Creative’s lightweight black in-ear buds rival the sound reproduction of more expensive sets but need more fit options to truly compete. High and midrange sounds are reproduced well, and bass is solid. Creative includes several silicon earbuds, but we wish the package included foam and flanged silicon pads a la Shure’s E2c, although that set costs $30 more. This gripe aside, the price/performance ratio is pleasingly close to Zen.

With in-ear headphones all the rage now, it didn’t surprise us when audio-centric Creative Labs joined the fun with the launch of its own Zen Aurvana in-ear earphones. Already available in Asia a few weeks before their U.S. launch, the $99 “anti-iPod black” pair are extremely lightweight (0.46 ounces) and low profile, and they sound quite good–if they fit in your ears properly (Jasmine’s earholes are too small for the Aurvana).

For me, that’s not a problem. You get two pairs of three different-size silicon earbuds, the rubbery kind. Though I prefer foam tips, the medium size fit quite well, passively blocking ambient noise (by 90 percent, according to Creative) and delivering clean, balanced sound. Indeed, the high-end sounds come through crystal clear. The Aurvanas have a frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz and a sensitivity of 115dB and 20dB at noise blocking. Bass is surprisingly solid (for this listener anyway), and overall performance is good, or as good as a pair of $110 Shure E2Cs, which are bulkier than the Aurvanas. While we prefer the sound of the Shure E3cs, the Aurvanas cost half as much.

If you want a livelier and better-balanced sound and don’t mind looking a bit Frankenstein-ish, go with the Ultimate Ears super.fi Studio 3. If you are looking for serious bass, check out the Sennheiser CX-300. Aside from that, the Zen Aurvana provides a very good overall listening experience, with very good sound and lots of quieting, and in a very compact earphone. The cable thump and wind noise make these earphones more suitable for trains and planes than for walking around, but if you can find them for less than list price, I recommend these for their compactness and quieting ability.

Beautiful wide-screen display; durable design; intuitive interface; holds up to 60GB; supports wide array of video formats; plays FM radio; supports TiVo To Go and limited movie downloads; syncs with Outlook; removable battery; CompactFlash slot is nice for photographers; good value for a wide-screen PVP.

The W features a 480 x 272 pixel 262,000 color widescreen display that measures 4.3″ diagonally. This hits the sweet spot where video becomes truly watchable and enjoyable, particularly widescreen movies. The display itself is gorgeous: bright, super color saturated, great contrast and sharpness. Turn it on and look at one of the pre-loaded photos or watch a movie and the screen itself captivates you. When a display looks fantastic indoors, it’s rarely outdoor viewable, but the Zen W is indeed watchable outdoors in all but very bright, direct sunlight. When watching videos there’s no ghosting and the picture is extremely sharp. Colors are accurate and brightness more than adequate. The widescreen aspect ratio is perfect for movies and should the movie not fill the screen, you can use the menu button to zoom or stretch the movie to take up maximum real estate. The Zen automatically bookmarks your position in a video before you exit (a must!)

The player supports a wide variety of formats included WMW, Xvid, TivoToGo (using Tivo’s desktop converter), MPEG 1/2/4, MGPEG and DivX 4 and 5. In our tests it handled DivX6 as well and we rarely found an AVI file that it couldn’t play natively. Should you have videos that require conversion, the included Creative desktop software will do it for you, and we only found 2 files out of nearly 100 that the software couldn’t convert (then we resorted to SUPER, a powerful free converter/encoder). Amazon’s Unbox movies are compatible with the W as well, and you’ll use Amazon’s desktop software to transfer movies to the player. Creative doesn’t specify a maximum suggested bitrate for encoding files, so we tested a variety of files at various bitrates. 650kbps is plenty good enough for a sharp picture on the built-in screen, and we hooked the Zen up to a 46″ plasma TV using the included cables and the quality was expectedly pleasing (better than broadcast TV but obviously not at good as HD).

Specifications:

Specs:

Display: 262K color transflective TFT color LCD. Screen size diagonally: 4.3 “. Resolution: 480 x 272.

