really love my player
354494
I've been using mine for about two months.  Comments:

1) I really love hooking it up to my car stereo using a cassette adapter.  I jumped a technology step, from car cassette player to mp3 player without CD player in between.  Every morning I can transfer some music or an audio book before I leave the house and I'm good for the day.

2) The radio is great to have--it's a traveling radio for those occasional times I'd like to check news or weather and I'm not near a house or car radio.

3) It's not a good USB memory key replacement because you need to have a special USB cord to hook it up to a computer, and one isn't always around.  In the next rev, I'd suggest to Sandisk to solve this problem, it would be gravy.

4) Playlists--non-existent.  This is a real problem.  It means that you first (on your hard drive) have to name your files alphabetically in the order you want them played, and THEN copy them over to a single folder on the player.

5) very nice display.

6) With a single AAA rechargeable battery I get at least 10 hours of play time.  I have a recharger and four AAA rechargeables, so there's always a fresh battery available.

7) The controls take a bit of time to learn.  I read the quick start guide, but it really took me a few weeks to learn all the controls, especially how to delete files, and run presets on the radio, etc.
2398193
like caroline in posting below i ordered the other model and they sent this (again the third party..must be a scam so beware)  anyway this is a fabulous player. i have a lot of film on avi's some encoded with pcm audio which  another expensive dvd recorder would not play. this handles any pcm, mp3 ,all divx.  i couldn't be more pleased.
10165
I love this little MP3 player- this is the 3rd Clip that I have owned.  The only issue I have had with them is they only last 1-2 years, but for the amount of use it gets (hours each & every day) and especially the price, I just keep replacing it.

It is very easy to use, and once you figure out how to drag and drop your music or pod casts onto it, there is nothing out there any better.  When my last one died, I researched what else was available, After looking at the cost of those other players, I could buy this as a replacement 3 or 4 or 5 times for the price I'd pay for something else- which may also only last a year or two.

I use this mainly for pod casts  as well as books from the library's OneClick program. Simple to add and delete them to/from the player.  However, I can only download "unprotected" books from OneClick. There is supposed to be some sort of work around to fix that issue, but after 4 calls and multiple emails to the OneClick staff, they (and I) finally gave up on trying.  So I just look for unprotected books, and have not run out of books to listen to yet.

Since I don't use this to store a lot of music long term (just a few fave CDs), and I delete books & pod casts once I listen to them, the 4 GB is plenty of memory. I have yet to max it out.

This player is WELL worth the money!
3829655
so glad i bought this, makes it alot more comfortably playing and can play alot more between charges, win win :)
3366993
I bought this player to replace my busted 4 gig ipod mini. This player has twice the capacity and feels sturdy in the palm of your hand or pocket. I don't like the Creative sync software that came with the player, but then again I didn't like iTunes either. I currently use Windows Media Player 11 to sync songs to the zen micro.

The sound quality is excellent, I bought a slightly better pair of over the ear headphones which helps a lot (Koss Portapros). I don't really use the photo capability of the player, after all I bought this to play music not look at photos on a tiny screen. It is nice to be able to set a photo as a wallpaper on the player, although it can make the text tough to read. I prefer this player over my old Apple in most ways (sound quality, build quality, sexiness (the blue light is sweet), option to change the battery, and storage space.

The one thing the iPod has over this player is the ability to rate songs from the unit itself. The option may be buried in there somewhere, but I can't find it. I used to use a smart playlist with iTunes which would add/delete songs from the player based on the star rating I assigned. I can still do this in WMP11 but I cant change a rating from the player. This means I can only update whats on the player from the computer side (ie, if I am listening to a song from the zen I cant lower the rating so the song will be deleted the next time I sync). This is not a huge deal, I just need to figure out another system for choosing what stays and goes from the player. This may not be an issue but my music collection is larger than the 8 gigs of storage this player offers.

