Creative Zen Nano Plus

I took the plunge and purchased my first portable MP3 player. It is a Creative Zen Nano Plus with 1 GB of storage. The size of this feature-packed player is only slightly larger than the dimensions of a conventional lighter. The actual size of the player is 1.32" wide, 2.58" tall, and 0.51" deep. It weighs only 0.8oz without the AAA battery. P0wered by one AAA battery, the manufacturer claims up to 18 hours of battery life. However, I have found that the actual playtime is closer to 12 -15 hours with a conventional AAA battery. The lifetime of the battery also appears to be shorter, around 9 hours, when it is in MP3 encoding mode (more on this later) the whole time.

I bought the player for $140 from Wal-Mart which is a great price for everything it does. It is definitely much cheaper than the over-priced Apple branded MP3 players. One of the best features of Creative Zen Nano Plus is its line-in audio input. The package comes with a cable that allows you to connect the player to any audio source with a 1/8" audio output jack. Creative Zen Nano Plus can automatically convert the audio you feed it into MP3 format without the use of a computer. It is amazing!

I hooked up the player to my XM Roady and recorded around 8 hours of music while I was sleeping. Creative takes music ripping to a whole new level. You can rip CDs from a CD player to music channels on your cable or satellite. The possibilities are endless for this line-in capability.

Additionally, Creative Zen Nano Plus has a built-in FM tuner which you can also use as an audio source for recording. Since the player saves the audio it records as MP3s on its flash memory, you can transfer the files onto your computer for keeps using the included USB cable.

I am very impressed with Creative Zen Nano Plus. I highly recommend it.