Creative Zen Style 300 8 GB MP3 and Video Player (Black)

Pros: Simple to use, fantastic sound quality, nice and compact, keeps me from becoming an iTool.

Cons: No button lock function, a little explanation on how to import video would've been EXTREMELY useful.

Let's get one thing straight: I did not want an iPod. I did not want to be stuck using iTunes for every damn function when a simple drag and drop will suffice. All I wanted was an MP3 player that I could plug in, move music to it, and that would be the end of it.

That said, this is a fantastic little MP3 player. I finally was forced to get a new one since my original 4GB Zen model from 2004 finally died (mournful taps plays off in the distance). The onboard speaker is actually quite potent even when the volume is maxed, and the microphone does a pretty fine job itself when you have use for it. The navigation buttons (the square setup towards the bottom of the player) are responsive and aren't finicky to deal with. The other buttons have a good...Read more

I listen exclusively to audiobooks that I download from the state's library site using Overdrive. Overdrive manages both mp3 and dwma formatted files, each about an hour long.

In the past, I have used the creative muvo, sansa clip, and Sony (the screen quit, and it was too costly to replace even though it was still under warranty, shame on you Sony). I have been most happy with the zen Mosaic, and I will use this as a basis for comparison on this review.

Button Layout (style 300 wins) The Mosaic buttons were designed to be stylish, not functional. If the Mosaic is in my pocket and I receive a phone call, I must take it out of my pocket, look at the player to find the button and press it. The Style has a better layout and I can find the most important buttons (on-off, volume, forward/backward) by sense of touch.

On-Off Button (Mosaic wins) On the Mosaic, you slide a button on the side of the unit. On the Style, you press down the button on...Read more

I bought this about a month ago and have had no real problems! After my Archos 605 died, I went around Amazon looking for a decent, under $100 MP3 player with a flash drive. After deciding to leave Archos (their cheap players didn't get great reviews), this looked the best for its price, the Creative Mozaic had good reviews and CNET liked both players. I've used Creative before so I wasn't very worried about interface (user or PC).
It has great sound quality (very typical for the Creative players I've had over the years), including the speaker. Seems fairly durable, I've dropped it once (onto carpet, not concrete) and it was fine. The FM player is an added bonus, but requires headphones to get reception and the scan is horrendous. It will pick up the usual local radios, but you have to scroll through and then program them in by hand. Per usual, Creative's included software was horrendous, but it syncs through Windows Media Player easily and you can drag and drop. The display...Read more