Customer Reviews
Great MP3 Player for the money 
2005-12-30
I bought this MP3 player about 6 months ago, and love it. I got an upgrade to expand the hard drive to 80GB and I can't even see myself filling half of it anytime soon. The menu structure is very intuitive, and the screen is very easy on the eyes. I have seen other MP3 players that hurt the eyes when you're looking at the screen for too long.
The only issue I have with the player is a short battery life, but I usually have it plugged in with the AC adapter anyway. All in all, if you're looking for a large capacity MP3 player that won't break your bank, this is the one to get.
Look no further. 
2005-11-04
This is my second MP3 player. I am very pleased the Zen player. I have the 30 GB model and approximately 7500 songs loaded up. The random mode is outstanding. I rarely hear duplicate tracks. The sound quality (as expected from Creative) is top notch. I don't bother to use EAX in fact the quality is so high. I have read that the battery life is shortened by the use of EAX, which only makes sense. I am able to go about 14 hours in between charges. I had to be creative (huh huh huh) to get the included case to work but that is a small compromise. Right now the 40 GB models are going for under $200. You just can't beat that value. I bought myself, and wife both 30 GB Zen models for less than the price of 1 20 GB Ipod. The creative software is flexible and fast. I had to use windows media player with my previous MP3 player which was slower than molasses in January when it came to looking up and erasing tracks that were currently on the player. I would rather have a little larger player and get the battery life that goes hand in hand. Let's face it, the bottom line is, these players have to have 1. A hard drive 2. Some type of processor/memory combination to process the info from the hard drive and turn it into music, and 3. A battery. There is not too much variation in items 1 or 2. The only area that can be cut to make the unit smaller is in the battery. Ipod may be smaller, but I can go over twice as long in between changes. The bottom line is I am thrilled with this player. If I were to somehow drop the player from a moving vehicle, or have a pack of wild pixies make of with my player in the middle of the night, I would not hesitate to order another one immediately. My search is done, yours can be too. You can't go wrong with the Creative player, but I would recommend spending the $10-$15 difference to upgrade to the 40 GB version. 10,000 songs in a package that is smaller than a portable cassette player that will go for 14 hours in between charges..... There are no cons. What are you waiting for?
It's Great 2005-09-18
I have had mine for about two years. I've taken it everywhere and not one problem...It followed me to Iraq and back with heavy use and countless falls..The sofeware is easy to use and the it has CD quality music..Personally I think it is a great buy and beats the hell out of ipod
Discontinued 70PD05500032? 2005-08-26
Another reviewer recently advised that this is the model to look for. I was just advised at a well known retailer that this model has been discontinued. Is this true or is this a classic bait-and-switch technique? Their current weekly sales circular features this model at a sale price. When you get to the store, they don't have it but when they look it up in their computer, it shows up as "Discontinued". It is difficult to relate reviews to actual products when the reviews you base your buying decision on could be about(a)different model(s) from the one you actually buy online or in-store. The Creative Labs' own website does not give model numbers so they are adding to the confusion.
Works great, until it crashes! 
2005-07-20
I bought the Creative Nomad Zen Xtra 30Gb around the start of the new year. By mid May, the player would get hung on the EAX Soound screen and wouldn't fully turn on. Since it was only about a month out of its warrenty, they would not help with a costumer service line or anything, but I had to send an email to the company. Well, after much hassel and faulty instructions about how to "update my firmware" I ended up having to send my product into the company in TEXAS so they could fix it. Now, not only was it a problem because I couldn't listen to my music anymore, but I also had to pay a hefty $40 fee just to return it, and if there was more to the problem than just my firmware, I would have to pay another $40! About three weeks later, they sent back a refurbished 40Gb player that works just fine, but now I have the task of uploading almost 25Gb of music back on. Speaking for myself, they were not helpful what so ever, the warrenty sucked and should have been extended so things like this don't happen, and they tried to buy me off with a bigger player.
One a side note, this player is HUGE! I know you are getting alot of memory and all, but this is in no way sleek or descrete. I can't fit it into any of my pockets or just carry it around because it it bigger than my hand! It may not look so big in pictures, but don't be fooled!
