News   Forum   Reviews   Articles   Where to Shop   Links   Polls   Submit News   DAP Shop   Content  
C|Net UK reviews the Zen Sleek
comment: 0 | Thursday, September 01 (2005) 06:26AM | Posted by Robert Sinke
Few reviews on the Sleek so far, although this one (by C|Net UK) has been out there for a while already... still, it might interest those of you who'd be willing to give the Creative Zen Sleek a chance.

"The wire-brushed aluminium chassis and integration with Windows are masterstrokes. However, a very fiddly control system and no support for the Mac means the Sleek falls tantalisingly short of greatness."

"No support for the Mac" yanked down the score quite a bit, so it seems. The touch strip also receives a private beating:

"The vertical touch pad control on the Sleek is extremely frustrating and seems overly sensitive and slightly counter-intuitive. We often found pop-up menus appeared unexpectedly and we selected functions accidentally when reducing finger pressure on the pad or brushing it by mistake. It's a world away from the iPod's Click Wheel."

Verdict: 6.8/10

LINK
Comments

Intelli

Comments: 125
Sep 01 (2005) 07:11AM  

Couldn't they've just have written; Verdict; "After close testing we can now almost for sure say this is NOT an iPod. Therfore, it sucks".

Is the sound really worse then on the iPod? Other reviews claim it isn't.



Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2408
Sep 01 (2005) 07:18AM  

im just not going to read the review, but IMO i doubt the sound quality would be worse than an ipod, its creatives only true stength in its DAP's, their SQ has constantly been top notch in all its players



Agent Smith

Comments: 83
Sep 01 (2005) 07:28AM  

The Apple xenophobes appear to be easily confused when they step outside of their bubble.



Dr Doom

Comments: 23
Sep 01 (2005) 09:36AM  

I still dont understand why some peeps rate the Ipods sound quality higher than other players. The main reason why I bought the Zen Sleek is because it trounced the Ipod in terms of sound quality. The Ipod has sucsessfully brainwashed people into thinking that they should listen to their music on the flat EQ because thats the way its supposedly meant to sound, flat, boring with no life. And they also think the Ipod sounds better than the Sleek even with EQ. Thats disturbs me deeply to be honest, what the heck are they smoking. I didnt see a mention of the radio either and if they want to review Itunes they should do it seperatly and review it as software.



zip22

Comments: 1818
Sep 01 (2005) 10:02AM  

have you personally done A/B testing with the zen sleek and the ipod Dr. Doom? cause it sounds like the reviewer did. all he can do is give us his opinion, and all you're doing is regurgitating the same claims that have been made for a while.

also, the only mention of itunes is in regard to the zen sleek not supporting it. i think that was a very relevant point.



Robert Sinke

Comments: 1221
Sep 01 (2005) 10:03AM  

I thought my iPod v4 sounded a bit better than my Zen Touch (I'm adding "my" here to signal that I've actually *bought* both of them... no bias here, ok) using the "normal" setting. Of course, having a customizable EQ is way better than those crappy presets and I don't regard myself as an "audiophile" or anything. Think it's a bit personal too - numbers and figures don't really mean all that much to me.

I enjoy listening to both units anyway, just as much as I like listening to the Vaio Pocket (gapless but no custom EQ), Karma (gapless + very decent output configuration tools) and iAudio U2 (still my preferred unit for sound quality + configurability). Haven't put the color-screened iPods to the test, unfortunately.

Nowadays, I prefer ripping to Ogg Vorbis (Q4 up to Q8 most of the time), which is still not supported by a huge array of reputable manufacturers. For reviewing purposes, I tend to rip a new CD to MP3 using the latest version of LAME @ 192kbps. Always have to look up what's the latest and greatest for WMA ripping since I never ever use that format myself. Same goes for FLAC, somehow (I do see the potential in that one... lack of support kept me from using it too often) - most of my lossless stuff is still WAV. Grossly inefficient but most DAPs tend to eat it.

So yeah, I've spend some time judging sound quality stuff but handing out a final verdict on such a section is usually quite difficult to come up with.



zip22

Comments: 1818
Sep 01 (2005) 10:08AM  

Agent Smith, there are many valid concerns mentioned in the review. did you not read it?



