The Creative Zen Micro is a high-capacity, high-performance digital audio player that comes with internal hard drive capacities of 4GB (approximately 2,000 songs), 5GB (2,500 songs), and 6GB (3,000 songs). It can play MP3, WMA, and CD-quality WAV files. The Zen Micro has a built-in FM tuner and is able to record directly from the FM tuner to the hard drive. For even more functionality, the Zen Micro sports a built-in microphone for up to 10 hours of voice recordings. While the quality certainly isn't the greatest, this is a terrific feature for school or journalistic purposes.

The Zen Micro comes with decent earphones, and the sound can be adapted using the eight preset equalization curves. The rechargeable battery can run for up to 12 hours per charge. The battery is removable, which gives this player a huge advantage over a player such as the iPod Mini. Other features include sleep and wake timers, customizable menu, calendar, phonebook, and "to do" list storage. The player is available in a variety of colors.

The Zen Micro connects with a backward-compatible USB 2.0 connection. Organizing files is simple with the supplied software, which requires a PC running Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP. The Zen Micro can even be used simply as a portable storage device to hold any type of computer file, although with such good music capabilities, it would be a shame not to use it for carrying around a host of tunes.

The $179.99 MSRP is for the 4GB version. The 5GB model has an MSRP of $229.99, and the 6GB model has an MSRP of $249.99.

Warranty
90 days service, 1 year limited hardware