1. Introduction

After the Zen Touch, Creative has attempted to best the iPod feature by feature. While Apple's iPod offers four GB of storage, Creative's new Zen Micro offers five gigs. While the iPod offers a choice of five colors, Creative's new player is awash in a tidal wave of purple, pink, dark blue, blue, black, white, silver, red, green and orange. Like the iPod Mini, the Zen can memorize addresses, to-do lists, and meetings (with Outlook) and act as a simple removable hard disk; but it can also serve as an FM tuner and voice recorder. So for the same price and the same weight (about 3.5 oz. or 100 grams), which one should you choose?

The 1980s Show

The Zen Micro's blue backlighting and shiny white shell that contrasts with its colorful front panel will surely appeal to many people who are nostalgic for the 1980s. Personally, I prefer the sobriety of the iPod mini, but the more discreet all-white and black-and-white versions of the Zen also appeal to me. In short, either you like it or you don't, but the look of the Zen Micro isn't going to revolutionize MP3-player design.

On the other hand, and unlike Apple, Creative hasn't forgotten that its players should not only be nice to look at but also practical to operate. And from that point of view, the Zen Micro's design is a success. The first plus is on the back, hidden under a simple cover: The battery is removable. If you have a problem with it, you can simply remove it and buy a new one.

On the front panel, while maintaining a touch pad-type interface, the Zen Micro has put six buttons, including one for backtracking in the menu and another for selecting shortcuts to essential functions ("Seek to," "Set Bookmark," "View Details," "Lookup Artist," "Remove," etc.). The result is that the little Zen is even more pleasant to use than its big brother the Zen Touch. For example, it's very easy to create a play list directly from the player.