Creative Technology ZEN X-Fi (8 GB) Digital Media Player
- Number of Songs: 2000
- Usage: Music Video Recording Photo Viewing
- Interface: USB 2.0
- Screen Size: 2.5 inch
- Main Storage Type: Built-in Memory
- Expansion Slots: SD Memory Cards
Available From
Why are these offers here?
Smart Buy!
Lowest price from a Trusted Store
Second Lowest Price
- Overview
-
Reviews
- Compare Prices
User ReviewRead All Reviews »
Excellent PMP
Pros
Sound Quality<br> Earphones Bundled (Creative EP-830 earphones)<br> X-Fi Enhancement<br> Size<br> Appearance<br> Price
Cons
SD Integration.<br> Non-replaceable battery
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Its a well rounded PMP it sounds great, easy to use and a pleasure to look at.
I would recommend it to anyone in the market for a new player.
I would recommend it to anyone in the market for a new player.
I've had good experiences so far with Creative products and the Zen X-Fi did not disappoint.
Creative in recent times have put their foot off the accelerator with their last "big thing" being the Zen Vision:M.
Design
Overall the build quality of the Zen X-Fi is very sturdy and feels great in the hand (it's about the same size of credit card). The face of the product is a glossy black trimmed by a chrome boarder which is aesthetically pleasing in my opinion. The placement of the navigational is functional and natural, however since the 8gig version does not have the feature of Wi-Fi the four corner buttons are essential redundant, as on the 16/32gig versions those buttons would have been used in the T9 styled keyboard. However the fact the buttons are slightly raised gives some peace of mind that the screen would be protected to an extend.
User Interface
The UI is quite you'll find on almost all other Zen products, it's easy to use and the controls are solid, the learning curve is almost zero. One of my favourite features of the X-Fi and also the Zen series is the dedicated shortcut button which can be assigned to whatever you want; currently my shortcut button goes to the X-Fi sound enhancement. Like most Zen products the X-Fi allows you to customise the main menu to your liking so that you can easily access your most commonly used features. There is one issue with the UI that is the integration of the SD slot, the X-Fi treats the SD is a totally different system and does not mingle at all with the internal memory, hopefully this issue will be fixed in future firmware updates.
Audio
The sound quality is what to be expected from Creative, Excellent. Even without the X-Fi Enhancement the audio is still a few steps ahead of the competition, the X-Fi is able to produce smooth bass and sharp high notes. With the X-Fi enhancement you have two options to enable crystalliser and expand. The crystalliser restores the sound lost during the lossy compression process i.e. mp3 and the expand feature attempts to produce a surround sound environment to the user. In my experience the X-Fi enhancement is subjective to the user some will say they don't hear a difference, others say it sounds worse and the rest say it sounds better. I say it does a great job with some of my tracks but with some tracks it makes the tracks sound.... well...different not better not worse but different. None the less audio is nothing short of excellent.
The earphones that are bundled with the X-Fi are not your average earphones they are the Creative EP-830s they do quite a good job with the bass and also cancel out noise to a degree, these earphones will satisfy most audiophiles. I stress that these headphones are what gives the Zen X-Fi that little bit extra. Like all previous Zen's in the series it has the feature of an EQ for those who like to customise their audio. The X-Fi also has a built in speaker it sound good for an embedded speaker but don't expect to rock any parties with it, you'll find yourself using the speaker while your sitting down a desk while doing some light work.
Video
The video playback on the X-Fi is a good experience, the playback is smooth and quite vivid due to the 16.7million colours available on the X-Fi. The files the X-Fi can play natively are as follows WMV, MPEG4-SP, Divx 4/5, Xvid, and MJPEG which is quite a broad array of codecs. All other files are converted using the software bundled with X-Fi, Creative Centrale conversions are relatively quick and painless.
Battery Life
The official specs say 35 hours of audio and 5 hours of video. Under my use(commuting to uni, during uni and while I study) I'm getting about 3 weeks on a single charge obviously this would decrease as time goes by but its holding up quite well so far.
