Creative Zen Krystal: Zen Stone Plus gets a doppelgänger
Creative has made public its Zen Krystal MP3 player and from what we can tell, it's damn-near the same as the Zen Stone Plus. The main difference: it's got a pedometer. Every MP3 player fan's dream? Not really
iPod haters at Anything But iPod uncovered something new and questionable on Creative's Hong Kong site -- the Zen Krystal. It's an MP3 player that looks extremely similar to the Zen Stone Plus, sports pretty much the same feature set, the same maximum 4GB capacity and a similar screen.
But there is one big thing the Stone Plus doesn't have: a pedometer. This puts the Krystal in the gym-goer's market just a scoatch more than the Stone, but seriously -- is a pedometer-toting MP3 player really so hotly in demand it desires a completely new product to house it? Apparently.
It's got some games, though, but there are a bunch of other features the Krystal could've included to make it a truly justifiable companion product to the Stone -- a microphone input socket perhaps, microSD support, a colour screen like the original iPod nano had, even a digital radio.
But don't get us wrong: we do actually like the Krystal. We just can't quite figure out why Creative would put out a player that competes so much with the fantastic Zen Stone Plus.
At the moment, it's only available in Hong Kong for about £45. We'll let you know if and when it hits the UK market. For now, we advise you turn your Creative-related excitement to the Zen X-Fi, which is hitting the UK very soon indeed. -Nate Lanxon