Creative Zen Mozaic review

Since JPEG photos are supported, Creative lets you set any of them as background wallpapers, in addition to the slightly customisable visual themes and a completely customisable menu system. So, if you never watch videos and don't care about browsing music by genre, album or song, you can simply remove these options and keep your menus compact.

You can send content to the player with Windows Media Player -- the most comprehensive option -- or by simply dragging and dropping files through Windows. The only issue we take, software-wise, is that you have to use the bundled software for converting video into the rubbishy video format supported by the player.

Performance
The screen was another corner clearly cut to keep costs down. It's not very good, and wouldn't be even remotely enjoyable to watch video on it even if the video format wasn't as unpleasant to stare at as roadkill. But it's bright and colourful, and does at least make browsing the friendly and responsive menu system a pleasure.

The 'now playing' screen is well presented, even on the small screen

You can also browse by album art, if available. It's no iPod Cover Flow, but it's quaint on a player of this ilk. Some dynamic shuffling options, such as 'Rarely heard' or 'Highly rated', are handy as well.

Now, performance is something which Creative has always impressed us with, and the Mozaic is no exception. Sound quality is excellent, outstripping the iPod nano, creating a detailed, open sound, with heaps of detail across the entire spectrum. While other parts of the player reflect its affordability, audio performance does not. Just make absolutely sure you get yourself some decent earphones, as the ones in the box are, as with all MP3 players, rubbish.

Earphones fit in at the bottom, and you should consider buying better ones

Creative says you'll get 32 hours of battery life for audio. We're testing this as we speak, so check back. We'll also test battery performance for video, though even an impossible 100 hours wouldn't make us watch any video on here.

Conclusion
While neither revolutionary or exciting in terms of functionality, the Mozaic offers terrific sound quality and a decent feature set, and at a penny under £120 with a 16GB capacity, it's superb value.

Screen quality was our main put-off, and it's something easily trumped in Apple's competing iPod nano. So if video on the go is crucial for you, be sure to check out Apple's new model.

Edited by Marian Smith