Top MP3 Player Under $200: The Creative Zen Micro

The Creative Zen Micro is an excellent mp3 player that is clearly one of the best on the market and offers a sleek design much like the iPod, along with many features the iPod doesn't and at a much more affordable price

Pros

The advantages of choosing the Zen Micro are enormous. The first advantage is the amount of space you get for the price. You get 6 gigabytes for less than two-hundred dollars. When you look at similar products made by Apple you will see that this is a great price. The second advantage is that the Zen Micro is compatible with all subscription music services. This gives users the choice between legal music services. In addition to the regular free downloads from Kazaa you can also use subscription music services such as Rhapsody, Yahoo or Napster. And for the most part these services run without issue on the Zen Micro.

The Zen Micro also has a host of features that make it the top mp3 of its kind. The first feature is the voice recorder. This can be used to record a lecture or any other type of meeting. From experience it will not record clearly if it is in your pocket but it is a very useful feature anyways. The Zen Micro also comes with a very good FM tuner, a Palm Pilot type organizer and can act as a portable hard drive for non-music files.

It is also compatible with many more types of files, and has many other tools that make it much more useful in other aspects of use than simply listening to music. This is what separates the Zen Micro from other players, including the iPod and other mp3 players such as those made by Iriver and Sony. Another feature of the Zen Micro that makes it very attractive to users is the ease of use of the music management software provided.

Cons

The negatives of this player are few and far between. The biggest negative is the problem caused by a very sensitive headphone jack which can cause the player to skip and freeze up. This might not seem like a big deal but the jack is so sensitive that normal day to day use can cause the jack to make the player almost unusable. The other negative of this player is the extremely hard to use key pad. The play, fast forward and rewind controls on the player are very awkward to use. If you carry in your pocket while you exercise it will regularly change by simply rattling around in your pocket. The sensitivity of the buttons varies from time to time.

The buttons are generally much too sensitive. It takes a good amount of time to get used to using the annoying and awkward keypad. The only other major drawback to the Zen Micro is the inability to display photos or play video. This is the only reason I can think of why anyone would choose an Ipod over the Zen Micro. This drawback however does take a good deal away from the overall experience with the Zen Micro. Most of the high end music players (the Zen Micro can be considered high end), have the ability to play videos, along with storing and viewing high quality photos.

When you look at everything involved in making a decision over what mp3 player to buy, I believe that in most cases the Zen Micro comes up near the top. When buying a mid to high end mp3 quality the Zen Micro is as good as anything out there. It has sleek design easy to use software, a large storage capacity along with other features that make it useful far beyond the traditional music playing device. This is why if you are looking to buy an mp3 player for fewer than two hundred dollars I would recommend you buy the Zen Micro.