Outstanding Audio Quality

Author's Rating:

Pros: X-fi sound, speaker, headphones, gorgeous screen, Wifi link to Creative Media Center, audio books, price

Cons: Podcasting limitations, Videos must be converted, picky about SD cards

The Bottom Line: 
I think this device is great for both music lovers and audio book listeners.  It's very portable and works with subscription music services.  It's a great investment.

Author's Review
When I bought the Zen X-fi Mp3 player, I was looking for a Napster-to-go compatible player with 1) a powerful internal speaker 2) excellent audio quality 3) Video playback and 4) Podcasting capability. I was also curious about the X-fi sound capabilities that are at the core of this device and I have had a Zen Microphoto for about 5 years.  I was always impressed with the sound quality of that device, and it still works beautifully.  I suppose that experience has left me devoted to Creative to some extent.  Creative has released a couple of new players since the X-fi was released, but as far as I can tell, neither of those players are compatible with Napster-to-Go's subscription service. That's another reason why I decided to go with this particular player despite the fact that it's been on the market for a couple of years.  I'm writing this review because there are some features about this player that I found particularly significant that often aren't discussed in other reviews.

I've had this player for about 2 weeks now and I'm very happy with it overall, although there are some things that could be improved. Here are my observations overall:

Sound
I love the X-fi sound quality overall.  You have the option of leaving the X-fi off or maximizing it.  I feel like the X-fi technology makes the overall sound louder and more crisp. This player also has bass boost, which is always an important feature for me. There are also several preset equalizer options as well as an adjustable equalizer option.  I feel like the equalizer options have given me the option to adjust the sound to suit my tastes even more.

As you've probably read elsewhere, the headphones with this device are outstanding. They really allow you to block out any distracting sounds around you so that you can really focus on your music.  They are so powerful that I keep my volume turned down to the lowest levels so that I can hear if someone knocks on my door, or if the dog barks, etc. Of course, I have the bass boost on along with the X-fi enhancements and equalizer adjustments.  That probably makes my sound a bit louder than it would be under different circumstances.

Audio Books
This device works beautifully with audio books.  You have the ability to book mark your place in a book and then you can access your books marks from one of the music menus.  The device will organize your audio books into a genre menu by themselves so you don't have to sift through all of your music albums to find them. The device is compatible with both the Audible.com book site as well as the books on E-Music.com. This is one of my favorite features of this player. Of course, the books sound wonderful.  The player comes equipped with several books samples.  They are just enough to tempt you to subscribe to a book downloading service.

Wifi
The wifi capabilities that are available in the 16 and 32 GB X-fi players has been a feature that many people have called gimmicky.  I happen to love it as a whole, but it doesn't work perfectly. 

This device doesn't have a built in browser, but one can use the wifi to sign on to Creative's Media Server.  The sever allows one to stream various podcasts.  They are all audio-only podcasts and they are located in various folders according to subject matter such as Technology, News and Politics, Education, Comedy, etc.  There aren't hundreds of options, but I have enjoyed some of the podcasts such as the entire audio for the Countdown show from CNN, an NPR feed, CNET (this one doesn't seem to be updated frequently) and the first hour of the Today show. The Education category features lessons in learning languages such as Spanish and Hebrew, etc.   You can access the Media Server anywhere that you have access to wifi.

There is a program called Tversity that many people seem to be using with the Zen X-fi in order to stream YouTube, download podcasts, etc.  It's a fascinating piece of software and has oodles of potential, but I can only get it to work with my player periodically.  Unlike the Creative Media Server, however, you must have your computer turned on when you use it. It has crashed my player several times so I've opted to not use it for now. It's worth some experimentation, however.

I have yet to be able to use the chat feature on this player.  It's suppose to allow one to chat from their player using Yahoo Messenger.  You are suppose to sign up for an account through the Creative Web site.  Thus far, the Creative Web site hasn't been working properly to allow me to sign up. Of course, I don't think that I would really use this feature anyway. I'm curious as to whether Creative has simply deactivated this feature.

Another wifi feature is suppose to be the ability to sync your device wireless with your computer.  Sadly, I haven't been able to figure this feature out yet. There must be a setting that I haven't figured out for myself.

Video
Videos and photos look absolutely beautiful on this player.  They are remarkably crisp and clear. You completely forget that you are looking at a tiny screen 2.5 in screen. One could certainly watch a full-length film on this screen.

