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.