The photo-viewing experience is great: the thumbnails magnify as you scroll through them, and once you select a photo, you are given various options including zoom and rotate.
Naturally, you can view photos and slide shows while listening to music. There's even a nifty, semi-split-screen deal on the main menu that cycles through album art, photos, or video image clips, depending on which media type you are browsing. Feature-packed and fanciful The Creative Zen X-Fi offers a stunning array of features, especially given the price, so it's easiest to start with what it doesn't offer. There's no line-in recording for audio or video we especially would like the latter , and you don't get Bluetooth, either.
There's also a built-in mic for voice recording and an FM radio with autoscan and 32 preset slots. And Creative includes basic PIM functionality: you can sync contacts, tasks, and calendar info from Outlook to the device. Plus, you get the usual shuffle and repeat playback modes, handy contextual menus, and the ability to search for artists and songs as well as rate songs on the fly and set up to 10 bookmarks.
Nine preset EQs, a five-band, user-definable mode, and a bass-boost function ensure that you can adjust sound to your liking. There's even a built-in speaker for music sharing. In addition, Creative includes an SD card expansion slot for adding more memory, although as with the Zen before it, this feature is crippled somewhat by the fact that content on the SD card is not integrated into your main library.
Rather, you access it through a separate menu no doubt, this will be an issue for some but not for others.
Unique to this player is the inclusion of Creative's X-Fi technology, specifically the Crystalizer, which restores sound elements on the high and low ends lost during file compression, and Expand, which widens the sound and attempts to bring it out of your head. The 16GB and 32GB models also incorporates This feature also allows users to chat with other users, although we had trouble setting up a profile through the site you can log on as a guest without doing so.
For chatting purposes, the X-Fi includes an app for creating an avatar on the device. Syncing and sound quality We put the Zen X-Fi through its performance paces and were not disappointed. The only real glitch was when we tried to drag-and-drop a couple videos that we hadn't transcoded and synced through Centrale. One wouldn't play back on the device. We were able to get onto wireless quickly and easily and access Creative's test media server for on-the-go access to a plethora of content.
We're still working on setting up our own media server--keep an eye out for a separate feature addressing this experience. Chatting works fine, though we can't see using this feature much. X-Fi is really a matter of preference, especially since the Zen sounds excellent on its own. For certain songs, such as the Bangles' "Hazy Shade of Winter," the Crystalizer offered noticeable improvement.
Other tracks, such as Akon's "Smack That," sounded way too bright with this feature engaged. We also weren't particular fans of the Expand option, but this is highly subjective. The Zen X-Fi's screen is lovely. Photos look vibrant and bright, with excellent color saturation and good detail. Videos are similarly impressive--clear and bright with no noticeable pixelation though we did notice the occasional blurring around some sharp edges --and the viewing angle from side to side is excellent.
However, they tend to sound muddy when the X-Fi is not engaged--we preferred to use our Shure SEs. Music sounds rich, clear, detailed, and just thumping enough through these test 'buds.
The rated battery life of 36 hours for audio is impressive, and the 5-hour score for video ain't half bad, either; unfortunately, CNET Labs fell way short of the audio rating, squeezing out only On the plus side, video came in at a reasonable 5. The Good The Creative Zen X-Fi is an incredible value given its low price and laundry list of features, which include photo, video, Audible, and subscription music support; an FM radio and voice recorder; an SD card expansion slot; WiFi capability; multiple EQ settings; X-Fi sound enhancement technology; and upgraded EP earphones.
Sound quality is top-notch, the screen is lovely, and the rated battery life for audio is impressive. Unfortunately, it won't support Windows Lossless, so if you want a lossless format you'll have to go for WAV files and the significant storage hit they pose.
Performance Despite the number of bolted-on, Frankenstein features an MP3 player might have, it is performance that should be paramount. Thankfully, the X-Fi is a competent, musical performer. The X-Fi has a richer, sprightlier sound than the Vision W which makes it a little more exciting and involving. This also means that you'll need a set of headphones that can tame this forward sound a little to prevent the sound becoming wearing.
While the set that ships with the player is one of the better sets we've heard, we think you'd need to go a pair of closed phones to get the best sound. Despite the dubious marketing materials, we don't think the on-board speaker is going to rock any parties.
The vocals of Portishead's Silence are clear, but when the track gets more stringent it sounds confused and buzzy. This really is no better than the speakers you'll find on mobiles.
Use it if you want to feel like you're listening to ringtones. The on-board radio was good but reception was really dependent on which direction you faced in. For example, we had some trouble dialling into FBI Radio — and we almost had to resort to waving our trousers around in front of it Mr Bean-style to get it to work.
Video quality was also decent, if not spectacular, due to the small x resolution. You'll probably also find that Windows will reconvert most files when you drag them via Media Player or the slow-reacting Centrale. There were a couple of disappointments with this player, and they were in the guise of "add-ons". We're sorry to say that though the Wi-Fi capability sounds cool, it's buggy, prone to crashing particularly if you have a mixed Streaming from the Creative Centrale server application worked OK after a restart, but we think Creative's own Xdock is a better product if streaming is something you want to do on a regular basis.
Finally, while the SD card slot is great for archiving photos from a camera while on holidays, it can't be used to expand the on-board memory. While the Photos selection gives you an imported photos option, the Music section doesn't.
But you can use an SD card to move music and other files from the card to the player — the X-Fi pulls them all into a single "Imported Files" folder.
Unfortunately you can't specify where you want files to go — such as music to the Music folder. Drag and drop is still the best option. Ty Pendlebury. The Good Crystal-clear sound. High-quality ear buds. Drag and drop. Compact and lightweight. X-Fi sound enhancer works well.
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