Editing Creative Zen (section)

{{Short description|Line of portable media players by Creative Technology (2004–2011)}}
{{About|the portable media player series|the model in this series simply named "ZEN"|ZEN (portable media player)}}
{{Infobox information appliance
| title        = Creative ZEN
| logo         = Creative ZEN logo.png
| logo_size    = 
| image        = 
| manufacturer = [[Creative Technology]]
| family       = 
| type         = [[Digital audio player]]s, [[Portable media player]]s
| units sold=25 million (as of 2007, includes NOMAD and MuVo)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.engadget.com/2007-11-14-creative-sells-25m-mp3-players.html|title = Creative sells 25 million MP3 players| date=19 July 2019 }}</ref>
| lifespan     = 2004—2014
| discontinued =          
| predecessor = [[Creative NOMAD]]    
}}
'''ZEN''' is a series of [[portable media player]]s designed and manufactured by [[Creative Technology Limited]] from 2004 to 2011. The players evolved from the [[Creative NOMAD|NOMAD]] brand through the NOMAD Jukebox series of [[MP3 player|music players]], with the first separate "ZEN" branded models released in 2004. The last Creative Zen player, X-Fi3, was released at the end of 2011.

Three Creative Zens (the Portable Media Center, Micro Photo, and Vision:M) won the Best of [[Consumer Electronics Show|CES]] award<ref name="Zen Portable Media Center CES">{{cite press release|title=Creative Wins Second Consecutive "Best Of CES" Award At Consumer Electronics Show|publisher=[[Creative Technology]]|date=2004-01-12|url=http://creative.com/corporate/pressroom/releases/welcome.asp?pid=12013|access-date=2007-12-03|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204163346/http://www.creative.com/corporate/pressroom/releases/welcome.asp?pid=12013|archive-date=2008-12-04}}</ref><ref name="ZEN Micro Photo CES">{{cite press release|url=http://creative.com/corporate/pressroom/releases/welcome.asp?pid=11929|title=Creative ZEN Micro Photo Wins "Best of CES" Award|publisher=Creative Technology|date=2005-01-10|access-date=2007-12-03|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204163900/http://www.creative.com/corporate/pressroom/releases/welcome.asp?pid=11929|archive-date=2008-12-04}}</ref><ref name="ZEN Vision:M CES">{{cite web|url=http://creative.com/press/releases/welcome.asp?pid=12297|title=Creative ZEN Vision:M Wins "Best of CES" Award in MP3 and Portable Video Category and also Wins overall "Best in Show" Award|publisher=Creative Technology|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016132348/http://creative.com/press/releases/welcome.asp?pid=12297|archive-date=2007-10-16}}</ref> from 2004 to 2006 in their respective categories, with the latter winning the overall award.<ref name="ZEN Vision:M CES" /> The ZEN series had a strong foothold in Asian Pacific markets, especially in [[Singapore]], the location of the company's headquarters.

All players support [[MP3]] and [[Windows Media Audio|WMA]] formats, while some models support also [[WAV]] and [[Audible.com|Audible]] formats. They are bundled with device drivers and Creative MediaSource, a [[Media player (application software)|media player]] that includes transferring and syncing abilities exclusively for the players. Some models are [[Microsoft PlaysForSure|PlaysForSure]]-certified for being compatible with [[Windows Media Player]] via [[Media Transfer Protocol]] (MTP) and supporting the [[Janus (DRM)|Janus DRM]]. They are natively compatible with [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]], with some also supporting [[Mac OS X]].