Zvue isn’t an iPod but it’s Cool!

There’s a lot of iPod envy in our house. Big sister got the 60gig iPod video for Christmas, and little sister was mad as hell (to put it lightly). I thought they’d share, but that’s never happened (should have known better). Little sister got a cool portable DVD player that came with 25 built in video games but that wasn’t an iPod and she wanted an iPod too. Despite the warzone around here over the shiny little gadget, I didn’t rush out to buy the youngest one because I honestly didn’t want to spend the money on yet another one. Heck, if anyone has one shouldn’t it be me????

As you all know I placed in the Expression Engine shootout and won some money, so I decided that this money would be “mad money” and we’d just blow it on something fun and exciting. I took my youngest daughter to Wal-mart last night and was going to talk her into an iPod Nano, because you can get a 1gig for $142 at Wal-mart. It’s not the video and it’s not 60gig but it’s still an iPod. Oh well, tell her that!

After looking at all the mp3 and portable media players she had her heart set on what I’d deem as a “kids” version of the iPod video. It was called Zvue by HandHeld Entertainment and the best thing about it… $174 on sale for $94.86! But, they were out of them! So, after torturing the little old lady in the electronics department to call around to stores in a 60 mile radius one was found and the kid is happy. She’s upstairs right now watching some videos on it.  Keep reading for my review and more info on Zvue…

For $94.86 this little baby rocks. At 25% of the cost of her big sister’s iPod she can do everything big sister can do. She can watch videos and movies, add photographs and listen to music. What more could an 8 year old want? Actually, her big sister is so stubborn that she’s not even got any videos or photos on her iPod because she won’t take the time to learn how to add them and won’t let me touch it to do it for her. (Gotta love teenagers!)

So here’s my wrap up on the Zvue:

Pros: inexpensive, cute, shiny, easy to use, easy to add media to (drag & drop from windows explore), sounds good, video looks good and photos are good. Comes with an ac plug and usb cord.

Cons: takes batteries, 4 AA to be exact. no internal memory, SD cards are the norm for the Zvue product. It comes with a 128mb card that’s full with only 3 - 30mb videos, 7 songs and 10 photos. Not much but it’s a start and you can always switch them out or buy more memory. I didn’t buy extra SD cards because I’m just going to look for a good deal online. I did have some issues using the usb to transfer stuff, so I popped out the SD card and put it into my laptop and just transferred and organized everything manually.

Bottomline: The Zvue is a great little gadget at a great price. It’s not top of the line, but if you want top of the line you can pay 4 times more for the iPod video. But for a fantastic gift for a techno-savvy kid it’s perfect. My daughter loves it and I had fun playing with it too. It’s SO easy to use and we’ve dropped it twice on pavement already in 24 hours and it’s still working perfectly. (Needless to say, we ran to Target and bought a case to put it in for extra safety.)

It looks like this product is only available at Wal-mart? Not sure, but if you really want one it’s not going to be an easy find as they’re sold-out because of the price drop.

Websites: Zvue and Zvue @ Walmart.com.

Here are the official specs for the Zvue:

“Looking for a new twist in handheld entertainment? The Zvue MP4 Video Player uses Zflicks MP4 video-to-go software (included) to convert digital videos to the smaller, handheld format. The unit is ultra compact and perfect for travel. It’s also great for kids, because at only 4” high, it’s easy and comfortable for them to hold in their lap while watching.”

• Bright 2.5" backlit TFT color screen delivers amazing full-motion video at 15fps
• Includes Zflicks MP4 video-to-go software to convert digital videos to handheld format
• Serves as an MP3 music player and a JPEG photo viewer
• Plays MPEG-4/AVI videos; MP3 and OGG audio files and displays JPEG pictures
• SecureDigital/Multi Media card slot to play videos, MP3 audio and view JPEG photos
• Ultra compact for travel
• Small size of approximately 4 inches makes it easy for children to hold and use
• External power connector to save batteries on long downloads and playback
• Easy-to-use navigation, video and audio playback controls: play, fast-forward, rewind; up, down, left, right, go; and Menu
• Comes with 128 MMC memory card with free ZFLICKS software
• Matching set of earbud-style earphones
• Complete instructions provided for using the Zvue player and ZFlicks video-to-go software
• USB cable for video downloads to ZVUE
• USB 1.1
• Powered by four AA batteries (included)

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COMMENTS

hi,i realy like this ipod,but the thing is that i don’t have it,why because my family say’s to me that,they cant buy me one,and my friends start loughing at me,but i hope that u could help me.tanx foreverything,and good luck

i have a zvue its alrite but i dont know how to get tha music on it

HI! I just wanted to tell you that i really liked your site and you did a great job with it. Just for your note http://vipmp3.org has great music there.