Product Reviews

The Zen Stone is Creative's attempt to steal business from Apple's iPod Shuffle. It's not as small or as cute as Apple's baby player, but it's still very compact and portable. It's available in a choice of six colours and, with no screen and barely any features, the controls are about as simple as they come.

The Shuffle is the better sounding of the two. Neither's headphones offer much bass, but the Shuffle's headphone output is brighter and clearer. The Zen Stone's transfers are slow at 0.6MB/s and the nine-hour battery life is underwhelming (the Shuffle manages 2.37MB/s and almost 17 hours).

On the plus side, the switch for selecting continuous or random playback also includes the ability to jump to the next folder. With the Shuffle, you can only skip track by track. Best of all, the Zen Stone is half the price.