Home > Consumer Reviews > Creative ZEN X-Fi 16GB MP3 and Video Player with Wireless LAN Compatibility

I really did my research. I looked at several other MP3 players on the market, read reviews and really agonised over my choice.

The X-Fi was one of the first players I looked at and read reviews on. The reviews by and large were positive and it was becoming a clear choice for me initially, until it became obvious that the software provided with it was for Windows only. The player then was beginning to sound very Windows centric, which worried me, being a Mac and Linux user. I was put off.

I then dabbled with the notion of getting an iPod. Despite being a Mac fan, I have always had reservations about getting an iPod. I looked at Nano's and the Classic as alternate options. The price tag, along with reviews about poor sound quality and the need for investment in better quality headphones was a turn off. Also (as far as the Nano was concerned) no way of expanding storage capacity.

I still felt myself drawn to the X-Fi. The final element that swayed it for me was being able to buy the 16GB version of the X-Fi for £106 - compared to it's RRP of £140. It was the clincher.

I'm glad I jumped at it! I've had the player for a two weeks now, and it has been fab!

All the positives in previous reviews are correct. It's easy to use, the sound quality and video playback are ace. Battery life is great. The expandable storage is fab. It doesn't integrate as pointed out (the SD memory with the player), but I don't find that a huge bugbear. It still ID3's the tracks, so it's still totally workable. You can't pull tracks onto the player from the SD card, only photos, but it's still no big gripe for me.

The biggest positive for me was this. Despite being provided with Windows software and having a program called "Creative Centrale" that only runs on a Windows machine, my Mac can see it. I use a program called XNJB which gives you an MTP user interface to upload/download MP3's with relative ease. It's not the MOST compatible way to do it, but if you, like me, are a Mac user and were reticent to buy Zen products due to incompatibility, rest assured.

My only gripes are the fact that it doesn't come with a mains adapter for charging and the USB cable that comes supplied is WAY too short. The X-Fi feature is bogus. The player has such great sound quality that it's rendered useless. Unless you have REALLY poor quality MP3 tracks (and frankly, why would you?), I doubt you'll ever switch the X-Fi feature on. And for me being a Mac user, I couldn't get the player to recognise AAC tracks. It does on an SD card, ID3 tags them and all, but NOT if I load them on the player itself.

All in all though, the player is fab. I'm glad I went with it. I'm overall very happy. I'd give it 4.5 stars out of 5, but Amazon don't do half stars. I'd only take half a star off for the minor negs.

One word, superb...

I've been using iPod's for the last few years, and although I must say the click wheel is far better than the traditional buttons used on the Zen its still quite easy to navigate through large libraries.

The best bit... the sound. With iPod's it frustrated me that there was no custom EQ, and that the sound got quite poor and distorted when you added extra bass. The Zen sound quality is quite simply amazing... even with the supplied earphones (which are actually pretty good, a first! The iPod ones are crud!)

If you prefer thin, tinny sound with great navigation... get an iPod.

If you want something which gives you truely amazing music on the go, get a Zen... believe me you won't be disappointed!

Ive never written a review on amazon although always shopping here, I actually got the player from another shop which was about 50 quid cheaper, but I am still loyal enough to amazon to come back and add a comment.

So first off, Ive only had the player a day or so, the weight of the thing is incredibly light, it feels a bit lighter than a matchbox.

The earphones are pretty good, I brought some similar earphones not too long ago, sennheiser's which were about £40 and top quality, well im now using the actual earphones that came with this player, they are really good! We all know earphones that come with players are normally just rubbish, so this is good!

There isn't a screen defender included, you know the kind that protects the actual screen, I remember having one on my old 32gig Zen.

So lets get to the good stuff, the software is good, it scans your whole machine and locates any mp3's it can find and updates its own database of your music, I think its quite clever.
Which means that when its scanned your pc, you click on albums and it lists every album it could find on your system, you just then add it to your player, same goes for artists and I think Genres, so it does all the hardwork for you.

Ok so heres THE best part, people are wondering about he ability to transfer your music wireless, because at first Creative just mentioned you can access and play it wireless.

Well here you have it, they already have a new firmware out and it lets you transfer your music wireless, now im not just talking about "connect device..." wireless, I was able to walk around the home, browse all my music from my pc and press download, which is awesome when you just want to chill out and watch TV and don't really wanna be sitting at the desk, I was so impressed with this, and to think no other player has this functionality, they seem so confident with this wireless function that the usb cable they provide you is about 4 cm long lol.

As people have mentioned before, the battery life does drain when you use the wireless ability, so I cannot give a good opinion of the battery life compared by the old Zen, because I have been using wireless alot.

The buttons on the actual player does take a bit of time to get used to, but this thing is so small they really did have to bring down the buttons in size and compact.

I for one think this is better than any ipod, I used an ipod before and sent it back, I didn't like its software , its functionality and I have stuck with Creative's Zen series ever since. So I just hope that someone that has used an ipod and this zen can give a much better comparison than what I actually can provide.

