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August 21, 2008

Creative Zen X-Fi review

Product Code: 70PF2420001F5

PAGE 3

The Creative Zen X-Fi is beyond question a better all-around digital music player than any of Apple's current iPods.

People who are already familiar with Creative's players should get the hang of the Creative Zen X-Fii's design and interface right away. It does have a few notable changes from earlier Creative models, however. The touch strip present on the Zen VisionM and the directional pad featured on the newer Creative Zen have been supplanted by nine buttons arranged in a three-by-three grid.

These spaced-out buttons simplify navigating the player by feel, even while it's still in your pocket. And they double as a phonelike alphanumeric pad for entering network passwords or chatting online. Flanking the nine buttons are four dedicated navigation buttons that should be familiar to owners of other Creative players: the back button, a contextual menu button, a user-customisable button, and the play/pause button. Despite the X-Fi''s small size, all of the buttons are well spaced and easy to use. The power switch is on the back of the player and can be "locked" on; the SD Card slot and the single speaker occupy the sides of the unit.

Mere mention of the Creative Zen X-Fi's wireless connectivity doesn't do the feature justice. Much of the X-Fi's appeal comes from its 802.11b/g networking, downloading, and streaming capabilities. The 'Online' menu setting lets you connect to your own computer - or any computer on a network - provided that it is a PC set up as a media server. This arrangement lets you download and stream tracks from your own computer without having to load them onto the player.

In addition, Creative makes its own servers accessible via the Online interface, giving you access to numerous music channels and podcasts, organised by category. Streaming worked without a hitch in my testing, delivering clear and uninterrupted audio that sounded great.

The networking capabilities allow you to chat using your Yahoo Messenger or Windows Live Messenger accounts, but we ran into problems using this feature. The log-in to Yahoo Messenger hung for minutes at the "sign-in" stage, and we had to power the machine off to get it going again. We also found the alphanumeric keypad frustrating to use for extended chatting - in much the same way that using the nine buttons on a mobile phone for texting is. Expect to put your patience to the test, with lots of repeated button pushing. Ultimately the chat feature is no reason to buy this player, though it's a nice extra to have (when it works).

Minor issues such as the chat malfunctions can't take the shine off of the Creative Zen X-Fi.

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Independent customer reviews from

Creative Zen X-Fi scored:
8.0 out of 10 100% real reviews

The 2 most helpful reviews based on 10 reviews:

02 Apr 2009 Fred, Southampton

7

Good Points

The sound and video quality are excellent, the earphones are of outstanding quality and the player looks good.

Bad Points

Much too small. They wanted it small and they overdid it. It would have been much cleverer too make an updated and slim (ipod-like) version of the Zen Vision: M. The buttons are really tiny and you can feel the other buttons on the edge of your finger when you press one, and also, they are hard to press. Again, why get rid of the scrolling touch sensitive button that worked so well on the Vision:M? The screen could have been bigger The casing has a very cheap plastic feel to it. The FM transmitter in my car keeps loosing the signal when I play non music stuff like podcasts. The sd card slot is useless since the contents of the card can't be integrated to the library. The wireless facility is fairly useless too, its software is user-unfriendly and transferring files wirelessly takes for ever. There is no browser and no bluetooth. The power button is on the back of the thing which makes it highly unpractical if you want to protect the player in a leather case. You can't charge the thing if you don't have a USB port handy, and the battery life is appalling. The ol' Vision:M is ugly and bulky by current standards, but I am getting one back!

12 Jan 2009 Mike, Leicester

3

Good Points

nice design and value for money

Bad Points

getting a charger for it, onlt charges through the PC unless you buy an expensive creative charger. Also battery life was poor!

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