Strengths: Sleek, gorgeous screen; very good battery life; Menu is very user friendly and make it the way you want; I was truly surprised with the different type of videos you can upload.

Weaknesses: Video interruptions due to buffering, surprsiingly no pre-loaded games; battery cannot be removed....could be a long term nuisance. The touchpad is touchy.

Summary: The Creative Zen is very feature-rich. The button layout is simple but at times not very intuitive. The video capability and compatibility is very good and I was impressed with the beautiful and lovely screen. Plenty of juice left after watching a full length movie (1.5 hrs).Within 24 hours of owning this product, I had uploaded over 3000 songs, 600 photos, 4 audio books, and 22 videos stored on it. Super simple to use. I use this in my car for my hour commute to work by using a cassette with the headphone jack hooked to my Zen. Sound quality is EXCELLENT!

Strengths: Easy to operate. Fits great in your hand. Not flimsy. Screen is large with great color.

Weaknesses: Center slide is very sensitive. Need a little bit of knowledge to load a cd onto it.

Summary: I never had a MP3 before, but this one has a large screen, easy to see whats playing. Center slide button is a little sensitive but you just need to get the hang on how to use it. Outstanding sound quality. I did not want to turn it off. I mainly purchased it for my car but find myself listening to it all day. Don't know what I did without it. Would recommend highly.

Strengths: (1) Holds lots of music, movies, etc. (2) Nice, bright screen for menu operation and watching stored movies (3) Supports many audio and video formats (4) Comes with software to convert video

Weaknesses: (1) Does not come with a standard wall charger, just a USB charger that requires a computer to be "on" while it charges (2) Does not play MP4 video files, these must be converted using the software

Summary: The Zen Vision:M is a very nice alternative to the iPod. It is available (at this time) in 30GB and 60GB models which provide plenty of room for your music collection and converted movies. It is a stylish device and relatively compact, considering the high quality screen and large (at the time of this writing) hard drive for storage. It is very easy to use as the touch-sensitive slider button makes menu selection and navigation a breeze. I own the 30GB model and I have been able to use the included video converter software to convert my MP4 PSP movies (which I created with PSP Video 9) to create WMV movies that will play on the Zen. It would've been nice to play the MP4 format on both devices that I own, however, it was nice of Creative to include an easy to use converter program. In all, this is a great device that is a tremendous value (especially as it continues to drop below the $200 mark). There are a few missed opportunities, though. One glaring omission is a wall charger. Currently, the only way to charge the Zen (out of the box) is with the included USB cable. This requires you to charge the Zen while you have it hooked up to a computer. That makes for 3-4 hours of downtime for the device when someone might want to use it. I would prefer to plug it into the wall and charge it overnight. If you do some searching, however, it is not difficult to locate a wall charger to purchase online.

Strengths: Easy to use, Price, FM tuner & FM tuner Recording, microphone, nice video quality, user-friendly interface

Weaknesses: Size, speed, design

Summary: People always like to compare this MP3 player to the IPOD; I have owned both and I must say Ipod has better design and the best quality. The Zen looks good too but it is kind of bulky. The Ipod is able to load up pictures alot quicker than the Zen; for a reason Zen is very slow loading up pictures and you really need to maximize for a clear view; pictures look blurry at thumb nail;the IPOD can show the fit-to-screen clear picutes. If you are a PC user! The Zen Vision M is so much more PC compatible. Additionally, its cheaper, and much more customizable. It is very easy to upload the video and unlike the Ipod, it only supports MPEG-4 and you need to pay $30 for a software for conversion. I must agree that once you buy an Ipod, Steve Case will keep on draining your wallet for more money, buying into expensive accessories and iTune..It is not a cheap investment.The Zen is a better MP3 player, in terms of cost, features and accessories.

Strengths: Features, Movie and Picture Clarity, Not an Ipod!

Weaknesses: Size and Accessories

Summary: Fantastic player, I absolutely adore it. Must better than my ipod. I use it often and I used to have to charge my Ipod every night, I only have to charge this ever 3 days or so. It took a little getting used to but now it's very easy to use. The software is also hard to get used to but once you figure it out it's nice that you can pick and choose what goes on the Zen. Fantastic product, pass up the ipod and grab the Zen, it's a way better choice, wish I would have gotten this before I shelled out the $350 for the Ipod that no longer works.

