Creative Mozaic

creative mozaic

Essentially a replacement for the Zen V Plus, the compact and stylish Zen Mozaic is available with 2GB, 4GB, 8GB or 16GB of flash memory. Given its moniker for the patchwork skin design, the Mozaic looks the part in black, silver and pink – but does its performance and functionality compare with its Apple rivals, the iPod Nano or iPod Touch?

User Interface

The User Interface is the standard Zen menu system so is well planned out and easy to navigate. One drawback however is the software is only compatible with Windows XP and Vista. The nine button keypad controls embedded into the soft-skin case are disguised as Mozaic tiles and whilst the unique design is attractive, hiding the function keys impairs usability in low light and can be frustrating. Another flaw in the Mozaic design is there is no convenient external volume control thus users are forced to go through the UI. Even when taking into account the significant price gap, in terms of functionality and user-friendliness, the iPod’s Nano and Touch offer far better value for money.

Display

The Mozaic’s TFT LCD colour screen provides strikingly sharp clarity for photos and album art, and although the 1.8” inches just about makes the grade for playing games, it’s difficult to justify watching a film. Though the Nano screen weighs in at 2.2” it’s ingenious function that switches the screen from vertical viewing to horizontal viewing simply by turning the device on it’s side is perhaps a method Creative should have considered for the Mozaic.

Sound

If music playback and design are what you most look for in a portable media player, then you will find the Mozaic a more than capable performer. With a 320Kbps output this device pitches a clear and undistorted sound though arguably falls slightly short of the zest and sharpness of the iPod Nano. Having said that, the difference in quality is barely noticeable and the Mosiac is certainly worth consideration when taking into account the gorge in price comparison.

Video

As mentioned above, for all the sharpness of visual quality, video playback on a screen less than 3” is fruitless. It hardly seems worthwhile that Creative have made the Mozaic AVI compatible given other models in this range are limited to Creative in-house .cmv format and have to be converted using Centrale software. If you want to watch videos on your MP3 you will do far better with other devices in the Zen range or either of Apple’s iPods.

Memory

• Creative Zen Mozaic 2GB – 500 songs, 5 hours video playback
• Creative Zen Mozaic 4GB – 1000 songs, 5 hours video playback
• Creative Zen Mozaic 8GB – 2000 songs, 5 hours video playback
• Creative Zen Mozaic 16GB – 4000 songs, 5 hours video playback
• iPod Nano 8GB – 2000 songs, 8 hours video playback
• iPod Nano 16GB – 4000 songs, 16 hours video playback
• iPod Touch 8GB – 1750 songs, 10 hours video playback
• iPod Touch 32GB – 7000 songs, 40 hours video playback
• iPod Touch 64GB – 14000 songs, 30 hours playback

Battery Life

• Creative Zen Mozaic – 32 hours continuous audio playback
• iPod Nano  – 24 hours audio, 5 hours video
• iPod Touch – 30 hours audio, 6 hours video