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Compare Prices on Creative Zen Vision
The original round of Portable Media Center devices launched late last year held the unrealized promise of portable movie viewing in an on-the-go universe. The varying form factors of the three releases and lack of convenient add-ons ultimately relegate PMC products from Creative, iRiver and Samsung to the over-priced novelty bin a year later. Sure, I thought the devices were cool enough to own a Creative Zen PMC and launch a site dedicated to 320x240 movies, but I remain convinced the PMC wasn't the best we could do for portable video.
Creative is back with something that finally looks exciting. A barely smaller 3.7-inch screen in a considerably smaller casing supports the set of features everyone should have shipped in the PMC. The Zen Vision offers 640x480 video, with composite out, making it a traveler's dream. A CompactFlash slot (with optional adapter for SD) supports importing photos. Contacts, calendar and task sync makes the Zen Vision a PDA replacement. FM Radio makes the Vision a gym companion for tuning in treadmill television. A projector mode almost makes this a handy PowerPoint replacement, especially in conjunction with the optional wireless remote control. Instead of limiting playback to WMA and WMV, the Vision supports most major video formats, including DivX and MPEG-2. And it's PlaysForSure compatible so you can subscribe to Y! Music for millions of songs to go. I'd still like to see a slightly lower price, but $399 is much more sensible than last year's $499. My only real gripe is there's still no gaming, which makes the PSP and a 1GB Memory Stick look like stiff competition. I haven't been this excited about a gadget since the announcement of the Edirol R-1 last fall.
