Creative Zen Neeon 5GB Review
Introduction
Enough has been said about Creative being slow. The Zen Micro came out nearly a year after the iPod mini. A Creative digital audio player with a colour screen is nowhere to be seen, despite competitors releasing players with colour screens. FM tuner and recording is nice, but it lacked line-in encoding for higher quality recordings. Also, the design and software tended to appeal more to the techies. Well, no more, according to Creative.
Creative Zen Neeon Media Reception
Once again, we were invited to yet another Creative media event on 25 May. This time, it was all about the new Zen Neeon. The usual marketing hype follows.
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- 5GB capacity
- Highly personalised player, with 7 different coloured-LED backlights, 10 brushed-metal
backplate colours, and a variety of Stik-On skins
- Classy black-piano finish
- Direct line-in recording
- FM tuner and recording
- Voice recording
- 4 EQ presets and 1 custom EQ
- Up to 18 hours battery life
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With the wide range and possibilities of personalisation, the Zen Neeon is targeted mainly to the female market. It is the smallest and lightest hard-disk-based player. It supports up to 100 hours of voice recording, and can use an external microphone for better quality.
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The Zen Neeon also has a bunch of accessories, including a wired remote, AC power adapter, wireless bluetooth headphones, matching coloured speakers and earphones as well as the various Stik-Ons.
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The Stik-On skins are reusable, and while there has not been formal tests conducted, a Creative rep told me that they have reused a Stik-On for a hundred times and it could still be used.
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Currently, there are 16 designs available, although Creative expects more designs to come, including third-party ones. If the Zen Neeon catches on, maybe there will be underground Stik-Ons that are cheaper... Or maybe a "design your own Stik-On"... The possibilities are endless (and I'm sure that was the intention).