Battery: Lithium Ion rechargeable. Battery is user replaceable. 1650 mA. Claimed 13 hours continuous music playback, 4.5 hours continuous video playback.

Storage: 30 and 60 models. Hold approximately 15,000 songs or 240 hours video (120 hours of video for the 30 gig).

Size: 30 gig: 5.27″ 2.95″ 0.86″. Weight: 9.73 ounces. 60 gig: 5.27″ 2.95″ 1.04″, 10.48 ounces.

Audio: Built in speaker, mic and 3.5mm standard stereo headphone jack. Has recorder application and records in ADPCM at 16kHz mono. Supports MP3 and WMA (up to 320 kbps) including protected PlaysForSure files, WAV and Audible. 8 EQ settings. Good quality stereo earbuds included, 5-7 watts per channel.
Sound specs: Frequency response: 20Hz – 20kHz, signal to noise: 90 dB, channel separation 65 dB, harmonic distortion: <0.1%.

Video: Plays MPEG1/2/4-SP, XviD, TivoToGo, DivX 4 and 5, AVI, MJPEG and WMV9 files. In our tests it played DivX 6 as well. Handles up to 1,000 kbps videos well. Video (supports NTSC and PAL) and audio out with included RCA cables.

Image support: Natively handles JPEG and the desktop software can convert TIFF, BMP and GIF files then copy them to the Zen.

Wireless Networking: None.

Software: Desktop software: Creative MediaSource Player and Organizer, ZenCast software, Zen Media Explorer (mounts the device as a drive for file management).

Expansion: 1 CF slot compatible with type I and II cards and the microdrive. Can take other card formats with adapter.

Creative Labs second iteration of their portable media player, the Zen Vision, follows in the footsteps of their Zen Portable Media Center, which failed miserably when it was introduced. Forget everything you know about the Zen Portable Media Center though, because the Zen Vision is a completely different product – one that you might actually want. First of all, the Zen Vision ditches Microsoft’s Portable Media Center operating system, instead opting for a custom, in-house solution. With a 30GB hard drive and a 3.7” color screen, the Zen Vision should have a lot to offer, read on to see if it delivers.There’s no doubt about it: the Creative Zen Vision hits the sweet spot. Just small enough to easily slip into a jacket pocket, this player boasts resoundingly superior audio and video playback courtesy of a luscious, high-resolution display and support for a smorgasboard of formats. A 30 GB hard drive should easily accomodate daily needs including synchronizing recorded TV shows with a Media Center PC, which can in turn be played back anywhere courtesy of TV out.Gorgeous high-resolution screen; beautiful, compact design; excellent interface; plays and records FM radio; supports TiVo To Go and limited movie downloads; syncs with Outlook; removable battery; CompactFlash slot; reasonably priced.Most of the Zen’s simple, straightforward, and tactile controls are grouped to the right of the screen. Even novices should have no trouble making sense of its Back, Menu, and Shuttle buttons, which reside above and below a five-way control pad. The latter is a bit small, particularly the OK button in the center; on a few occasions, we accidentally hit the pad instead of the button. Zooming in and out of menus on the Zen Vision’s sweet interface is a joy, though more than once, we instinctively pressed the right nav button to select an option rather than the Select key itself.

The Zen’s dedicated volume controls and power/hold switch reside along the top edge. A spring-loaded door protects the CompactFlash slot on the left side of the unit, while a rubberized tab hides the power and A/V-out ports on the right side. At the rear, a sizable battery comprises most of the Zen’s backside. It’s removable and stylish, with a pond-ripple accent surrounding a circular Zen logo. All that’s missing is a kickstand, so you’ll have to hold the Zen upright or find something to lean it against while watching a movie. Alternatively, you can purchase the optional dock for $40, which props the device at a reasonable viewing angle.

