Nice Little Toy

I'd had this player about 2.5 months now, and this is my 1st MP3 player that I've owned. Physical description - very small, think of an oldschool box of wooden matches & it is just a pinch bigger. It easily fits into a shirt pocket, but almost too small when it comes to using the buttons. Design - a great sized screen for this little guy, and the overall looks is an nice blend of simplicity & techno-sweetness. Interface - it takes 15 seconds to boot up before music will play. The amount of menus & submenus seem overwhelming to me, but since this is my 1st player, I cannot base a distinction from anything else. I'm also disappointed by its menu's inability to scroll & loop to the top, that would save some frustration. Yet, using 3gb of the 4gb size, I hardly care about the menu inconveniences once I set the player to shuffle & play all. Buttons - Left side has a switch that functions as power & lock. Right side has volume up/ down then a record button. Front has play/pause, a return, and the joystick. The stick & return are multifunction and takes a little time to figure out their quirks. The joystick is nicely recessed to maintain a flush front, but the thing is very tiny & I find myself using my fingertips/nails to control it. Features - 4gb! a great size. The radio is nice & usually for NPR. Reception is fine, but the scrolling is by 0.10 increments & is a pain in the butt until your have things preset with 32 available slots. Photos & videos are a nice treat, but I hardly ever use them. Recording is fantastic since I do theater & learn all my line by using this thing, beats a tape recorder like the old days. Date & time is fine, and the finally it is capable of acting as a removable flash drive. Earbuds are decent & stay in my ears when I'm at the gym. Connection - a nice USB 2.0 that recharges the battery & connects it to a computer. I think the batter life is very sufficient, but haven't clocked a definitive time yet. The guru at creative want you to install their cd with gobs of crappy programs, but I just plugged the player in & XP Pro & windows media player recognized it without a hitch. How I don't know, but I hate installation CDs that are simply corporate propaganda & with very little functionality. I know this because I have a Creative 3 piece speaker system, & Creative soundblaster X-fi. Overall, I'm still thrilled I bought this player even 2.5 months later. I have a feeling that this player will last a few years, but if it doesn't, you'll hear from me.