Digital Trends

Creative Zen X-Fi 8GB September 11th, 2008 | by Mike Kobrin

Sound

With the surprisingly good in-ear headphones that come with the player, music sounds full and rich, though the low end is a bit muddy and sometimes overwhelms the midrange in bass-heavy tracks. Highs have good presence, and vocals come through clearly but not too in-your-face.

Creative's X-Fi sound enhancer definitely livens up the sound, mostly by boosting the highs and the bass, but this implementation isn't as customizable as it is in the company's other X-Fi products. The Crystallizer made cymbals and saxes in acoustic jazz like John Coltrane's Blue Train sound shrill, but Bob Marley's Exodus actually benefitted from it, sounding a little more crisp.

The built-in speaker is only about as loud as a typical cell phone and extremely weak bass, but it gets the idea across.

Video

Video and photos look great on the player's QVGA screen, though you can't output them to a TV, and most movies require conversion. We couldn't tell the difference between streamed movies and those stored locally or on a memory card. We like that you can import photos from an SD card, but music and videos on the card are limited to playback only and can't be transferred to the player.

Extras

The FM tuner supports 32 presets, and we got very good reception in and around the New Orleans metro area, even in a Central Business District full of tall buildings. The voice recorder works reasonably well via the tiny mic next to the SD slot; although an on-screen level meter shows you when you're overloading the mic, you can't adjust the input level or recording quality. You also can't record FM radio and there's no line-input for external mics or audio sources.

The organizer tools like calendar, tasks, and contacts sync with Creative Centrale are very basic but functional. Sadly, you can't make edits directly on the device. The Windows-only Centrale software is easy enough to use, though it comes on a mini-CD, which doesn't work in slot-loading drives.

Battery

The X-Fi's battery life is pretty good, at about 36 hours of audio and 5 hours of video. We managed to run it down far quicker streaming audio from our computer, despite the low-power WiFi radio, easily plowing through a full charge in a single day. And as with most of Creative's DAPs, the battery isn't intended to be user-replaceable.

Conclusion

The Zen X-Fi doesn't pose much of a threat to the far more versatile and user-friendly iPod Touch, but folks considering a Flash Zune might opt for the X-Fi's larger maximum capacity (32GB vs. Zune's 16GB) plus expandable storage. And Creative has been pricing its products more aggressively in recent years: $279 for the 32GB version is a steal compared with $399 for the 32GB iPod Touch. If maximum flash storage for the dollar is what you're after, this is a good choice; if you can live without the WiFi features, the 32GB Creative Zen is even more budget-friendly.

Pros:

• Very good sound quality
• Excellent included earbuds
• Attractive interface
• Expandable storage

Cons:

• Buttons are very small and not backlit
• No Web browsing or wireless sync
• No third-party app support
• Typing is difficult