Creative Zen X-Fi 8 GB Video MP3 Player with Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver)

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Creative Zen X-Fi 8 GB Video MP3 Player with Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver)
 
Manufacturer: Creative Labs
Customer Rating:
 
List Price: $149.99
Sale Price: $69.99
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Product Description

Experience your MP3 music as the artist originally intended with the Creative ZEN X-Fi--the first player to restore the quality of compressed music with award-winning X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity Audio technology. Indulge in rich, crystal-clear audio when you listen to your music, as the detail that’s lost during file compression is now beautifully restored and played through premium-quality, noise-isolating EP-830 earphones.

Creative ZEN X-Fi, built with X-Fi technology--the sound of perfection.

A pocket-sized player that weighs a mere 2.4 ounces, the ZEN X-Fi sports attractive curves with a graceful finish.

The included EP-830 earphones provide optimum comfort with excellent noise isolation.

A control/feature schematic.

Immerse yourself in the brilliant 2.5-inch TFT screen with 16.7 million colors as you watch your movies and view your pictures.

Sleek Beauty
A pocket-sized player that weighs a mere 2.4 ounces, the ZEN X-Fi sports attractive curves with a graceful finish. Immerse yourself in the brilliant 2.5-inch TFT screen with 16.7 million colors as you watch your movies and view your pictures. Built with X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity Audio technology, the player lets you experience the very essence of music perfection as you listen to audio in crystal-clear clarity. Hear your music the way it was always meant to be heard. Plus, the included EP-830 earphones provide optimum comfort with excellent noise-isolation capability. Or, be the life of the party as you share your music out loud with the powerful built-in speaker.

More Content, Endless Enjoyment
Listen to your music in multiple supported formats such as MP3, WMA, and (non-protected) AAC (m4a) from iTunes Plus. Download Creative Centrale to rip, transfer, and manage your media content easily. Enjoy the ultimate collection of free video and audio podcast channels on www.zencast.com. Manage all of your favorite subscriptions with ZENcast Organizer, and experience the best of the free-to-share formats available. Tired of your own music? Switch to the FM radio. The 32 station presets let you switch stations with ease. Increase the size of your portable media library with an SD or SDHC card. Transfer your files easily to enjoy more videos, music, and photos on your player.

Packed with Features
Record your important meetings or personal audio memos with the integrated voice recorder. Set audio effects to enhance your overall music-listening experience. Choose from eight EQ presets or customize your own EQ, and enhance it all with bass-boost and smart-volume controls. Start the day on the right note with your very own alarm tone. You can even set the alarm for any day of the week.

What's in the Box
Creative ZEN X-Fi 8 GB, installation CD, quick start guide, EP-830 noise-isolating earbuds, and USB 2.0 cable.

Product Details

  • A firmware bug could result in the player locking when playing the FM radio; to fix the problem, upgrade the latest firmware (1.04.08) posted on support.creative.com
  • Capacity: 8 GB (2,000 songs or 30 hours of video); up to 30 hours of continuous audio playback or 5 hours of continuous video playback on one charge
  • 2.5-inch TFT LCD with 320 x 240 pixel resolution: 16.7 million colors
  • Supports MP3, WMA, AAC5, WAV (ADPCM), Audible 2,3,4 audio formats; MJPEG, WMV, MPEG-4 video (including DivX and XviD); and JPEG photo formats
  • 1-year limited hardware / 90 days service warranty

Video Reviews

No video reviews found for this product.

Customer Reviews

Awesome portable media player, bad software
 
Review Date: July 24, 2008
Reviewer: Jesus Hector Fernandez, Mexico
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2MT954C8FQVXL Hi.

This is the Zen X-Fi in action, player seems very good (for me at least) its got many features which I like, the only downside for now has been the software that is bundled with the player which for me it is not a very good software, anyway if you want to see it in action check out the video.
Great sound, nice upgrade to the Creative Zen: bass lovers will love this.
 
Review Date: July 30, 2008
Reviewer: Alan E. Moore, Sanford, FL
I bought this because I was jealous of my wife's Creative Zen 8 GB player.

But really, I bought this because of the promised X-Fi sound quality. I have an X-Fi audio card for my desktop PC and I really love the enhanced MP3 sound quality and was hoping for more of the same in a portable unit. The Creative Zen X-Fi does not disappoint, straight out of the box I found the sound to be full of the bass tones I love so much. The X-Fi settings add some nice quality to my tones and vibrate my little eardrums with heavy beats. With the included headphones the bass was almost overwhelming for me, but with my Bose Triport IE's I found the sound to be very satisfying.

