Creative Zen Touch 20GB MP3 Player - White

Great Player, but nothing else

Posted Feb 24, 2008 - This is a very good player. It has the best sound quality of any player i have owned. I also like the touch pad which makes it easy to scroll through music. This player lasted 4 years with great battery life the whole time, but the screen just recently stopped working. I am very upset at this, but liked the player so much that i might even replace it with another Zen Touch!

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great for what it does....

Posted Dec 10, 2007 - I was looking for a quality MP3 player and I didn't care if it had a touch screen or a video player or a web browser--I just wanted something with lots of room for my MP3s and this thing sure delivers. It's very easy to use, I like the fact that it's a little bigger and more solid than other players, I think the design is very attractive, and the sound is excellent. All the other things that other players do my laptop does better--I wanted something to make long flights and cartrips go faster, something I could take on a workout or use for an afternoon of fishing. Creative has always been a great company for me, and this just keeps up their tradition of value for money. I just bought two more for my sons, and I highly recommend this player for anyone that just wants their tunes with a minimum of fuss!

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By far the best MP3 player I've ever owned

Posted Jun 27, 2007 - If you're looking for a no-thrills "just play my music" MP3 player, this one is your best choice. I got mine in early 2005, and it still works after being carried around and beat upon for 2 years (I upgraded to the Zen Vision:M however). It has great software and great user interface, and works fantastically. This player TOTALLY knocks the iPod down on the ground. It's incredibly durable and will survive a 10 foot drop onto concrete (tested, by me, by accident :-) ). It plays both MP3 and WMA formatted music, and can store many more songs than a 30GB iPod. It has amazing sound quality, and great personal EQ. It is very simple to use also. This is by far the greatest MP3 players (not "multimedia/video+photo+music players") out on the market, and if that's what your looking for, this is the choice for you.

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Best One Out There

Posted Apr 26, 2006 - I have had my player for one year and I love it. The battery life is wonderful. It can hold over 10,000 songs when the songs are downloaded in WMS format. I only have 200 songs right now. One day I left it playing all day from 9:00am to 3:00am the next day and still did not have to charge my battery until two days later. As far as the headphones, I would buy new ones anyway because usually when you buy any type of music device the headphones are always terrible. Oh yes, and the price was very nice. It is bigger than most MP3 players but that is because of its memory size. The bigger the memory size the bigger the device. My suggestion to the buyer is to research the different products to find what is right for them. I researched and found that the Creative Zen Touch 20GB was perfect for me. I made an excellent choice.

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Great DURABLE mp3 player

Posted Jan 11, 2006 - This is a great MP3 player. The most notable exceptional quality (at least for me) is that it is literally unbreakable. Most of my friends have ipods which broke quite often after they dropped them. Well, my creative is covered in dents from me dropping it, and still works almost great. Im 17 and quite active. During the summer i went to Russia for 2.5 months and had this player on me all the time. It has been dropped on the cement floor of my friend's garage( about 3 foot fall from a ledge) at least 30 times, it was soaked in beer and other alcoholic substances multiple times, and was once left under the rain for a few hours. This thing just wouldnt give up. The creative also has great ways of getting to the music u want (as most other mp3 players but still). You can search by title, artist, album, genre, and playlist. There is shuffle, shuffle repeat (which for example shuffles all songs withing a certain album or artist and then starts over once it played all songs), repeat, and a bunch of others. The only thing for the playlist that i dont like is that the player is a bit lazy and sometimes you would get 3 songs in a row of the same artist from like 250 total songs in the pl just cuz those ones are close to each other on the hard drive. The LCD is very bright and you can see it the dark and direct sunlight perfectly well. The only thing i have against the display is that despite the fact that you enter the time and date, there is no way to display it. I just think thats retarded but it doesnt detract that much from the player. Everyone also bad-mouths the touchpad, but i dont think its too hard to get used to... a few hours max. Also i really like the Creative software just because it is really easy to use. Now what i didnt like so much: First of all when i got this player, it broke within 2 days. It was partially my fault plus Creative replaced it relatively quickly (got it back exactly a week after sending it out) no questions asked. Also the played is a bit too big and heavy. Its nothing horrible - just a bigger than the ipod. Its not that compfortable to put in your pants pocket, but the belt clip and inside jacket pocket work great for me. Also to be very unoriginal im going to say that the belt clip isnt that great because there are no openings to directly access the buttons. However since all you really need is 3 buttons (forwad, rev, and sometimes "random") you can get by. Those buttons arent located right next to eachother and unless you are slow you can figure out relatively where to press to get those buttons. By the way also get ready to buy some new headphones - this is the same with any player you buy. Recently, after much additional abuse, my touch started messing up. Sometimes if you try to scroll up, it will scroll down. This happens randomly and is a big inconvenience, but you have to consider the fact that this player has been through hell and back in the year+ i had it. Thats about it. To sum it up: Great player which you can use to throw at people if you want or for self defense. Will not break and provide you with hours of music. Dont forget that it really DOES have a 24 hour battery life. Sometimes it lasts me upto 3 days without a recharge which is much more than any other player can provide. By the way i took it apart and saw that is has shock resistant plastic bars on top and bottom which protect the hard drive which is also protected by the battery from the top. BUY THIS

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1 year later...

