Zen Vision W, in the flesh

We promised you better pics than that grainy Popular Mechanics scan, and by golly we've got 'em. Creative's Zen Vision W is looking slick with that 4.3-inch widescreen dominating most of the device and a freakishly-cute panda bear angel peeking out from inside. Rumor has it that the Zen Vision W acts as a window into the very gates of panda bear heaven, but that has yet to be confirmed. Keep reading for another angle and a box shot.

[Thanks, Kai]

[Vinni @ Aug 31st 2006 3:07PM]

500 bucks for the Creative PMP? i would buy it...but sadly the PMP is a rich persons' toy.

[p @ Aug 31st 2006 3:10PM]

anyone else reminded of the seagate logo by the packaging?

[Jason @ Aug 31st 2006 3:10PM]

Every time a Panda is poached... a Panda angel gets it's wings.

[blackout @ Aug 31st 2006 3:12PM]

FATTY

[TheBuddha @ Aug 31st 2006 3:13PM]

"Every time a Panda is poached... a Panda angel gets it's wings."

I'm guessing that new snappy screen is sxcellent for the digital rebroadcasting of brutal realism.

[Mauricio @ Aug 31st 2006 3:14PM]

500? the Website advertises it for a whopping $650! and thats only for for the 30GB version?!
MAXIAN M800 anyone?
too bad its only sold everywhere else but here.

[G Money @ Aug 31st 2006 3:25PM]

I cant wait to watch Lords of the Ring on my 4 inch screen. My commute is half hour each way by train so that should take me 3 days to finish it. I probably wont have to squint too much since it's a 4 inch screen. Woot woot cant wait. Way to go creative!!!

End of sarcasm/

Gimmie a break, no one wants this sh!t. Apple shouldnt pursue a vidoe ipod either. An ipod with a bigger screen that has the option to play video's, YES. Not a full blown video ipod though.

Apple has itunes. They have tv shows. Now get some movies on there, make them 14.99 to buy, 3.99 to rent, or set up a subscription service a la netflix, and lets bypass dvd's altogether. Make the movies dvd quality 480p plus so they look good on crt's. lcd's plasmas whatever and lets takeover the world.

[zip22 @ Aug 31st 2006 3:29PM]

Mauricio, that is in Singapore dollars. S$649 = $412 US

[P Diddy @ Aug 31st 2006 3:31PM]

I want this shit. It's cheaper than the Epson P3000 or P5000 and comes with a built in CompactFlash slot which makes it great for photographers. I do have a gripe about the lack of SD card support, though.

Honestly, I'm getting sick of lugging around my laptop every time I have a photo shoot or I am day-tripping, and if I can watch movies and listen to music while I'm on a train or in an airport, I'm a happy camper.

[Eric @ Aug 31st 2006 3:31PM]

"500? the Website advertises it for a whopping $650! and thats only for for the 30GB version?!"


That's $650 in Singapore dollars, not US dollars.

[nimro @ Aug 31st 2006 3:35PM]

Anyone else notice the _very_ iPod-like photo browser?

[Raider @ Aug 31st 2006 3:36PM]

14.99 to buy a downloadable movie? What are you smoking?

Half the time you can just go and buy the DVD for that price or even cheaper.

[Mauricio @ Aug 31st 2006 3:36PM]

ahhh yes. i stand corrected. in that case... its nicely priced.

[PandaGod @ Aug 31st 2006 3:42PM]

Yo, engadgeteers, Panda God here, chillin in panda heaven.. Just wanted to go ahead and confirm that it is indeed a window into panda heaven.. That angel you see in the background is my right hand man, Leroy. Keep it real, and keep poaching those pandas! We've got plenty of room up here!

[CJ @ Aug 31st 2006 3:46PM]

@Raider,
But if you buy the DVD, it requires you to (quite illegally, I might remind you) decrypt and transcode the DVD to get it to fit on your (admittedly large) 4.3" screen. You're paying $15 for a legal copy of the movie you can put on any PMP that can play it.

Or lug your laptop around and play the movie on your laptop's DVD player.

[Eli @ Aug 31st 2006 3:48PM]

"Anyone else notice the _very_ iPod-like photo browser?"

You mean the displaying of thumbnails in a grid, with a scroll bar on the right?

