So on Wednesday evening I had a browse of the mp3 market to see what was on offer. My aim was to get something that could hold a reasonable amount of songs without costing a silly amount of money, also I wanted something that was small.

So after scouting around several websites, I decided to go for the Creative ZEN Stone Plus. I have previously seen the Zen Stone but latest version has a few more features.

Firstly the 2GB offered by the Plus was a extra 100% over the 1GB the standard Zen Stone offering, and it was available for an extra 13 pounds.
Secondly the Plus has a display, which is a feature I like to have if I'm going to be carrying a few dozen albums around with me.

I also ordered a Skin for the mp3 player, as they can tend to get quite beaten up over time, so anything to extend the longevity of the device was an additional bonus.

Today it arrived \o/.

It's alot smaller that I thought, which was nice as it can be pocketed in my workshirt without too much trouble. My first complaint sofar is that the data/charging USB cable is very short (3 inches). This isn't a massive problem as i have USB ports on the top of my PC. If you are plannig on purchasing a Stone plus, kind in mind a seperate (lengther) cable maybe a good purchase.

Another small annoying fact is the instructions that come with the player are simple enough to get you started but don't have that much detail listed. But never fear it came packaged with 4 copies of the instructions (odd).

So after 3 hours of charging, it was time to try it out.
I've loaded on three albums now and had a good play about with all the settings.

The player has a 64×64 OLED, which doesn't sound like alot I'd admit, yet the onboard software is extremely well designed to make full use of this display, which is in a Blue/Cyan colour.

The one item that was missing in the documentation that accompanied the player was a layout of the menus and their uses. Although they are pretty self-explanitory.

Overall : This player expands on the original stone with the great display thats doesn't take up 30% of the devices layout, but still offering the user an interface for easy interaction.