Music players are getting smaller in all dimensions, and while none are as thin as Apple's iPod nano, not many (apart from the Q-Be) are as small overall as the Zen V.

The Creative Zen V is only the size of a large biscuit, but it packs in 4GB of memory. The display is medium sized and clear, with bright colours that make it easy to see what's going on. The colour schemes can be changed using the onscreen menus.

It uses the same Playlist, Artist, Album, Song navigation as the other players, but the joystick in the middle is used to navigate through the menus.

It's possible to add tunes to a playlist while others are being played, and there's a clever 'DJ' section in the menus that can randomly select tracks, play tracks that haven't been heard recently, and help in other ways to discover music.

Volume levels were good with little clipping at high volumes. There is a record function, using the built-in microphone or the line-in socket on the top of the device. Quality from the microphone was not great, but it's more than enough for recording a lecture, for instance.

The player can charge using the USB connection to a PC. A cloth carry case is supplied in the box. There's no FM radio, but it does come with an organiser (calendar and to-do list) and the ability to view pictures (but not video).

The quality of the screen was not great, but it's satisfactory for this kind of image viewing.

Music can be transferred to the player using the Windows Media Player or just using the drag-and-drop feature of Windows. This means it's not necessary to install the supplied software, although installing it does make things easier.

The supplied Creative earbud headphones are reasonable, but seeing as Creative make several good models of earphone, we were surprised that a better quality pair was not included with the Zen V.

Also consider
Apple iPod Nano
Expensive but excellent alternative
£169
4/5

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