Agent Smith

Comments: 83
Sep 01 (2005) 11:01AM  

"Agent Smith, there are many valid concerns mentioned in the review. did you not read it?" -zip22

zip22,
I didn't read the article. I was just amused by the quote below. I'm also amused by so many people choosing ipods based on it's cultural status alone. I understand that some people have compared all available players and chose the ipod. But many more people have bought an ipod without reading or comparing a single spec. I recently told a friend about the mass storage compliance of Archos players. He had never heard of Archos or mass storage compliance. With a market full of so many clueless buyers, style and marketing, unfortunately, are much more important than substance. The end of civilization is near....haha


"The vertical touch pad control on the Sleek is extremely frustrating and seems overly sensitive and slightly counter-intuitive. We often found pop-up menus appeared unexpectedly and we selected functions accidentally when reducing finger pressure on the pad or brushing it by mistake. It's a world away from the iPod's Click Wheel."



shiftis
Location: Canada
Comments: 369
Sep 01 (2005) 11:05AM  

--- --- ---
Originally Posted By Intelli:
Couldn't they've just have written; Verdict; "After close testing we can now almost for sure say this is NOT an iPod. Therfore, it sucks".
--- --- ---

Haha, that's great. It's so true, sadly.



shiftis
Location: Canada
Comments: 369
Sep 01 (2005) 11:09AM  

...What I mean by that is, it's true that many reviewers see non-iPod DAPs as being inferior, because they are not iPods. Although not all reviews are like that, it's annoying to find ones that are. I'm not saying the review in question is like that, because I haven't read it yet.



Anonymous
Location: China
Guest
Sep 01 (2005) 01:04PM  

Smith, why is the quote amusing? i completely understand your position on uninformed buyers and marketing, but i don't think that quote is misleading or uninformed at all. the scroll wheel really is a great UI, and i am not surprised that the zen's touch pad would be worse.



Dr Doom

Comments: 23
Sep 01 (2005) 02:03PM  

FYI I have heard both players ( I did the Zen sleek review on Headfi ) And my Sleek is superior to my old IHP-120, VAIO Pocket and a borrowed Ipod v4. And this isnt the only review where itunes is brought up, try every other review of a non ipod DAP ever reviewed by Cnet and then get back to me. And how many Non Ipods support Itunes? are they gonna automatically give any DAP the thumbs down because it does'nt support Itunes?. The point is itunes is a completely differant product and they must review the DAP ON ITS OWN



Anonymous
Location: China
Guest
Sep 01 (2005) 04:19PM  

"And how many Non Ipods support Itunes? are they gonna automatically give any DAP the thumbs down because it does'nt support Itunes?"

Why don't you check what the reviewer actually wrote??

"The most bewildering thing about the Sleek is it doesn't mount as a drive on the Mac, and doesn't integrate with iTunes. Not surprising, you say? Well, considering that the ignoble Creative Zen Nano Plus can manage this, why does its big brother the Sleek have so much trouble? Interestingly, the Nano doesn't need you to install any special software either. This simplicity makes the Nano Plus more rewarding to use."

Ok, he DOES say it doesn't integrate with iTunes... The iPod is the only which does (out of the box), and so I really doubt the Nano does too as the reviewer says. But IT DOESN'T MOUNT AS AN EXTERNAL HD. Now, that means it isn't Mac compatible. At all. Period. And that is a downside... That's the same reason why I didn't buy a Sony MD Walkman, because of SonicStage not being compatible with a Mac. I went with an iPod instead, so Sony just lost a loyal customer like, forever... Get it?

It is a downside, Mac != iTunes... There's one thing called Mac OS X, and so far, the only jukebox and player combo compatible with both Mac OS X and Windows XP is iTunes + iPod! Microsoft/Sony/Creative/whatever won't release a decent jukebox for the Mac (and apparently, some won't even let you mount their players as HDs), so Apple shouldn't let other players sync with iTunes. An eye for an eye... /rant



The D

Comments: 12
Sep 01 (2005) 05:32PM  

anon:
No offence or anything, but why should creative support osx? there are so few macs (about only 3.8% of all computers sold) out there that it is a waste of time, I would much prefer that they support Linux instead of a os that is only supported by apples own over priced computers.




renegade732

Comments: 38
Sep 01 (2005) 05:51PM  

Creative should support Macs for the same reson companies should suport OGG. It's a tiny fraction of users, but they still are user willing to spend money.