Yeah man, Apple totally invented that. And did you notice how the corners of the Zen are rounded? I bet Apple has a patent on that.

[Dignan17 @ Aug 31st 2006 3:49PM]

"no one wants this sh!t"

I love people who speak for everyone. Actually, there is a large number of people who REALLY want this "sh!t." How do you explain the large number of devices in this form factor. There has to be a demand for it.

These devices are fantastic for when you have downtime that must be spent sitting in one place for a long period of time. This could be airports/planes, long car trips (if you're not driving), the doctor's office, etc.

So what's with the aggressive Apple fanboyism?

All that said, I don't think Creative's device is the best PMP on the market, and they're playing catch-up with Archos, not Apple. There are a few features of the Creative that I don't like (not mass storage, no possibility to record video that we know of). Still, I'd pick this over an iPod any day. It's the lesser of two evils (in this case, evil meaning a device/company that places dozens of restrictions on what you can do).

[Desert @ Aug 31st 2006 3:56PM]

I sure as hell don't have a need for this. I can see people who commute hours a day using this, but for me, the only 'down time' I have is at home and I'd rather watch these things on a TV.

[Jack_Brack @ Aug 31st 2006 4:04PM]

Wow, a great alternative to the Archos line.

This beast isn't any sort of iPod killer and it's not meant to be. This is a whole different target audience, IMO.

I commute on a train 45 minutes each way...something like this would allow me to catch up on the Office or My name is Earl!

[Rob @ Aug 31st 2006 4:10PM]

That's Bear-Awesome!!!

Actually, I do like it. I watch video on my ipod all the time... OK, most of the time I use the video out, but I like being able to fit all my Futurama episodes in my pocket.

Anyhow, if I had an extra $500, I'd get this just for that panda picture! :p

[Ig @ Aug 31st 2006 4:11PM]

I'll give Creative big points over Archos on this device simply for including buttons with familiar play/pause, forward and back symbols. The learning curve is sharply reduced or eliminated when the user knows what many of the buttons do before he picks the device up for the first time.

[Jeff @ Aug 31st 2006 4:20PM]

"And did you notice how the corners of the Zen are rounded? I bet Apple has a patent on that."

Well, if Creative can patent browsing files in a hierarchical structure...

You know, like every computer ever made since the days of DOS...

[Thor @ Aug 31st 2006 4:42PM]

Ig: The new Archos (Gen 04) line has better buttons.

I'd really like to see a shootout of this vs the latest Archos and other players. Where can I find a test site that really tests players and not only have quick look at the box and roll a die?

I'd like to see a test that tries high quality mp3 (I use 320kbs VBR), difficult headphones (Etymotics e.g.), music that needs to be gapless etc. And when they get a 60GB device they should load 60GB of songs and check menu speed, usability etc.

I really would like this toy. My current Zen Xtra is dying soon and I need a big drive replacement. But Creative or Archos, that is the question...

[resource @ Aug 31st 2006 5:15PM]

I know I am being a real tech bitch about this, esp since its brand new and better than the iPod video but this needs to be slimmer.

Cant wait for cheap 30GB flash drives.
Small and thin products with great battery life...

[Cheatah @ Aug 31st 2006 5:30PM]

I think created makes the best PMP players, archos players even the new widescreen ones, don't play divx and all my tv shows are in DIVX format. So, this player stands out the best in terms of what it can play :-) I hate spending all the time converting my movies. Also, this works great at the gym, get on the eliptical play one of your favorite episodes, by the time the episode is over its time to get off the eliptical.

[Dave @ Aug 31st 2006 5:58PM]

Does this have a 2.5" HD? If so it would be cool to drop one of those in.

[Frankenstein Black @ Aug 31st 2006 6:31PM]

MAN ARE WE TWISTED OR WHAT! We gladly plunk down dollars for these portable gadgets (Zen Vision, video iPod, etc.) and then ROAST SONY’S NUTZ for pricing the PS3 at $499 and $599! We really need to get off of our “evolutionary high horse”. We are nothing more than fancy Apes behind a fancy glass prone to mimicry (you know, “monkey see, monkey do ;^). Unlike others, these devices are priced way above the sum of their parts! Now let us dance for our Bananas you fellow Chimps, era Chumps!

