Square, practical, applicable

Eward de Bono once said, people are buying two things: good feelings and solutions to problems.
Before I got this MP3 player, I already had an iPod nano first generation and iPod classic. As for the iPod Nano that Apple wrote to me three weeks ago a charming little mail, there have unfortunately been found that when iPod nano first generation from and to the battery exploding, the older the device would be, the more would it before and therefore I may yet return the product please very quickly, it would be replaced. Invariably covered in my mind some situations past, where I had the potentially exploding small bomblets this (very rare, says Apple and factually it is never explodes), so I've had my Nano eg while in bed, on the Zahnartstuhl, to waking up after anesthesia, on the plane and in the queue at the immigration controls in the United States, all situations where you loose and flaky with exploding batteries bypasses ... hm.
Apple introduced the device then also very, very quickly picked up and not quite as quickly returned a new one. But after 6 weeks (!) They have managed it yet, so I can revise my old review now. Instead of the old Nano I got a new iPod Touch. Zen and Touch are roughly in the same price category, touch is a bit more expensive.

With its commitment to ZEN and iPod Touch next to each other, then the Apple has what is called Design and the ZEN is a square, black cubes. The Touch is considerably smaller and more delicate and looks beside the ZEN as a sports car next to a family Volvo.
Even the Apple screen is several light years better than the ZEN. No Comparison. The question is, what to use an MP3 player. Who really wants to view photos that can also do on their smartphones or on the screen of his camera. I've never played a photo on my MP3 player. It may be that other people have a different consumer behavior, but when I take pictures, I let them either on my smartphone, which has a considerably larger screen or just on the camera and then play them at home on your PC. So the question is, what is relevant: screen or sound.

And as scores of ZEN. The sound is much better. If you compare the two together, then this is the reason to buy the ZEN and not to touch the sound. The Touch has more settings, but no matter what you do, it sounds flat. When it comes to the sound, it pays out just yet that the ZEN is greater.

The ZEN has the ability to expand the memory with a microSD card. I have not used up to now, but that's a good idea, and of course the device must then be greater. The Touch can be easily clipped to clothing, which means you can take it easily with out.

The major shortcoming of the ZEN is the user interface. It was created a kind of pseudo-touchscreen, one uses the ZEN by tapping on the side. The menu navigation is intuitive to learn, and in and of itself also easy to use, at least for my fingers. But if you touch it while it is running, he moved very easily and starts easily over again, which is incredibly annoying. Suffice it once to touch the device normally, flupp it pretends. The Zen has no means to attach it to a piece of clothing, unlike the touch and therefore one touched him lightly on times when you're doing it in his pocket and then he pretends extremely light ....

We come to the radio. The Touch works here apparently only with the original headphones, I have normal headphones from another company and therefore can not hear the radio. The ZEN has the edge here forward. The search for the station is very convenient and once set (preset) you can easily scroll through the different channels, is not pretending. The reception is very clean.

The ZEN will turn off when no music is played, and if you then turns it on again, it will jump back to where he has stopped the last time, but plays the same lot. The price of the operation is unassailable to the touch.

The Touch has no Bluetooth and no way to make your own recordings, which can of ZEN. Both can of course play photos and videos, but as I said, I've never done. I want an MP3 player to listen to music and audio books, images are better off elsewhere.

The Touch does not have a function of Nike, with which you can control its running performance. Do we need that? For joggers who want to control their power, determines useful. For this, the ZEN even take pictures, which is, however, most times as memo useful. I have not even used it in the last three months ...

So which players buy? it depends. The Touch is in all situations where you want to pinch a small, lightweight device to the blouse to have your hands free, the better choice. Anyone who wants to take his Ipod with jogging, must pick up the touch. The Touch is the "Outside device".
The screen is improved and the operability is better. But the radio is playing only with original headphones (something I find not so good).

But, if like me in bed listening to meditation music like the evening, the ZEN is announced. The ZEN is better if you want good sound because it is much stronger and if you can put him alone beside him and not have to touch him permanently, he can score. The ZEN plays the way music was recorded with ITunes even from when choosing the Apple format. But, it is not synchronized with iTunes, you have to copy the files manually from the appropriate folders in the Music folder. It depends very much on how you have sorted his music in iTunes. You can not resorting, you have to "albums and tracks" have been sorted, otherwise the ZEN, the order of the tracks do not comply, in meditation CDs naturally extremely annoying.

The ZEN is three orders cheaper than the Touch and useful in other situations than the Touch. Both have unnecessary frills, ultimately you have to decide for yourself what you really want to have what device, what features you really use. One should not be impressed by superfluous advertising arguments like "xyz can also and more and more and more ..."

In summary, I am pleased to have both devices and you can use them depending on the situation. IPod on the go, if you want to move and the hands would have free, the ZEN with its sound advantage for all situations in the park, at home, on a plane where you can relax in peace and the unit is adjacent to a. The batteries last way, in both cases comparable long and you can actually charge the ZEN on the charger for the iPod Touch at the socket ... so also in the car at the battery.

As I said, it does not always be Apple but in some cases it is more practical. But sound is sound.