The D

Comments: 12
Sep 01 (2005) 06:31PM  

That’s not true, anyone can use Vorbis (it is a feature like mp3 playback is, which anyone on any computer can use) but only a few can use OSX (because it only can be run on apple computers).

What I am saying is that why should the player be judged on if it supports a rivals proprietary software and if it supports a niche OS?



Anonymous
Location: China
Guest
Sep 01 (2005) 06:55PM  

The Nano Plus mounts on a Mac because it is a flash based player, many flash devices will. For the HDD players, you can actually download a piece of software to use a creative player on OSX from [Linky]





Anonymous
Location: China
Guest
Sep 01 (2005) 06:59PM  

One more thing, You can use a Zen Nano in iTunes if you use MP3 files. Just drag and drop to the player. I have in the past.

I haven't used the OSX for the Zen HDD players as I cannot afford one.



Fender 13
Location: China
Guest
Sep 01 (2005) 07:56PM  

Chances are, if you own a Mac, you're getting or already HAVE an iPod. So that reduces the 3 some percent of people who own macs to .0001639211% who actually want some kind of player other than an iPod. The fact is, if you are stupid enough to own ONLY a Mac computer, you are probably one of those elitist Apple freaks and wouldn't even consider buying a DAP from some other company.

To reduce the score 3.2 points almost solely on compatibility with Macs is absolutely rediculous.



Anonymous
Location: China
Guest
Sep 01 (2005) 08:55PM  

haha, its not based "solely" on compatability. in fact, i'm guessing that had little to do with the rating. i think it had to do with

-This connector is especially bulky and trails two cords, one of which terminates in a USB port; the other connects to the charger. Because of the size of this connector, enormous strain is placed on the female port in the Sleek. The connector on our player had surprising amounts of travel on it, because the connector is so big and doesn't fit tightly against the player. Whether this will eventually cause the port to malfunction, we don't know, but it isn't reassuring.

-but the Creative player didn't have quite the same warmth on tracks like Nirvana's Lithium.

-The vertical touch pad control on the Sleek is extremely frustrating and seems overly sensitive and slightly counter-intuitive.

so they didn't like the sound, they didn't like the UI, and they didn't like the physical connections. the package is nothing amazing, either.



Anon.
Location: China
Guest
Sep 02 (2005) 10:46PM  

If you're misinformed enough to buy an iPod, you probobly own a Mac. LOL...J/K. Just a joke, I love you Mac folks.

I've owned both an iPod Mini and a Zen Xtra 60gig. Hands down, Creative OWNS on SQ. No doubt, but I do like the wheel a little better than the touch pad on the recent Zens. I just bought the Zen Sleek and sold both my iPod Mini and Zen Xtra and I must say that I truely am enjoying this player greatly. Beauty has always been in the eye of the beholder and the Sleek is the SH#t, IMO. Smith is right, it's hard for consumers to think outside of the box....especially when all they're bombarded with is ads for, IMO, an inferior mp3 player. Creative has permanently won me over.



Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2408
Sep 03 (2005) 01:54AM  

hi, i owned a V3 pod, sound quality was atrocious, have apple really made leaps and bounds with the V4's SQ?



k8
Location: China
Guest
Sep 03 (2005) 12:29PM  

Just bought a Zen Sleek and as a Mac owner, was disappointed to find it didn't support Mac OSx, as I took it for granted that it did..but seeing as Im totally in love with it, I refuse to bring it back and will transfer my music from the Mac to the PC. Anyone any ideas how I can do this without having to burn 3,000 songs onto a million cds to transfer???



Fender13

Comments: 67
Sep 04 (2005) 04:35PM  

put them on a DVD-RW disc one chunk at a time and then rewrite over them with the next chunk after you have transfered them to the PC



Jen_Neva

Comments: 5
Oct 03 (2005) 12:34PM  

I have the Zen Sleek and absolutely love it. Superb sound, design, and features. I don't like the USB/charging cable thing, but that's about it. I have found alternative carry cases to use with it, no big deal.

I have owned the Zen Touch in the past. The Sleek is way nicer.

