Creative Zen Stone 1GB MP3 Player - 70PF213000NN1
1 GB Flash Memory - Lime

I use the player for audiobooks. It works seamlessly with WMA licensed audio from either Windows Media Player or the Creative Lite software that comes with it. It has a solid feel and the buttons are quite easy to find and operate. You can play the tracks in alphabetical order or shuffle, using the little slide on the top. It has a resume feature, and picks up where you left off, even if the battery has been recharged since last played. It is so small that it can be tucked away in any little cranny available. I wish a shorter earphone cord was available. Having no screen, there is also no menu, so no selection of track or folder is possible except through pressing the forward or backwards button and listening for what you want. This also means that you can't tell how much time in a long track has been played or is left. When listening to a 7-hours book, this is a bit disconcerting. The battery life is supposed to be up to 10 hours, but I don't know how they arrived at that. I play at a low volume for hours at a time and maybe get 5 hours. You would think with no screen to eat up power, it would be more efficient. While charging, you can tell from a little blinker how charged the battery is from the blinking pattern, but while playing, you have to check the color of the blink to see if power is getting low. Green means plenty of power, red means low power....nothing in between. So you need to regularly pull the thing out of the cranny you have placed it in to look at it. You can charge the thing with any 5-volt wall charger with the proper connector. The power problem, I will say, is the same with every MP3 player I have seen; they all advertise more hours than you get. I understand that IPods get more playing time, but they have way more problems than this compensates for.
 
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The Stone doesn't have a screen, but it's not needed when you're at the gym. You can randomize all of your music or play them in order. Just load it up and go! It couldn't be lighter. I bought the armband and use it while on the machines. I don't even know it's there. I love it!!
 
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For the price, this is a killer MP3 player. I use it primarily as a secondary player while exercising, and it is perfect for that. The armband accessory completes the package for my type of usage. Easy to use, looks and feels great, and inexpensive. My only complaint is that you can't use the shuffle mode within the folders (you can only shuffle the entire song list). Inside of the folders, you can only play in order.
 
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