When we talk ease of use, we are, in a sense, talking about how easy it is going to be for a first time user to learn the ins and outs of the player menu. And the user interface plays a big part in this, from the physical controls to the actual player menu itself. The Mini's ClickWheel is Apple's latest evolution of its iconic wheel design which scores big for its intuitive feel and almost hairline accuracy. Over at the Creative camp, the original touch scroll has been heavily improved, with a shorter scroll distance for reduced thumb fatigue and a more precise feel.
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.
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Thumb-tied:
The navigation joystick |
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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.
