| Creative Zen X-Fi 16 GB Video MP3 Player with Wireless LAN and Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver) | 
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| List Price: $199.99
Buy New: $164.99
You Save: $35.00 (18%)
Buy New/Used from $147.47
Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 76 reviews)
Sales Rank: 206
Category: CE
Publisher: Creative Labs
Studio: Creative Labs
Brand: Creative Labs
Label: Creative Labs
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language)
Color: Silver
Media: Electronics
Autographed: 0
Memorabilia: 0
Batteries Included: 1
Display Size: 2.5
Size: 16 GB
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 3.3 x 2.2 x 0.5
MPN: ZXFI16GBBK
Model: ZXFI16GBBK
UPC: 054651157873
EAN: 0054651157873
ASIN: B001CB0RSG
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | Capacity: 16 GB (4,000 songs or 60 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 |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com 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 and wireless LAN--the sound of perfection. Click to enlarge. |  A pocket-sized player that weighs a mere 2.4 ounces, the Zen X-Fi sports attractive curves with a graceful finish. Click to enlarge. |  The included EP-830 earphones provide optimum comfort with excellent noise isolation. Click to enlarge. |  A control/feature schematic. Click to enlarge. |  Immerse yourself in the brilliant 2.5-inch TFT screen with 16.7 million colors as you watch your movies and view your pictures. Click to enlarge. | 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. Build 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. True Mobility
You can now stream music and photos wirelessly from your PC to your player within a home network. With the Zen X-Fi, experience the sound of perfection wherever you go. Stay connected with friends on Yahoo Messenger or Windows Live Messenger on the go (at region-specific public wireless LAN hotspots). 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 in 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 16 GB, installation CD, quick start guide, wireless function quick guide, EP-830 noise-isolating earbuds, USB 2.0 cable
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| Customer Reviews: Read 71 more reviews...
 Just OK November 20, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
When I first got my 32 gb X-fi, I was very satisfied with it. I was pleased that I got it to work with my Mac through xnjb and loved the external speaker. I liked the assignable short cut button and managing my library (such as deleting songs and editing playlists) through the player was convenient. However, I found that the bass sounded very distorted, whether it was the included earbuds or the player itself, I'm not sure. I tried many genres of music and various audio settings including the crystalizer, but no change. When the battery started running low, it would crash many times and I would have to reset it. Button navigation was mediocre, especially scrolling through artists, though using the alphabet on the side did help a little. I didn't think the wi-fi capabilities were all they were cracked up to be. Plus the instant messaging was pointless. In the end, I decided to return it after about 2 months and got a refurbished iPod Touch which was only about $30 more.
Great Product, Horrible Software Problems November 20, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Pros:
Sound quality is superb
Included headphones is high quality
Easy to use interface
Many different features
Great looking screen (which is great for video)
Cons:
- Extremely disappointing and frustrating software compatibility issues
- Extra, useless buttons
- Most video files require transcoding
- Some features are more gimmick than practical
- Interface is not as smooth as it could be
Summary:
The player itself is great. It has great sound quality, the interface is very sleek and very customizable, and the included ear buds retail for around $30-$40, much better than the included earbuds of say an iPod. The screen is great for video viewing also.
The main problem is the compatibility of Windows Media Player. Although many people will say that Windows Media Player will support the Creative Zen X-Fi just fine, I have a very frustrating experience with it. I'm the kind of guy who likes to maintain all his album information and likes control of what stays and what goes on my music, and I prefer to sync my music rather than go through the major trouble of manually keeping track of my music. I have a pretty large selection, so manually syncing the Zen to my computer is almost impossible. The problem is whenever I try to sync, 50of the time my Zen would crash. Now, this problem is prevalent not only in the X-Fi, but also prevalent in the older cousin Creative Zen. I absolutely believe that Creative just dropped the ball here, now that not one but TWO products have the same issues. I looked all over the Creative support website, and there are absolutely no mention of this problem at all. I'd have to constantly reset my player after syncing them.
Conclusion:
The product itself is great, but the software issues (as well as the useless bundled software) creates a major headache for me. Syncing my music has become the most frustrating experience for me, and it seems like Windows Media Player CHOOSES when to sync and when to crash my player. I honestly blame Creative for not making the effort to fix this issue. My recommendation? If you want a great MP3 player and you're old school who doesn't care about automatic syncing, then definitely give this player equal consideration with other MP3 players. However, if you want great control of your music library without the tediousness of managing it manually, then stay away. Had I known there were these issues with Windows Media Player, I'd definitely take that into major consideration.
 Excellent sound and versatility November 19, 2008
I was thinking of buying an Apple iPod, as the new ones are pretty, but I heartily object to Apple's treating me like a thief (mp3 names scrambled) and not letting me use the player as storage as well. Also, the idea of an SD slot seemed extremely useful. I've had good luck with Creative sound cards and read many positive reviews here, so I decided to buy this little gadget.
While not an audiophile, I do a lot of music production and studio work and have to say I prefer the sound from the Creative Zen X-Fi to my friend's iPod for the same headphones and sound file. It seems less fuzzy somehow- I think they must be doing something with the EQ?
