Product Description

Zen X-Fi The sound of perfection.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1387 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: Silver
• Brand: Creative Labs
• Model: ZXFI8GBBK
• Original language: French, English
• Dimensions: .50" h x 2.20" w x 3.30" l, 3.20 pounds
• Display size: 2.5

Features

• A firmware bug could result in the player locking when playing the FM radio; to fix the problem, upgrade the latest firmware (1.04.08) posted on support.creative.com
• Capacity: 8 GB (2,000 songs or 30 hours of video); up to 30 hours of continuous audio playback or 5 hours of continuous video playback on one charge
• 2.5-inch TFT LCD with 320 x 240 pixel resolution: 16.7 million colors
• Supports MP3, WMA, AAC5, WAV (ADPCM), Audible 2,3,4 audio formats; MJPEG, WMV, MPEG-4 video (including DivX and XviD); and JPEG photo formats
• 1-year limited hardware / 90 days service warranty

Amazon.com Product Description
Experience your MP3 music as the artist originally intended with the Creative Zen X-Fi--the first player to restore the quality of compressed music with award-winning X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity Audio technology. Indulge in rich, crystal-clear audio when you listen to your music, as the detail that’s lost during file compression is now beautifully restored and played through premium-quality, noise-isolatling EP-830 earphones.

Creative Zen X-Fi, built with X-Fi technology--the sound of perfection.

A pocket-sized player that weighs a mere 2.4 ounces, the Zen X-Fi sports attractive curves with a graceful finish.

The included EP-830 earphones provide optimum comfort with excellent noise isolation.

A control/feature schematic.

Immerse yourself in the brilliant 2.5-inch TFT screen with 16.7 million colors as you watch your movies and view your pictures.

Sleek Beauty
A pocket-sized player that weighs a mere 2.4 ounces, the Zen X-Fi sports attractive curves with a graceful finish. Immerse yourself in the brilliant 2.5-inch TFT screen with 16.7 million colors as you watch your movies and view your pictures. Build with X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity Audio technology, the player lets you experience the very essence of music perfection as you listen to audio in crystal clear clarity. Hear your music the way it was always meant to be heard. Plus, the included EP-830 earphones provide optimum comfort with excellent noise-isolation capability. Or, be the life of the party as you share your music out loud with the powerful built-in speaker.

More Content, Endless Enjoyment
Listen to your music in multiple supported formats, such as MP3, WMA, and (non-protected) AAC (m4a) from iTunes Plus. Download Creative Centrale to rip, transfer, and manage your media content easily. Enjoy the ultimate collection of free video and audio podcast channels on www.zencast.com. Manage all of your favorite subscriptions with Zencast Organizer, and experience the best of the free-to-share formats available. Tired of your own music? Switch to the FM radio. The 32 station presets let you switch stations with ease. Increase the size of your portable media library with an SD or SDHC card. Transfer your files easily to enjoy more videos, music, and photos in your player.

Packed with Features
Record your important meetings or personal audio memos with the integrated voice recorder. Set audio effects to enhance your overall music listening experience. Choose from eight EQ presets or customize your own EQ and enhance it all with bass boost and smart volume controls. Start the day on the right note with your very own alarm tone. You can even set the alarm for any day of the week.

What's in the Box
Creative Zen X-Fi 8 GB, installation CD, quick start guide, EP-830 noise-isolating earbuds, USB 2.0 cable

Customer Reviews

Great Value Exceptional Product

I am a big fan of Creative Lab products and the customer support I've received in the past from them. My requirements from an MP3 player are pretty simple, I want my music to sound good, I want to be able to listen to audio books, and if I can watch a movie on it I want the movie to look good. You'd think every MP3 player would be able to do at least two out of three. I find the sound quality in Creative products to be exceptional, even the modest Zen stone with its very limited features has great sound quality. The x-fi series goes a step beyond. Crisp and pristine high range, subtle and pure mid range, and faithful, clear bass, even without customizing the EQ, the presets play exactly as you'd expect from your higher end home theatre.
I agree with the reviewer who didn't like the software, but I don't really like the software with any MP3 player. As much as I have respect for Apple as a company and have rooted for them since the late eighties and groaned when they've sunk money into a product that tanked (like their early PDA) I really personally don't like the iPod and in a large part because of the proprietary software, and though I appreciate that unlike their ill received PDA the iPod is priced to make a profit, I think it's too expensive at each price point. In that respect I am willing to suffer through the clumsy software with Creative Control center, clumsier than the media center that came with the other Zen I have. The video converter, however, is excellent, intuitive and quick.

In this price range I have yet to hear any other mp3 compare favorably to the faithful sound reproduction or exceed the quality of the video. I worked for the doomed Circuit City for eight years, was fired for being a good salesman (the first time they got rid of commissioned sales they fired their top twenty five percent for making too much money) and have had the opportunity to test drive a great number of MP3's, prior to 2002, then worked for Dell for a while, again with the opportunity to test drive mp3 players, and have owned several. I cannot stress this enough, for the money, the features, the sound quality, compatibility, limited proprietary issues this is the best product on the market imho.