Strengths: Sound, screen, fm radio

Weaknesses: few accessories available, manual is lacking, battery is not replacable

Summary: I have been very happy with this purchase. I purchased it for a price significantly lower than that of the comparable ipod, yet the Zen Vision:M contains many more features. The radio works great. I like the case, the screen is fantastic, and I am happy with the navigation tools. Battery life is good. One thing to keep in mind when deciding which mp3 player to buy is the ipods have many more accessories designed specifically for their players, so they are easier to find, and cheaper due to competition. If you realize that going into the purchase, decide what accessories you have to have and order them and make due with what you can - for instance, you may be fine with using a line in to a speaker rather than buying a speaker specifically designed for the player - remember it won't work as a dock then, and it won't look as sleek, but you can use much higher quality speakers.

Strengths: Physical design. User friendly. Easy to navigate. Great touch scroll feature. Plays everything I download.

Weaknesses: Still looking for a good case. Battery life is not impressive against competition.

Summary: I never bought an mp3 player. I've never been turned on by them. This openned my eyes. This player has a great balance of features, flexibility, quality, and price. I got this as a gift but see how much it sells for, it's a great competition against iPod.Video screen is small but the quality is outstanding. Plays all popular formats. I love the DIVX player. If you watch sub'd anime as much as I do, the screen is big enough to read the subs comfortably. Hook-up to the TV via A/v cables is hot. All the original quality of the video files are kept and played back on your TV.Highly recommend for anyone. Greatly recommended for those who don't want to conform to the iPoders and Zune zombies.

Strengths: amazing sound and video quality, easy to use controls, great extra features such as radio and microphone

Weaknesses: not enough accessories and the ones they have are not available in common stores like all the iPod junk is

Summary: The zen has amazing sound quality, you can easily adjust things such as the base. It is very customizable with fun backgrounds. You can even change your background to be one of the pictures from your album! It has tons of storage for music, videos and pictures. The FM radio is a great feature to have as well. The micropone also comes in handy and you can record things on the FM radio. It is extremely easy to upload music to it with the software that comes with the player. All in all it s a great device that definitely is MUCH better than any ipod out there. There is no comparison!

Strengths: Superb sceen, all the features you need with excellent movie playback.

Weaknesses: Controls is not as nice as iPod, also the power adapter is a little cheesey, but hey the features are there!

Summary: I originally bought my wife a 30G 5 Gen iPOD for all her music and videos and was not overly impressed with the video playback or iTunes as a portal for downloads. I would have thought Apple would be better at providing intuitive software and navigation, but that was not the case.Anyway that put me on the serch for a different unt for my son. Well I came across this and all the features were there with better pricing. Not as "top drawer" as the iPod, but a contender in it's own right.

Strengths: Not an iPod, lots of storage, great video playback, many supported video formats, easy to navigate, great battery life, and $50 less than iPod

Weaknesses: scratches easily.

Summary: This is a great product, could not ask for anything more for this price. Bought mine on Amazon and it was delivered in 4 days with regular shipping. I highly recommend this product. You will not regret buying it.

Strengths: Price, FM tuner & FM tuner Recording, microphone, battery life.

Weaknesses: Size, design, accesories.

Summary: SKIP IPOD if you are a PC user! The Zen Vision M is so much more PC compatible. Additionally, its cheaper, and much more customizable. Also the video quality is as good if not better than the Ipod. Plus you won't have to be like everyone else with an Ipod, you'll have your own thing going. I can't count the number of times people have gone "whoa! what is that device?" and then after I showed them the video quality and the customizable wallpaper and such they went "wow thats cool!" And the Zen vision M is really easy to use even if you have all your songs on itunes, you can either encode them through windows media player or easily use the cd that came with the zen. Seriously consider the Zen before you go out and waste money on an ipod.

Strengths: Has alot of storage and is easy to navigate.

Weaknesses: Not alot of accessories are available

Summary: I really like to MP3 player as it has alot of storage space and is alot easier to use that the Zen Micro. The click of the buttons make it easy to navigate through the menus. I would defintely recommend this MP3 player.