We are slowly chipping away at the available MP3 players on the market, and this time we have Creative Labs' Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra 40GB in house. The Dell Digital Jukebox, which we would recommend as an alternative to Apple's iPod for those on a budget, is manufactured by Creative and is based on the Jukebox Zen NX/Xtra platform. While Creative was chosen by Dell, they still manufacture and sell plenty of MP3 players under their own name.

Starting with the Jukebox Zen, Creative started to shift their focus from a CD player styled MP3 player to one that is more in style with the likes of the iPod: sleek, rectangular, hard drive based, etc. (format switch from the Jukebox/2/3 to the Zen series). The problem with the Jukebox Zen was that it was still large, bulky, and quite frankly, not exactly something easy to tag along with you on a flight. The Jukebox Zen NX was something more in line with what could be competitive with Apple's iPod in terms of dimensions alone.

Built on the Jukebox Zen NX platform, the Jukebox Zen Xtra is almost identical, but it ups the ante with a bigger/better LCD screen and higher capacity hard drive. While the Jukebox Zen NX comes in 20GB and 30GB models, the Jukebox Zen Xtra comes in 30GB, 40GB, and 60GB capacities.

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