Uber-awesome Zen X-Fi Review

Review Date

August 17, 2008

Quick Opinion

The Zen X-Fi is the mp3 player for anyone who loves good sound, a beautiful user interface, and flash memory at an extraordinary price.

Pros

Great price. Best sounding player I’ve had (X-Fi off). Great battery life. Excellent use of the wireless functionality. Superb user interface.

Cons

iTunes is faster than Centrale. And iTunes is slow. Wi-Fi features need a little refinement. Still no integrated SD.

Rating

4.6/5

Requirements:

Windows XP or Vista, Mac OS supported with XNJB, Linux with Gnomad2. For wireless, an 802.11g or b connection with any security.

Size, Weight, Complete Physical @ CNET

Note, the Zen X-Fi comes in 8, 16, and 32GB variations. The 8GB does not have the wireless features, but the 16 and 32GB models do.

Introduction

Creative’s had some rough times. Their heralded Zen Vision:M’s successor, the original Zen, was a nice player. It had many of the features that make the X-Fi so great. However, it seems as if the Zen was rushed, incomplete, perhaps forced out the door early. This was fairly obvious with the white screen of death that frequented the player’s early models. Luckily for Creative, they have fixed nearly every bug in the firmware, and added a set of features that will make even hardcore Apple fans look twice at the price. At $279 list price for the 32GB player, it’s just $30 more than an 80GB Classic with twice the feature set.

Sound

Despite Creative heavily promoting the X-Fi sound, the sound with X-Fi off is simply amazing. I’ve heard the X-Fi difference, and am a true believer in its effects on a PC. Since their isn’t a true X-Fi chip in here (according to reports), I assume that the effect is diminished. I have tested it with a few songs, and it does help a majority of songs. Despite this improvement, however, the enhancements can really muddy some songs even at its lowest level. Leaving it off, however, will truly give your ears a treat. Using the Zen Aurvanas, however, I did get some static. There was no static when I switched to a cheaper Panasonic earclips I found at Walmart. The on-the-go playlist feature works as well as the previous players, simply select ‘Add to Selected’ to add to the currently playing playlist. From the now playing screen, you can save the Now Playing playlist with a name. The format support is above average, with WMA, MP3, AAC, WAV, and subscription services such as Rhapsody to Go. For audiobook fans, Audible is supported out of the box, and the active bookmarking on the player is extremely easy to use.

Video

The ace in the hole of the ZV:M was its wide codec support. This is the same for the X-Fi, but the SigmaTel chip inside only supports 320×240 resolutions. You can easily change the video resolution without re-encoding the audio type, which cuts conversion time significantly. Of course, the Creative software, while much improved over the previous versions, is slower than the free Any Video Converter (check out the guide here for conversion to the X-Fi– it’s the same as the Zen), which does this very easily. As with the ZV:M, it supports WMV, AVI (which includes DivX and Xvid), and motion JPEG. The screen, as with all Creative players, is drop dead gorgeous. It’s a 2.5″, 16.7 million color LCD with an excellent viewing angle. The quality is near perfection, while you can’t expect HD quality, it’s as good as a 2.5″ screen is ever going to get, with dark blacks, and very vibrant colors. Keep in mind, however, that the video is going to look as good as the converter works, so don’t skimp on quality

Wireless Feature Set

Chat

The chat feature is just that, a feature. It’s not quite implemented to its fullest extent. You can only be signed in while you are on the chat screen. Due to this, you cannot chat while listening to music or browsing pictures. It’s pretty straightforward on connecting the player to the Windows Live or Yahoo! chat networks.However, if you are having trouble with that, I’ve set up both a step by step guide and a video supplement. Once you do get connected, you can see all of your friends that are logged on at the same time (meaning your Windows Live and Yahoo contacts will show up in the same list), as well as any friends on the Creative server. Next to each user you will see their status, and moving the highlight on them will pop up a larger icon.Typing is a bit troublesome at first, as you have a choice between a PSP-style entry and circular input, however it gets much easier as time goes on. If you’ve ever used the PSP to enter text, it’s very similar. While some reviewers have complained about the inability to enter as T9 or cellphone style. There are nine buttons, just like a standard cellphone. However, unlike a cellphone, there is no space button to switch words, which is an absolute necessity for that style input. It’s possible, however, for Creative, in a firmware update, to reconfigure one of the three buttons that surround the nine button keypad and implement that (of the other two, one is ‘Options,’ and it’s already implemented as the symbols/caps menu, the other the Back button). But that would mean drawing fire for changing the play or shortcut.

The avatar system, while it only displays when you’re chatting to a friend on the Creative server, it’s quite customizable, like the Manga avatars on the web. Unfortunately, no one is ever signed in to the Creative servers, so it’s hard to check out.

Media Server

The media server feature is easily the most attractive feature of the player. I thought it would be one of thoselame devices that need everything in just the right format and bandwidth to enjoy properly. But after I found TVersity and fiddled around with it a bit, I was watching live TV, streaming my favorite podcasts, and viewing some Flickr photostreams. There’s a setup guide here. Once you find a charger, you can lay anywhere in the house watching any videos on a PC or server.