I realize this review is all personal, but that's the point for these reviews. If you're interested in tech specs go to creative's web site. I find all the specs in the world don't compare to a test drive. Ohm impedance for instance never looks like a good stat on an MP3. My opinion is that the x-fi series is incredibly faithful in sound reproduction and for the consumer is a great value.

Think of it as a Zen that's been fixed

If you want a Creative Zen that works reliably, the Zen X-Fi might be for you. I bought a Zen, which kept freezing up with the WSD (White Screen of Death). Then I found that most people seemed to have the same problem. So when I replaced it (immediately), I almost didn't try the Zen X-Fi. But I took a risk, and mine has had no freezing up problems, certainly not the WSD.

Yes, the player is a little thicker than the old Zen. The space is taken (I suppose) with the built-in speaker. The speaker is not loud enough for environments with any noise unless you forgot your earphones and want to hold it right up to your ear. But is nice to have in a pinch.

Some don't like the array of nine buttons. If you ignore the corner buttons, then it operates just like the Zen or many other MP3 players (select/play, up/down volume, left/right fast fwd/rev). So it is more a visual/mental hang-up than an ergonomic problem.

I don't use the X-Fi sound feature, since it is software trickery and there are lots of mixed reviews as to whether it sounds like real music or not. Since this is the 8GB model, it doesn't have wireless, which is just fine by me. I wouldn't have any real use for it anyway. (Some report that their X-Fi player sometimes freezes when using the wireless mode.)

The out-of-box sound is very good, and you won't be disappointed unless you are a die-hard audiophile. Then you should go with Sony or Cowon players. The supplied earphones are a bit nicer than most, though a little bloated and muddy in the lower end, and not as clear as I would like in the top end. My Sennheiser PX100 headphones handle the highs and the full spectrum more nicely, though still a little too warm and bloated in the upper bass. But that is more about the phones than the player.

The screen is well done and nicely sized. Though I'd like to see some video on a AMOLED screen (like Iriver or Samsung) and see how it handles motion pans.

The photo viewer is nice with some nice features. A few options for viewing photo slideshows. You can load it with photos of higher resolution and then it allows you to zoom in on details in any part of the photo. Kind of cool, though I haven't decided if it is actually useful or just a gimmick to wow you. I guess, with a 2.5"screen you can't always see the details and might want to zoom in without running back to your PC to view the full-res photo. Also if you choose a photo as your wallpaper, it asks you how dark you want the photo to be, which is trick and convenient, since you need dark desktop wallpaper in order to read your on-screen printing.

I listen to a lot of podcasts and find that this handles them better than most because it allows you to bookmark up to 10 podcasts (or songs for that matter), so you can resume it later. I do wish that Podcasts were located in a different menu option than Music (like Sony does). You have to choose the Podcast or Zencast genre in the Music/Genre menu.

After much experimentation, Itunes is still the only software tool that handles podcasts properly (name, album, artist, description, release date, etc. properly). So, while the Zencast software does a pretty good job otherwise, several podcasts are handled properly as I would like. So, I subscribe and manage podcasts with Itunes. I use Media Monkey (free) to read what Itunes has done and to sync with the Zen. Zencast does a better job than Media Monkey's Podcast subscriptions, or than MyPodder by PodcastReady, or others I've tried (haven't tried J. River Media Center), but none are as consistent as Itunes, unfortunately.

Superb MP3 Player
Creative Zen X-Fi 8 GB Video MP3 Player with Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver)

I purchased this 8GB Zen X-Fi after doing some extensive internet research. I must say, I absolutely love it! My son has an iPod Nano 8GB (3gen) and when he saw the Zen X-Fi he asked if we could trade players.

The player is exceptionally good-looking and very well put together! I've read reviews where people complain about the fact the player's back plate is made of plastic, so what?!? This makes it very light, and yet has a solid feeling to it. You have to get yourself one, it's downright gorgeous!

I found the player's user interface to be very user-friendly, the menus are very easy to access and understand. Some reviewers have said the player's buttons on the front panel are too small; this has not been an issue to me, I think they're perfect for the size of the player.

I have not yet used the software included with the player, I connected it last night to my laptop to charge and then downloaded some music into the player using Windows Explorer (it was a breeze, just drag & drop!). I was amazed at the download speed: I put in 4 CDs (about 12 songs each) and each took about 10 seconds to download! (No iTunes for me! But I'll have to keep it for my son's iPod)

The sound quality is excellent, with the included in-ear headphones (which are absolutely great!) and with the external speaker. I listened to some audiobook samples that came pre-loaded with the player and can't say enough about how great the sound is! Video playback is awesome, very crisp and clear. Same thing about pictures, they look fantastic!

I like the fact that I can increase the storage capacity with the SD Memory Card slot, this is something the iPods are seriously lacking. The FM Radio Tuner and the Voice Recorder is a nice feature to have too. The player also has an Organizer, which is a feature that I have yet to explore.

Overall, at this price range, and with all the features and niceties, it really doesn't get any better than the Zen X-Fi.