Nomad Zen Micro (Silver)

In 2004 Creative entered the tiny drive-based MP3 Player market with their Zen Micro, a 5GB player. Now available in both 5GB and 6GB capacities and assorted colors, the Micro is often compared to Apple's iPod mini, so let's compare and contrast.

Like the iPod mini, the Zen Micro houses a small multi-gigabyte hard drive and features a blue-tone backlit LCD.  There's also a touch-sensative control interface, a digital audio player interface pioneered by Apple.  These similarities are made paramount by the comparisons of the Apple mini and Creative Micro, but we think too much is made of these convergences, and that the comparison really ends there.

The Micro holds 5GB or 6GB of audio.  The Zen Micro also has an onboard FM tuner, which can be used to listen to FM radio and to record radio broadcasts.  Rather than an internal battery, the Micro uses a removable and replaceable Li-Ion battery, which makes extended listening and eventual battery replacement a snap. Last, but not least, Creative's Micro features a built-in voice recorder, for all you voicememo folks - you know who you are.

The Zen Micro is fully compatible with Napster 2.0, Rhapsody, Wal-Mart Music and other WMA-based music download services.