Review: Creative ZEN V Plus

Whoever said size isn’t everything probably wasn’t talking about music players. Unlike, say, pickup trucks, music players put a premium on portability. Take the Creative ZEN V Plus, for example: This itsy bitsy music box packs up to 4GB of music—that’s about 1,000 songs—into one of the tiniest devices we’ve ever seen. And that’s really saying something.

Just 1.5 ounces in weight, the Creative ZEN V Plus could practically vanish in your jeans pocket. But that doesn’t stop it from sporting a 1.5-inch color screen that displays album art—or even short videos—and quickly changes orientation from portrait to landscape for easy viewing from any angle. The ZEN V Plus supports audio podcasts and plays music in the MP3, WMA, IMA ADPCM, and WMA DRM formats, and it works seamlessly with Windows Media Player 11 because it’s PlaysForSure compatible. –Robert Strohmeyer

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

$180, www.creative.com