[E @ Aug 31st 2006 7:29PM]

Any details about how easy it is to encode video for this? Or is it the way they should be (wishful thinking) you drag and drop it and it just works.

I have a bunch of stuff I converted for my iPod, but I wouldn't mind setting up some kind of DVR in one of my computers, set them up to grab shows and save 'em in a format this thing likes.

[branson @ Aug 31st 2006 9:06PM]

That bear is out of their tv commercial:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2SdZausU2vo

[Marcus Olsson @ Aug 31st 2006 9:12PM]

Overall the design is quite nice, though I hate the shape, color, and placement of all the buttons. What the heck was the designers thinking?!

[Dave @ Aug 31st 2006 11:09PM]

Drop one of those new 160gb drives, i meant.

[Zadillo @ Aug 31st 2006 11:35PM]

As a serious question, how is one intended to hold this when watching it? It seems like there is really not much space at all to the left of the screen, so if one were to hold it with two hands it seems like it would be awkward to find a way to hold it without your thumb at least touching some part of the screen.

I see how it could work in a place where you can set it down somewhere, but how about the rest of the time? Would you have to just hold it with just your right hand? I'm actually sort of curious about that as well, since it seems like your thumb might brush up against the buttons on the right side of the screen.

Anyone have any ideas, or have you been able to hold one in person and watch it for extended periods of time? Just curious about the comfort level of watching this.

[rodan32 @ Sep 1st 2006 12:01AM]

I had the original Zen Vision, and it suffered from two flaws. The screen angle was really tight, enough that it tripped out your eyes since they were seeing what amounted to two different pictures. The other was the interface was panda slow. Click . . . . . . . . . . cursor response. Archos can manage a fast interface. Toshiba does it. Sandisk does it. Apple perfected it. Come ON, Creative, get your $|-|it together.

Part of the problem was a VGA screen made for a PDA, meaning you hold it vertically rather than horizontally, and the viewing angle was made for that.

As for the interface sluggishness, well, I wound up with the Gigabeat S60, and it's extremely responsive, as in iPod responsive (without the pain of iTunes and iFanboyism).

Ok, what's my point? The Vision has such awesome promise if they make the interface responsive and the screen snazzy. Those were just little quality things that should never get to market when you're trying to compete with Apple. Without those quirks, I predict just an awesome video player.

[Blackflip @ Sep 1st 2006 3:38AM]

Why does nobody see the lack of high resolution screen? This screen just sucks!

640 x 480 is awesome, thats why i bought the Zen Vision

and i was thinking about selling it to get the :W version, but now, im not even considering this option.
What a waste of my time

[The S @ Sep 1st 2006 8:01AM]

I doubt the iPod photo menu is patented. That's the only way I can think of displaying photos effeciently. It would be like patenting 'the car'.

[anonymous @ Sep 1st 2006 11:27AM]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2SdZausU2vo

That is a great commercial. It's pointless, says nothing about the product, but the panda is so cute!

[patrick @ Sep 3rd 2006 12:51PM]

FYI...Medge (www.buymedge.com) has a sweet beltclip jacket for the Creative Zen Vision PMP.

[dave @ Sep 6th 2006 2:10PM]

Yo when is this thing gonna comeout?

Also, I have a zen vision and the screen is SOOO reflective it's really hard to use. Does anyone else have this problem?

[mic2233 @ Sep 17th 2006 8:51AM]

the zen vision W is $299.99 at new egg.

[PenaltyKillah @ Feb 11th 2007 11:53AM]

Ahem... remember people, it's the SINGAPOREAN site! It's not worth US$500, it's S$500! It's so much cheaper in America or Canada, alright? God!

[Dave @ May 30th 2007 4:47PM]

When does the 60GB hit the UK??

[chris @ Jun 4th 2007 7:26PM]

what the hell are you talking about

[emily @ Dec 1st 2007 9:51PM]

Where do you people shop? I got my Zen vision W for 199.00!

[Joona Palaste @ Dec 18th 2007 12:06PM]

In case you failed to realise it, the comments you replied to are almost a year and a half old. Prices tend to drop over time.

[Justin @ Oct 10th 2008 12:44AM]

This is a grave dig....but..... are these things still soled ANYHERE? it looks like they came out like 2 years ago..... i cant find any....execept for a couple used ones.