My issues are as follows:
-The headphones don't fit my ear canals very well and keep falling out. I am unsure if this is because I have deformed ear canals or something, but I just usually need to switch to my giant goofy-lookin' headphones.
-Creative Centrale is not very good software. It keeps track of my iTunes library very well in terms of tracks, but it's terrible for importing playlists.
-Creating and editing a playlist on the device is difficult to figure out.
-I wish I could play all the songs by one artist. Will see if firmware upgrades ever do that.
I admit I haven't tried anything with video or pictures. Charging is the same as any other USB device, and I'm really glad I don't need to use a proprietary connector (like Apple uses) or dock to charge it from my computer- my camera cable or cell phone cable both work for this, since they're all mini-to-USB. Have not tried the voice recording.
I managed to crash it once (no batteries plus connecting it to a non-charging source), but rebooting as it tells me to on the Creative support site fixed the problem. The speaker's sound quality was a nice surprise. As for the controls, they weren't difficult after reading through the quickstart guide once. I'm also pleased by the ability to delete files from the device without connecting it to a computer. However, I couldn't get the device to work with Linux. I don't think most users would even contemplate that, though.
I hear that the SD card content is not integrated into the player's library, which means I'll have to store my less-used movies and music there when it comes time. But the functionality is amazing, the sound quality lovely and crisp, and the ability to manage my own files means this one's a keeper and I recommend it to all who want to be 'power users' of their portable devices.
Almost Perfect November 15, 2008
I bought the Nomad Zen NX about 5 years ago and it still works great. However, it is relatively big and heavy, and that's why I decided to upgrade now. Other players I considered were the Zune 120gb and the iPod 120gb but the Zune lacks an equalizer which was a dealbreaker for me and the iPod only has equalizer presets -- no customization. So I went for the Zen X-Fi 32gb and I'm glad I did. It lacks the capacity of the other two players, but the SD slot sort of makes up for it, even though it isn't well integrated with the internal memory. Also, SD prices have been falling fast, so I can see 32gb SD cards being sold for a reasonable price in the not too distant future. And this Zen is considerably smaller than those other two devices which is a big plus for me.
The sound quality is very good. I like that it has a customnizable button to configure however you like. I assigned the volume control to it since that isn't directly available via another button in all screens. Now I can more easily access it at all times.
FM reception in my area is superb, with little distortion or static. I think it will depend on where you live. In NY City, it's great.
As for syncing, I am using the J River Media Center. It syncs fine with the Zen X-Fi and I prefer it to the non-intuitive Centrale software.
The Centrale software bundled with the device is not totally useless. For one thing, it installs a help file on your PC that's a lot more detailed than the Quick Start guide that comes in the package. You should install Centrale at least for the help file. After you copy it elsewhere, you may be able to uninstall Centrale if you want. However it's harmless and I think uninstalling it might remove some of the needed drivers your PC may require in order to recognize the Zen X-Fi. You can also re-format the player using Centrale.
Speaking of drivers, there is a Windows glich that prevented my Windows XP machine from initially recognizing my Zen x-Fi so I couldn't update the firmware or sync. I tried re-installing the Creative software and updating the drivers through Windows device manager but I kept getting this error message -- "A service installation section in this INF is invalid." A google search came up with the solution. If this happens to you, do a google search on that error message and follow the link to myCreative Fansite. In the first post is the answer -- A missing umdf file -- and a link to download it. The solution is really simple and worked like a charm, and my Zen is now fully recognized by my PC and the Creative software. It is not Creative's fault as this is happening to users of other MP3 players who are on Windows as well.
The headphones are terrific and are far far better than the stock headphones that come with most players. I had planned to sell them on eBay since I have a few sets of earbuds already, but I'm going to keep them now as they have a nice rich sound and work well with this player. They are fairly easy to drive too so you can keep your volume on the Zen low which means your battery should last longer. For example, if I am listening with these headphones with the volume set to 7, I might have to set the volume level at 15 to get the same loudness using my Sony MDR-EX71 earbuds.
You also get a nice hard plastic case to store all the little papers and accessories that came with the player.
To clear up something a recent reviewer said .... once you have the correct drivers installed from the CD that comes with the unit (and apply any Windows fix if you have the umdf issue like I did), you do NOT have to go through Creative's Centrale software to get files into this player. It will show up as a separate drive instantly when you connect. Just click on My Computer to access it and you can browse the folder structure and drag and drop files. This is an additional way to load music files along with other alternate options such as Windows Media Player or J River Media Center.
I would have given this player 5 stars if not for the poor integration of the SD card with the internal memory. I also really wish they had volume and pause hardware controls on the SIDE of the player which would allow one to control them even with a closed leather case. My Zen NX has this. With the Zen X-Fi you have to open the covers of the leather cases to get to the volume and pause controls. Because of this, I might simply go with a hard plastic case with cutouts or a silicone skin.
Other than that, I'm very happy with this purchase. As I said, this little player is almost perfect.
can't stop listening to it November 10, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I love love love this mp3 player with x-fi.
This is the best so far. I loved my zen v by creative labs
but this is over the top. If you are in doubt buy it.
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