So lets get down to brass tacks here. So far here's what I love:
*) The new iPhoney sleek look is very nice, an improvement I think.
*) The buttons have a nice tactile feel. With very little practice I can easily find the play button and volume adjustment without looking. Visually its a little harder to figure out which button is where.
*) Even better, the buttons never get pressed unintentionally. This is a big plus since I use it for working out and yard work where I'm often bending over; my clix was constantly getting paused or fast forwarded unintentionally which has been a constant source of annoyance!
*) I found it virtually effortless to hook this up to my PC, connect to my existing MediaMonkey library and download all of my songs and playlists.
*) Great sound for bass lovers. X-fi crystallizer makes for a crisper quality if thats what you like.
*) Wi-fi connection, hooked up to my network easily and I was browsing the Creative Media Center in minutes.
*) Very lightweight compared to most of my other players.
*) User Interface: If you are familiar with Creative players then you will find the buttons easy to understand and use. I find the basic menu system easy to understand and navigate. Lots of nice background images to choose from.
*) Easy firmware update, I downloaded the latest firmware from Creative website and easily installed it.
*) Decent headphones included -- possibly the best I've ever seen packaged with an MP3 player.
*) Lightweight, easy to carry, seems to be pretty rugged construction, fits nicely in a pocket.
*) Nice battery life: compared to my Clix 2 (4 ish hours) or my iPod Touch (about same!) this thing lasts forever at about 10ish hours.
*) Big bold colorful screen, which I find easy to read even in daylight.
*) I love the way it pops right back to where I left off even after a power off, it comes right back to the Now Playing screen and resumes my playlist. Most of my other players don't do this very well so its a plus when it works the way I think it should.

And the things that are not so great:
*) Well, as is the "case" with many non-Apple players, accessories are not easy to come by. This seems to be a bit thicker than its predecessor so I don't think the old Zen cases are going to fit very well. Also, the power button has been moved to the back of the player which will mean you need a special case to be able to access the power button. As of this writing, I can't find a single X-Fi leather case out there, not even from Creative. -- Update: I just ordered a leather case direct from Creative, hoping its a good one! Update: Found an i-nique case which is very nice, with the only problem being hard to access that power button on the back... still waiting for the perfect case!


Thats about it, I highly recommend this player as a heck of a lot of MP3 player for the price (I paid more for my 8GB Clix 2 and a lot more for my 16B Touch!). In many ways I like it better than the Clix 2 although the Clix does have the crispest sound I've ever heard from a player. The Touch of course is a wonderful unit but it is bigger, heavier and more expensive.
Great Value Exceptional Product
 
Review Date: January 22, 2009
Reviewer: Haredawg, Oregon

I am a big fan of Creative Lab products and the customer support I've received in the past from them. My requirements from an MP3 player are pretty simple, I want my music to sound good, I want to be able to listen to audio books, and if I can watch a movie on it I want the movie to look good. You'd think every MP3 player would be able to do at least two out of three. I find the sound quality in Creative products to be exceptional, even the modest Zen stone with its very limited features has great sound quality. The x-fi series goes a step beyond. Crisp and pristine high range, subtle and pure mid range, and faithful, clear bass, even without customizing the EQ, the presets play exactly as you'd expect from your higher end home theatre.
I agree with the reviewer who didn't like the software, but I don't really like the software with any MP3 player. As much as I have respect for Apple as a company and have rooted for them since the late eighties and groaned when they've sunk money into a product that tanked (like their early PDA) I really personally don't like the iPod and in a large part because of the proprietary software, and though I appreciate that unlike their ill received PDA the iPod is priced to make a profit, I think it's too expensive at each price point. In that respect I am willing to suffer through the clumsy software with Creative Control center, clumsier than the media center that came with the other Zen I have. The video converter, however, is excellent, intuitive and quick.

In this price range I have yet to hear any other mp3 compare favorably to the faithful sound reproduction or exceed the quality of the video. I worked for the doomed Circuit City for eight years, was fired for being a good salesman (the first time they got rid of commissioned sales they fired their top twenty five percent for making too much money) and have had the opportunity to test drive a great number of MP3's, prior to 2002, then worked for Dell for a while, again with the opportunity to test drive mp3 players, and have owned several. I cannot stress this enough, for the money, the features, the sound quality, compatibility, limited proprietary issues this is the best product on the market imho.

I realize this review is all personal, but that's the point for these reviews. If you're interested in tech specs go to creative's web site. I find all the specs in the world don't compare to a test drive. Ohm impedance for instance never looks like a good stat on an MP3. My opinion is that the x-fi series is incredibly faithful in sound reproduction and for the consumer is a great value.
Wonderful MP3 Player
 
Review Date: July 26, 2008
Reviewer: Greenapple, Montreal, Que, Canada
I just got the 32 GB version of the X-Fi to replace my previous Creative Zen Vision M 60 GB which died after a year and a half of hard and very satisfying use. The X-Fi is a gem: small, sturdy, fast and feature rich. I love the sound of the X-Fi Crystalizer and Expand sound quality enhancements and the small speaker is surprizingly good though I usually listen through the great ear buds or a JBL On Tour portable speaker (which I also highly recommend). I was able to quickly reconstitute all my music and audio books from backups I had made. The flash memory seems somewhat faster to load than hard drive models. The screen is nice and bright if you set it high brightness, the radio works very well with good reception when the ear buds are installed (they are used as antennas), and it has the built in microphone record feature which I have been using to capture my mothers life story in instalments in her own words. Since I always have my MP3 player on me, I always have a recorder and am ready when she is in the mood to talk. Creative seems to be able to improve their players again and again and I must say I am delighted with this model. I hope it eventually comes out in a 60 Gb or 160 Gb version, but for now I don't know why anyone would by an IPOD when they could get this Creative.
Awesome player, bad software
 
Review Date: July 24, 2008
Reviewer: Jesus Hector Fernandez, Mexico
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3NTXEHASELNF9 Hello, heres is a quick look at the player in action, this review is using the 16 gb version but the 16 gb and 32 gb are the same.

Pros - great looking screen, great sound.
cons - could find out how to use msn on this (says in box you can, tricky software.

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