Creative Zen X-Fi 16 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 product details |
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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 perfect
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought the Zen X-Fi as a replacement for my 30 gig Ipod 5G. I have some very minor gripes about it but it's an all around excellent machine.
Pros:
-Flash memory means fast navigation, better battery life, and no hard drive errors compared with hard disk players.
-The battery life is really excellent compared to my old Ipod. Apple just blatantly lies about battery life; the X-fi actually lives up to expectations. The Ipod's VIDEO battery life is absolutely abysmal; this one at least can last a few hours on a full charge.
-Some may complain that it looks "cheap", but the chrome accents look expensive, the device has a good enough weight for a flash player, and the textured silver backside repels scratches and fingerprints.
-Li-Ion battery recharges quickly and adds an allure of value compared to cheap, AA-powered devices.
-Sound quality is absolutely excellent. The X-Fi technology, although obviously not hardware-enabled, provides if nothing else a sweet-sounding EQ for the player. I have a set of logitech z-5500s for my desktop, and I believe music sounds better on this player with the included headphones than my desktop set.
-I love the 'my shortcut' feature! I have mine set on "album of the day"
Cons:
-SD expansion slot is almost useless since it creates an entire different "partition". I have not evaluated the read speed yet.
-Navigation is not as silky-smooth as the ipod and can hang for as much as a second sometimes.
-Synching is SLOW with Winamp.
-Included software is ridiculous; don't use it.
-Instant messaging feature is a joke
-Speaker is only good for listening to voice recordings, not music.
-Tiny buttons are hard to push
-screen isn't big enough for today's standard anymore.
-16gb is a good value for $200 (now it's only $160), but other players with larger capacities can be had for about the same $$$.
Overall: there are a lot of phony gimmick features, but Creative Zen has always been the brand to buy if you are a MUSIC fan because the quality is (as always) perfect. This thing will be untouchable if some firmware comes out to make the silly features actually usable.
Customer Review: Zen-tastic!
Summary: 4 Stars
I must admit I was very skeptical about purchasing another creative product, due to experiencing their lack luster customer service when you have an issue with their products. I previously owned a Zen Micro Photo 8gb, that went dead and all I got from creative was an invitation to view the refurbished stock to purchase a replacement. That really sucked, but not as bad as realizing that there were not many choices by way of decent, affordable mp3 players on the market. Yeah my player was out of warranty, had been dropped more times that I could count and there was an incident involving a cup of water and some spillage, but all that is beside the point, I think. Anyway, After looking at Ipod's for about 2 weeks while going through withdralw without my tunes (did I mention I hate the Ipod and all Ipod related items) and having to stop my self from making that purchase several times, I came across the Zen X-Fi 16GB.
Pros :
X-Fi Sound Enhancement, Large Screen, Wi-Fi Video and Music Streaming and Downading, Album Art on Screen, Price/Memory ratio, Expandable SD Memory Slot, FM Radio, Speaker, Exceptional Earphones, Battery Life, Chat Feature, Sleek Look and Feel(It's gorgeous), Overall Size
Cons :
SD Memory Not Integrated With Built-In Memory, Small Buttons(I have large "Man Hands", so ladies you should be fine)
What You Should Know:
If you purchase this player check for updates to the firmware regularly.
Firmware updates have already fixed issues with the shuffle feature, X-Fi Enhancement, and Chat feature set-up.
The button layout for texting is tedious, not laid out like your phone.
Video files need to be converted w/ included software before playing.
All things considered if you are an "anything but Ipod" type of person, this is hands down the player for you, the 16gb is affordable and you get the Wi-Fi feature with the 16 and 32gb players. I love mine so much I even bought a clear plastic case for it, the fingerprints were driving me crazy. Also, If I decide to sell this one it will be in mint condition.
Hope this review helps, Good Luck!
Customer Review: Two Faults I've found
Summary: 3 Stars
I've had this player for about a month and agree with all of the positive comments I've seen here. This is a terrific little player. However I've found a couple of negatives which to me are extremely irritating. Admittedly, they may not apply to the majority of users, but are worth being aware of.
