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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from CNET Asia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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The Micro vs the Mini
By Edvarcl Heng
22/11/2004 URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/musicplay/0,39050461,39202169,00.htm The iPod Mini has, in a sense, opened up the micro hard drive player market with a vividly successful run that had undoubtedly contributed to its dominance of the same market that it has helped created. And it is not as if the Mini has not had its fair share of competition from other manufacturers. Even though the list of challengers from other companies such as Creative and Aiwa which have tried and failed grows longer with every quarter, it is only inevitable that someone would come up with a viable alternative that can potentially knock the Mini off its Lilliputian throne. In a far cry from its usual boxy designs, Creative's Zen Micro is the Singapore-based company's latest effort to break the stranglehold that Apple has on the hard drive player market. And with Creative actively trumpeting the Zen Micro as the only real bane for the iPod Mini, we decided to pit the two in a shootout to find out whether the Micro is indeed a true winner or just a wash-out.
Bout 1: Sizing them up
On the weighing scales, the iPod Mini clocks in at a lighter 104g as compared to the 108g for the Micro, however we doubt that anyone is going to notice an extra 4g unless they happen to be the same fairy-tale princess who can feel a pea beneath ten mattresses.
We feel that the Micro is overall more pocket friendly than the Mini, with its shorter height and lack of sharp corners. It is also easier to slot into our pockets with its curvier contours than the angular edge of the iPod Mini. That said, we cannot deny the beauty of the Mini's metallic body which confers a slick designer chic that the Micro's plasticky body can never hope to match. We also find that the Mini's body is more scratch resistant than the Micro. Despite a push toward a neater button layout in the Micro, the Mini still claims the user interface prize with its innovative ClickWheel which removes much of the clutter inherent with dedicated buttons.
Both players employ a similar LED backlight display; however the white LED employed by the Mini is still decidedly cleaner than the pale blue LED used by the Micro. In terms of screen size, the iPod edges out the Zen a little here with a display size of 31 x 24mm compared to 31 x 19mm. So despite a big improvement from Creative, the iPod Mini still maintains its pole position as a designer icon.
However, as we examine beneath the surface, the Micro does lack in some respects to the Mini too. Though we do not bemoan the lack of games in the Micro (which we hardly played in the Mini anyways); the Micro should have allowed us to use all 5GB of its hard drive for storage. Instead the user is limited up to only a maximum of 2GB which though immediately recognizable on any computer, is not on par with the Mini, of which all 4GB can be used as storage. We also like the fact that the Mini uses both FireWire and USB 2.0 as opposed to just the latter for the Micro. Yet, the Micro does have considerable beef in the features department. Despite a superior 22 preset equalizers for the Mini, the Micro makes up for a miserly eight presets by including a customizable 5-band equalizer. The Micro also supports multiple playlist creation within the player itself… the iPod Mini can support only one with the On-The-Go playlist function. It’s a close one, but our bet is for the Micro on this round.
However, we still experienced some issues with getting perfectly accurate control as the Enter function is also part of the touch scroll surface, rather like the touchpad of a laptop, rendering the occasional browsing of song titles into a Play command instead. On the Mini, the Enter control is dictated by a separate button at the center of the ClickWheel.
For Windows users, Creative included a familiar control--the Right Click, which reveals additional options for any highlighted item on the menu. We found that it made the navigation experience a far more fulfilling one since it is a useful shortcut. From the perspective of the user menu, both players offer a comprehensive list of options in a vertical format. We missed the rating system on the Mini which allowed us to rank a song upon a scale of five stars and play it relative to its popularity in the My Top Rated option. On the Micro, popularity is based upon the total number of times a track has been played, which creates an unnecessary bias for songs which were uploaded earlier. Both the Mini and Micro tries to maximize the use of ID3 tags by dividing the song collection on the hard drive into different classifications. The Mini creates different preset playlists like 90's Music while the Micro classifies them under a separate DJ section. The Micro does, however, have an added search function which works by inputting keywords into a search box which adds more to its game. Even though the Micro supports multiple playlist creation through the player, it was a frustrating experience as it entails adding a list of songs into a selected list before saving them wholesale into a playlist. Yet somehow, we find that it is not possible to add additional songs to a saved playlist once it is set up. The Mini made playlist creation a breeze with a one button operation even though it was limited to just the singular playlist. We like the player menu for both players and while the Mini has its superior ClickWheel, we felt that the Micro's touch scroll and right click function rank a very close second.
In our initial installation test, it took 5 minutes 46 seconds for the Creative MediaSource software and the drivers for the Zen Micro to be uploaded, while for the iTunes software and iPod drivers, it took just 3 minutes and 19 seconds, even though we included the time taken to fill in our particulars for iTunes. We chose to test transfer speed using only USB 2.0 as it was the only common connectivity option between the two players. Using 625MB worth of assorted MP3 files, the Mini clocked 6 minutes and 6 seconds while the Micro did it within 4 minutes and 18 seconds. To test how the players fared with huge chunks of data, we tested both with a 1GB file. The Mini managed to push it through at 9 minutes 24 seconds while the Micro made it in a speedy 3 minutes 38 seconds.
Using the Etymotic ER-4P MicroPro as our reference earphones, we grilled the two players on sound quality with two MP3 tracks encoded at 320kbps each. Surprisingly, despite the Micro's much vaulted 98dB signal-to-noise ratio, the Mini managed to produce a slightly warmer sound than the Micro. On both Coralie Clement's Samba de Mon Coeur Que Bat and Five for Fighting's The Devil in the Wishing Well, the music was gentle and warm for the iPod Mini with a clear articulation of all the instruments involved. On the Micro, we felt that the sound was a little harsh with a slight sibilance especially in the beginning of Clement's track. We are overall pretty satisfied with the Micro in terms of performance and with only a very small difference in terms of sonic delivery, we would have to go with the Micro on this one.
Yet, there is no denying the fact that there already exists a huge pool of accessories by third party manufacturers for iPod products. Creative recognizes this and is currently producing more accessories to pair up with the Zen Micro. But with the added amount that would have to be splashed out for new stuff with the Mini, like a remote that is priced at
With the Creative MediaSource software supporting only Windows, the Mini certainly has the upper hand with the iTunes software having dual support for both the Mac and Windows platforms. In external hard drive mode, both players are recognizable by both OS though it is disappointing that the Micro has no support for FireWire connectivity. Both devices can natively play MP3 though on the point of WMA, the Mini can only play such tracks after converting it into its own AAC format. Kudos has to be given to the Mini for supporting more formats (MP3, AAC, AIFF, Apple Loseless and AA) than the Micro (MP3, WMA and WAV). The success of the iPod is also tied to the iTunes online music store, however, since there is currently no iTunes in Asia and with Soundbuzz providing online music purchase support for Creative's players, the online domain currently belongs to the Micro, at least for Asia that is.
It is good to see that someone has finally managed to beat the iPod Mini, no doubt paving the way for other manufacturers to break new ground in terms of fresh player designs. We see this as a sign of a narrowing gulf between the iPods and the rest of the world. Yet with that said, we are hopeful that Apple will take this as a sign that it cannot rest on its laurels and would have to further innovate, in order to distance itself from the rest of the MP3 pack. What do you think? Give us your views by taking part in our poll.
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Blue screen... of death?
Thumb-tied: 
Changing the battery
