leaf out of the iRiver U10's similar but more tactile design.

	Good tactile design. Click for larger image

While the iPod still leads in the looks department, a lot of thought has gone into the design of the Vision:M. We like the matt surface on the player's back which looks hardy enough to withstand minor scratches, though we can't say the same of the unit's front panel which is coated with a shiny plastic surface that attracts fingerprints like moths to a flame.

Like the Zen series, the right-click key is still intact. Its retention means that contextual sub-menus are also retained. Creative has also included a dedicated shortcut key that is configurable to almost any feature in the Vision:M. However, given the myriad of features in the Vision:M, it would have been more helpful if the shortcut button pointed to a "hot list" of features.

There is a nice heft to the Zen Vision:M, though at 18.6mm in girth, it is almost twice as thick as the iPod. We like the Hold/Power switch which glows a cobalt blue when the unit is on. For extended viewing on the Vision:M, its sloping edges make it easier to hold though the thickness of the thing can also result in hand fatigue.

	Vertical gets better. Click for larger image

The screen is the real piece de resistance. Like the iPod, the 2.5-inch display stretches from edge to edge width-wise and doesn't waste player real estate. Its 262,144-pixel LCD turns out very crisp pictures and certainly makes the display look more luscious. It's a good thing that a soft drawstring pouch is included; it would be a mortal sin to scratch a screen that gorgeous. Furthermore, unlike the iPod, the screen brightness can be adjusted for the Zen.

For aesthetics, there are six color themes as well as a changeable wallpaper option. Creative has informed CNET Asia that there are currently no plans to introduce new themes via a firmware upgrade. Though the Zen Vision:M is available in five colors (black, white. green, pink and blue), only the first three will be available in Asia initially, with the other two colors to be released later.

Features
A portable video player is only as useful as the number of video codecs it supports, and clearly, the Vision:M wants to see itself indispensable by including support for all the major codecs currently in the market. What this means is that most of your digitized video content are immediately playable on the unit. However, do take care when encoding your video; we made an initial mistake of encoding a DivX video with an incompatible audio codec (AAC), rendering The Incredibles speechless.

	Five colors. Click for larger image

Like any standard Creative MP3 player, the Vision:M is definitely not short on features. There's FM radio, voice/FM recording, picture viewing and the option to sync Microsoft Outlook data (one way only) as well as output video to an external display. With an extensive list of options, Creative tries to keep user navigation easy by introducing the My Shortcut button. Essentially, this allows the user to jump to a selected menu item from anywhere within the player. We like the fact that we can also modify the associated menu item at any time, though this can be improved by tying the button to a user-defined list rather than just one item.

Similarly, the main menu is also fully customizable. We love being able to add or remove options as we like it. Audiophiles to a fault, we placed music-related items like "rarely heard", "all tracks", "random play all" and "FM radio" on top of the main menu. This feature plays well with users who have a control fetish though it's probably something that we would tweak only once in while.

	The bothersome sync adaptor. Click for larger image

The right click button makes a lot of sense for seasoned Windows users. Contextual sub-menus help to avoid the hassle of trudging back to the main menu just to alter a setting. Creative does well in covering almost all the bases to such an extent that a right click in picture mode will generate a 10-option sub-menu. Yet having said that, Creative did miss a few, such as failing to include the equalizer settings in the music playback submenu.

The inclusion of keyword search on the Vision:M is probably the first we have ever seen on an MP3 player. By typing out the keyword "angel" on the virtual keyboard, the Vision:M found Five For Fighting's Angels and Girlfriends from a 5GB selection of MP3 files. However, we note that the search extends to only within the confines of the menu you are at. For example, if we type in "Five" in the All Tracks menu, the search will be conducted only by song titles and not artist names. Thus the search will not be successful.

	Technicolor glory. Click for larger image

This can be both a blessing and a curse and will depend on the user's needs. Frankly, we remain impressed although it would have been a nice extra if we could alter our Outlook entries with the keyboard, too.

