Creative Zen Stone Upgrades Flaunt Integrated Speaker
The popular cheap-as-chips Zen Stone/Zen Stone Plus are set for an upgrade this year. The V2.0 devices will have an integrated mono speaker—pretty exciting, eh? Check out the gallery for some shots of the new MP3 players.
The Zen Stone of old will now be available in blue, pink, champagne and black colors, as well as in 1GB or 2GB flavors, and besides the novelty speaker, not much has changed. The Zen Stone Plus will also get the mono speaker treatment. The higher end models will be available, as before, with an integrated FM radio, voice recording capability, OLED screen and in either 2GB or 4GB varieties.
The new players will ship with a silicon skin; a sports armband and carry case keychain will be available separately. According to the CEO of Creative “It’s hard to believe that such incredibly small players can have a speaker that sounds so good…” Beyond possible, we would have to say. The 1GB model will ship this February in Japan, retailing at 4,980 yen ($48.) Further pricing and shipping dates are not available at present. [Creative]
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
I just bought one of these neat little MP3’s – and was surprised at the quality of the sound – especially for classical and voice recordings.
The blue OLED screen is easy to read (if you’re not long-sighted), and the Creative Media Lite software is user-friendly.
The speaker would not work until I downloaded new software from the Creative website – which could be a nuisance if you didn’t have ready access to a computer. However, the new software works well – with the speaker automatically coming on if the headphones are removed.
It would be nice if Creative included one of the following (skin, keyring, armband or wristband) – as they add quite a bit to the price.
Thumbs up!