Creative Zen Sleek: come on, feel the noize!

So Creative is calling this the Zen Sleek? Isn't that like Apple calling its new iPod the iPod Cool, or Sony calling its new games console the PlayStation Shiny? There's something odd about this kind of self-reverence, not least because the Zen Sleek isn't sleek at all. It's standard iPod size, but with iPod mini styling. The FatPod Mini would have been a more suitable moniker for the Sleek. It's Creative's Missy Elliot to Apple's Maria Carey.

When we put both players into our Muff we discovered that both fit snugly. The Sleek is exactly the same size as the iPod, probably because it uses the same hard disk, a 20GB one. The controls on the Sleek, while deeply puzzling at first, make some effort to emulate the iPod's intuitive Click Wheel. Nevertheless, we spent the first five minutes of playing with the Sleek trying to figure out why strange pop-up menus kept appearing all over the place when all we wanted to do was skip albums.

Our Sleek was stocked with the album Take It From The Man! by the Brian Jonestown Massacre. The song F***er played so loundly when we switched the player on that the only reason we aren't bleeding from small cracks in the side of our skulls is that we didn't have the headphones in our ears. These headphones are like speakers and the Sleek should come with a health warning -- the volume on this thing is nuclear. Expect a full review as soon as our nerves are calmed -CS.

Update: this review is now live here.

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• Tags:
• Creative,
• Creative Zen Sleek (20GB),
• hard disk,
• headphones,
• health