Looks

The X-Fi on the outside is, essentially, an upgraded Zen. However, when they upgraded it, Creative got rid of the cheap plasticy feeling of the D-pad on the front and replaced it with very sturdy, albeit finicky buttons. The recessed four additional buttons, while not lighting up in blue like the Vision:M, make the player seem like its a bit more expensive than it really is. The back, however, is the same plastic back, just painted silver. The silver shows scratches more easily, and they got rid of the cool ripples that surround the ZEN name. It’s like having a really nice BMW (one of the good ones) console on a Ford Taurus, but they didn’t quite finish the adaptation.

The side panel is one of the most positive changes of the X-Fi. Instead of the jammed headphone jack, USB, and integrated on/off/hold/power light being jammed on one side, the on/off/hold switch has taken up residence on the back of the player, leaving plenty of room for the headphone jack, USB connector, and easier to push reset button along with the newly designed power light, which is much better than the boring blue that the X-Fi’s predecessors had. It’s green while operating, yellow while charging, and red when it’s nearly dead.

User Interface

The user interface of the X-Fi is extremely easy to use. Though it may seem simplistic, Creative has a few button shortcuts that they never tell you about. For example, in the keypad, the 1 and 7 (imagine them numbered like a cellphone keypad) work as the Home and End buttons on a keyboard might: pushing the 1 button goes to the top of the list and the 7 all the way to the bottom. On the opposite side, the 3 and 9 buttons act as Page Up and Page Down so you can scroll through your list without mashing the down button. Another hidden secret: pushing and holding the back button will take you back to the main menu.

As with all Creative players, the interface is extremely customizable and can be made easy to suit your tastes. You can make any picture the default background, and you can customize the theme with the six themes that can be changed in the system menu. The main menu is also customizable, so if the user doesn’t use the player as a video player, it’s a few short button presses and the Video submenu doesn’t show up on the main menu. It also has the folder protection that previous Zens have had. The My Shortcut button, whose action is dictated by a setting in the player settings menu, is one of the best ideas Creative has come up with, and it’s great to see them keep this from the ZVM.

Software

In a word, the bundled software is horrible. It’s slow and demanding, and the only real improvement over MediaSource (the previous app) is its album art support. The easiest way to avoid this is by using something such as Songbird (with the MTP device addon) or MediaMonkey, which are much more elegant and easy to use. The ZenCast organizer, which is not bundled with the CD, is a worthy app to organize all types of podcasts. You can download it either at Creative’s support site or at ZenCast.com. If you don’t like any software, remember this is an MTP device, so you can drag and drop via the icon that will show up in My Computer when you plug it in.

Other Features

Onboard Speaker

The onboard speaker, despite what Creative might tell you, will not be able to be the life of a party. However, positioned properly, it can make a suitable speaker for a small room, thus making it a good player for a smaller, quiet hotel room. The quality is actually very good for such a small speaker, and there is very little distortion when the volume gets louder. It is much better than the Zen Vision: W’s built in speaker. The speaker would be ideally used for a person on their bed watching a video to use, as it’s easy to hear without the ambient noise of headphone cords every time they are moved while providing decent sound quality.

SD Card

For some, this will be one of the most disappointing parts about the player. The contents of the SD card are still not integrated into the main media library. The import option is still there, so it makes a good storage device for camera photos on vacation. Additionally, you can import any file type to the player, but you won’t be able to see them on the player. The files will be there when you browse through the player on a computer. Another feature of the SD card slot is its ability to double as a reader, so you won’t need a separate adapter to transfer directly to and from the SD card. This is easily accessed through the Memory Card/Removable Disk option

Organizer: Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Microphone

You can sync your Outlook contacts, calendar, and tasks with the Sync Manager, which is included on the CD. The microphone is decent for a portable player, but it does record clicks when you push buttons on the player.

Battery Life

While I don’t have a clear cut time for the battery life, the battery is definitely better than the Zen’s. I went on a trip to Arkansas a while back and forgot my charger. I didn’t use the player all that much, but I’d guess after about 15 hours of audio use, the meter was displaying about half full. It’s perfect for the commute to and from work, as you’ll (depending on traffic and distance of course) probably only need to recharge it once a week. Just be sure to activate the hold switch when not browsing the device’s media.

FM Tuner

The tuner is a bit of a weakling. It definitely receives all the channels, but the quality is very sporadic. At times, it’s crystal clear, and at others, very full of static. With recent pressure by the recording industry, there is no FM recording. You can autoscan and name presets as you wish, but the player does not receive RDS data.

Final Word

Overall, this player outclasses the iPod Classic and Nano in nearly every category. It’s cheaper, easier to use, has FM radio, superior video and audio quality, and has an impressive wireless feature set. There really isn’t a reason to pick up an iPod over this player. However, the pitiful software makes the experience less enjoyable if you have never heard of MediaMonkey. Nonetheless, if you are in the market for a new DAP, the Zen X-Fi has much more to offer than its competitors.

See all of the Zen X-Fi photos I took, and while you’re there, you can simultaneously view my horrible photography skills! If you have a feature that I did not discuss here, get involved! Leave a comment below, and I’ll add to it as soon as it comes to my attention.

• Related Posts
• Bookmark
• Tags