3. Self-sufficient, Yes... But Only Power-wise

At first glance, then, the only disadvantage of this audio player is its size and weight, which is a bit on the heavy side. It weighs 203 grams, or some 20 grams more than its main competitors. The extra weight is due to the battery, which the manufacturer says will let you listen to music for 24 hours without interruption. We clocked it at 20 hours, which is already exceptional. In more concrete terms, in a week of testing (with one to three hours of listening per day), the unit didn't need to be recharged once.

The first really bad news is that the player won't operate with all computers. If you prefer Mac OS or Linux to Windows, don't bother to read on - there's no driver for installing the Zen Touch on your computer. The player is compatible only with PCs running Windows 98 SE and above. And that's only if you install the driver before the first use. If you don't, the computer won't even recognize it as an external storage unit! It's true that this limitation is a familiar one with hard-disk audio players, but in this case it's particularly frustrating. That's because along with its music library, the Zen Touch has a data library for storing images and files with 20 GB of capacity. But unless you carry the setup CD around with you, you won't be able to exchange files with other users. And unlike the iRiver H320 , the Zen's display won't let you get so much as a glimpse of the files on it. In fact, the files can only be accessed from a PC using the Nomad Explorer software.

Regarding formats, the Zen Touch is pretty much standard, with MP3 up to 320 kbps and WMA up to 192 kHz. Don't look for more exotic formats.

The 1.8" hard disk guarantees fast file exchanges and minimum weight. Transfer is via USB 2.0 and thus is very rapid. Having to use the Nomad Explorer software, which indexes during transfer, slows the process down a little, but our 30 files, weighing in at a total of 100 Mb, transferred in 21 seconds.