Posted Dec 14, 2005 - I want to follow up as i have had this player for just over a year now. After a year of use I am very impressed with the units durability and battery life. I still get at least 16-20hours of use of it a year later which is more than most ipod's claim to provide from the beginning. The touchpad took some getting used to but for me (low sensitivity) it just took practice. The software is great for the computer and I like how it doesn't try and synch up every time like itunes can. It is PC based and can play Windows media files without converting which is a huge bonus. Coversions on ipod's can take a minute or so per song which is very tedious. The biggest pro has to be the durability. Over a year later it is still going strong. I have 5 friends who got ipods at the same time and they won't even turn on. While apple will probably fix them it's a huge pain. They're hoping they just buy a new player anyhow....I like my electronics to last and the creative definitely does that. The reliability is far better than an ipod.

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I recently bought a Creative Zen Touch, after hear ...

Posted Nov 26, 2005 - I recently bought a Creative Zen Touch, after hearing some great things about it (exceptional battery life and sound quality, etc.) I found these to be very true. However, the touchpad, frankly, leaves much to be desired. I received my unit on 11/08/05. By the 15th., the touchpad would not respond, no matter what I did to try to get it to..I couldn't reboot, couldn't scroll through playlists to select, or do anything else that one is supposed to be able to do using the touchpad While all the buttons on the front and side of the unit still worked, (allowing me to play, skip forward/backward and volume up/down) full functionality was lost due to the failure of what I've come to understand is the main innovation and selling point of this unit. So, very disappointedly, on the 21st., I RMA'd my unit to the manufacturer for repair or replacement. (I have since found out that Creative Labs has decided to replace my unit) While I acknowledge that I might just have gotten a Lemon in a basket of Oranges here, the touchpad does seem to have a certain fragility about it that can really cripple an otherwise excellent player. It would have been nice to see some kind of manual work-around/alternative to using the touchpad. Perhaps more button controls to manipulate playlists and select songs, etc., or a joystick, perhaps?

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Zen Touch

Posted Nov 24, 2005 - I got this player almost a year ago, and I have loved it since day one. Being a true-blue PC guy, I couldn't bear the thought of owning (or paying for) an iPod. I did several searches and finally decided on this player due to the price and battery life. I can usually go about two weeks before charging with the EQ on, 160Kbps Mp3s and lots of skipping. It's a little bit bulky in all dimensions, but I can forgive that fault because of the excellent sound quality and long battery life. I've dropped it off a table or two and it's been perfectly fine. I somehow got some dust between the outer screen cover and the inner one, and that's a little annoying at times. It's a great player for the money.

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Zen Touch 20GB

Posted Nov 19, 2005 - I've had my zen touch for about a year and a half now. I had it replaced once because I used a set of headphones that had a relatively large connector piece that stuck out a ways, the extra torque eventually shorted out the connection, so I wasn't getting sound anymore, so I got it replaced. The customer service for the replacement was okay...it took three to four weeks to get a new one, because they couldn't fix the old one. About four months ago, the touchpad quit functioning properly, of course right after the warranty expired. It still functioned, but since it broke, in order to use anything other than the "random play-all" feature, I've had to push on the touchpad excessively hard and even then it is a total stress-inducer to try and change songs/albums, etc. Even before it broke the touchpad still sucked, it's too sensitive despite the ability to alter the sensitivity. Anyway, just today (the reason I'm writing this review), the display went out...it still plays music, but now I don't know what it's playing. Between the touchpad and the display, this machine is virtually useless and a year and a half after spending $230 for the unit, I probably will not use it anymore. Overall, I would say avoid this mp3 player. Spend the extra money and get the I-pod. I know lots of people that have them and have heard very little complaints with their durability. To me, the two worst characteristics of the Zen Touch are the fundamentally flawed touchpad and the durability.

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I've searched for an MP3 player for I dont know ho ...