You must convert your videos in order for them to be compatible with the player, however.  To do this, you can download the Zen Converter software from the Creative Web site.  The converter software is very easy to use.  You basically just tell it what you want to convert and it sends it to your player.  It won't work with copyrighted films such as your DVD collection, but you can easily use it to convert your home movies or videos that you have downloaded from the Internet. (The software program is a bit picky as to what files it will work with.  I have used www.Zamzar.com to convert some files over to MOV files before I send them through the Zen Converter program.  That works, but it's a little tedious.)

Zencast
The Zencast menu is located under the Video option on the player. It allows you to sync your player with the Zencast Organizer podcasting software. Essentially, you download the Zencast Organizer software from the Internet.  Then, you subscribe to both video and audio podcasts.  Then, you regularly sync your player with your computer to download your podcasts directly to your player.  This is completely different from the Creative Media Center because you are selecting which specific podcasts you want and you are literally downloading the podcasts to your player.  (You are merely streaming the podcasts to your player when you use the Media Center option.)

It's easy to subscribe to podcasts (although the program apparently isn't compatible with the Firefox Web browser.  You'll need to use Safari or something else to subscribe.)  You can either subscribe to the podcasts that are featured on the Zencast homepage, or you can select other podcasts by entering the RSS feeds by hand. The subscription process is easy.

There are problems when you try to download the podcasts to the player, however.  I haven't had any trouble downloading audio podcasts, but the video podcasts - which are the ones that I really want - have to go through the Zen Converter software before they will download to your player.  It took me a good 30 minutes to transfer about 8 video podcasts.  Also, you have to remember to have your Zen Converter program open before you try to transfer the video podcasts.  Otherwise, Zencast just won't open the program for you and the videos simply won't transfer.

I've been very disappointed with this feature.  It works, but it isn't as simple as I would like and this was one of the features that I was most eager to use. I've been looking for some better podcasting options.  (See my comments about Tversity under the Wifi heading.)

Expandable Memory
I love having the expandable memory on my player.  The downside, of course, is that the memory is not incorporated directly into the player.  In other words, if you put music or videos on the card, you won't be able to access them from your general Music or Video memory on the player.  You will have to access them from the Memory Card menu.  This hasn't really been a big problem for me.  I have just opted to keep videos on the memory card.

One thing that I should point out is that the device is very picky about what SD cards it can use. Make sure you use the list on the Creative site in order to select a card. I've tried a couple of cards.  One didn't work at all and the other worked temporarily and then it started crashing the player.  Of course, neither of them were on the very specific card compatibility list that's on Creative's site.

Creative Central Software
Like most people, I'm not a fan of the Creative Central software that comes with the player.  It can be used to upload video, music, photos, etc to your player.  I've generally found it to be a big hassle.  It's much easier to just send music to the player using Napster to Go or to use the Windows Media Player to sync files to the player.

Regardless, I recommend downloading the Zen Converter software.  It's separate from the Creative Central program and it's very useful if you plan to put videos on your player.

Battery Life
I seem to run down my battery very quickly on this player, but I use the internal speaker and the wifi features a lot.  I think they probably run the battery down.  I'm probably only getting 5 hours out of it when I use those features heavily.  When I use my headphones to just listen to music the batteries clearly last much longer.

I have purchased a Gomadic wall charger for the device and it charges it very quickly. It seems to merely take an hour to re-juice the battery.  I think it takes a couple of hours to recharge it through the USB cable.

Device Apperance and Operation
I find the device to look sleek and sexy. It's shiny, small and nearly weightless.  That lack of weight makes it feel a bit fragile, however.

The device is operated using a button pad.  The buttons are tiny, and four of them seem almost useless.  The button pad was a bit intimidating at first, but after I had toyed with the player for 20 minutes or so I found that I was very comfortable using the buttons.

Menus
You essentially scroll through a list of menus on the device by using the three buttons in the center of the button pad.  There's a menu for Music, Photos, Videos, Online, Internal Storage, Settings, etc. You can rearrange the menus so that they appear in the order that is most convenient for you. 

The device also allows you to personalize the background colors or wallpaper of the menu.  I have found that I prefer to use a pre-installed color background rather than selecting one of my photos to act as a wallpaper. The wallpaper looks a bit funky when you put the menus on top of it.

One of the neat features that I like about this device is that when you stop on a menu, a series of images related to that menu will pop up on your screen.  For example, when you stop on the Music menu, a series of album covers will pop up on the menu. It's a nice addition.

Also, when you are listening to specific music, the album art will show up on your screen, if it's available on your device. It's small, but if you click a couple of buttons you can zoom in on it a bit.  I should admit that my Zen has gotten a little confused as to which album belongs with each song, but I've only noticed it once or twice. When, I replayed the song later, the right album came up.  I'm not sure what causes that.