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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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
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: good music, useless wifi and terrible customer service
Summary: 2 Stars
I was happy to avoid the Apple Empire buying this player which was cheaper than their 16 GB product. The music sounds great and I prefer the buttons over the circle of the IPod. I'm able to easily switch songs while I work out. Software is easy to use. However...I have to say that the customer service of Creative is the worst. After a few months of simply being content to just use the USB, I tried to hook up the wireless connection and nothing works. Also, when they verified my chat account email, they added "EMAIL:" to my address, so I can't log in. I have tried numerous times to reset my settings, but the same thing happens.
All the Creative tech support said through email in both cases was to refer to their web page for instructions. I finally found a tech phone number and the recording said I was ineligible for phone support because I had owned the Zen for over 2 months ( they offered help for $12/half hour). I still have not received any help through email-they just send me "active listening" responses like "I understand you are having trouble with such and such". Then again it sends me to a general how-to link on the Creative site. I'm fed up and will never again buy a creative product.
Good thing I can't get chat to work anyway, the tedious keypad for inputting letters would drive me insane...6 clicks for the letter g, etc.
Customer Review: Excellent value
Summary: 4 Stars
Telling by today's market share, chances are you are reading this review because you are comparing the Zen to an Apple iPod product. Having switched from an iPod to the Zen X-Fi, I can say that the bottom line is the value. You get a lot for the money here.
My profile as a user is: I buy DRM-free music on Amazon and also rip my own CDs. I am an audio podcast addict and would occasionally watch a video podcast. I listen to the radio a lot.
If you only listen to music, i think that now that iTunes is finally DRM-free, there is not much value for you in the extra features here (except for maybe the internal speaker) vs the iPod.
Strengths:
- built-in radio
- superb noise-isolating headphones included
- built-in speakers
- internal mic
- great sound quality
- excellent video quality and size
- drag and drop easy file transfer from desktop to player
- battery life is unbelievably long
So overall you get a ton for your money.
Cons:
- wifi benefits are extremely limited. I don't use it at all.
- navigation not nearly as sexy or convenient as the iPod (dial or touch)
- zencast (podcast sync) organizer works fine, but not as slick as iTunes
- while creating playlists with the desktop software is easy, it's very hard to create one on the go
Customer Review: Good Overall Mp3 Player with a Reasonable Price
Summary: 4 Stars
Pretty much here is the breakdown for the Zen x-fi:
Pros:
- Very easy to put music on here. Basically drag and drop.
- Large, bright screen
- Doesn't take long to charge and battery lasts a good amount of time
- Nice set of earbuds
- Very light weight
- Cool sleek design (as you can see)
- Once you get used to the controls they're easy to use
- Cool extra features like wi-fi and txting (but really don't see myself using either)
- Sounds pretty good
now for the cons:
- Feels a little cheaply made
- You can't just play all the songs made by one artist. It will only play one album at a time.
- Shuffle seems to play the same songs over and over.
- Making a playlist on the player is not easy.
- Would have liked an option to be able to browse music on the player the way you organized it instead of the player orgainizing it for you.
All in all it's a good mp3 player with a few frustrating things, but easy to overlook. I just leave mine in the car and put it on shuffle and it works great. It being so lightweight is ideal for running as well. Haven't used the earbuds much but they sound a lot better than most earbuds that come other mp3 players.
Customer Review: Worthless.....
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought it to use in my car. Problems from day 1
1) The unit gets frozen often. Few times a day. Try to reset it while driving on highway..... Couple of times my song library got messed up after crash.
2) Buttons. It's impossible to find a right one without looking at them. Try to do it while driving.... Try to do it in dark car environment. Impossible. And if you press wrong button it takes time to get back. I have no idea why these geniuses couldn't put tiny LEDs in buttons. Why do you need 9 buttons if you use only four of them?
3) Wi-fi is pretty much useless in you need to enter the password. Mine is pretty long and I wasn't able to enter it since every char is immediately get masked. Editing that is virtually impossible. It would be logical to control this from the computer. Not possible. Probably it'll work with plain unencrypted wi-fi
4) Their software is a joke. Got it removed from my computer after 3 min of use. Fortunately, you can download MediaMonkey
I can't tell much about sound quality (it's a car environment, so it's ok anyway), video (don't need it).
Unit freezing (hopefully, one day we'll see new firmware with fixed bugs) and terrible button design make this player worthless.
Customer Review: Great Player Vs HD Models
Summary: 4 Stars
The ZEN XFI is a quality device from all aspects.
The main reason I purchased this product was for the sound quality. I own a Rhomba player that is still functioning perfectly with exceptional sound quality even though it has been through the wash cycle. (That would be the end of a player with a hard drive.)
PROS
Sound quality
Flash memory
Very good video
Program options
Price Vs other comparable storage size and advertised features
CONS
Battery life a bit short...about 3 hrs. video
Button operation cumbersome but manageable
Provided ear buds advertised as exceptional but I found my 20 dollar Sony ear pieces have better fit and sound reproduction
SD card does not integrate with player...must remove from player to load information
OTHER
The converter program takes too long and freezes at times during sync. WMP does a much better job at this task...every time that I have used WMP to sync it has completed the video sync task w/o a problem.
I would recommend this product for th reasons stated above. I thought I would wait and utilize the device prior to this review. I have owned the device for a little over three months and have no regrets.