Overall I am very satisfied with this player. The battery life seems great, although I have not actually fully discharged it and timed how long it lasts. Another bonus is that the charger transfer cable is a common mini USB plug so if you lose it you do not have to worry about purchasing a proprietary Apple plug. If you are on the fence about this player, wait for it to go on sale and get it.
3570577
I had this player for 6 years and it still plays perfect. It's a very small size and I think that's why I love it so much plus all the extra space I have for music. I am only hold songs that are only taking up half the storage and I have a ton of cds on the thing..Plays Beautifully and doesn't skip or anything. I use it Regularly too
4414735
,  this player is just the best.  It is. durable,drop it and it just keeps on playing.  The price is right also,
3094071
I really love this medial player.  I am very glad I purchased it.  I have now cancelled cable and just use the Roku.
223720
I did a lot of research and this player has to be on of the best on the market. Great features, quick start up, setup is quick and easy.
4849845
Love this player. My 10 yr old daughter is even able to easily use it. Super easy to set up. Want to get another and I bought 2 already. :)
1032936
I use my mp3/cd player virtually every day, and this Philips model
has been very reliable. Although I consider myself careful with this unit,
it has fallen to the floor at least 8-10 times. Every time it drops, I say,
"Rats! This thing is gonna be broken for sure!" and every time, I just brush it off,
turn it on...and it plays! I would buy one of these again in a heartbeat! Of the 6 or 7
different players I have owned (from Coby to Sony) this Philips player has been the best.
The only way I would improve on it would be to make the display illuminated, but on every
other level it has met my expectations.
1761815
I received this mp3 player for christmas and I instantly fell in love with the features. I love the touch sensors and the bright interface. It was difficult at fisrt to add video to it, but once I figured it out it was great.
473965
bottom line, a player is only as good as it's purchaser's expectations. If you want a durable exterior, long battery life, LOTS of hard drive space considering the size of the player then this is an excellent choice.

if you don't need alot of hard drive space because you just use it to excersize or fill up down time waiting in line for something then you will want the micro 5gb by creative.

i have this one and love it but if i had it to do over again i would have gotten the smaller one because i have learned i don't really need 20 gb. i havend even filled 10% of the memory.

The battery lasts exactly how long it says and it is awesome, it recharges fast too,. ive had several apple owners tell me the battery life is MUCH shorter on thiers

I also hate that there are no accesories but f.y.i. for those of you out there who have and want this one. The accesories made for apple ipod regular and the new ipod video work fine with this player. i have a fm transmitter meant for ipod, and a case with arm band and clip meant for the ipod video one. all the portable and in home speaker sations meant for regular ipod work with this player also. i have dropped this player by accident a couple of times (on a waxed hard floor like in a hospitol)and it didn't hurt or scratch it, couldn't believe it. it tolerates alot of moving around and vibration without skipping too. I highly reccomend you use windows media player 10 software to load and manage it. the only thing you need the zen sleek software for is to make your playlists if you wish to do so. you can use this player to back up files on your computer too.
2307806
I have had the player up and running for about a week, and thus far everything has been fine. It's tough to find combo players these days!
970979
I love this player. I owned an RCA lyra 20 gb player before this and thought that all mp3 players just froze up 3 times a day and drained their battery in 2 hours. When that player just randomly stopped working months ago, I bought the creative zen based on the high amazon reviews. It is easy to understand and operate, the touch pad is simple once you get used to it. 20 gb of storage is a great deal for the price compared to the ipod or anything else on the market. It's only frozen twice since i bought it. I bring it to work and listen to it all day and the battery barely needs recharging. You can take this player on vacation for a week and not even bring the charger with you. If you shut it off, it will pick up on the exact song you were listening to when restarted. the random play option is great. The earbuds aren't even that bad. For a hard disk player, it is compact, lightweight, and transports easily. The thing is durable and can take a lot of abuse. Even the earbuds aren't too bad. The only drawback is the software which is slow and awkward to use with windows. I wish I could just open the disk drive in windows and play the songs from there, but the technology only allows you to play songs on their software which is painfully slow and not user friendly. Really though it only matters if you are planning on playing a lot of songs right through your computer. I just use the player and can deal with the software when necessary. Creative customer support is great and they have been extremely helpful unlike RCA who wouldn't even talk to me unless I paid them $50 for customer service. If you are not getting an ipod, this is definitely the player to get. If I could rank it 4 1/2 stars that would be more accurate. Definitely buy this, for my money it is the best player on the market right now.
3125294
Great, awesome player. Great shock protection, does not skip a beat. Cheapest player out there supporting Packet-Written CD-RW, very cool feature!!!
1459112
I really like this player.  I mainly bought it to play books on cd's but I do have some books on tape that I can play on this player and they sound really good.