Refurbished = some annoying quirks 
2008-07-06
I bought the refurbished version, so keep that in mind. :)
I bought this a couple months ago, and aside from two annoying quirks I love it. Plenty of space for my entire music library, decent controls (better than the annoying "touch" controls on certain players), decent sound (with a decent set of ear-buds) and easy navigation.
The most annoying quirk is that the player will for some bizarre reason turn itself on at odd moments. Since I use this to have music at work when I'm on brake, it becomes rather irritating to go to turn on the player, only to find that the battery has drained itself b/c the player decided to turn on w/o prompt.
The other quirk is that, unless you select each album to play individually, it plays the first song of each album first, in album order, then proceeds to the second songs of each album, etc...if you want the songs in true order, you have to select "play now" on one album, then "add to play" on each additional album.
Definitely not as great as the Zen Sleek Photo that it replaced, but worth the money, even with it's quirks.
Buy it! 2007-07-19
I've had my Zen for over 4 years now (hard to believe I've had it that long). I still haven't filled up the memory on it, I've never had a day's trouble with it, and it's easy to use. I'm starting to find it a bit bulky now in comparison to some of the smaller, sleeker-looking players on the market, but I still have the attitude "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". The zen is superb, it's reliable, it's solid and easy to use, and I just don't see the point in changing to an ipod purely for aesthetics. I love my zen, and I wouldn't be without it.
Very nice player 2006-12-05
Before I bought this I read reviews at Amazon, Cnet, and other places. Some unkind things were written. I have been living with this player for three weeks and have nothing but positives. Being new to portable music I didn't want to shell out $$$ for an iPod, but I wanted the massive storage space. I have no desire to watch videos, listen to FM, or share files, so this Zen Nomad seemed perfect.
What it has going for it:
1) Better price bargain than any competing device (I got it at an after-Turkey Day promo for under $100.)
2) It sounds great. The included ear buds sound ok, but the fit seemed insecure. I spent more for Bose In Ear TriPorts. WOW! The combination is superb and better than I thought possible with portable devices.
3) The build seems solid. My case has not popped open. It doesn't skip (but then, I don't jog with it), and the display is easy to read.
4) I can replace my own battery, thank you. I don't need to send it off and pay $50 - $100 for a replacement. Of course, it's possible the player won't outlive the battery.
5) The software is pretty easy to figure out. But I must admit that people who aren't computer savvy might be hopelessly frutstrated. There really should be a section in the next-to-useless booklet that explains step by step exacly how to transfer an album to the player and then play it. I shouldn't have to go to Creative's website to get this information.
6) Ok, it's heavy compared to an ipod: and uglier, too. BUt hey, I figure since it's not the toy everyone else wants, it's theft proof.
So-So 2006-02-18
First, the pros:
The battery is easily removable and replaceable ($20), compared to an iPod which requires service from Apple if the battery dies. The same goes for the hard drive - I bought a Zen xtra with a broken 30G hard drive, and was able to easily swap it out and replace it with a standard 60G laptop hard drive that was sitting around. After installation of the firmware and operating system (available from Creative's web site), I was good to go with 60G of storage.
The cons:
Software, software, software. Creative's PC software is HORRENDOUS. Get used to long delays and frequent freezes and crashes, especially if you have many songs. My Zen has 22G of music on it in one big folder, and it takes minutes to load the folder up. You can't even browse the device as a hard drive: you have to use special Creative software that provides a pseudo-explorer-like interface. The cd-ripping software froze about half the time for me, and the sync tool didn't seem to work.
In short, if you're concerned about hardware and you're willing to put up with the hassle of getting this truly awful software working, get a Zen...otherwise just sped the few bucks extra to get an iPod.
Great MP3 player, great customer service. 2006-02-05
I bought this for my spouse for Christmas...he absolutely loved it. A week later he closed his car door on his jacket pocket - the pocket containing his Jukebox. It was busted, would not work at all. We were devastated. After a few emails back and forth with Creative, they gave me an authorization for repair; I sent it to them and received the repaired unit, like new, in about a week. Fabulous! No problems since. If you don't care about the "ipod" name brand, I highly recommend this one!
