Portable Player Reviews

Connections/Features
Outputs: Stereo mini-jack, analog stereo/composite video
Inputs: USB 2.0, DC power (via adapter)
Built-in speaker: Yes
Compatible video formats: WMV, ASF
Compatible audio formats: WMA, Secure WMA, MP3
Hard disk drive capacity: 20 gigabytes
Screen size/type: 3.8-inch TFT active-matrix LCD with backlight, 320-by-240 resolution
Dimensions (H x W x D, in inches): 3.4 x 5.7 x 1.1
Weight (in ounces, with battery): 11.7
Price: $500

Creative Zen Portable Media Center

Build Quality: 91
Feels good in the hands: beefy with a slick, gloss-black shell

Value: 82
Not cheap, but it's an exciting piece of hardware that is Microsoft-certified

Features: 87
It plays several popular audio and video formats natively, but not all formats

Performance: 89
Responsive navigation and playback, with detailed picture and sound

Ergonomics: 86
Essentially a brick, but the few buttons do their job well

Overall Rating: 87
The first in a new wave of sophisticated multimedia portables that also patch into the TV, the Zen is off to a strong start and should only improve over time, if Digital Rights Management doesn't prevent us from procuring decent content.

General information
Zen Portable Media Center, $500
Creative
(800) 998-1000
www.creative.com

At A Glance: Apex MP-2000 Portable Media Player

Connections/Features
Outputs: Stereo mini-jack, analog stereo/composite video
Inputs: USB 2.0, analog stereo/composite video, built-in microphone, DC power (via adapter)
Built-in speaker: Yes
Compatible video formats: MPEG-4, DivX 3/4/5, Motion JPEG, WMV9
Compatible audio formats: WMA, MP3
Hard disk drive capacity: 20 gigabytes
Screen size/type: 3.5-inch TFT active-matrix LCD with backlight, 480-by-234 resolution
Dimensions (H x W x D, in inches): 3 x 4.7 x .8
Weight (in ounces, with battery): 8.5
Price: $400

Apex MP-2000 Portable Media Player

Build Quality: 88
The player is surprisingly lightweight yet not at all flimsy

Value: 84
It's seldom that $400 fits into such a small package

Features: 88
Assorted audio/video playback formats, plus the ability to record on the fly

Performance: 86
The "format not supported" message got really old really fast, but picture and sound quality were solid

Ergonomics: 89
Stylish, with precious few controls that work well with the onscreen menus

Overall Rating: 89
Apex's bold offering does a lot but would do well to hone its rough edges. DivX is still not a widely established format, so consumers will need to be resourceful when searching for and assembling the video they want to take with them.

General information
MP-2000 Portable Media Player, $400
Apex Digital
(866) 4APEXGO
www.apexdigitalinc.com