Summary: This is the second time I buy this player the previous one was a gift to one of my friend. SD Card Integration - While it would be nice, it's not that big a deal. You can play audio or video files off the card, and that's good enough for me. I added a 2GB Sandisk card (not on the list of \"approved\" cards on Creative's website) and it works fine. Firmware - After reading about troubles with the new firmware, I decided to stick with my original firmware, and I've had no problems other than the somewhat long start-up time. I-Pod Alternative - I've been loath to go the I-p*d route, and was very happy to see this offering from Creative. Nothing against Appl*, I just like to see choices out there in the market.

Summary: I've been using my Zen for almost a month now and am really enjoying it. Before I bought this I had a SanDisk e280 and wanted a new player because the wheel on it is cheesy.

This player definitely is an upgrade. The user interface is very simple and easy to understand. It has a good number of features including a \"dj\" feature that allows you to play groups of songs (songs highly rated, songs rarely played, shuffle all), a calender, and allows you to even add contacts for an address book (though I'm not sure why you'd want to do that on a mp3 player).

I use it while I work out at the gym and I love that fact that the screen stays on the whole time I am working out and since you can set it to display the time, I never need to wear a watch while working out.

While I use my player primarily for music, I have had a chance to view pictures on it and love how vivid they are. I have also used the memory slot and find it simple to use and easy to access the information on. Some users have complained that info on the memory card can't be integrated into the player's existing data but I have had no problems with this. The reason I have no issues though might be due to the fact that I updated my firmware before I started using it.

I would recommend that anyone getting this player first updated the firmware via Creative's website. There have been at least 10 firmware updates released since this product hit the market.

Overall I love my Zen though and won't be looking for a new mp3 player anytime soon. For the price, I don't think there's a better deal out there. I'd recommend it to anyone who has not been brainwashed into thinking the iPod is the only decent multimedia player on the market.

Summary: I like it, I used a friend's for a week before buying mine and I found it really good. Held charge just right and audio quality is very good (I never use the earbuds provided with these things because they usually suck wind). Big screen for such a small thing and with great colors. The best thing for me is the ability to expand storage capacity using SD cards, actually that is how I keep must of my stuff since it allows for easy organization for me. However, the 8 GB alone holds all of my preferred Cd's.