I also occasionally use iTunes to purchase a song here and there. iTunes lets you burn a CD of any song up to 3 times. So, you can buy a song from them, burn it on a CD, and THEN rip it to mp3, works great. That's what I do, I don't need it to work like an iPod, or I would have bought an iPod instead. The Sleek, IMO, is way better than an iPod anyway.





You must be logged in to make comments on this site - please log in, or if you are not registered click here to signup
Welcome
Username:

Password:


Remember me

[ ]
[ ]
[ ]

Online
Guests: 16
Members: 0
On this page: 1
Members: 9327, Newest: WetherbeeJimmy

Chatbox
You must be logged in to post comments on this site - please either log in or if you are not registered click here to signup



Lacene
The ZVM is pretty much the most "high-end" DAP I ever got....I got started on DAPs by getting a Dell Pocket DJ, lol. It was a re-branded Creative DAP. All others I got are Sandisk DAPs....

Saijin_Naib
Yeah, I used to remember when I was jealous of Creative DAPs. I couldn't afford to have the "top of the line" DAPs back then, and messed with no-name Chinese OEMs.

These days, you're almost better off taking that route.

Cowon still seems to put out quality. Samsung just makes Android players, same for Archos.

MPIO (my favorite) has become defunct.

These are dark times for DAPs

Lacene
I still have my ZVM that I got when they first came out....it still works and looks like new...I never abused it and put one of those clear protective shields on it and got a silicon case for it.

A shame that Creative put it out - their most highly-regarded DAP ever - and then seemed to go downhill immediately afterwards...

Saijin_Naib
Yeah, I played with one. Pretty slick, great interface. So great in fact, that Apple largely knocked it off and sued Creative to keep the rights. Bastards.

I have a Creative Zen Vision Micro 6gb I need to repair/swap drive out of.

LiQuiD_FuSioN
Anyone have experience with the Creative ZEN Vision:M? Now that was a cool looking player too, never got to try one out though.

Saijin_Naib
Yeah, my friend had the S9 and he really loved it, especially the custom GUIs people would cook up.

I noticed that Cowon recently released a D20 and an X9. They both look rather tempting. Availability looks spotty at the moment though :L

My favorite DAP probably would have been the Zune30, if it was slightly more customizable. The RIO players had great auto-playlisting & searching support.

Similarly, the Haier Ibiza (despite its other shortcomings) has a brilliant filter feature and related features during playback.

It, however, can't make a shuffle list to save its digital life so it gets on my nerves using it as my car player.

Yeah, people still seem to love convergence devices. I'm still of the mind that I'd rather have devices that are designed for a specific task, and execute that task properly. The biggest pet peeve I have is crappy tools, and convergence devices by definition, are crappy tools. By attempting to do everything, they do no single task well.

SarahV
@Saijin: The J3 is one of the best DAPs I've had. The GUI is way better than the S9. The hardware is pretty similar. I still have a special place in my heart for the iRiver Clix, though. Loved the interface on that so much...

The problem we have today is that hardly anyone actually uses a DAP and they don't want to carry more than one device. I probably carry my mp3 player more than my phone, but I realize most people are not like me

Saijin_Naib
This community was tops. I still think we could be.

LiQuiD_FuSioN
Good ol' DAP Review! I still remember when Engadget would rip your stories off.

Saijin_Naib
That sounds like a decent size for a music library. How are you finding the Cowon? They seem to be one of the few manufactures left that makes anything halfway decent. I'm not interested in Yet Another Android Slate (YAAS) like the Archos line have devolved into.

But Sarah, the iProducts are the bestest things ever! Their batteries last like, totally way longer than like, other players do!


Staff
Senior Editor:
Michael aka ssjmichael

• DAPreview N. America
• Publisher
• Marketing and Advertising


Contributing Editors:
Dominic aka Dominic

• DAPreview Europe
• Forum Moderator

Andrew aka DF

• DAPreview Asia
• Design consultant


Click on names for email and user ID for Member Profile

RSS Feeds
Our news can be syndicated by using these rss feeds.
rss1.0
rss2.0
rdf

DAPreview WebRing

Fan site for the Creative Zen brand of MP3 players


Fan site for the Cowon iAudio brand of MP3 players


Subscribe in a reader


News By Catagory




RSS Feeds

User Reviews   Privacy Policy