Apple IPod Nano Versus Creative Zen Micro
Well, my boyfriend and I decided to get the MP3 player of choice for each other, and since Creative Zen Micro came in his favorite color-that is what he selected for Christmas, seemingly unaware of my protests and teasing. He bought me a cute Apple iPod Nano in winter white, mainly because I didn’t like the way the black one clashed with its white earbuds, and because the white one was “so iPod”.
Since we were both relatively new to the concept of an MP3 player, we had both decided the simpler models were best for what we had in mind. Both of us used our MP3 player often, and although we grew accustomed to our personal model, my opinion of which is better had nothing to do with owning the Apple iPod Nano or him owning the Creative Zen Micro. It’s time for an upgrade, so we are making plans to purchase new MP3 players. So, which one do you think we’re going to want?
The sweet little Apple iPod Nano my guy bought for me was a white, 4 GB unit with room for 1000 songs. Apple iPod Nano comes in white or black. I bought my man a dark blue Creative Zen Micro, 4 GB unit with room for 1000 songs. Creative Zen Micro comes in purple, dark blue, white, teal, yellow, orange, red, pink, silver, or black. The Creative Zen Micro is two inches wide, 3.3 inches high, and seven tenths of an inch deep. It weighs 3.8 ounces. My Apple iPod Nano is three and a half inches tall, one and six tenths inches wide, and twenty seven hundredths of an inch thick. It is absolutely TINY at just one and a half ounces. I was quite impressed.
I have to say that his Creative Zen Micro was a lot smoother looking than my Apple iPod Nano from the very beginning. It has a curved design and looked classier, where mine kind of resembles a flash stick or a computer part. Guess what, that is all an MP3 player actually is!
In addition, his Creative Zen Micro has a better sound that he can adjust. My Apple iPod Nano does not compare with sound quality. I have to say that I’m also jealous when I look at my Apple iPod Nano today against his Creative Zen Micro. My Apple iPod Nano is all scratched up, and his still looks okay with only a couple scratches. It is probably due to the fact I’m always trying to get the fingerprints off my Apple iPod Nano, so that might have contributed to some of the scratches, but the Nano started looking tacky the second week, and I kept it in a special case.
My guy’s Creative Zen Micro is kind of hard to use and navigate. It’s kind of like his cell phone in that I’m totally not comfortable with it, where my Apple iPod Nano was great to go right out of the box, his Creative Zen Micro takes a lot to get used to. Of course, for some reason even though it was more expensive, my Apple iPod Nano seems to have been made cheaper. And, I have to re-buy all of my music from iTunes but he can just load what he wants through his software.
Another thing is the batteries. With his Creative Zen Micro, the battery had about the same life span at first, but now mine has a weaker battery. Mine sucks because I have to plug it into my laptop to charge it and he can either plug his Creative Zen Micro into his computer or use an AC adapter. Plus, my Apple iPod Nano needs sent back in because it can’t hold a charge any more and you can’t change the battery yourself, but he doesn’t have to send his Creative Zen Micro in if his battery goes bad. That kind of makes me mad because I should be able to switch out the bad Apple iPod Nano battery myself instead of relying on them.
Oh, the Creative Zen Micro does have an FM radio but it’s not great reception, kind of like some sort of cheap kid radio. My Apple iPod Nano doesn’t. His MP3 player also sports a microphone to record quick stuff, and my Apple iPod Nano doesn’t. But, I don’t need all of that. He also says he can use his Creative Zen Micro as a removable USB and supposedly I can too, but I never figured out how to. His display screen also says a lot more than my Apple iPod Nano.
One of the biggest differences between the Apple iPod Nano and the Creative Zen Micro is the fact that I paid under two hundred dollars for his Creative Zen Micro and he paid about two fifty for the Apple iPod Nano. I prefer the Apple iPod Nano circular dial to his Creative Zen Micro strip dial any day, but I am not exactly sold on iPod anymore since there are so many other issues with Apple iPod Nano. I also feel that the Apple iPod Nano is too small. It makes me nervous that I am going to break it. The Creative Zen Micro feels like a calculator. I’m not certain why it seems sturdier, but it does.
In the end, the two of us have decided to buy Creative Labs Zen Touch or Vision players. Sorry, iPod. The Zen seems the most likely step since we had so many issues dealing with a less-than-one year old Apple iPod Nano. Maybe Apple will someday deal with known issues with the iPod and therefore make them worth purchasing. Of course, my boyfriend jokes with me about not always choosing the pretty and popular over the well made. He didn’t get why I chose the Apple iPod Nano in the first place. If anything, this entire experience has taught me to research before buying. Of course, all consumer research is, is opinion after all.
