7.
The Zen Touch isn't a BAD unit overall. Sound quality is excellent, and the transfer rate is second to none as long as your USB controller can keep up. (If your USB2.0 controller is built into the motherboard, you might get marginally better performance than you would with a PCI card) However, in order to transfer files to the Zen Touch, you need to install the drivers. The Zen Touch is NOT mass-storage compliant, which means that it will NOT show up as a drive in Windows Explorer or whatever. Nomad Explorer will let you store files on the device but you can't actually modify those files without copying them to the hard disk first.
In my opinion if you get a Zen Touch over one of the alternatives, do it for the battery life. I've never actually drained the battery EXCEPT when it's hooked to the PC. Bear this in mind; the battery will drain quite quickly when docked ("docked" in this case meaning being connected to the PC AND having either MediaSource or Nomad Explorer loaded) unless you also have it charging via the mains adaptor. In actual use however, the battery lasts for ages.
[Posted by: Da Wrecka | Date: 03/27/05 09:47:27 AM]