Creative draws bead on iPod Nano with second-gen Neeon

Bigger screen, more capacity... er... shorter battery life

MP3 player maker Creative this week upgraded its Zen Neeon line of Flash-based digital music players with a second-generation product that sports a bigger display and more storage capacity but at the cost of a shorter battery life.

The Neeon 2 has a 1.5in colour screen in place of the original's four-line, 128 x 64, two-colour OLED job. Launched in November 2005, the Neeon shipped in 512MB, 1GB and 2GB versions, now upped to 1GB, 2GB and 4GB with the new release.

When Creative launched the Neeon, it said the player had a 32-hour continuous playback time. This week, the company said the Neeon 2 can play music for 20 hours and will show videos for eight hours on a single battery charge.

The front of each Neeon 2 is black, but Creative said the player will ship with a range of coloured backplates. The company didn't say when the device will ship, or into which territories, but we expect it to be priced to match or beat Apple's iPod Nano. ®