Replace Zen Vision M

[cjflash]

I'm trying to be proactive here and look into alternatives before my ZVM dies. I love it to death, but recently the battery has been going screwy and I don't want to be stuck playerless.

So, I'm in the market for a new mp3 player. What I really need is:
-At least 16 gigs of memory (Flash or HDD doesn't matter)
-Easy playlist creation (On my ZVM I have my shortcut button set to "add to selected" and just use this to make instant playlists.)
-Compatability with WMP (I use WMP to sort sync all my music)
-Good sound quality (I loved how on the Zen it would show you the bit rate you encoded each song in)
-Good Navigation (I loved how I could always pull up the option

Not essential:
-Video support
-Good battery life
-non proprietary charge/sync cable.

Thanks for any help you can offer. I have around $250 to spend.

[CrowdAds]

[advcomp2019]

Sounds like you might want to look at the Cowon D2 or iAudio 7. I am sure one of them have the options that you want.

[no9]

I have the ZVM, the I7, and just got the D2. Coming from the ZVM I love the D2 although the playlists are nowhere near as easy to make as the ZVM. The I7 has only 1 playlist that I could ever get to work, there was talk of others making more work but I tried multible times and couldn't. The Creative Zen/X-fi (almost the same player) work almost exactly the same as your ZVM. I went with the D2 instead because of the lack of features when using the SD card on the Zen/X-fi. The D2 sounds alot better than the ZVM and gives you alot more options by being able to use multible Sd cards and switch them on the fly. It also has a 2 calculators, a notepad, and you can customize the themes.

[cjflash]

So I looked at both those players, but neither one really seems like an upgrade to what I already have. The D2 seems like a great player, but the playlist support is a pretty big deal to me and there seem to be complaints about the navigation. Is the touch screen cumbersome?

[no9]

Originally Posted by cjflash

So I looked at both those players, but neither one really seems like an upgrade to what I already have. The D2 seems like a great player, but the playlist support is a pretty big deal to me and there seem to be complaints about the navigation. Is the touch screen cumbersome?

No not really cumbersome I just got it and it took me about 2 minutes to figure it out. I've had a ZVM for almost 3 years and the no playlist thing is really pissing me off but anybody I've talked to says you can put them on the D2. There is 1 playlist called the dynamic playlist. I got the D2 and I wish I had got it instead of my second ZVM it really is a great player. When I started looking for a new player I was in the same boat as you, the ZVM has better features than almost anything out there so it's hard to go new and take a step backward. The two players it came down to where the D2 and the Zen.
The Zen- Didn't have video out, and coming from 60g's I wanted more than 32g but the SD card had no bookmarking and wasn't integrated into the main memory. I could have put just video on a card but I wanted the option for more music/audiobooks/podcasts. It does come in 32g though.

The D2- Didn't have playlists (which it does but I've just got to figure it out)but had video out and SD integration. But it's only 16g. but you can have multible SD cards ranging from 1g to 32g. Remember what a pain in the butt it is to fast forward on a track on the ZVM? With the touch screen on the D2 you just touch the track line and it goes to part of the song.
The Zen and X-fi are a very close player to the ZVM. The UI is almost exactly the same. But they are alot smaller with a better screen, and yes it still has the shortcut button. If video out doesn't matter to you and you only need from 16-32g the Zen is awesome. I almost bought it 4 times until i decided on a change and went with the D2.