Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #597 in Consumer Electronics
• Size: 16 GB
• Color: Black and Silver
• Brand: Creative Labs
• Model: ZXFI16GBBK
• Original language: English, French
• Dimensions: .50" h x 2.20" w x 3.30" l, .20 pounds
• CPU: AMD Athlon 1 GHz
• Memory: 128000MB DRAM
• Hard Disk: 1GB
• Processors: 1
• Native resolution: 640x480
• 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: 16 GB (4,000 songs or 60 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-isolating EP-830 earphones.

Creative Zen X-Fi, built with X-Fi technology and wireless LAN--the sound of perfection. Click to enlarge.

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

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

A control/feature schematic. Click to enlarge.

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

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.

True Mobility
You can now stream music and photos wirelessly from your PC to your player within a home network. With the Zen X-Fi, experience the sound of perfection wherever you go.

Stay connected with friends on Yahoo Messenger or Windows Live Messenger on the go (at region-specific public wireless LAN hotspots).

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 16 GB, installation CD, quick start guide, wireless function quick guide, EP-830 noise-isolating earbuds, USB 2.0 cable

Customer Reviews

Excellent player, but no fifth star until they bring back analog interface
First, an introduction: Recently I've owned and used and liked an iPod 4th gen 80gb, zune 80, iPod 5th gen 80gb, creative zen vision: m 30gb AND 60gb versions (the holy grail to so many mp3 player fans), and I am a power user with a music library of 35gb, all tagged using the free Media Monkey software. I know what I'm talking about. (If you're curious, the two ipods were returned, the ZVM30 was given to my cousin when I got the 60, the ZVM60 was destroyed in iraq and so was the Zune80)

Looks extremely sexy, definitely on the iPod and Zune level of sexiness.
It's ridiculously lightweight and weighs just a bit more than a nano and about half as much as a harddrive bearing zune or ipod.

Video transfer/conversion does not apply to me, so I will not be reviewing it.

IM chat gimmick is worthless, move along.

wifi connect works and is easy to set up, but there is no link to shoutcast or icecast directories. Instead, creative "media box" will show up with internet access, but has a very limited selection of podcast streams, and almost no streaming music.
Streaming music from a local wireless network is very cool, but chews up the otherwise good battery life, limiting its usefulness.

SD card support is hardly seamless, and has a limited set of browsing functions, but this may be nitpicking as most players don't bother to include ANY expandable memory.

x-fi sounds "different" but not unanimously "better", and uses more battery, not really a selling feature then

The headphones are awesome and while they're compared as worse than the zune 80's included headphones, the zen's fit more comfortably (to me) and sound just as good.

The built in speaker is very cool and sounds surprisingly good for its size, there is never any distortion even at maximum volume (distortion is what makes speakerphones and other bad+loud audio sources sound so horrible). It is perfect for showing a song to a friend or friends or playing a little background music in a quiet room.

No line out, but using the headphone jack at full volume sounds just fine on my car stereo and home stereo, with no distortion.


Software:
A lot of people complain about the Creative software but you really never need to use it except for video transfer. I use Media Monkey to sync my music and it works flawlessly. Everyone has Windows Media Player and that syncs just fine with the player. It's an MTP device and that means that a lot of different programs can sync with it. So except for video issues, you really have no reason in the world to complain about the creative software.


Buttons:
The nine button grid is 4 directions and a center "select" button, and on many menus and lists the diagonal four buttons act as home/end and pageup/down, but on many screens they are useless. If they were customizable they could be very powerful! Faster seeking, view toggles, many possibilities, if they were customizable. Firmware update maybe?

I have long fingers and big hands and the player is comfortable to hold, but the buttons are small and indistinct, you have to concentrate a little to be sure you press the correct one if you are fishing for the next/prev track or the volume up/down buttons in your pocket. The pause button is unmissable though, and that is most important.

The zen vision:m's vertical slider with side to side rocking and touchpad tap for select was really perfect for an audio player, and I find myself missing it a lot (but I don't miss that player's poor battery life, large size or ogreish looks)

A disappointment: On no screen are the grid buttons used to refer to a specific function on a grid on the screen (which would have opened some very quick and intuitive menu options), they are ALWAYS arrow buttons with a center select, and sometimes other use diagonal buttons.

Creative have dropped the ball a little by adding four new buttons and not using them to their full potential. The most notable example is that the IM chat function could have used a cell-phone style text entry, but instead uses a very obtuse method that keeps the buttons as arrow keys. Once you've moved past the chat function and removed it from the main menu, you'll then notice that on the 'now playing' screen, the most common and important screen, the four diagonal buttons don't do anything at all. :(

The customizable shortcut button is still here and still awesome, easily settable by simply holding it down. It comes preset to the x-fi settings screen, which should have been integrated into the EQ screen anyway. Mine is set to jump to 'now playing', perfect for changing volume or next/prev track quickly from any menu, and then you can press back to return to wherever you were.

The menu button (or "right click" button as I call it) shows the list of options for most screens, but the list sometimes runs off the top and bottom by just a few lines and could have been scaled down to fit them all. Would have been nice to enable the 'diagonal' buttons to be shortcuts for some of the common menu items, while the menu is open.


