After my trusty Zen Vision M started to get a bit bulky for my liking,i decided to buy myself a new X-fi,and after you finish reading this review,you are going to love it as much as i do!

When i started doing research on different MP3 players,it became clear to me that the real 2 models i liked were the Creative Zen 8gb and the Creative Zen X-fi 8gb,when you compare the specs of the two,there are only a few differences:

-The Zen is 3g lighter than the X-fi
-The Zen is 1.4mm thinner than the X-fi
-The X-fi can use the audible service,whereas the Zen can't
-The X-fi can uttilize the MP4 format,the zen cant
-The X-fi get's 11 More hours when listening to audio (BIG Plus)
-The X-fi is bundled with some EXCELLENT Headphones! (Another BIG Plus)

Here are the complete specs of the X-fi;

Specs

Capacity: 8GB
Size WxHxD: 3.3" x 2.2" x 0.5"
Weight: 2.4 ounces
LCD: 2.5" TFT 16.7 million color LCD
320 x 240 pixels
Storage Capacity: 8GB (2,000 songs or 30 hours of video)
Battery Life: Up to 36 hours of continuous audio playback
Up to 13 hours of continuous audio playback with speaker
Up to 20 hours of continuous FM radio playback
Up to 5 hours of continuous video playback
Up to 4 hours of continuous video playback with speaker

Video Playback Formats: MJPEG, WMV, MPEG-4 including properly encoded DivX and XviD. Included software can transcode from other formats providing appropriate codecs are installed.4
Audio Playback Formats: MP3, WMA, AAC5, WAV (ADPCM), Audible 2,3,4
Photo Formats Supported: JPEG. Included software can transcode BMP, GIF, PNG, and TIFF.6
Battery: Built-in Li-ion battery
FM Radio: 32 preset stations
EQ Settings: 8 presets and 5 band custom EQ
Organizer: Calendar, Contact, Task List
Power Charging: Yes
Album Art: Yes
Voice Recording: Yes
Connectivity: USB 2.0

But the downside to this argument is the price! I Got my X-fi for $180 shipped to my door,and this was on sale! Were as the Creative Zen is $140 shipped to your door.Was that extra $40 worth it? I Decided to take the plunge,and im glad i did!

Packaging:


Credits:Anything But Ipod

Now,It looks like a larger version of the widely popular ipod packaging,only that this uses colours other than white! Overall it's well packed,the only let down is the USB Cable you get with it,it's only 2" Long! Although the fact you get a set of awesome headphones makes up for this fact.
Appearance:








Now as you can see,after only a week it's covered in fingerprints! It just get's so dirty in such a short period of time. Apart from that,this player is a work of art! You really have to appreciate the attention to detail creative have put into the designe,from the chrome bezel to the textured buttons! Now it weigh's 68g and it's no bigger than a credit card,it's comfortable in your pocket as well.

Now i have read alot about how people complain about the build quality,namely the fact that the back is plastic,rather than metal.The reason they did this is because metal attracts fingerprints and scratches and after a month or two,it looks horrible.The build quality is excellent,although the buttons can sometimes feel cheap.

The Player Itself:




Now my camera just cant do it's screen justice,it is really an awesome screen! When watching TV Show's on it and even movies,you soon forget youre watching it on a 2.5" Screen!


Now the menu has been revamped since the Zen V and the Zen V:M,but it is still as simple as ever to use! Although the controls took me 2 days to get used to,i think there are too many buttons on this player,you only use half of them under normal use.



It's really quite simple to start rocking to youre favourite tunes,you simply click on music,and you can either search for the song either by artist or album,



Once you have found youre song,you can begin rocking! The now playing screen is well layed out,



It only displays what you need to know,if you want to know more about the track playing ,you can go to the context menu and select 'View details',and it will show you everything you wanted to know about the song playing (Everything from The year the track was released to how many times you have listened to the song.)

If you dont know what you want to listen too,the X-f has it's own DJ,



This is really quite handy,this feature REALLY put's you in touch with youre music collection! If you are bored with youre music collection,you can listen to the FM Radio!

As far as music quality goes,it sounds EXCELLENT! If you dont like the way it sounds,you have plenty of settings you can tinker with,






Now X-fi,Which is the feature they have been really pushing,isnt worth it.Seriously,it's only useful when you are using the internal speaker (More on this later).You cant even use X-fi in conjunction with Bass Boost or an equalizer.


Now the inbuilt speaker,to get the most out of it you have to use X-fi.The Speaker is really something,you can literally feel the bass through the player! It's lows are clear,and it's high clear!

Another feature which i really like is the organizer feature! You can sync your contacts,calendar and tasks from outlook (Im not sure wether other software is supported) to the player!


Lastly,if you want to customize the player further,you have 6 colour schemes to play with!



Now as far as viewing pictures go,it's quite simple.Select the picture you want to view and away you go.As videos,the pictures look stunning! You can also view photos while listening to music.


Software:


Now the software that comes with it,i quite like! It doesnt hijack youre multimedia library like Itunes does!

There's not much i can say Except this:

It's as easy as pie to use,you can convert Movies/Music/DVD's and Music CD's for your X-fi,and then sync it!

Now if you don't like the software,you can use Winamp or windows media player to sync it,just to name a few.If you want to be in COMPLETE Control of youre player,providing you have windows media player 11 installed,you can simply drag and drop youre music and movies to it in my computer like you would a flash drive!





Now i have a few smal gripes about this player.After owning it for 2 days,i had to use the reset button because it refused to switch on! It had only frozen on my once this week (I have owned it for a week),but creative have realised that it will freeze every once and a while,so they have heightened the reset button so you can use the tip of your headphone plug to reset it.

So,To Summarize:

This player looks stunning,sounds stunning and is EXTREMELY Easy to use! Despite some small down falls,i would reccomend this player to ANYONE!

Pro's:

Long battery life
Excellent sound quality
Great bundled software and headphones
Excellent sound quality

Con's:
Bundled USB Cable is ridiculous
TV-Out feature would have been nice
It's a finger print magnet!

Tip's:

When converting video for this player,use Media coder,it's a completely free movie converter.

Also when converting movies for this player,use the following:
Video:AVI - Xvid - 600kbps - 320x240 - 25fps
Audio:MP3 - 128kbps

To get the perfect balance between size and quality.

Lastly,when you get it,go to the creative website and download the latest firmware for it! This will improve performance some what.

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This review is of the 8gb model,therefore Wifi was not review.Also the memory card expansion feature was not reviewed as i havnt had experience with this feature.











Edited by neodude112320: 4/11/2008 09:46:57 AM

Edited by neodude112320: 4/11/2008 09:51:07 AM