Creative's latest assault on the digital media player market is the Zen V series.

The same product is offered in a range of capacities and feature-sets, so if you don't fancy squinting at the 1.5in screen to watch video, you can save some cash by opting for the cheaper non-video Zen V edition.

Three different colour schemes complement the glossy black case design and each relates directly to the capacity of the player. Orange trim models are 1GB, green 2GB and blue 4GB.

If you decide to opt for the higher-end Zen V+, you’ll find a movie player and FM radio to add to the standard audio player and photo viewer on the basic Zen V.

Size and usability are exactly the same across the board.

The player itself is just slightly larger than a Zippo lighter and, at first glance, the bright colour schemes mixed with the jet black case make it look a little basic; Creative is clearly going for a fun look rather than classy design.

Switch the player on and any concerns you might have about it being too basic are washed away. The 1.5in OLED (organic LED) colour screen is among the clearest and most vibrant we’ve seen, doing an excellent job of both providing a usable interface and an excellent platform for your photos and video.

Creative has always been a market leader when it comes to usability and has raised the standard again with the Zen V. The range of control buttons is spot on and it’s a joy to browse your music collection, build playlists, adjust shuffle options and tweak settings.

Most innovative of all is the menu customisation feature, allowing you to choose which functions you want to appear on the main menu.

If you’re a photo buff, or frequently use the calendar or contacts lists, you can enable these to appear on the opening menu to save you browsing to find them.

Calendar and contacts, along with an organiser, are compatible with Outlook; the provided software will help you synchronise them when you connect the player to your computer.

In addition, there’s a line-in port that enables you to connect external audio devices, such as a CD-player or another mp3 player, and encode and copy music remotely. The synchronised editing function even splits up tracks for you so you can leave it running and come back to find a whole new album encoded.

The Zen V-series also supports Creative’s Zencast service, which allows you to download video blogs and podcasts to your device through the Zencast site. You’ll need a V+ model for the video support, but the standard V is perfectly capable of handling audio.

Sound quality is excellent and there are plenty of options for customising your listening experience. As well as seamless playlist creation, a built-in DJ allows you to choose a random Album of the Day or select between your most popular or rarely- heard tracks to mix things up a little.

Creative has got just about everything right with this new Zen V and it’s a real struggle to think of anything that goes against it. Each model is available at different price points depending on the capacity and whether you want the Zen V or Zen V+, but they are reasonably priced when compared with other top-end players that have similar capacities and features.

There are few as easy and enjoyable to use, though, and we expect this new mini flash-player to give most rivals a run for their money.

Also consider:
Sumvision Yumi Pro 2GB
A feature-packed player at a bargain basement price

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