I love my Zen Stone Plus but it poops out fast!

I have an iPod but couldn't resist picking up three different Creative MP3 players when the Creative site had a major sale on refurbed players.

I gave two of the players to my kids and kept the Creative Technology ZEN Stone Plus (2 GB) MP3 Player (70PF219100EE1). This tiny player works just fine but it has such a short battery life! It's annoying to have recharge the thing after every use.

In The Box

You get the player, a USB cord that acts as both a battery charger and a way to connect to download music, ear buds, and a little starter's manual. The software is downloaded and not included in the box.

About the Player

This tiny player is only 2.19" x 1.39" x 0.5" and .74 ounce. It comes in six colors. I chose the royal blue. It has a rechargeable Li-ion polymer battery which I thought would be a good thing as opposed to buying batteries like my younger son has to do with the player I bought him.

It can play MP3, WMA, and audible files.

The player has a lot of functions that most people will never use. As well as playing music, there is an FM radio with up to 32 preset channels, a voice recorder, clock, count down timer, and stopwatch. There is a volume restriction option so you don't blow out your ears and a shortcut menu to go to your favorite areas.

The player has a teeeeeny round OLED screen that shows the minimum of info. It will tell you the current time, count down the seconds in stopwatch or counter mode, and will scroll the name of the song and artist along with how far into the song you are. The screen is black with green print, at least on my player. It's small but easy to read. At 64x64 pixel resolution, it's not super sharp but quite passable.

On the other side of the screen is a round control wheel. It looks similar to an iPod touch wheel but isn't one. There are four points (12, 3, 6, 9) that you push to access different parts of the menu. The on/off/pause button is on the top of the player.

Ear buds come with this player and are very standard. It's almost a must to buy a clip, arm band, key chain, or some other means of keeping track of the Zen Stone Plus. It's very small and it could easily get lost if you don't secure it to you in some way. It is all plastic so you don't want to drop it on a hard surface.

Ease of Use

I'm not exactly savvy when it comes to anything remotely electronic. I tend to get overwhelmed quickly when I buy a new gadget. However, adding songs to the Zen Stone Plus is as easy as dragging and dropping the songs from my music folder. Do note that this player does NOT come with any software. I had to download a program from Creative which works very well. It's small, fast, and uncomplicated.

I open my music folder and then open the program. I simply choose the songs I want to add to the player and drag them over. I do the same with songs I want to remove, only I drag them from the player screen to my music screen. It takes seconds to transfer songs. Seriously, it cold NOT be easier to fill up your Zen Stone Plus with music.

You can create folders with certain types of songs, certain artists, or whatever. I have a workout folder which has a play list that I use when I workout. The rest of my music is just free floats. One thing I have yet to figure out is how to shuffle songs. I have tried everything and can play by song name, artist, and album name, but see no shuffle option. I'm not saying it is impossible to set the player to shuffle but I simply cannot find out how. I will write to Creative and update with the info they provide me.

As far as accessing other features like the radio, a simple push of a button brings up a list of things to navigate to.

The radio can be preset with up to 32 stations. It sounds OK. I rarely use it because I rarely listen to the radio. The voice recorder is passable. It's good for quick notes to myself or directions but I don't often use that feature either. The stopwatch and counter are what they are. They are easy to set and either count back or count up depending on the feature you choose. They count in seconds and minutes. While these are in use, you cannot see what music is playing nor, to my knowledge, can you change songs. I tried and nothing happened.

There are options for how long you want the back light on, whether you want to display the time when the player is idle, and a few other things. I strongly suggest limiting everything that takes battery power because, as cute and as good sounding as this player is, the battery is woefully short on power.

Speaking of sound quality, it's quite good. It isn't as good as my iPod but it has deep tones and a nice sound to it. I was pretty amazed that such a little, inexpensive player could sound so good. It sounds much better using better ear buds or earphones than come with it.

And then there's the battery...

The official word is that you can get up to 9.5 continuous hours of playback with this unit. I never got anywhere near that. I will listen for an hour to an hour and 15 minutes and already the battery is nearly zapped. I get two hours max as far as continuous playback. I don't think that is because I bought the unit refurbished. I think the battery is just weak. Every little thing takes up battery power.

Charging is easy. You hook the player to the computer and, in a couple of hours, it is fully charged. I am NOT happy that there is no AC adapter/charger included with the player. Sometimes I am where I don't have my computer and would like to charge the player. Can't do it. Well, let me clarify. I CAN do it. They sell a wall charger for $30.00 and a car charger for $30.00 as well. But I only paid $31.99 for the whole unit. Paying an extra 30 bucks for a wall adapter or car charger would make this unit expensive as far as I'm concerned. But I may cave and buy the wall charger anyway because the player is the one I take along to outdoor type vacations. I don't want to ruin my iPod or lose it in the woods, mountains, or trails so I take the cheapie player. I don't bring a computer but I do usually have electricity so the charger would be essential.

My Final Thoughts

The Creative Technology ZEN Stone Plus (2 GB) MP3 Player (70PF219100EE1) is a tiny unit that has a lot of features packed into it. It has good sound and holds a decent amount of songs. Adding songs to the player couldn't be easier which is a big plus for someone like me. The other features are things I rarely use but they may come in handy.

A new unit will cost you between $60.00 and $70.00. The refurbed units are selling on the Creative website at this writing for $31.99. There are extras you can buy like the above mentioned car and wall chargers, skins, arm and wrist bands, key chains, and speaker systems. I immediately bought a wrist band and skins to protect the unit.

I have no major issues with this unit except for the short battery life. It makes me crazy when I see the empty battery icon on the tiny screen. I guess I will HAVE to buy the wall charger! It will work with the other players I bought for the kids as well so I suppose it's not a big expense. Still, I do expect more than a couple of hours of playback time from any MP3 player.

I give this unit 4 stars because it is easy, sounds good, is really light and small, great for exercise and travel, and has held up well so far for me. If the battery were better, I would give it 5 stars. There's not a lot to complain about as long as you're not expecting a unit that plays video and does all sorts of high end things that high end players do. This is a simple player that has more features than most in its price range and sounds really crisp.