Apple's 20GB iPod can only hold 5000 songs. Our Creative Zen can hold 10,000 songs, using a digital format. Hmm, what "digital format" is Creative using get this many songs, I wonder?
Not long ago, Sony also made a similar claim that its latest player holds 13,000 songs while the iPod only holds 5000.
To quote geek.com, "Sony's estimates are based on encoding at its proprietary ATRAC3 format's bit-rate of 48kbps, a rate at which your music would sound like it was being played on an AM station two states over."
So you will have to excuse my skepticism about the Zen, until that "digital format" is revealed in more detail.
From the ST:
The 20GB Zen Touch will cost $499, compared to $548 for a 20GB iPod.
That is not the only advantage, says Creative. Because of the usage of a digital format, its 20GB Zen Touch can store 10,000 tunes, compared to the iPod's capacity of 5,000 songs, the company says.
With that much space, you will also need more juice from the battery, and Zen Touch, says Creative, will give you just that: up to 32 hours of use on a single battery charge, compared to the iPod's claim of eight hours.
UPDATE: Creative's numbers were based on 4 minutes per song at 128kbps MP3 encoding and 64kbps WMA encoding
