Creative Zen 20GB Review
Page 5
Installing Software
Insert the installation CD, and this screen pops up.
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Like the Zen Neeon, the Zen 20GB is for the Asian market only, as can be seen by the languages available.
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Transferring Files
The Zen 20GB is not MTP-compliant, so only Creative's MediaSource or Zen Media Explorer can be used.
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Transfer Speeds
I chose 176MB of songs to transfer. Like I had mentioned in my Zen Micro vs iPod mini review, Creative has given the user too many different ways to transfer music to the player. With the Zen 20GB, there are three ways. The first is through MediaSource. The second is through the "Import Music To Device" in the Zen Media Explorer. And the last way is to drag-and-drop music into the "Organize Music In Device". With all three, I obtained three different timings. For MediaSource, the tracks took 36 seconds to transfer. For the "Import Music To Device", it took 45 seconds. And for the "Organize Music In Device", it took a mere 32 seconds. For comparison, I will use the timing for "Organize Music In Device" as "Media Explorer".
| Device | MB Transferred/Time taken | Average write speed |
| Zen 20GB (Media Explorer) | 176MB/32secs | ~5.5MB/s |
| Zen 20GB (MediaSource) | 176MB/36secs | ~4.9MB/s |
| Zen Touch 20GB | 176MB/39secs | ~4.5MB/s |
| iPod 4G 40GB | 140MB/21secs | ~6.7MB/s |
| Zen Xtra 30GB (MediaSource) | 163MB/41secs | ~4.0MB/s |
Below is the data presented in a graphical format.
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Benchmarks
The following graph shows the results of the benchmarks done using SimpliSoftware's HD Tach.
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For a hard disk-based player, I found the constant read & write speeds to be strange. I asked Creative about it and was told that the Zen 20GB is not a true mass storage class device. As such, we should not expect to see a normal depreciative benchmark graph like other hard disks. As you can see from the graph, the Zen 20GB has an average read of 8.6MB/s, and average write of 9.8MB/s. The Apple iPod 4G 40GB has an average read of 14.7MB/s.