The Creative Zen Stone Plus is a tiny MP3 player which, despite a few lingering issues, offers a dependable music listening experience for those leading active lifestyles.

This skipping-stone sized player is just a half-inch thick and weighs less than an ounce. It comes in six colors--black, blue, pink, yellow, white, red--and has 2GB of flash memory to hold around 500 songs. It is capable of playing MP3 and WMA music files, but does not support PlaysForSure style copy-protected WMA files.

The Zen Stone Plus is good looking, though not a head turner. It has a glossy finish which picks up fingerprints easily. A small, bright LED display that is easy to read sits on the front side next to the function pad. This pad lets you make selections, navigate music and browse on-screen menus. It can be easy to use, with noise clicks confirming choices, but is not friendly to larger fingers. The same can be said for the power/pause/play button found along the side. This button is shared by a shortcut feature which you can set in a menu.

Understanding what buttons did was confusing at first. The included Quick Start guide is decent, but a full guide would be better. Creative unfortunately requires you download this from its Web site. But after figuring out the buttons the Zen Stone Plus became easy to learn quickly.

Music is loaded through Windows Media Player, dragging and dropping on your desktop or via downloaded software. Testing continuous playback left the battery life at around 8-1/2 hours--an hour shy of Creative's estimate. The battery itself can be charged a USB cable.

Listening quality was great, even at high volumes. An equalizer and bass boost added to this experience. The included earphones were good, though we recommend a supplementary pair of your own. We found the FM radio, an included feature, came in clearly. We were doubly happy to see the integrated voice recorder also sounded well during tests.

Other useful features included a stopwatch and the ability to carry non-music files and data. These only add this device's value. If you are seeking a player which is inexpensive and puts out great sound, we think you'll like the Creative Zen Stone Plus.

Pros: Value price, good sound, LED display
Cons: Not large finger friendly, light user documentation, low battery life

Warranty
90 days, labor; 1 year, parts