As my regular readers will know, I bought a Creative Zen Touch MP3 player a couple weeks ago. This is actually my first dedicated MP3 player... and I am so far pretty happy with my purchase.

It has pretty much all the features that I wanted, and nothing I didn't. A friend of mine at work has a 1st generation iPod, so we've been spending some time comparing and contrasting the two (he's a little jealous). The Zen has a 20 GB drive which I've only filled up a little over 25% so far. The audio quality is excellent (at least for my needs) and the hardware is extremely usable. I especially like the button arrangement that they have. The iPod doesn't have separate volume buttons like the Zen does, so my friend can't be surfing through his tunes, and decide to change the volume, which I find myself doing quite often. It fits nicely in my hand, and their scroll system is very intuitive and responsive. It also has a very nice back light which makes it very readable in all conditions (apparently the iPod doesn't). Of course, it has shuffle right out of the box (something the iPod is just getting around to). Finally the battery life is great. I can go pretty much all day at work and come home and still have plenty of battery to go.

I did also pay extra to buy the wired remote control with the FM receiver in it. This is excellent for when I'm working out, or outside as I can easily surf through my playlist or change the volume with it. The only downside is that the FM receiver does not pick up to well at work (the building is huge with a lot of concrete and rebar). So if you want to listen to the radio at work, this might not let you do it.

The only real downside to the Zen is the software that comes with it. I don't have iTunes, so I can't make a real comparison, but I find their management software to be pretty tacky. The interface is not exactly intuitive, and it's pretty bulky. Luckily for me, I'm a heavy Winamp user, and someone took the time to write a great plugin for Winamp that allows you to manage your Zen using the Winamp Media Library. For a paltry $25, you can also get Notmad Explorer from Red Chair Software. This allows you to have seamless integration with Windows Explorer. It's not perfect, but it works pretty well.

That's about it. If you don't mind risking their software, or using other software that you're already familiar with (like I did), this is a great buy.