The forward and back buttons are unreliable. On occasion when I simply want to back up to the beginning of a selection (a song or a book chapter, for example) or if I want to go back to a previous selection, or skip forward to the next, I press the appropriate button and instead of moving forward or back, I get the 'black screen of death' from which the only recovery is the familiar paperclip-reset. The Creative manual gives a Clean-Up solution for "erratic performance" which corrects the non-functional-button-problem for a short while, but you'll have to first save a copy of the player's content first for safety, then after the clean-up, even if you haven't lost any of your content, you'll have to restore all your preferences, which now have been reset to the defaults. By the time I remember what I had changed, and restore my preferences, the black-screen problem resurfaces again. So I never attempt to skip selections while driving and I don't take this Zen anywhere without making sure I have a paperclip handy.
Even more disturbing to me is that the Creative manual explains how easy it is to sync your Zen to your MS Outlook data, just like a PDA, so you can have access to your calendar, contacts, to-do lists etc. What it doesn't say is that you can't then edit the data on your Zen. Nor can you remove it. According to the Creative Support folks, the only way to get it off your Zen, is to first make a copy of all the Outlook data on your computer, then delete all that data from Outlook, resync with your Zen, then copy the data back into Outlook from the file you used for safekeeping!! While I have managed to do this without losing the Outlook data on my computer, I find the process completely unacceptable.
Hopefully there won't be many other such surprises in store for me as I try out other features.
Customer Review: Creative Zen X-Fi
Summary: 4 Stars
I want people reading this review to know that I have always been a fan of Creative Labs.
Pros:
The Creative Zen X-Fi looks impressive. When people see this device in your hands, they become curious as to what it is and what it does. The sound quality that comes out of this device is very impressive. If you use the right EQ setting for the type of music you are listening to and turn on the X-Fi enhancement feature, it does sound as if you are listening to the band playing just for you. I also listen to a lot of Audio-Books. The Zen X-Fi even makes those sound better. The screen quality is fantastic! I was able to put on my X-Fi a couple of old episodes of NCIS. It looked as if I was watching that show on a mini-TV. Picture quality was great with no distortions or bad pixels. Creative customer service was wonderful. I was able to speak to a live agent who answered my call in less than 3 minutes.
Cons:
The button arrangement for the X-Fi is not the best. It feels as if they added buttons to improve the appearance alone. The battery life is nowhere near what Creative Labs claims it is. I have found that if you use the X-Fi with the features that you might be able to listen to music for about 4 hours straight before you need a recharge. The firmware for the X-Fi has not been updated for over a year. I also found that while the Creative website says it can connect to YIM (Yahoo Instant Messenger), I found no option to let me do that. It will let you connect to MSN instant messenger though. The last con I have is the manual nor their online database gives you any advice on how to properly care for this device. Not wanting to break it while trying to keep my X-Fi clean, I contacted Creative about this apparent oversight. They were quick to give me advice on how to properly clean it.
Over all, this is a good MP3 player. In the past, I have owned the Creative Zen V plus and an Apple IPod. While the IPod was only able to last for about 8 months, the Creative Zen V plus was able to last for over two years and still going strong. I have high hopes that the Zen X-Fi will do the same.
Customer Review: Very good player
Summary: 4 Stars
First and foremost the Zen X-Fi is a great all around media player. Having had multiple media players I am very satisfied with the Zen X-Fi for several reasons: great sound quality, crisp picture/movie quality, and a lot more functionality than many of the negative reviews have given it credit for having. Included with the purchase of the Zen X-Fi are most of the tools needed to get you up and running (others can be downloaded from creative, such as the video converter). Follow the simple directions that come with the player and you should not encounter any problems getting your player setup as well as the necessary software.
In my experience thus far I have had no problems with the software or my player, which I am led to believe is due to the fact that I updated my player and all software via the media player's designated website hosted by creative. I strongly encourage everyone to do that before beginning any serious use of the player or software. At this point in time I have no glaring negative reports on the X-Fi, my only annoyance is the on/off/hold switch which can prove difficult to move from hold due to the small access point of the switch.
Possible Concerns:
-Expandable memory not integrated: Use for media you don't access often, in my case movies which are reserved for long trips
-Button layout: Typical "t" button function with diagonal buttons for certain functions like calendar browsing
-Player's housing/material durability: purchase the protective case (Tuff-Luv Enhanced Polycarb Crystal Case *cheaper versions available*) this case does not hinder functionality of player
-Wi-Fi: Useful for streaming media from your "media center" to the player without being connected to the pc, but at this point that is about as far as this feature's functionality extends
-Battery life: Simply great, turn off features you are not using or don't need and always put the player in the "hold" position if you are going to be using it for an extended session