Creative Zen Mozaic review
Creative expanded its music player lineup Jul 24th, releasing new models designed to be fashionable with a mosaic design where the buttons are located.
The Creative Zen Mozaic comes in four sizes -- 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB -- with a stronger emphasis on the music player's looks than functionality. And the price is £49.99 for 2GB, £59.99 for 4GB, £79.99 for 8Gb and £119.99 for 16GB. The 2GB and 4GB models are available now, with the 8GB and 16GB models expected to be released next month.
Consequently following the Stone, Stone Plus and last week's Krystal comes the Zen 'Mozaic' a player "with unique design to help you share the fun".
The specifications of the Zen Mozaic are rather ordinary when compared to other digital audio players, but Creative seems to be banking device's mosaic design that will likely be met with varied levels of enthusiasm from the market.
All models are able to play music and video files, along with display photos and CD cover art. The Mozaic has a 1.8-inch screen, built-in speaker, FM radio, microphone, and supports MP3, WMA, WMA-DRM 10, and JPEG file formats. The device measures 79.5mm x 40mm x 12.8mm, available in black, silver or pink.
On the other hand the limited codec support (MP3, WMA, WAV, Audible, Jpeg, transcoded AVI) won't win over fans still critical of Creative's decision to shun Ogg and the lossless Flac format but with 32 hours continuous music playback and a range of 2GB to 16GB capacities it does bring compensations.
Other features include an alarm, voice recorder, clock, calendar, PIM (Personal Information Management) tasks and contacts display and given its silent appearance on the Creative UK site expect it to launch soon.
Creative continues to launch music players, but it has largely been overshadowed by market leader Apple and SanDisk, which has overtaken Creative in market share. Each company has worked not only to pack more storage space into their players, but also to make them more visually appealing for consumers.
Creative's Zen lineup now has 12 different models available to consumers. The company has had a busy July, also announcing the Zen X-Fi and Zen X-Fi with Wi-Fi, which have a 2.5-inch displays and ship with Creative software aimed at cleaning up poorly compressed sound files.
4 votes
