Creative Zen Stone Plus

Full Review

Our winner is the Creative Zen Stone Plus, a player we would dare to term ‘ultra-cute’ if it weren’t for its great sound performance and the amount of noise its tiny speaker can produce. The Zen Stone Plus is named that way for a reason, it looks like a stone (the ‘pebble’ look has been co-opted by the Samsung YP-S2) and is extremely small. It might look a little plump but it weighs as little 21 grams and tiny enough to easily get lost if you aren’t careful with it. The model that we reviewed had a silver matte body which looks good. The player’s front has a small circular LCD screen and a click wheel with playback and volume controls. One side has the miniUSB port and the other also has some controls.

When it came down to playing music, the Zen Stone Plus was impressive, especially considering its size.

The Zen’s package contains a USB cable, a couple of manuals and a pair of earphones. The earphones are average, they might be okay for casual listening but for music connoisseurs, we recommend a better pair. The player sports a very basic interface which is usable but not perfect. It allows you access to a menu system that comprises of the music player, FM radio, voice recording and the likes. Although, in the music playback mode the player does allow you to browse through folders, it does not allow the same by song. So to choose a song, you will still have to skip through tracks. This was certainly annoying although understandably present in three of the four players we tested.

When it came down to playing music, the Zen Stone Plus was impressive, especially considering its size. It produces a very punchy bass, especially audible when playing Love Lockdown by Kanye West. The mids were also very audible and did not get drowned out by the rest of the mix. The highs could have been better since on Jazz tracks the high hats weren’t that clear. We would recommend the Creative Zen Stone Plus if you like listening to Pop, Rock and Hip-Hop. And before we forget, there is the tiny speaker at the back of the player, which produces surprisingly loud volumes.

The Creative Zen Stone Plus is priced at Rs. 3,000 for the 2GB model. It is a small player that manages to bring a lot of performance to the table. And that is enough to make it our best buy for this category.

Bottom Line

The Creative Zen Stone Plus impresses with its small size and sound performance. A bunch of helpful features and a cheap price seals the deal.