Creative Technology Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra (30 GB) MP3 Player

Pros: Relatively inexpensive, small size, stylish and strong build, good battery life, easy to use...
Cons: May *still* be too expensive for some folks...

The gold standard of MP3 players is definitely the Apple iPod. And as such I purchased my husband the 30GB for about $500 in lieu of his birthday a few months back. It’s what he wanted and for the sake of ease I bought it instead of doing much ...

Pros: 30GB player for under $150; intuitive menu system
Cons: No FM receiver or voice record option

To the person who found a S anDisk 1GB MP3 player in the seat pocket in front of them during a plane ride from Montana to Salt Lake City and didn't turn it in; THANKS... No, really. You see, I turned around a bought a ...

Pros: Long battery life; Nice interface; Intuitive control scheme.
Cons: Lackluster software for streaming music to/from player.

It’s not white, it’s not cute, hell, it’s not even the sleekest thing compared to an iPod. Why would anyone even consider such a product, like, when the iPod is the ultimate MP3 player on the, um, planet? Well, maybe because the iPod is ...

Pros: Low price, large capacity
Cons: Large unit, terrible UI, sharp scroller, bad software, short warranty, no Mac support

I have some experience with hard-drive based MP3 players. I started out with the Ar chos 5GB unit, then when the fabulous generation one iP od 5GB came out I got that. After the iPod, ...

Pros: Outstanding sonics, repairable by a power user, low cost for function, reliable
Cons: size, weight, less rugged, separate power charger, ergonomics

UPDATED 7282005 FYI, while reloading 30G of music the Xtra freezed on me. Removing, batteries or resetting did not fix the problem. I had to enter 'rescue mode', i.e., press play and reset until the menu appears, and do a disk 'clean up', which is ...

Pros: great sound, HUGE storage capacity, good transfer software, can act like a portable hard drive
Cons: navigation a bit tricky, can't see display with cover on, no stop button, only pause

I had been looking at portable MP3 players for several weeks and preferred to get one with a hard drive. I considered the iPODs, but noticed that the Nomads seemed to be a slightly better value (more GB for less money). So, I decided on this unit. I ...

Pros: HUGE capacity, great sound, very affordable, very reliable and versatile. Goes anywhere!
Cons: May be TOO big for some. Many options take more time to master.

OUTLINE: I'll admit this upfront: I'm a nut when it comes to listening to music. I listen to it at home, on the way to class, in my car, while I work out, and whenever else I possibly can. I fell in love with MP3/audio players from day one. My ...

Pros: Sound quality, price, hard drive size, battery life.
Cons: Clunky, froze up on me once already.

I recently graduated from high school, and one of the electronics I was not going to go to college without was an Mp3 player. I browsed through countless reviews on players, but was limited by price. My price limit was $250, but players with the size I ...

Pros: Great sound; good interface; replaceable, powerful battery; good software; wake-up, sleep timers; multiple play modes
Cons: Not plug & play; relies on ID3; no FM or recording; short warranty

Pros: 1) Great sound (>98dB signal-to-noise ratio beats Ipod’s “unspecified” ratio) and good power output allow the Zen Xtra to drive large head-phones as well as external speakers. With my Sennheiser 497 headphones, the volume is loud ...

Pros: Rechargeable battery, high capacity, backlit display, menu system, lots of playback options
Cons: File storage feature is not (yet) plug-n-play
No drag-n-drop for music files

I bought this MP3 player after suffering through two smaller capacity and horribly user interfaced players. This one has the features I needed which include: random play, playlists, play by album, play by artist, create ad-hoc playlists, etc. It comes ...

Pros: Large Capacity, Plays MP3 & WMA, Simple Software, Blue LCD Display, Reasonable Price
Cons: Cannot Edit/Delete Songs Directly (need PC), Faceplate is not Secure, More Bulky/Less Stylish than Ipod

I waited a full year before writing a review of my Creative Labs Zen Nomad 30GB Xtra, because some products work well for the first 6 months and then break down once its too late to return. Well, after 12 months, I can say this has been a great purchase, ...

Pros: huge size, removable battery, backlight
Cons: its a bit big, battery could be larger, cant run with it

i got one of these refurbished from frys for $90 USD, and i can say, its a pretty nice little unit. with a little bit of hacking, some people were even capable of mounting a larger hard drive. its got tons of space, i use my archos to take filed off of ...

Pros: Great (replaceable) battery Excellent value
Cons: firmware a little buggy boring appearance

Let me start by saying that I bought my Nomad for 2 primary reasons: 1) It was over $100 bucks cheaper than a similarly-equipped iPod when I bought it a year ago. 2) I am a bit of a contrarian—the more I heard about how miraculous the iPod was, the ...

Pros: Huge storage space, easy to use, outstanding sound quality, good software(I liked it!)
Cons: Size, poor quality headphones included, no direct recording from any source, no FM

I recently purchased this item after having a Sony Minidisc player for awhile. My main motivation was to have enough storage space to put my entire music collection into. This player fits the bill perfectly. You never realize how much space 30GB is ...

Pros: capacity, price, sound quality
Cons: battery life, no stop button, lack of variable bit-rate support? (some songs unplayable)

I just do not understand why people pay for a name when they can get twice the capacity of an iPod for half the price--it is a no-brainer, really. I bought the Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra (phew!) 30GB MP3 player at Fry's Electronics for $180 ...