Creative Zen micro not too happy

Cyrus

Just got my zen micro on friday, silver, looks nice, happy with the 5 gig space, size of the player etc.

Charged it up friday night used it for about 4 hours over the weekend battery seemed to drain quickly.

Tested it then yesterday left it on repeat, only got 6.5-7hrs playback from a brand new battery? Also the battery cover/back cover seems scratched, im very fussy about things like that and never put an mp3 player or phone in a pocket with anything else so it seems funny to me that theres marks on it, looks like it was used before.

Finally the sound quality isnt the best, my mp3s are encoded at a decent bitrate but they sound waaaaaaaay better on my pc

have i got a duffer?

garthv

wnhere did you buy it?

Cyrus

O2 experience on grafton st, thank god its not off ebay

demac

There is a firmware update available from their website. This should make things better for you.

Cyrus

wont make the back cover better?

demac

If it's scratched then bring it back. Was the box sealed when you bought it ?

Mutant_Fruit

make sure you leave it plugged in when transferring files. That chews up battery power.

Cyrus

Was sealed but sure all that is is plastic packing.

Could be one someone else returned,

re the transfer files thing, i accept that, but the 6.5hrs quoted wa pure playback no files transfer etc

garthv

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

make sure you leave it plugged in when transferring files. That chews up battery power.

does it not charge through USB?

stakey

battery life depends entirely on how you use the player.

for example if you play mp3's encoded at 128 kbps and the volume all the way to the top it cuts the battery life in two.

i have a zen 20 gig and i get about 10-12 hrs out of it on 128 kbps and full volume, if it was 64kbps and half volume you'd get a much longer kick out of it, perhaps the promised 24 hours

koneko

Actually, no, that's wrong. 128kbps MP3 is standard, so any battery life specs for most players are based on that, not 64kbps (*shudder*)

For me it helped to use the battery fully a few times. As in, use it till it's empty, then recharge, and do the same again. Also check what kind of files you're playing (bitrate, WMA or MP3, and so on).

Cyrus

spose,

not as bothered bout the battery as the feckin battery cover, im so bloody picky about these things !

Cyrus

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=222294

:rolleyes: @ me!

Cyrus

sorted a few things

apparently battery is common and a firmware update will help,

ive another thing to try re sound quality and

creative support are trying to get me a battery cover

stakey

nope, nope & nope koneko

from the reverse of the creative zen 20 gig

With 24 hours(1) of battery life and 10,000 songs(2), to chose from, your music filled journey will never be cut short

The small print

(1) Actual battery life will vary with use
(2) Based on 4 minutes per song at 64kbps

Clinical Waste

2,500 songs. 5GB capacity
(2500 songs at 64kbps WMA)

Info on the Zen from Creative website. So I'd guess battery time is done on same spec. "Actual battery life will vary with use."

Clinical Waste

Stupid question maybe, but you did peel the protective laminate off the battery cover?

stakey

of course it is, lowest common denominator and all that...

jasperok

sorry to thread hijack but you guys really happy with 128kbs mp3's? for me (and i'm sure i notice it) have to use either 256 or 320- as only sometimes can tell the difference between quality that high - depnds on volume and gear i suppose- fr instance on my roland studio monitors i notice it but perhps on those diddy little headphones you wouldn't?....

qwertz

You have to charge/discharge the battery several times to condition it.

sinjin_smythe

Size WxHxD 2" x 3.3" x 0.7" / 51mm x 84mm x 19mm
Weight 108g / 3.8oz with removable battery
Capacity 5GB1
Battery Life Up to 12 hours2 of continuous playtime with removable lithium ion rechargeable battery
Song Capacity 166 hours or 2500 songs at 64kbps WMA. 83 hours or 1250 songs at 128kbps MP3.
Interface USB 2.0 (backward compatible with USB 1.1)
Audio Support MPEG Audio Layer 3 (MP3), Windows Media™ Audio (WMA) and WAV
Signal-to-Noise Ratio up to 98dB
Display 160x104 pixel resolution, White LED backlit LCD



Notice the song capacity info

Xithus

deconstruct wrote:

nope, nope & nope koneko

from the reverse of the creative zen 20 gig

With 24 hours(1) of battery life and 10,000 songs(2), to chose from, your music filled journey will never be cut short

The small print

(1) Actual battery life will vary with use
(2) Based on 4 minutes per song at 64kbps

I dont think thats what it is implying there (though it is a bit vague). My flatmate gets about 18-20hrs out of his touch and most of his music is 192kbps, the 64kbps is refering to the 10,000 tracks and its in the WMA format.

JDxtra

The battery cover on my Zen Micro seems about 0.5mm out of place. A tad annoying as it takes away from the overall smoothness of the device; but not the end of the world.

Also, there was an annoying sticker on my battery cover written in French (I purchased it from Pixmania) which took a bit of effort to completely remove.

Matt Simis

jdempsey wrote:

The battery cover on my Zen Micro seems about 0.5mm out of place. A tad annoying as it takes away from the overall smoothness of the device; but not the end of the world.

Also, there was an annoying sticker on my battery cover written in French (I purchased it from Pixmania) which took a bit of effort to completely remove.

Was the box in french too?



Matt

Clinical Waste

jdempsey wrote:

The battery cover on my Zen Micro seems about 0.5mm out of place. A tad annoying as it takes away from the overall smoothness of the device; but not the end of the world.

Also, there was an annoying sticker on my battery cover written in French (I purchased it from Pixmania) which took a bit of effort to completely remove.

Was that the one that said:
"N'enlevez pas!"

JDxtra

Yes, the text on the box (e.g. system requirements) was in French. The manual was in multiple langauges including English. The Zen itself was defaulted to English.

Don't remember exactly what the sicker said. Don't think it was 'do not remove' though.