Unlike the iPod which has a password protection feature to prevent unauthorized access, the Vision:M's security precautions extend to only video content. After enabling the four-digit password, user-selected video folders will become invisible till the user enters the proper password again.

For audio tweakers, the Vision:M has eight preset equalizers, a user-defined five-band equalizer plus a bass boost function.

Pictures-wise, Creative's latest offering allows the user to rate pictures and create his own photo playlist by choosing to see only images accorded a certain rating. The Vision:M also has three different viewing modes (thumbnail, list, detail) as well as a zoom view, though the degree of magnification cannot be altered. Listening to music while browsing the photo album is also possible on the unit.

	The M and me. Click for larger image

The iPod allows for a very fast scroll rate when viewing by thumbnails since thumbnail copies of the actual picture are also created during the transfer procedure. There is a small tradeoff for speed as extra hard drive space is used to store the thumbnails. The Zen Vision:M is admittedly a little slower since thumbnails are generated within the player itself, but memory-wise, it's more space-saving.

The Creative MediaSource content manager software is bundled together with an enhanced Windows Explorer interface, with the former for new users who prefer the convenience of an all-in-one program. Though if you are already using Windows Media Player 10, the Vision:M works just as well as the MediaSource software. In a sense, there is no true drag-and-drop functionality for video. You will have to transfer it via any of the three aforementioned avenues. We tried to do the sneaky through Windows' My Computer interface, but both the player and laptop refused to comply.

What's lacking is a ripping software to digitize our DVDs, though on the point of legality, it's doubtful that this shortcoming will be addressed anytime soon. Creative's supplied software does try to help by converting incompatible video formats straight into WMV and there's an option to auto transfer the new video into the Vision:M after conversion. We clocked a time of 32 minutes when we converted a video with a duration of 24 minutes 43 seconds into WMV format.

	You need this to do TV. Click for larger image

We take issue with the Vision:M in terms of connectivity. Unlike the old Zens, the mini USB port and the AC jack are no longer built into the player. Instead, Creative uses a new propriety port that seems to be a clone of the iPod's. An attempt to spark its own cottage industry in Zen accessories perhaps? The task of attaching an external sync adapter every time there is a need to charge the unit or connect it to a computer is an unnecessary inconvenience we would rather do without; not to mention the fact that it's easy to lose.

Another bugaboo with the Zen series of players is that to use the unit as an external hard drive is rather tiresome; first the feature has to be enabled and the capacity set at anything from 512MB to 16GB. That's putting an unnecessary cap and may prove exasperating when you are suddenly in need of 30GB of free hard drive space.

Performance
Since the Zen Vision:M can play both 320 x 240-pixel and 640 x 480-pixel resolution videos, it is capable of outputting to a large external display such as projectors and LCD TVs without any glitches. The Vision:M also lived up to its video format support claims in our lab tests.

However, movies like Kung Fu Hustle did not cut it when viewed under bright sunlight. Reflections from the plastic coating rendered the video a muted dark shade. Animation films fared better due to the emphasis on brighter colors. The Incredibles were perfectly viewable under the same lighting conditions though it's not as brilliant as under room lighting. Pictures also fared well, displaying detailed resolution and a brightness that few portable devices on the market can match.

Transfer speed was a scorching 8MB per second. In our battery life test, using 240MB worth of MP3 files played in a loop, the Vision:M scored 15 hours which was slightly above Creative's 14-hour estimate.

The Vision:M's FM reception was very good. Using the auto scan function in our test location within a high-rise building downtown, the unit managed to capture all the stations within the FM spectrum. The same virtual keyboard mentioned earlier can also be used to rename every one of the 32 preset stations.

In terms of audio, the Zen Vision:M certainly delivered the goods when it came to the base line. The low end was tight and powerful enough without the need to activate the bass booster. For the mids and highs, there was detailed articulation though we felt the sound was a little too clean at times.