Creative Zen Vision:M

Well I manage to get my hands on this multimedia player 2 weeks ago at Low Yat Plaza. This item was so hot that the moment it arrived (3units only including display) it was immediately sold.


The Story
I was actually shopping around for a MP3 player as I felt that I needed one of these thing to occupy me during the long travel journey from JB-KL. Sitting in the bus for a 5 1/2 hours can be a very unpleasant journey if we do not have something to occupy ourselves with. So I narrowed my choices down to the Ipod Nano (see Picture below). Well, these babies can be quite hefty in terms of price where the Ipod Nano costs RM969 for a 2GB model meanwhile the 4GB model costs RM1,219.00!!! Well, what drew me to the Nano was because it is pencil thin, only 0.7cm of thickness and it incredibly light. This small player can cram in 500 songs (2GB model) and have a battery life of 14 hours. It stores and plays music, displays photos and also acts as a hard drive where you can store data as well.

Ipod Nano

As for the Ipod Video (see picture below), it is simply out of reach in terms of pricing where the 30GB costs RM1,599.00 while the 60GB is at a staggering RM2,099.00!! You can actually watch videos from it and also listen to music as well. But the main thing for this Ipod are it's sheer volume of contents available from Itunes Website (Purchased & Downloaded).

Ipod Video

However, I had came to know another product from Creative Labs. where they have just recently launched the Zen Vision:M, the smaller brother of Zen Vision in the US. My mind was instantaneously blown away as a 'real' rival for Ipod Video had finally arrived and from my experience, the pricing should be very competitive (in the Asia region) where MP3 players from Creative had always outpriced Ipods in Malaysia. Not only that, a closer inspection between both players specification, the Zen appeared to be a winner in terms of screen quality and Video Playback capability whereby the Zen supports more format variety than the Ipod. The Zen also do not have any problems in terms of transferring songs from one place to another in which this is one of the flaws of Ipod. But I never thought of acquiring it as it was only recently announced of it's availability and usually it will take a month or two to reach our shores.

So I went to Low Yat Plaza with my brother and head straight into Ipod Store. I asked for the 2GB Ipod Nano from the store assistant and he presented me with the white display version of it. It was simply beautiful. The weight and size simply makes your mind go bonkers. After fiddling that unit, I asked for a second opinion from my brother and he gave a thumbs up. So I asked for a new unit but unfortunately it was not available. They only had the Black version in store while the White version would arrive in the afternoon. We decided it is worth the wait and therefore proceed to gave my mobile number to the assistant and tell him to call us immediately once the stock arrives. Meanwhile, we decided to head into Low Yat just to asked around if they have the White unit.

As we are walking, we head towards a store which sells a lot of these electronic gizmo's and suddenly my eye caught something I was very familiar with...The Creative Zen Vision:M!!! Whoa!!!How did it manage to arrive to our shores so fast??!! Without hesitation, I went into the store and asked for the demo unit. I played several songs and not to mention, watched a few short clips of movies. My mind simply went blank and I asked the store assistant how much does it cost? Well, a cool sum of RM1,300. Whoa!!! For this price I can watch video and have a capacity of 30GB!! This is way much 'cheaper' compared to the Ipod Nano and even the Ipod Video!!! I said 'OK!! I'll take it!! but give me a cheaper price. I told him I'll be buying by cash and after much debate, I only manage to squeeze out a paltry RM50 from him. I asked him WHY??!! Because the unit only arrive yesterday and it is the newest 'toy' in town. So I said 'OK lar, no choice lor'.

Anyway, the Ipod store later called me but I never replied their call. Now, weeks had passed and it seemed like Zen Vision:M had manage to garner 2 awards from CNET for their outstanding performance. As for my self? I have loaded 300 songs (MP3's with high bitrate), 26 episodes (30mins each) of anime (Title: MY-HIME) and 12 episodes (48 mins each) of Japanese Drama (Title: GOKUSEN) into this tiny hand held player. There are people asking me whether I can actually watch movies on a 2.5 inch LCD display and I answered them YES!! The pictures are seriously sharp and it is as good as watching television.

Well, I would like to confess that I am a gadget freak and I need them to live!! :op Oh yes, my unit of player is black in colour.

Zen Vision:M

For more information:

Creative Zen Vision:M

Apple Ipod

CNET

2006 International Consumer Electronics Show