The Zen V and Zen V Plus come in 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB capacities. In both lines, each model includes a voice recorder, a line-in jack, and a 1.5-inch organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen that displays photos with great clarity indoors but doesn’t offer the best outdoor visibility. The V Plus also plays video and has an FM tuner. Both the Zen V and the Zen V Plus work with Plays For Sure subscription content and handle the standard complement of MP3, WMA, and Audible files.

Like Creative’s other MP3 players, the Zen V Plus offers impressive sound quality. In PC World’s audio tests, it ranked slightly below but within range of Apple’s iPod Nano and Creative’s Zen Nano Plus. It posted the best score in our cross-talk test, which measures whether sound from one channel leaks into the other. With a five-band equalizer for tweaking audio, the Zen V Plus also sounded great in my listening tests playing a variety of high-bit-rate MP3 files.

We tested the audio playback and found it quite good with few problems to report, although the quality of the provided headphones was average. The cloth covered ear bud design doesn’t promote comfort and the sound quality was as we expected from outward appearances. The bass was below par and treble struggled to hit the high points in our music. The mid-tones were good, though there was a little loss of instrument separation in the track. When we switched to our own headphones, it became apparent that the poor sound quality was localised to the headphones and not indicative of the player itself. The Zen V Plus supports playback of MP3, WMA, IMA ADPCM and WMA DRM audio formats.

Video playback was good, for what it is. Naturally, we don’t expect a device with a 1.5in screen to compete with the larger screen devices on the market. However, we do have to question the validity of having a video feature in such a small device to begin with. The OLED screen showed a few minor pixilation problems and the overall picture quality, while good, could have been improved. In order to transfer video files to the device, software has been included with the retail package which allows users to transcode video (change formats) into the proprietary format of the player.

The Zen V Plus has a rechargeable Li-Ion Polymer battery which is charged via USB. Creative reports the battery life as 15 hours of continuous playback which we found to be fairly accurate.

Experience 16:9 widescreen entertainment on the move. Enjoy your favorite blockbuster movies in a superior spectrum of sight and sound. The ZEN Vision W is in a league of its own with powerful multimedia features to support popular formats of movies, music, photos and includes FM radio.

Available in both sleek 30GB and heavy-duty 60GB models, you will never run out of space for the moments you cherish. That’s tens of thousands of photos, up to 240 hours of movies1, or even 15,000 songs2 all stored in your pocket. Tune in to the radio, or make personal voice memos. Take a closer look at the ZEN Vision W, and see how it lets you live your life your way.

4.3″ WQVGA wide aspect high-resolution TFT LCD screen
View 480 x 272 resolution in a wide aspect screen at up to 262,144 colors in your videos. You’ll see crisp, clear details in every movie or photo, even under bright lighting.

Up to 240 hours of movies1
Big screen blockbusters, yesterday’s picnic, or even your favorite TV shows8. They can all fit in your pocket and are perfect for sharing. ZEN Vision W supports many video formats, such as AVI, DivX™ 4 & 53, XviD4, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4-SP, WMV9 and Motion-JPEG, which simply means more choices and fewer restrictions.

Tens of thousands of photos
View precious memories – tens of thousands of them – in 262,144 vivid colors in actual resolutions. Complete with a thumbnail gallery, ZEN Vision W makes it easy to scroll through your entire photo collection. Zoom in close to preview your new images in actual pixel resolution, so you can decide if you really want them in your library.

An amazing 15,000 songs2
Perfect for taking with you on the road or anywhere. Set the tone as you like it with the 5-band custom EQ or 8 preset EQ settings. With up to 96dB signal-to-noise ratio, the ZEN Vision W sounds as good as it looks.

TV-out for movies and photo slideshow
Connect the ZEN Vision W to a projector or TV with the bundled AV cable, and delight everyone with big screen movie magic delivered in true resolution.

Integrated Plug&View™ Compact Flash I & II Slot7
Transferring pictures from your camera to ZEN Vision W has never been easier. Simply slot in your camera’s Compact Flash (CF) memory card and let the ZEN Vision W do the rest. The optional Compact Flash card adapter supports all your favorite memory card formats such as SD, MMC, Memory