Posted Nov 11, 2005 - I've searched for an MP3 player for I dont know how long....made my research, read ALL the reviews. Compared MP3 player to MP3 player and finally I settled on the Zen Touch model for it's price and good reviews from other buyers. First off, this is my first player...and I wanted to stay in a budget. So I cant compare this product to an Ipod... This is a good product. I've heard the reviews about the player being to heavy...I guess it is...compared to the Ipod of course, but honestly, you will get used to the filling of it. And yea, it's not recommended to run with it...unless you have the case. The case is okay for storing the player...but when you're listening to it and have the player on....and place it in the case - the sensitivity of the product changes whatever you are listening...so you have to take the product out again to fix it. Touch sensitivity....lots of review of this being annoying as the sensitivity of it is very high. Yea, I put it on Low also. And all you need to do is work it with your thumb. Not a big deal AT ALL. And that was my main concern of this product. It's actually better the speed it has...especially when you have a large music file and just want to get to the song quicker. You get used too it within days....I can do it while driving! Earphone - the problem with them mostly, is the size. It's TOO big for my ears...anyone's actually. So I don't walk with my Zen because the earphones get loose and fly all over the place. Sucks. But the sound is fine with me...loud enough. And I'll wait till the earphones stop working to replace them, because Im broke. Ha. I recommend people to check their song's ID. Because it's MASS confusion once you load your songs onto there. Like there could be 60 different genres...when you really only have 5. The artist your looking for can be difficult to find...especially if the name is incorrect or it is under the "unknown" file. Annoying. Took me a look time to fix the problem and sort my ID-tags. I prefer to list it by" 1. Artist Name - Song Title 2. 1 Artist name only [no "featuring" signs] 3. Genres. Because those are the main ways to hear the songs according to the type of music it is and according to the artist. Believe me...its easier that way Example : 1. Greenday - Holidy 2. Greenday 3. Punk The batterylife...I was skeptical at first. Because it died on me within a few hours...but I didnt follow instructions that said I must charge it before using it. I didnt. After awhile...I started to leave it for charging....and guess what. IT GOES ON AND ON. I think I listen to it one day for 7 hours....with a lot of pausing of songs for long period of time. And about several hours everyother day this past week. And it still hasnt died...amazing. For my first MP3 purchase, I'm satisfied. Next time...Imma up grade for a video/picture/MP3 player. But I'll stay withinn the creative franchise because of the price and the fact that not a lot of people know about it. For people who don't want a lot of space. Get the nano. So much cheaper than an Ipod but this is the only creative product that has a lot of accessories for it. It would be nice if they added those sterodocks for the Zen Touch series. And a FM or Car transmitter...

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Simply: great

Posted Sep 13, 2005 - I've had my zen touch for over a month. I've never had to reset the thing, which another reviewer mentioned, and I've never had it re-build the data or whatever it's called. It's operated flawlessly. I paid $190 for it, which is $110 less than the 20gb IPOD that this competes with. Also, unlike the apples, there isn't going to be a class-action lawsuit over Creative's batteries. I've yet to run it down. It's also nice that it will charge off the USB OR the wall-plug. The reason I looked into mp3 players in the first place was because the earphone jack on my laptop wore out. One thing that's nice about the Zen touch, if you hook your headphones to the Zen Touch, you can still use your computer to click on the songs you want to listen to, and the sound will come out of the Zen's earphones! I was pleasantly surprised this was possible, and was able to stick the player off the desk and not fiddle with it while working. The unit is built ruggedly, I know some people complained about its size and weight, but compared to the plastic-toy feel of the IPODS, I'm glad Creative made something a little more resilient.

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Have been unable to upload any music to this unit. ...

Posted Aug 8, 2005 - Have been unable to upload any music to this unit. The manual is of no help. The software, near as I can tell is a glorified music player not a management program. The company has yet to respond with anything but dumb questions (Are you sure it is a ZEN TOUCH model? Are you really asking how to upload songs to the player?) when e-mailed for tech support. I would never purchase anything from these bozo's again.

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Creative Zen Touch 20GB Player

Posted Jul 11, 2005 - I love it. Had a Rio Carbon, but had all kinds of problems with it. The Zen Touch 20GB is a little larger in size than I wanted to carry, but I'm very happy with it. The earphones/buds are not very good, but I got the Sony, noise-canceling earbuds, and really enjoy them. The software that comes with the Zen Touch is great and easy to use. Let's you convert formats and bit-rates when tranferring from PC to player. I've loaded over 500 songs, at 192 kps, in WMA format, and still have 17GB of free space.

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The top mp3 player out there.

Posted Jul 6, 2005 - I bought this mp3 player as a substitute for a CD player and boy was i amazed. I researched mp3 players for about 5 months, I know as much about them as almost anyone, and decided to purchase this one for many reasons: Battery Life: WHOA!!! creative boasts 24 hours for this mp3 player but i have got a lot more out of it. I played the player for a couple of days until i was on one bar of battery. Creative advises to run the player completely down before recharging so thats what i did. I started playing it at 10 PM> I played it through the night, woke up and it still had one bar. I came home at 3:00 PM and it was still Running!!! Capacity: Because it doesnt have many features, it makes up for it in size. As of know i am holding 2000 songs on it and am adding more. Sound quality: There is no match for this quality. thats all i have to say. PS. BUY GOOD HEADPHONES!!! Price: $210 pretty cheap Design: Nice, touchpad is really easy after a day or so. Not much to be worried about Software: EEEH Creative mediasource is horrible but the driver has its own software. Use that one Size: a little to big but for a $210 investment u want something solid in ur hand. Conclusion: this mp3 player is the top of the top and is a serious contendor for the top spot on the mp3 player board. I recomend buying this over any other player. Also the creative zen micro is also a good investment if u want a smaller model.

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the touch bar is not too sensative, which was one ...

Posted Jun 12, 2005 - the touch bar is not too sensative, which was one of my main concerns after haveing read a grip of uer opinions. overall I think it's a better choice than the treandier I-pod.

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