Creative Zen X-Fi 32 GB Video MP3 Player with Wireless LAN and Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver) by Creative
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List Price: Category: Network Media Player See more digital camera details and other models |
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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: Expectation met.
Summary: 5 Stars
My finaceé was wanting a dedicated media player, though her cell phone was more then capable to perform the task. I'm an IT support individual and am keen to the high tech gadget market, so when the fianceé asked I told her we would take a look at a few. Needless to say the selection from the big brand stores was meager. I'm also not a big fan of the Apple IPod, but the latest Microsoft Zune HD isn't anything to churp about either, so our search lead us to Creative and their Zen X-Fi models. I have to say after having some time to play with the unit, I am very impressed. It plays most anything from my massive music library, which most is currently in WMA VBR format. So the fidelity of the original tracks are as close to lossless as I can achieve and still have a wide array of compatiblilty to all of our devices. The WLAN (wireless LAN) feature is also very nice. Should she want to listen to something other then whats currently loaded to the player, she can simply sync to the media server and play whatever she desires. The movie playback is also nice, though a 16:9 perspective screen would have been better, most everything now is widescreen, and the 4:3 screen of the X-Fi make whats already small, smaller. So I've been looking for all of our older standard definition full screen DVD's and been ripping them for the device so she can watch movies when she likes.Digital camera Review: Far superior to the Ipod
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my second Creative Zen and the third in our family. I owned the Zen Sleek and my husband owned the Zen Photo.
I love this device. I find it aesthetically beautiful, with the sleek black casing and brilliant color images. I am a big fan of the Rhapsody to Go music service which you cannot get on an Ipod, and that is enough to kill the Ipod for me. With Rhapsody to Go you pay $15/month and receive unlimited downloads of virtually every type of music you could ever want.
The battery life is superb - I go days without a recharge even when I listen all of the time.
The lack of a really good instruction manual can be a problem, but it's fairly intuitive once you get a feel for how the information is organized. The biggest defect in the Zen for me is the volume level of the built-in speaker, which is not really loud enough to hear without earphones which really defeats the purpose of having the speaker.
The Creative Centrale software that comes with the Zen is adequate, and if you don't like it you can use Windows Media on a PC to sync your sound files. I have read a lot of bad reviews of the Centrale software but I actually like it. I use Replay AV to record internet radio shows and the automatic sync is a great feature. It's easy in Centrale to label the sound files so that they are easy to find on the zen.
The video player is really excellent and I have had no problems playing videos. There is a converter that easily converts videos to the format that the Zen requires.
I also gave three stars for the features because there are several that are missing for me. I would like to be able to scroll through the albums and easily see who the artist is. That information is three clicks deep which takes more time than I would like.
There is a built-in wireless LAN which will pick up some podcasts which is a cool idea but I doubt anyone would really use it. I do use the free Zencast software which automatically downloads all of my podcast subscriptions, including videos, and seamlessly syncs them to the Zen.
You can create slideshows of selected photos to play which I think is a nice feature though I rarely use it. There is a built-in microphone so that you can make sound recordings, and you can sync Outlook to the Zen although that is not a feature I've tried.
All in all, this Zen is a great device and I am very satisfied with the quality and performance.
Digital camera Review: Froze twice in the first 3 days I had it - would have sent it back anyway though.
Summary: 1 Stars
I was so disappointed, I researched different mp3 players for two months to try and find the right one for me. After all that the Zen seem to have everything I wanted.
First the Good;
-It looks nice, very sleek, and it's small and light wieght.
-The screen is beautifull, the contrast and resolution is amazing.
-The expandable memory; I know it sucks that it doesn't integrate w/ the internal memory, but I was goint to use it to watch any movies. Just put the moives on the SD card, pop it in and when your done pop it out and switch the movies out on the card. That way you don't have to eat up any internal memory on movies; kind of like a DVD player.
-The sound quality was good and the included earpones were very nice, the best I've got out of an mp3 player.
-The Wi-Fi worked w/ no problem. It detected my home network and I was able to connect quite easily. I can't say much more than that since I didn't get the chance to really try it out.
Now for the BAD;
-IT FROZE TWICE in the first few days I had it. The only way to recover it was to hit the little reset button. Which is fine if you happen to a saftey pin on you, but when your at the gym w/ nothing it really blows.
-The FM tuner was horrible. I tried it in a car where I was able to pick up some of my favorite stations through the car stereo w/ no distortion but the zen couldn't pick up half of them and the other half sounded horrible.
-I didn't like the software that is included with the zen. It's not very user friendly, maybe if I had spent more time with it I would have become more familiar w/ it. But there are other programs out there that are much better, more user friendly, and offer better features (like iTunes and the Zune software).
-The X-Fi music feature is not all it's hyped up to be. It's not bad and takes nothing away from the sound quality but it's not amazing like they make it out to be. I'm not even sure I would consider it an improvment, it just sounds a little different.
-Too many buttons, 13 buttons on this thing, it's like a small laptop. In the four days I used the zen I never once used the 4 corner buttons to perform any function on the player. All they did was make it difficult to adjust volume and skip tracks when your not able to look at the player (like when your on a treadmil w/ the zen straped to your arm). I don't want to have to concentrate and count buttons in my head just to advance to the next track or adjust the volume.
Overall I was very disapointed in the zen x-fi. I had high hopes based on all the features it has but this thing needs to go back to the drawing board for another year or so to work out all the bugs. I returned mine because it froze twice but even if it hadn't I probably would have retunred it anyway. There are far better mp3 players out there, I got the Zune to replace the zen and so far I love it. I've had for about a week now and havn't had any problems. Everything I was hoping for in the zen I seem to have found in the Zune. Save yourself the time, money, and headache and skip the zen x-fi, go with the zune or as muche as I hate to say it, the ipod is far suppior to the zen as well.
Digital camera Review: Full of Bugs; Terrible Customer Support
Summary: 1 Stars
I have nothing but complaints about this unit and the terrible customer service I have received from Creative. This unit is full of bugs, as it crashes on me daily and requires resetting very frequently. To name a few: the "My Shortcut" button doesn't work (never really has), it pauses tracks randomly, and Creative's software never finds all the songs on the player. I obtained an RMA and sent it back for numerous problems to have it repaired under warranty, only to receive it back with a NEW problem: a non-working EQ! Creative's customer support offered insulting solutions: 1) Upgrade to the latest firmware despite the fact that I already HAD it, 2) Adjust the EQ while the music is playing - were they SERIOUS?, 3) Send it back to them at my expense. I pointed out that it was their previous repairs that caused the problem and that I had already been without the player for 3 weeks because of it. Their solution to that e-mail was to simply ignore me. When spending over $300 on an MP3 player I expect a superior product and excellent customer service, neither of which exists with Creative. I do not recommend this product unless you enjoy headaches, hassles, and loss of free time.Digital camera Review: Good Player, Horrid File Management Software
Summary: 3 Stars
I purchased the player in July. While the player itself is good, the software provided by Creative, i.e., Creative Centrale, is horrid for transferring large files and playlists. It tries to do everything automatically, and provides the user with almost no control over file transfer and file management.
Even though the player is good, had I known that the file management software was so poor, I would have never purchased the player.