Feature List
Here's a quick feature list.
Photo Viewer
Alarm
Radio
Contact List
Organiser
Voice Recording
SD Slot
Creative EP-830 earphones
built in Speaker
Conclusion
Overall the Creative Zen X-Fi is a great product, which has everything a person could want at an excellent price point. The idea of implementing X-Fi technology is a terrific, however it still needs some polishing to be considered even close to the X-Fi technology on Creative's sound cards. In the end I would recommend this product to anyone who loves music.
Creative in recent times have put their foot off the accelerator with their last "big thing" being the Zen Vision:M.
Design
Overall the build quality of the Zen X-Fi is very sturdy and feels great in the hand (it's about the same size of credit card). The face of the product is a glossy black trimmed by a chrome boarder which is aesthetically pleasing in my opinion. The placement of the navigational is functional and natural, however since the 8gig version does not have the feature of Wi-Fi the four corner buttons are essential redundant, as on the 16/32gig versions those buttons would have been used in the T9 styled keyboard. However the fact the buttons are slightly raised gives some peace of mind that the screen would be protected to an extend.
User Interface
The UI is quite you'll find on almost all other Zen products, it's easy to use and the controls are solid, the learning curve is almost zero. One of my favourite features of the X-Fi and also the Zen series is the dedicated shortcut button which can be assigned to whatever you want; currently my shortcut button goes to the X-Fi sound enhancement. Like most Zen products the X-Fi allows you to customise the main menu to your liking so that you can easily access your most commonly used features. There is one issue with the UI that is the integration of the SD slot, the X-Fi treats the SD is a totally different system and does not mingle at all with the internal memory, hopefully this issue will be fixed in future firmware updates.
Audio
The sound quality is what to be expected from Creative, Excellent. Even without the X-Fi Enhancement the audio is still a few steps ahead of the competition, the X-Fi is able to produce smooth bass and sharp high notes. With the X-Fi enhancement you have two options to enable crystalliser and expand. The crystalliser restores the sound lost during the lossy compression process i.e. mp3 and the expand feature attempts to produce a surround sound environment to the user. In my experience the X-Fi enhancement is subjective to the user some will say they don't hear a difference, others say it sounds worse and the rest say it sounds better. I say it does a great job with some of my tracks but with some tracks it makes the tracks sound.... well...different not better not worse but different. None the less audio is nothing short of excellent.
The earphones that are bundled with the X-Fi are not your average earphones they are the Creative EP-830s they do quite a good job with the bass and also cancel out noise to a degree, these earphones will satisfy most audiophiles. I stress that these headphones are what gives the Zen X-Fi that little bit extra. Like all previous Zen's in the series it has the feature of an EQ for those who like to customise their audio. The X-Fi also has a built in speaker it sound good for an embedded speaker but don't expect to rock any parties with it, you'll find yourself using the speaker while your sitting down a desk while doing some light work.
Video
The video playback on the X-Fi is a good experience, the playback is smooth and quite vivid due to the 16.7million colours available on the X-Fi. The files the X-Fi can play natively are as follows WMV, MPEG4-SP, Divx 4/5, Xvid, and MJPEG which is quite a broad array of codecs. All other files are converted using the software bundled with X-Fi, Creative Centrale conversions are relatively quick and painless.
Battery Life
The official specs say 35 hours of audio and 5 hours of video. Under my use(commuting to uni, during uni and while I study) I'm getting about 3 weeks on a single charge obviously this would decrease as time goes by but its holding up quite well so far.
Feature List
Here's a quick feature list.
Photo Viewer
Alarm
Radio
Contact List
Organiser
Voice Recording
SD Slot
Creative EP-830 earphones
built in Speaker
Conclusion
Overall the Creative Zen X-Fi is a great product, which has everything a person could want at an excellent price point. The idea of implementing X-Fi technology is a terrific, however it still needs some polishing to be considered even close to the X-Fi technology on Creative's sound cards. In the end I would recommend this product to anyone who loves music.
