Portable music players have come a long way. Some of you may recall the days of yore when portable cassette players were considered the mobile music players of choice. Or how about when CD players came spinning in with their superior quality? We cannot forget the efforts by the likes of mini disc players which tried valiantly to reduce the bulky size of CD players while retaining superior sound quality of traditional CD players. As time passed, we were delighted with the possibilities of more high quality music in smaller devices. These days, it is all about the portable hard drive players.

Synonymous with portable hard drive players is the Apple iPod. Although, Creative had their Nomad series of portable hard drive players first, it was the Apple iPod which sent these devices mainstream. It would appear that the Apple iPod was the answer to what people wanted in a music player: tons of storage space in a stylishly designed pocket sized device. With this in mind, Creative counteracts Apple’s iPod with their Zen product line.

A good effort was made by Creative in their Zen product line, however the market was clearly dominated by Apple. In an attempt to broaden the scope of their iPod product line, Apple unleashes the iPod Mini. This was the ideal player for those who wanted more storage than a typical CD player, but did not need the overwhelming space and price of the iPod or Zen Touch/Xtra.

Of course, Creative had an answer for the iPod Mini in the form of the Zen Micro.

Key Specifications:

	Apple iPod Mini*	Creative Zen Micro**
Size WxHxD	51 mm x 91 mm x 13 mm	51mm x 84mm x 19mm
Weight (with battery)	103 grams	108 grams
Capacity	4 GB	5 GB
Interface	FireWire, USB 2.0	USB 2.0
Audio Support	MP3, AAC, MP3 VBR, Audible, AIFF, Apple Lossless, WAV	MP3, WMA, WAV
Display Size	138 x 110 pixel resolution	168 x 104 pixel resolution
Battery Life	8 hours	12 hours
Color Styles	5	10
Equalizer Settings	20	8

* iPod Mini specifications are based from the iPod Minis prior to February 18th, 2005.
** Zen Micro specifications are based from the Zen Micros prior to March 1st, 2005.

Other features include:

• FM radio – Listen to the radio and record from it. 32 presets available for configuration.
• Built-in voice recorder – Using the built in mic, you can record just about anything to the Zen Micro..
• Synchronization with MS Outlook – Get your “calendar”, “to-do list” and “contacts list” from MS Outlook and onto the Zen Micro.
• Customizable menu – Allows you to configure the menu the way you want it.
• Alarm and Sleep Timer – Use your favourite songs to wake you up.
• Highest audio clarity at 98 dB Sound to Noise Ratio.
• Functions as a removable hard drive with predetermined allocable sizes.
• Works with online music services such as Napster.

Requirements:

Microsoft® Windows® 98SE/Me/2000/XP
Microsoft® Outlook (For calendar, To-do list and contacts synchronization)
Intel® Pentium® II 350MHz or AMD K6® 450MHz (Pentium III 450MHz or higher recommended for MP3 encoding)
64MB RAM (128MB recommended)
USB 1.1 port (USB 2.0 recommended for faster transfers)
30MB free hard drive space (more for audio content storage)
CD-ROM drive with digital audio extraction support

As one can see by the specifications, the iPod Mini has Zen Micro up against the ropes in terms of a wider range of features. Although the Zen Micro is overall larger than the iPod mini, the increased battery life and extra storage space is a nice welcome for small increase in size. Particularly appealing to me is how the dimensions are laid out for the Zen Micro compared to the iPod Mini. The reduction of length gives the Zen Micro a noticeable comfort advantage compared to the iPod Mini, especially in my pocket.

Compatibility wise, a lot of credit goes out to Apple for putting in the effort to support such a wide range of audio formats and most importantly two major operating systems. While the Zen Micro doesn't sport the vast compatibility of the iPod Mini, it does however support the more dominant platforms and formats on the market today.

One important format which isn’t supported for either the Zen Micro or the iPod Mini is Ogg Vorbis. Hopefully, Creative will support this awesome format with a future firmware update.

Next: Packaging