Review: Creative Zen Mozaic portable music player

If you were trying to generate some interest in a new music player, what would you concentrate on? A bigger, brighter screen, maybe, or more storage space for extra songs? Improved sound quality?

The big selling point of Creative’s Zen Mozaic – notice the trendy z, in the spelling of the name – is that the control buttons on the front are arranged in a mosaic. The hype is a shame, really, as it's a decent media player and the coloured buttons aren’t a bonus – in fact, it’s hard to see the symbols on the black ones.

About two-thirds the size of a typical mobile phone, the Zen Mozaic has a bright, easy-to-read 46mm screen. This is helped by well-designed menus that are logical and lead easily to all the player’s functions.

These include audio playback in MP3, WMA, WAV and Audible formats, as well as videos and still photos. There’s an FM radio tuner with an excessive 32 presets for stations, and a microphone for voice recording.

There’s even a calendar and contacts list, though this can only be updated by synchronising the Zen Mozaic with a computer, using the software supplied.

The main thing missing from the Zen Mozaic is any form of memory expansion. The player is available in 2GB, 4GB (£60), 8GB (£80) and 16GB (£120) versions, but it’s a shame Creative couldn’t have included a socket for expanding this using a memory card.

The supplied earphones are comfortable and give a surprisingly good sound. Strangely, there’s also a very small speaker built into the pack of the player, which, Creative says "lets you share music with friends", but you’ll need to sandwich the player between you and your friend’s ears for that to happen, as weak as the speaker is. The neat USB cable lets you hang the player from a USB port for charging – there’s no separate mains charger.

Supplied software covers housekeeping and converting audio and video to use on the player. In all, despite the lack of memory expansion and the slightly confusing black control buttons (and despite the name), the Zen Mozaic has a lot to recommend it.