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: Amazing sound, horrid player
Summary: 2 Stars
I've been using Creative products for almost twelve years now, and I've finally decided to start looking for audio products from other companies. The Zen X-Fi 32GB is what pushed me over the edge. There are a plethora of issues with this player, and if it weren't for the amazing sound quality, I would have returned it soon after I bought it. Let us count the ways Creative has finally hit rock bottom in the MP3 player department:
*You can use an SD card with the Zen X-Fi, but it does not integrate with the player's menu. In other words, you can't bookmark, create playlists, or continue playback of a track after you shut the player off. How lame is that?
*You can modify acoustics with the built-in X-Fi software, but you can't adjust the equalizer while the software is enabled. It's either X-Fi or EQ, but not both. Depending on you personal audio tastes and the quality of your headphones, this can be good or bad.
*Want to download album art to your X-Fi? Good luck with that. Even using Creative's Centrale software, your chances of getting the album art to display at all is pretty slim. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
*Avoid using the supplied Centrale music software at all costs. It is honestly the buggiest software I've ever had the dishonor of trying to use. It crashes constantly, it can take up to 1/2 hour to load (!), and none of the features work as intended. For the love of God, use MediaMonkey or WMP when you need to transfer files to the X-Fi.
*Speaking of transferring files, you can't do it with drag-and-drop like you could with Creative's older players. It will crash the X-Fi, forcing you to do a hard reset and rebuild your music collection.
*Creative's tech support is horrible, and not just for their players. Probably the worst in the business. Creative only released one firmware update for the X-Fi, which fixed absolutely nothing. Despite a huge uproar from customers (check out their forums), they have no plans to release any more fixes.
*No FLAC support; seriously, in this day and age? Fortunately WMA files sound particularly good on this player.
*The wireless function is useless, unless you're accessing music on your local network via Creative's music server or listening to podcasts. You can't IM or browse the internet. Oh yeah, you can also share files with other X-Fi owners that are nearby, but seeing as how only ten people own an X-Fi, that's pretty much useless too.
Despite all these problems (and there are a ton of minor issues, no room here to list them all), I can easily say the X-Fi is the best sounding player I've ever used. The earbuds supplied with the player are excellent, but I've used several other headphone brands to the same effect. Nice deep bass, crisp tones and crystal-clear sound. It seriously makes the iPod sound like audio sludge in comparison. Buy a pair of Ultrasone Zino headphones if you want a truly surround sound experience with the X-Fi.
In summation, buy the X-Fi only if you're looking for an outstanding audio experience. Other than that, avoid it completely and look at other brands.
Digital camera Review: Awesome
Summary: 5 Stars
All I've ever wanted was an MP3 player that holds a large capacity and has a speaker. I hate headphones. No one makes that. Until now. Here it is. This Zen X-fi has 32GB on board with an SD slot for another 32GB if you can afford it. I have a 16GB SD card so I now have 48GB to handle all of my music. I like the fact that the SD card is not integrated. I store my music in folders by artist then by album and I want to listen to it in that fashion and that's the way this player plays them when they are on the card. I don't like the way players update their library and put music into categories that I don't want. The only thing missing is bluetooth. Maybe someday.Digital camera Review: Awesome high volume player for a low cost!
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this for my husband for his birthday. I already had the Creative Zen 32g and he wanted something similar. I just love this little player - you can get 32g for the cost of 8g on an iPod - who wouldn't love that?
The main differences between this and the Zen is that it's got a built in speaker. I don't know a lot of scenarios where you would need the speaker (mostly you listen on headphones or through car/home speaker system), but it's a cool feature.
The packaging was a BEAR to get into... But at least you know that it's all brand new in original packaging.
The Zen Lab software that comes with the Zen isn't the best software we've used before. My husband ended up downloading another program, Media Monkey, to use to manage his collection on the Zen. It's not a huge draw back since Media Monkey is freeware.
Overall - this is a great HIGH VOLUME player for the money. I've been using Creative media players since 128m was considered a LARGE mp3 player and I have never been disappointed.
Digital camera Review: Awesome in the store, but a disappointment at home.
Summary: 1 Stars
I was blown away with how many features they managed to fit into the Zen X-Fi mp3 player. It had music, video, wireless lan, SD cards, FM, microphone, a nice user interface, 36 hours of battery life, and 32GB of internal storage. It seemed so perfect.
But when I got it home, i realized these things:
1) The 32GB internal storage is not seen as a standard external drive. This means I can't just open it up as a normal folder and drag-n-drop my stuff; I need to go through Creative's software instead. That sucks.
2) The wireless LAN stuff is a cool idea, but it was totally different than what I expected or needed. Creative designed the LAN as a way to stream files to the player, and they even provide a free central repository out-of-the-box so that you can stream things from all over the world right away. That's cool, but I was hoping to use the LAN stuff to be able to transfer files, much like a USB cable. That's not supported. Also, if you want to stream anything from your computer, once again you must use Creative's software -- you can't just use a standard shared folder on your computer. I hate that.
3) It isn't stable yet -- During the first hour that I was playing with the X-Fi mp3 player, it crashed 3 times. I had to manually reset it. There are still a lot of bugs that need to be worked out (as of November 2008).
4) I got absolutely NO reception on the FM radio. It's like my antennae was broken or something. I have heard from other reviews that the FM reception is supposed to be pretty good, but for mine it was completely white noise.
5) Poor integration with SD and internal memory. Music on your SD cards don't automatically get included in your playlists. They're completely separated.
Because of those items, I decided to return mine. I wish I didn't have to -- I really like the Creative brand. I have used their Stone player, and I really loved it. I was just hoping that the X-Fi would be simple and standards-compliant, just like the Stone. Too bad. :(
~Chris Sebastian
Digital camera Review: Awesome player
Summary: 5 Stars
The Creative XFI is an awesome player, the music and speakers on it make the tunes sound crisp. The color is better than it has been than any other Creative player thats been out. I previously owned Creative Zen Vision: M and the color in comparison is alot different. Its small, and light weight as well. The keys are a little hard at first, but you wont accidently hit to go the next song if its in your pocket or the volume going up and blowing your hearing out. I'd recommend this player over any other MP3 Player.