HiFi Blog: digital audio goodness

Preface

Wasn’t it Creative who said it would clean up its over-crowded product line, in a conference call a few months ago? Seems like some engineers were kept out of the loop, creating yet another iPod nano competitor, probably thinking that the recently introduced Zen V/Zen V Plus weren’t adequate enough. We’re talking about the Neeon 2, an updated to the the ZEN Neeon line of players, introduced by the Singaporean company a couple of weeks ago.

In short, we would describe the Neeon 2 as a simplified Zen V Plus (yet not plain enough to become a Zen V…), with all the good and bad this entails. For example: less supported formats (bad), UMS (Universal Mass Storage) support (GREAT news, we’ll talk about it below). More details in the paragraphs that follow:

Capacities and formats

The updated Neeon sports a 1.5-inch 128×128 pixel CSTN (compared to the Zen V Plus’ pricier OLED) display. It uses flash for storage and comes in four capacities: 1/2/4 GB. It supports the usual audio formats (MP3/WMA/WAV), transcoded AVIs (included software does the job) for video and JPEGs for pictures.

The Zen V Plus is much better in terms of supported formats since it also does protected WMA files in the audio department, and MPEG-4, WMV and DivX when it comes to video. It’s clear the video support in the Neeon 2 is just a “because-we-can” bonus feature, so we don’t hold a gripe against Creative for that. (Compare that to the Nano’s lack of support for any kind of video format and you’ll see what we’re talking about.)

Battery and features

The built-in Li-Ion Polymer battery lasts for 20 hours of audio, or 8 hours of video goodness. In usual Creative fashion, there’s an FM tuner and a voice/line-in recorder to sweeten the deal. In comparison:

• The Zen V Plus’ battery is rated at 15 hours of audio, though it surpassed the 20-hour mark at CNET’s tests. It’s got the Neeon’s extras, plus an FM recorder (and basic PIM functionalities / clock / alarm clock).
• The Nano goes for 14 hours, lacks radio and recording functions, thought it comes with a few neat bells & whistles in the PIM/software extras side.

The main means of navigation in the new Neeon is a scroll-wheel found on the side (think MuVo here)—compared to the Zen V Plus tiny, ‘prone-to-collecting-dirt-around-it’ joystick found on the Zen V Plus. I’m not sure if the scroll-wheel is the way to go here, though others have noted it’s a welcome change.

The big news around the updated Neeon though, concern its UMS support. That acronym means you don’t need Windows XP, drivers or special software to load the device with music. Just as long as you’re using a modern operating system (any one), drag & drop, and you’re set. It’s still not 100% certain, but if we’re reading the signs from Creative’s product page correctly, it’s very possible; also read Michael’s comments about this here—he did a nice reporting job on it.

Form factor

Less curvy and funky-looking than the Zen V Plus, and more Nano-esque in shape, the Neeon 2 measures at 81×42x12.5mm and weighs 50g. In comparison, the respective numbers for the Zen V Plus are 43.5×67.5×15.9mm and 50g, and for the Nano: 90×40x6.9mm and 42g. So:

• The Neeon 2 is … to the Nano: 8g heavier, slightly shorter, about the same width and almost twice as thick.
• The Neeon 2 is … to the Zen V Plus: same weight, almost twice as high, 2/3rds-wide and a bit slimmer.

If colors mean much to you when choosing a portable audio device, you’ll be glad to know that the Neeon 2’s brushed-metal backplate comes in several colors.

Package

In the package, apart from the USB cable and earphones, you’ll get a drawstring pouch, a neck strap, a line-in cable and a Stik-On skin.

Pricing

Note that the prices for the Neeon 2 are approximate (since the original prices were in Singapore dollars, and these are in USD) and that for Creative’s products the prices listed are MSRPs—actual prices are almost always lower. With this note out of the way, here’s the price chart:

[1GB] Neeon 2: $125 vs Zen V Plus: $130 vs Nano: $150
[2GB] Neeon 2: $170 vs Zen V Plus: $170 vs Nano: $200
[4GB] Neeon 2: $195 vs Zen V Plus: $230 vs Nano: $250

Availability

It could be a few weeks or even months till it actually ships (the Zen V Plus is said to be coming this month), and there’s no word regarding availability outside Asia yet. (We’re not too optimistic about it though).

End notes

If it remains an Asia-only product, there’s not much use for opinions, speculations, etc.—those wacky Asians are in a league of their own, when it comes to portable audio players. Nevertheless, we’re still puzzled why Creative would release this only a few weeks after the Zen V and Zen V Plus models. Yes, they have differences—but they’re targeting the exact same market. (And when you’re offering too many similar products to the consumer, he gets confused and then goes ahead to buy an iPod nano.) When the second round of Nano-competitors comes, we’d like Creative to keep this in mind—and make sure to keep the UMS approach.

→ ZEN Neeon 2 Product Page (creative.com)

(You may also want to read our Zen V/Zen V Plus presentation.)