The Interface (the most important part of any mp3 player):
It may sound like I'm pointing out a lot of flaws in the device's usability, but let me assure you it really is fantastic to use. The device interface is the same as the venerable ZVM, and is powerful, attractive, and simple. The 'right click' menus offer a lot of functionality while being intuitive to any computer user; rather than hide a cluttered pile of settings in the main menu settings screen, many settings are accessed from the screen they're related to. I'm a big fan of the ZVM interface and am glad they didn't change it. On the Zen the graphics have been given quite a boost since the ZVM days, and the gui really is pretty.



Useful things the Zen players do that ipod and zune do NOT under any circumstances support:
- [zune] sync with 3rd party software
- 'now playing' playlist access
- creation/saving of playlists on the fly
- ability to add a track to the 'now playing' list allows you to build a playlist and not interrupt currently playing track, great for playing music for others
- bookmark track positions (great for podcasts, audiobooks, long music mixes)
- switch between view of albums, artists, or track in the music menus
- rearrange items when you customize the main menu
- "dj" menu with options like "play popular" and "play highly rated"
- delete actual tracks from within the player
- record voice
- hide photos/video easily, obviously to hide porn when showing off your player to your mom
- actual usb port, no proprietary connector
- built in speaker
- wifi network access

I see this player is squaring off against the ipod and zune, and is already going above and beyond them both, feature by feature.


PS:
Nitpicks:
- no rapid way to seek in a track
- no "go to album" or "go to genre" for a track, only "go to artist"
- pageup/down buttons stop working when you move "right" to the list of letter shortcuts on a long list, and they don't work on the 'right click' menu
- speaker should have been put on the left side, your hand ends up covering it up sometimes, when you hold it right handedly

Awesome portable media player, bad software
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2MT954C8FQVXL Hi.

This is the Zen X-Fi in action, player seems very good (for me at least) its got many features which I like, the only downside for now has been the software that is bundled with the player which for me it is not a very good software, anyway if you want to see it in action check out the video.

Great sound, nice upgrade to the Creative Zen: bass lovers will love this.
I bought this because I was jealous of my wife's Creative Zen 8 GB player.

But really, I bought this because of the promised X-Fi sound quality. I have an X-Fi audio card for my desktop PC and I really love the enhanced MP3 sound quality and was hoping for more of the same in a portable unit. The Creative Zen X-Fi does not disappoint, straight out of the box I found the sound to be full of the bass tones I love so much. The X-Fi settings add some nice quality to my tones and vibrate my little eardrums with heavy beats. With the included headphones the bass was almost overwhelming for me, but with my Bose Triport IE's I found the sound to be very satisfying.

So lets get down to brass tacks here. So far here's what I love:
*) The new iPhoney sleek look is very nice, an improvement I think.
*) The buttons have a nice tactile feel. With very little practice I can easily find the play button and volume adjustment without looking. Visually its a little harder to figure out which button is where.
*) Even better, the buttons never get pressed unintentionally. This is a big plus since I use it for working out and yard work where I'm often bending over; my clix was constantly getting paused or fast forwarded unintentionally which has been a constant source of annoyance!
*) I found it virtually effortless to hook this up to my PC, connect to my existing MediaMonkey library and download all of my songs and playlists.
*) Great sound for bass lovers. X-fi crystallizer makes for a crisper quality if thats what you like.
*) Wi-fi connection, hooked up to my network easily and I was browsing the Creative Media Center in minutes.
*) Very lightweight compared to most of my other players.
*) User Interface: If you are familiar with Creative players then you will find the buttons easy to understand and use. I find the basic menu system easy to understand and navigate. Lots of nice background images to choose from.
*) Easy firmware update, I downloaded the latest firmware from Creative website and easily installed it.
*) Decent headphones included -- possibly the best I've ever seen packaged with an MP3 player.
*) Lightweight, easy to carry, seems to be pretty rugged construction, fits nicely in a pocket.
*) Nice battery life: compared to my Clix 2 (4 ish hours) or my iPod Touch (about same!) this thing lasts forever at about 10ish hours.
*) Big bold colorful screen, which I find easy to read even in daylight.
*) I love the way it pops right back to where I left off even after a power off, it comes right back to the Now Playing screen and resumes my playlist. Most of my other players don't do this very well so its a plus when it works the way I think it should.

And the things that are not so great:
*) Well, as is the "case" with many non-Apple players, accessories are not easy to come by. This seems to be a bit thicker than its predecessor so I don't think the old Zen cases are going to fit very well. Also, the power button has been moved to the back of the player which will mean you need a special case to be able to access the power button. As of this writing, I can't find a single X-Fi leather case out there, not even from Creative. -- Update: I just ordered a leather case direct from Creative, hoping its a good one! Update: Found an i-nique case which is very nice, with the only problem being hard to access that power button on the back... still waiting for the perfect case!


Thats about it, I highly recommend this player as a heck of a lot of MP3 player for the price (I paid more for my 8GB Clix 2 and a lot more for my 16B Touch!). In many ways I like it better than the Clix 2 although the Clix does have the crispest sound I've ever heard from a player. The Touch of course is a wonderful unit but it is bigger, heavier and more expensive.