Finaly thoughts, its smart, compact, very light, easy to setup, battery charges in quick time, also has a speaker built in if you want to blast your music, cant say its a great speaker, but it does the job

Thanks for reading

My Zen X-Fi was an impulse purchase. I have a Stone which I use for portability and a Vision which I use for video. Would the X-Fi be a compromise or an improvement on both those products? Here's my opinion on a scale:

+4: Considering the capabilities of the Zen X-Fi, it is very light and portable. It's the size of a credit card, though quite a bit thicker, and hardly weighs anything at all. I have pocket calculators which are heavier. Despite this it feels reasonably robust and has a nice finish to it. The only things I can fault with the build are the buttons (see below).

+3: In terms of clarity, the sound quality is superb, with a variety of EQ and X-Fi settings to choose from. I can clearly hear detail in mp3 files which just isn't there with other players, even Creative ones. In that regard this is the best sounding mp3 player I have ever heard; though once again see below for another comment.

+2: The earbuds which come with it are very, very good. They beat anything from Sennheiser and Shure that I've tried below £50.

+1: The Zen X-Fi is very drag and drop friendly, meaning it is not necessary to use the clunky Creative software to manage it. The Zen shows up as a connected device and can be browsed as if it were a portable drive. The only time I've had to use the Creative Centrale is when trying to use the wi-fi feature.

0: It has some unusual bonus features which may or may not appeal. I've left this as a neutral comment as many of the features I think are superfluous. I'm not interested in sending instant messages over wi-fi or streaming music.

-1: The Creative Centrale software is a step backward from Mediasource, and is even worse than the old Playcenter software. It needs some work. For example, it won't recognise ID tags when I rip CDs with another program, even when its `watch folders' feature has found a new mp3 folder. Yet when I drag and drop those files to the Zen, the Zen has no problems with the tags. I've also not been able to get the wi-fi to work with Centrale, even though my PC is an access point and the Zen can connect to it. Luckily I didn't buy it for this feature and also luckily it is not necessary to use Centrale for anything else, so I won't be using it.

-2: Special mention has to go to the horrible navigation buttons. They really are a horrible style gimmick. They feel very cheap and plasticky, and are a pain to use in the dark, as they don't light up: it's like trying to read Braille.

-3: I was disappointed with the screen resolution. I knew it was lower than the Vision, but didn't realise how this would adversely affect my viewing. It could really do with being a bit higher, so if you're thinking of buying one of these to watch long movies, I'm afraid I can't recommend it. I don't have a problem with the size of the screen though.

-4: Although I mentioned the sound clarity above, which is superb, there is a balancing negative for me in that the sound is a bit weedy and lacking in bass. It just doesn't have enough ooooommph for my liking, even with the supplied earbuds. My Zen Stone with the rock EQ setting enabled can put out more bass than this player. So I feel there's a bit of a missed opportunity with the sound.

-5: Although it has native video support, it is very picky about the resolution. Anything above 320x240 has to be converted (apparently to wmv) using the Creative Video Converter. This process takes an eternity (about the time it would take to watch the video). Compared to the Zen Vision, this was a shocker, although I appreciate the X-Fi is a flash based player whereas the Vision has a drive. Nevertheless, it is not very convenient. The solution is to leave the PC running with a conversion, but you end up with a lot of extra files just for use with the X-Fi. I've not had many problems with the converted files however and again the results can be dragged and dropped.

Overall I'm a bit disappointed with this player and probably won't be using it much, only when I need something portable with more memory than the Stone.

.....you'll be sensible to buy one of these.

I got to the point where phones and the PSP just don't cut it. Having a jack of all trades device tends to mean that it does lots of things and it doesn't do them very well.

This is my first step away from "multi function devices". I don't care what additional things this does, I want it to play music and play it well.

It does....exceptionally well. The X-Fi clarity is as good as that you get with Creative's sound cards. For anybody who has fitted an X-Fi extreme card, there is a big advance in sound quality. It's the same with this. Playlists aren't particularly easy to set up on the player itself but it can be done through the software provided too. There are changeable themes including the all black one in the pics and the grey and orange one depicted for the 8gb model on creative's site. Photo's can be made in to wallpapers. The firmware doesn't seem to stall and responds instantly.

It has a graphic equaliser and separate x-fi enhancement.

Sound quality is a real 10 out of 10. Listening to Angel by Massive Attack proves the capability of the player and the headphones - no distortion at full volume and with bass boost and increased bass on the EQ. There was also no flattening out of the sound. It stays rich and balanced at full volume. You won't need to change headphones unless you have a real dislike of in the ear noise cancelling types. The supplied ones cost £30 by themselves. Frequency response seems to be about 8-20,000 which gives the sound it's richness.

Full volume is reassuringly loud. I'd had this problem with Sony Ericsson Walkman phones that were too quiet. I'd changed headphones, used CX400's etc but the sound just wasn't there nor was the volume.

This has an optional volume retriction which you can set yourself.

Charging is done via USB so you will need to have a PC....or maybe a PS3. Transferring files is not too bad on a slow PC - I'll update that comment when I've used my own and tried out other things like video playback.

Essentially I wanted this for music and it is like a hi-fi separates sytem or hi grade sound orientated PC that fits in your pocket. I'm just going on first impressions but I'm very happy with this so far.

I can't think why anybody would be disappointed with this.