A very short while ago we published a review of the Zen Touch (see our article called Creative ZEN Touch Player: Love Me Tender), a small-size digital audio player from Creative with most original controls, and I thought then that the Zen family had reached the height of perfection and we would have to wait for a long time to see a new model of this glorious series.

But I was wrong: the company's engineers decided to please us with yet another novelty. The new model is called Zen Micro and, like all devices of the Zen series, it uses a miniature hard disk drive as a storage medium.

Without unnecessarily puffing up this introduction, I invite you to get going right away and check out the specification of the new device.

Technical Characteristics

Manufacturer	Creative
Model name	Zen Micro
Dimensions	51mm x 84mm x 19mm
Weight	108g (with the battery)
Storage capacity	5GB
Power supply	Battery: one rechargeable Li-Ion battery, USB bus power supply when connected to the AC/DC source or the active USB port of the PC
Battery life	MP3 128kbit/sec: up to 12 h continuous playback with fully charged battery; WMA 64kbit/sec: up to 12 h continuous playback with fully charged battery; FM Radio: up to 16 h continuous playback with fully charged battery.
Supported playback formats	MP3: up to 320Kbit/s WMA: up to 320Kbit/s WMA with Digital Rights Management (DRM) 9
Supported recording formats	Voice (via built-in mic): IMA ADPCM (16kHz, Mono) FM Radio: IMA ADPCM (22kHz, Stereo)
FM-radio	Up to 32 preset stations; supported frequency range: 87.5MHz ~ 108MHz, with 100kHz increment
MP3 Playback	SNR: up to 98dB Channel separation: up to -70dB Frequency characteristic: 20Hz ~ 20kHz Harmonic distortion: <0.1%
Connectors	Headphones jack: 3.5mm stereo mini-jack, 5~7mW per channel mini-B USB port (USB 2.0 Hi-Speed / Full-Speed)
Harmonic distortions coefficient	<0.05%
LCD display	160x104 pixels, white backlighting
Headphones specs	Frequency characteristic: 20Hz ~ 20kHz Response level: 111dB +/-5dB (I/P level: 1mW) Resistance: 32Ohm +/-15% Plug: Stereo mini-jack 3.5mm
Approximate price	$300

The player in its retail package

I want to stress the fact that the new Zen player comes equipped with an FM-tuner. Earlier models of this series could also support this feature, but only if you purchased optional headphones.

You find the following in the package of the Zen Micro player:

• Creative Zen Micro player;
• Earphones;
• Li-Ion battery;
• Power adapter;
• USB 2.0 cable;
• Belt clip and stand;
• Pouch;
• Software CD.

You can also buy an optional wired remote control, but I don't think it's much useful considering the very small size of the player.

The optional wired remote control