Creative Zen Style M300 16GB MP3 Player with MicroSD Slot, Voice Recorder, FM Radio, Bluetooth, BLACK

I have read many of the reviews here before purchasing the player and despite being warned of all the cons, i decided to take a gamble for its price and Creative's brand name. I had some initial problems with the Bluetooth feature with the M300 but these were resolved when I upgraded the firmware to the latest one (1.00.16) from the Creative website. There are some things that this player cannot do but for those that it can, it does it pretty well.

The main selling feature of this player is of course Bluetooth streaming. Pairing the player to my bluetooth headphones and car stereo (you need to key in your 4-digit code) were relatively simple (it takes seconds) and the audio quality is excellent. This is my first Bluetooth-compatible player, and i am surprised by how much i like this wireless thing. Not having to worry about wires dangling around your dashboard is awesome. Also, the ability to automatically connect back to the last paired device when turned on again is a thoughtful feature. One feature i miss on this player that was on the older zen players is the option to create playlists on the go. But if you do use windows media player or winamp to organize your song library, you can also easily sync your playlist to this player. What I really like most about this player is the ability to drag and drop files - even on a mac. It just appears as an external harddisk and you just drop your songs or photos in it - no proprietary software required.

As far as i am concerned, i am happy with my purchase of the M300. It performed well as a music player and the bluetooth function is really useful if you have other bluetooth enabled devices. And for this, i would say that the M300 is of great value for something so small yet feature-rich.

BUY this player if:
- you are budget conscious, this is one of the most affordable feature packed branded bluetooth mp3 player
- you listen mainly to music and radio
- you prefer doing without additional music softwares like itunes, and rather drag and drop your music into your player
- you need a microsd slot
- you have a bluetooth headphones or speakers, it's more convenient than you think

DON'T buy this player if:
- movie playback is an important feature to you
- you use DRM or subscription services
- most of your music are in .FLAC and .M4A

FIRST THINGS FIRST / TIPS:
1. Download the latest firmware from Creative's support webpage. What I got was probably the middle batch at 1.00.09. The latest firmware is 1.00.16 and relatively easy to update.
2. Don't press the so-called "buttons" with brute force. Just make sure your finger taps the markings gently and you'll be fine.

POSITIVES:
1. Very easy Bluetooth pairing process (enter the universal default code of 0000). It remembers your paired devices after switching off and auto connects to the last paired device (it does take between 5 and 10 seconds to reconnect and start streaming your music via BT)
2. Commands (play/pause/track selection/volume) don't lag via Bluetooth and overall, the player works perfectly with my car speaker and headphones
3. Drag-and-drop songs into the "Music" folder. I hate itunes style syncing so this is really really useful.
4. Good battery life for my commutes and long/medium haul flights
5. Mac support (officially it only supports Windows but I could drag-and-drop songs from my Macbook Air into the player, as well as from my Windows PC of course)
6. Simple, easy-to-use interface even without needing the manual
7. FM Radio but only with a wired headphones connection
8. Value for money

NEGATIVES:
1. Short USB cable (ok to charge via your PC's USB but not too practical from a wall socket)
2. Average quality included earphones but I guess nobody really uses stock earphones anyway so this might not bother you that much
3. Mediocre video but on such a tiny screen nothing's going to look good. Probably the screen's only meant for album art (there's a video included with a presentation of some Creative products but it's so tiny.. why do they even include it??).
4. No FM Radio over Bluetooth (this function requires an antenna, which are your wired earphones... so you can't stream radio wirelessly)

EVALUATION:
It's not a perfect product but at this price point it does deliver what I need (Bluetooth and drag-and-drop capabilities). Obviously there are flaws but are generally those that I won't lose sleep over. If you're looking to stretch your dollar (nothing to be ashamed of in this economy!) and don't like to get ripped off, this is the product for you. If you like to splurge, you'll know that there are other more glamorous options.

So I have had a few Creative products in the past, but this one has to be one of the worst of them. Takes several attempts to power on, I first thought it was just that I received a defective unit. But another reviewer is reporting the same issue, so I have to take that as poor design. The navigation of the menu makes no sense. They are not in alphabetical order and you cannot turn any of them off (like you could with some of the previous Zen models). The touch controls respond about 80% of the time, which is really frustrating. My reasoning for purchasing this device was the Bluetooth streaming. Once you get the devices to pair together (takes a bit of coaxing for the initial setup) I haven't had an issue pairing back up. I have noticed that every once and a while the music will have about a .25 sec blank space in the middle of playback. I was thinking it was the device I was pairing to, but when I tried streaming from another device it works fine, so I have to think it's the Zen M300 unit.

Another feature is that you can change the color of the text, red/yellow/white. I initially set it to white but during play back the screen shows music art and then the title/artist over the album art. I could not see most of the text due to the white text so I changed it. The menu changes color but the color during playback is still white. So I really don't get the purpose of changing the font color. The red is too dark to see against the black menu background, and the yellow and white are so similar that it really doesn't show any real benefit.

I'm hoping the next firmware revision will resolve most the issues. So if you are on the fence about purchasing this unit, don't set your expectations too high. It is still functional, the price is good for (considering the Apple unit is almost twice the price) what you're getting.

Having access to Audible is a nice to have, but so far I've been using another unit. You cannot "fast forward / fast back" with this device, so if you wind up missing the last few sentences of what someone has just said you cannot just scan back a few lines, it returns back to the chapter beginning.