Creative Zen X-Fi 32 GB Video MP3 Player with Wireless LAN and Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver) by Creative
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Digital camera reviews of Creative Zen X-Fi 32 GB Video MP3 Player with Wireless LAN and Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver)
Digital camera Review: A great MP3 Player
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to admit a bias upfront. I have always bought Creative products. My thinking was that they made fantastic sound cards, they took the knowledge and put it into the MP3 Players.
I got this for my oldest son for Christmas, as his older Zen version was running rapidly out of room. We got a 4 MB one for him 5 years ago. He is now downloading more and more music every day, and needed space.
2 things I love about this MP3 player-the sound quality, and the screen.
The sound quality is fantastic. The X-FI system is really superior to any of the previous Zens, as well as other MP3 players that I have listened to over the years. (My youngest was different and wanted an IPod Touch. It is a neat thing, but I am not too crazy about the sound quality)
The screen has a great resolution, and videos downloaded to it play clear.
Others have complained about the clunky software Creative provides. Yes, it is clunky, but it is easy to understand and work with. Plus, there are other programs out there that you can use to convert Audio and Video just as easily.
We have only started to experiment with WiFi, connecting up to the network I set up in our house. I will have to update as we conduct a couple of other experiements
Overall, a great MP3 player!
Digital camera Review: A waste of good money...
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this several months ago but since my Vision M was still working ok I decided to use that until the battery in it started messing up. I started using my X-fi player afterward and after about two months of use it died on me. I connected it to my laptop and the screen just went white. The player itself began to heat up and was unresponsive after that. One thing I noticed weeks earlier was that while the player was not in use, the screen would light up on its own and sometimes that would cause it to freeze. I believe my player was defected but if you want to take a gamble and buy it it's your choice. This player does have some good features, like the great looking screen and the superb sound. Even the speaker sounds ok at full volume, not distorted at all. The main thing that bothered me about this player is the control buttons. The tiny buttons are hard to click and the diagonal buttons are really useless. If you want to buy this player buy the 16 gb version. If something goes wrong with it you'll feel somewhat glad you didn't spend as much for the 32 gb like i did. Plus, you still have unlimited memory with the memory card feature. Sorry Creative, this is the last mp3 player I ever buy from you guys.Digital camera Review: Almost Perfect
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought the Nomad Zen NX about 5 years ago and it still works great. However, it is relatively big and heavy, and that's why I decided to upgrade now. Other players I considered were the Zune 120gb and the iPod 120gb but the Zune lacks an equalizer which was a dealbreaker for me and the iPod only has equalizer presets -- no customization. So I went for the Zen X-Fi 32gb and I'm glad I did. It lacks the capacity of the other two players, but the SD slot sort of makes up for it, even though it isn't well integrated with the internal memory. Also, SD prices have been falling fast, so I can see 32gb SD cards being sold for a reasonable price in the not too distant future. And this Zen is considerably smaller than those other two devices which is a big plus for me.
The sound quality is very good. I like that it has a customnizable button to configure however you like. I assigned the volume control to it since that isn't directly available via another button in all screens. Now I can more easily access it at all times.
FM reception in my area is superb, with little distortion or static. I think it will depend on where you live. In NY City, it's great.
As for syncing, I am using the J River Media Center. It syncs fine with the Zen X-Fi and I prefer it to the non-intuitive Centrale software.
The Centrale software bundled with the device is not totally useless. For one thing, it installs a help file on your PC that's a lot more detailed than the Quick Start guide that comes in the package. You should install Centrale at least for the help file. After you copy it elsewhere, you may be able to uninstall Centrale if you want. However it's harmless and I think uninstalling it might remove some of the needed drivers your PC may require in order to recognize the Zen X-Fi. You can also re-format the player using Centrale.
Speaking of drivers, there is a Windows glich that prevented my Windows XP machine from initially recognizing my Zen x-Fi so I couldn't update the firmware or sync. I tried re-installing the Creative software and updating the drivers through Windows device manager but I kept getting this error message -- "A service installation section in this INF is invalid." A google search came up with the solution. If this happens to you, do a google search on that error message and follow the link to myCreative Fansite. In the first post is the answer -- A missing umdf file -- and a link to download it. The solution is really simple and worked like a charm, and my Zen is now fully recognized by my PC and the Creative software. It is not Creative's fault as this is happening to users of other MP3 players who are on Windows as well.
The headphones are terrific and are far far better than the stock headphones that come with most players. I had planned to sell them on eBay since I have a few sets of earbuds already, but I'm going to keep them now as they have a nice rich sound and work well with this player. They are fairly easy to drive too so you can keep your volume on the Zen low which means your battery should last longer. For example, if I am listening with these headphones with the volume set to 7, I might have to set the volume level at 15 to get the same loudness using my Sony MDR-EX71 earbuds.
You also get a nice hard plastic case to store all the little papers and accessories that came with the player.
To clear up something a recent reviewer said .... once you have the correct drivers installed from the CD that comes with the unit (and apply any Windows fix if you have the umdf issue like I did), you do NOT have to go through Creative's Centrale software to get files into this player. It will show up as a separate drive instantly when you connect. Just click on My Computer to access it and you can browse the folder structure and drag and drop files. This is an additional way to load music files along with other alternate options such as Windows Media Player or J River Media Center.
I would have given this player 5 stars if not for the poor integration of the SD card with the internal memory. I also really wish they had volume and pause hardware controls on the SIDE of the player which would allow one to control them even with a closed leather case. My Zen NX has this. With the Zen X-Fi you have to open the covers of the leather cases to get to the volume and pause controls. Because of this, I might simply go with a hard plastic case with cutouts or a silicone skin.
Other than that, I'm very happy with this purchase. As I said, this little player is almost perfect.
Digital camera Review: Alphabetizing of music under individual artists
Summary: 4 Stars
After using this unit for over a year I am very pleased with but one exception. I have much music listed under each artist and the firmware doesn't allow alphabetizing for the individual artists, which makes it very difficult to select a song.It permits alphabetizing only for all music.Digital camera Review: Amazing player, Awful software
Summary: 4 Stars
This player is fantastic! It sounds amazing, looks cool, and has tons of features. This thing is the size of a credit card and weighs next to nothing.
The thing that sets this player apart is all the extras it has. FM Radio, SD card support, divx and xvid video, microphone, wifi and external speaker. No other player has this many features! It sounds phenomenal and the video playback is fantastic. One of the coolest things about the player is that you can delete files without plugging it into the computer.
With that said, it still has its flaws. The software that it comes bundled with (called Centrale) is atrocious. It doesn't have a syncing feature, it's extremely slow, and doesn't upload album art automatically. Uploading my 20gb of music took 5 hours! If you drag and drop in windows explorer it takes about 90 minutes. This program was supposed combine all the creative programs into one easy to use package but it is hard to use and has too many flaws. I ended up using the old Creative Sync Manager to upload the songs.
Pros:
+Fantastic Sound
+SD Card Support (you can double the size for $100!)
+FM Radio with great reception
+External speaker sounds surprisingly good
+Videos look great
+Customizable Menu and Themes
Cons:
-Awful software
-Not Divx Certified (only plays certain types of divx, message me if you want to know how to convert easily)
-Interface takes a while to get used to
-WiFi is just a gimmick (for now)
Overall, I am extremely happy. It's a great player with a ton of features; I'm just hoping Creative will start to spend more time on their software.