I am seriously considering getting this.
Please talk me into it or out of it depending on your experiences.

Weeeeeeeeeeell…

I have a Nomad Zen NX, which is basically the EXACT same thing but with a slightly smaller screen, and I can’t say I’ve had any problems with it. I’ve had it almost 3/4 a year now, and the worst thing to happen is a few freezes, which are easily solvable with the “Reset” button. Mine is the 30 GB model, which I think s the lowest of the Zen XTRA’s (and the highest or second highest of the NX’s.) If you’re looking to use it as an external hard drive, you might be dissapointed. Although it does allow you to keep things in folder, etc, you can’t easily transfer files from and to it, as you could with a normal ext. HD.

All in all, I’d recommend it, the sound quality is great, although the standard headphones aren’t.

Hope this helps, I tried to be unbiased.

Hmm.. I have a 40G Nomad Zen Xtra, had it about 3 months.

It has great features, great sound, all of that important stuff. It’s bigger than an iPod to be sure, and not as slick. My biggest complaint about it is the UI. You have to go through so many clicks to get anything done that I often just give up and shuffle my whole collection.

Example (to queue up two tracks):
Click in the little thumb wheel or push menu.
Click “Music Library”
Scroll to “Albums”, click
Scroll to First Album, click.
Scroll to “Open..” from pop-up menu (default choice is “Play now”), click.
Scroll to Song, click.
Scroll to “Add to play..” from pop-up menu (default choice is “Play now”), click.

So far that’s 7 clicks to play one track. Repeat to queue up another track, assuming it’s on a different album.

(Note that this is the thumbwheel version, not the new “Touch” version, which may speed things up.)

While it seems like a small thing, this is my interface with the machine and it often drives me nuts. Seems to me the wheel on an iPod is just the best possible way to scroll through many items very quickly.

FWIW.

Anthony (In Progress 3)

thanks guys.
it turns out i’m lower on money than i hoped, but i’m hopefully going to get this ASAP.