Creative Zen X-Fi 16 GB Video MP3 Player with Wireless LAN and Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver)
by Creative
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: CreativeBrand: Creative
Edition: Electronics
Audio: English (Original Language); French (Original Language)
Model: ZXFI16GBBK
Color: Black and Silver
Publisher: Creative
Studio: Creative
Music Label: Creative
Product 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
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Creative Zen X-Fi 16 GB Video MP3 Player with Wireless LAN and Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver)
Customer Review: Almost...not quite
Summary: 4 Stars
Zen X-Fi 16GB review 2-28-09
Had the Zen X-Fi 16GB for two months of daily use now.
The device is well built and solid. It needs a silicon skin for protection, though. That is extra but highly recommended so your expensive player doesn't slip out of your pocket.
First, the buttons are too flat and are not illuminated. Sounds like a small thing, but flat black metal buttons against a black metal background in the car at night are very difficult to find and press. If the buttons were transparent and had the tiniest LED behind them, they would be a lot easier to manipulate accurately.
No Bluetooth--I'm getting very tired of wired connection to my car and headphones. LOSE THE WIRES, Creative! The earphones that come with the Zen are terrific. Really good quality. But the wires are tiresome.
Though I'd rather have Bluetooth, Zen is Wi-Fi capable. You can wirelessly hook to your computer's wireless router and play or copy files back and forth, but it's so frustrating to make it function it's virtually useless. USB cable is the way to connect.
As part of Wi-Fi, Creative does provide something called "Media Server" that you can access via your internet connection wireless router if you're in range and properly connected. After waiting a couple of minutes for the connection to be made, you can listen to propaganda from all kinds of politically correct content like NPR, the BBC, Australia's ABC and KCRW. Yes, master: I hear and obey. Mostly a waste as you can't really select content you want, only what they supply. Definitely politically correct. And boring.
It has a kind of chat texting capability but that's what phones are for these days and the Zen's dinky keyboard just doesn't cut it. The keyboard is laid out the way it is so it can emulate a phone keypad when you're in chat mode. Too frustrating to use. It's why QWERTY keyboards are on phones now.
Bookmarks. A few minutes after being shut off, the Zen forgets where you were when you shut down. If you fire it up an hour after shutdown or dock it to your computer to upload new content, it starts playing the last file you opened from the beginning. This is a bit frustrating when you're part way through a three hour podcast. So Creative allows you to set a Bookmark from within the file you are playing. It's quick and easy once you figure it out. I use it all the time now. This allows you to set a point in a podcast so you can return to it later. But while you can set the bookmark from within the file, you have to navigate to the Bookmarks screen to select the bookmark when playing back later. Not very intuitive. Took me two months to realize the usefulness of the feature. Why doesn't it simply remember where I stopped listening by itself? My DVR does. Just resume from where I left off. But no.
The lower left button is programmable. It's called My Shortcut. You pick from a list of available functions and set it. This allows you to go to a particular favorite screen or function once you decide what that is.
The Zen first and foremost is marketed as a video and MP3 player. What I wish it could do is have a "skip forward" ability (again, like my DVR does) that allows me to skip forward 30 seconds or a minute (or a user defined amount) so I can move forward in predictable amounts instead of holding the fast forward button down. If it's going to be called a "player" of any sort, it should have a variety of player controls. Skip forward/back should be available. Firmware upgrade wish, Creative.
Speaking of the fast forward button, the longer you hold it, the faster it goes. It starts by forwarding at a slow rate, then speeds up until you are jumping forward minutes at a time. This is good for zooming to a point quickly. But if you want to go forward, say, seven minutes, holding the FFwd button down too long will launch it into hyperdrive and you'll be at 10 minutes or more into the file, then have to rewind/search back. Somewhat of a pain. No. A real pain. Let me skip forward or back in 30 second increments.
A great feature is its built-in speaker. It sounds like my transistor radio from my childhood. This feature was the main reason I bought the Zen: you don't have to use earphones if you don't want to. It is a great and rare feature among MP3 players. A pocketable mini boombox.
Creative's Centrale "iTunes wannabe" software is dreadful. I tried it for awhile, then uninstalled it and now just drag files to the device.
Video screen quality is very good but 320x240 is still a bit small. Diagonally it's 2-1/2"; 2" wide x 1-5/8" high. It's also the old 4:3 aspect ratio, not the modern 16:9. If you're viewing a 16:9 video letterboxed, you are looking at one tiny video.
The video player (as opposed to the music player) is very weak. Windows Media Player 11 it ain't. Another key reason I bought the Zen is because it promised it could play a plethora of video formats. Wrong. I have dozens of wmv video files which exist in many sizes and bitrates from thumbnails to HD. Unfortunately, almost all of them need to be converted via Creative's stand-alone converter app or Centrale into squeezed-down bitrates and 320x240 size. This process is clumsy and slow.
If virtually every file needs to be converted in order to play, it's not really playing the advertised list of formats: it's playing the format Creative has selected and must be converted to. Often, even if I render out a wmv directly from my video editing software to Creative's parameters, it still won't play properly without conversion. Yet another marketing promise dashed to pieces.
The Zen allows me to delete files directly from the Zen if I want to (as opposed to needing to plug into iTunes to delete or add). This is good.
It has a built in mic and audio recording capability and you can program the "My Shortcut" button to start the recording process immediately so you don't have to navigate to the recorder's controls.
It has an FM radio that only works if the ear phones are plugged in because the wire becomes the antenna. What I'd really like is an AM radio, though, for news, talk radio, traffic and weather. Who needs FM? That's what your MP3's are for in the first place, right?
The unit has an SD card slot, but it's not well integrated. Content on the SD card does not appear in the normal file list. You must navigate to the card and browse it separately. Worse, when you do that, it comes back with "There are no playable files in this folder" even when I know I put mp3 files on the card that the player can play. You have to use the "Import" function to move files from the SD card to the player's memory in order to play them. Think of the SD card as an aux thumb drive, not as expanded memory, except it doesn't even work like that, actually. If you think you can buy the 16GB and "double" its memory capacity with a card, think again. It's more of a gimmick than a useful feature. More Creative fluff that is long on promise but short on delivery.
By the way, when you plug the Zen into your computer's USB cable the Zen does not mount as a drive (what Windows calls a "Local Disk.") It "docks" as a "Portable Media Player" according to Type in Windows Explorer. This means you can't play directly from the player. If you click on a file on the Zen from within Windows, it moves the file to a temp folder on your C: drive before playing. Not a big deal, but if you intend on connecting the Zen to a USB input on your car stereo or computer, I don't think your stereo will be able to see the Zen's contents. While the Zen is docked to the computer, all the play buttons are disabled and the display indicates "Docked" until you unplug the device. On the other hand, you don't have to unmount the device. Just pull from the USB and go.
Poor Creative. Always trying. Never quite getting there. Won't be long now and a phone will do it all. Look at Sony Erickson's W760, iPhone or Palm Pre.
More Creative Zen X-Fi 16 GB Video MP3 Player with Wireless LAN and Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver) reviews:
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Description of Creative Zen X-Fi 16 GB Video MP3 Player with Wireless LAN and Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver)
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. Built 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 on 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, and USB 2.0 cable.
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