Creative Zen Nano Plus

Creative’s dominance of the flash digital music player market has taken a bit of a beating of late, thanks in main to the popularity of the Ipod Shuffle.

In an attempt to combat this and the threat from the Ipod Nano, Creative has released a new range of Zen Nano Plus players. Quite how Apple and Creative both came up with the word ‘Nano’ in their new products is something of a mystery.

The Zen Nano Plus is more of a competitor to the Shuffle than the Ipod Nano, and has storage capacities up to 1GB.

Ipod fans will snigger at the awkward plastic rocker switch on the side and small rubber flap that covers the USB socket, but it’s otherwise attractive.

Aside from a line-in socket, very little has changed from the old Muvo series. The interface and controls are almost identical, as is the small backlit LCD screen, although it is now possible to encode mp3 tracks via the line-in socket (FM radio records to wav). A built-in microphone allows the Zen Nano Plus to double up as a dictaphone.

The decision to opt for Ipod-style white headphones is disappointing, especially since Creative has been in this game far longer than Apple. That said, they are of an excellent quality.

With a single AAA battery, the player will keep going for up to 18 hours and, as is the trend these days, the Zen Nano Plus is available in a range of colours.

You can pick up the Ipod Shuffle for around the same price, but with the Zen Nano Plus offering far more functionality, such as the radio, microphone and line-in socket, we’d recommend opting for Creative over Apple.

It’s just a pity that, despite the similar name, it can’t match the new Ipod Nano in terms of storage capacity.

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