4. Increased Compatibility

For music, the Vision recognizes the indispensable MP3 and WMA (DRM) formats, and for photos JPEG and BMP. As for video, it plays WMV and also DivX and XviD. The player is compatible with DivX 5.xxx, and the firmware is updatable. Compatibility proved excellent, especially since the standard resolutions are respected. But in a pinch you can just re-encode. Obviously the closer you get to the display's native resolution, the better the results will be. Battery life was average at three hours with video and nine with audio.

Conclusion

The Zen Vision left us with mixed impressions. It's undeniably the most sleekly-designed and lightest portable AV player we've seen. Its high-resolution display is particularly effective for displaying photos. Its 30 GB of storage space is amply sufficient, and its TV output is exceptional. On the other hand, the Zen Vision doesn't record and its display, along with narrow viewing angles, has a color temperature that is a little cold. The price, $400 puts it at the same level as the Archos AV400. It's up to you to decide what your priorities are.