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Creative Zen X-Fi 32 GB Video MP3 Player with Wireless LAN and Built-In Speaker (Black) | 
| Brand: Creative Labs
Category: CE
List Price: $279.99
Buy New: $278.93
You Save: $1.06
New (10) Used (3) from $223.25
Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 549
Color: Silver
Media: Electronics
Batteries Included: Yes
Display Size: 2.5
Size: 32 GB
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 3.3 x 2.2 x 0.5
MPN: ZXFI32GBBK
Model: ZXFI32GBBK
UPC: 054651157903
EAN: 0054651157903
ASIN: B001CB0RT0
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | Capacity: 32 GB (8,000 songs or 120 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-isolatling 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 32 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 9 more reviews...
 Awesome August 27, 2008
L.E.S.
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
All I've ever wanted was an MP3 player that holds a large capacity and has a speaker. I hate headphones. No one makes that. Until now. Here it is. This Zen X-fi has 32GB on board with an SD slot for another 32GB if you can afford it. I have a 16GB SD card so I now have 48GB to handle all of my music. I like the fact that the SD card is not integrated. I store my music in folders by artist then by album and I want to listen to it in that fashion and that's the way this player plays them when they are on the card. I don't like the way players update their library and put music into categories that I don't want. The only thing missing is bluetooth. Maybe someday.
Great Sound great features August 24, 2008
J. WU (New York, NY USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
After selling my Zune 80, I was deciding on what my next DAP should be. Should I rebuy the Zune 80 or get the Creative Zen X-Fi? So I finally decided to buy the X-Fi. Why? Because I wanted to try out the X-Fi's Sound Quality. I wanted to see if it does what it's suppose to do. Which is to restore your MP3 collection.
The Creative X-Fi comes in 3 different storage capacities of 8gb, 16gb and 32gb. What are the differences between the 3 models besides the storage capacity? The 8gb version lacks the WIFI connectivity. Both the 16gb and 32gb contains the WIFI connectivity. (More about this later)
This review is for the Creative 32gb version of the Zen X-Fi.
Connection types on the Zen X-Fi
The Zen X-Fi sports a USB port, which thankfully is built into the player, so no need for a separate USB dongle pack, like the Zen Vision M. And of course it contains a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Unfortunately there is no line in like in some of Creative's other MP3 players.
Setting up the Zen X-Fi
You can choose to either install Creative's software called Creative Centrale or use Windows Media Player to transfer content to the X-Fi. Creative Centrale is preferred if you plan on transferring videos to the X-Fi. I have installed Creative Centrale, because I wanted videos on the X-Fi. The CD also contains software for Audible files, which you can use to listen to Audible audio files. This is essentially like those "books on tapes".
Transferring content to the X-Fi via Windows Media Player
You can use Windows Media Player to transfer content to the X-Fi. However, only music can be transferred. With Windows Media Player, you simply drag and drop the files you want to the Zen X-Fi and it should automatically transfer over to the player. The X-Fi can also display album art if the file contains it. Every CD that I have ripped contains the album art, so everything transferred over to the X-Fi properly. So transferring music is real easy with either software.
The album art is somewhat small though, just a square of the art is shown. It's not like on the Zune, where the art fills up the entire screen.
Transferring Video Content to the X-Fi
Transferring video to the X-Fi is a somewhat tedious process. You need to use Creative's software called Creative Centrale. If your DVD or VCD is not protected, you can rip it straight to the Zen X-Fi. While it rips it also encodes to WMV, which takes a long time to do. Even after it encodes and transfers over to the X-Fi some of the files are not playable.
When the video files have been successfully transferred over to the X-Fi, the image is pretty good. Though I was somewhat disappointed in the colors of the X-Fi, I didn't think the colors were as vibrant as that of the Zen Vision M. I think it is probably on par with the Zune's colors. Other than that, the images are clear.
Navigating the menus on the Zen X-Fi
Navigating on the Zen X-Fi is done with buttons instead of the usual touch pad. The Zen X-fi sports 13 buttons in all. There are 4 outer buttons that surround a 9 digit keypad. It may seem like overkill with 13 buttons, but it really isn't. It's just as intuitive as the Vision M's touch pad or the Zune's "squircle".
The outer 4 buttons are used to getting into the main menu, the sub menu, the X-Fi's sound enhancement ON/OFF, and the play/pause button.
The 9 digit keypad is used for selecting functions of those outer buttons. All you are really using are actually the middle buttons on that 9 digit keypad. So you basically have an UP DOWN LEFT and RIGHT. The Up and Down key is also the dedicated VOLUME control. The other buttons is used mainly for Instant Messaging. Those are where the letters are at, so navigation is very intuitive.
The Headphones
Creative includes a set of premium headphones, model "EP-830". These are sound isolating headphones, which if purchased separately would cost about $50. These isolating headphones actually does a pretty good job in isolating outside noises. And they sound great. They also include different size gaskets that you can use. Sometimes I wonder why they would even bother to include stock earphones, since they usually are of inferior quality. But the EP830 is certainly not your usual stock buds. These are high quality earphones. I even think that they are much better than the Shure E2C's.
X-Fi Sound enhancement
The X-Fi sound enhancement technology was the reason why I bought this player. What do I actually think of the X-Fi? Does it really work? I would say yes, there is actually a difference in the sound quality with the X-Fi ON. Everything sounds so much clearer. The highs sound high and the lows sound low. It sounds better than COWON's D2. Even without the X-Fi technology turned ON, the Zen X-Fi still sounds great. Of course, this is purely subjective. Some may think that this is a load of crap...but to me the X-Fi technology sounds FANTASTIC!
Wifi Connectivity
Unfortunately as of this writing I am unable to get the Wifi to connect to my Wifi router. So I can not comment on this feature yet. But the Wifi supposedly lets you stream your media from your home network to the Zen X-Fi. You can listen and watch videos on the Zen X-Fi streamed from your network. You can even instant message with Yahoo. Another feature which I have yet to test.
SD Card Slot
The X-Fi also sports an SD card slot for unlimited storage capacity. I have yet to test this, since I don't have any SD card on me as of this writing. But supposedly the SD card is not integrated well with the X-Fi. It does not see the SD card in your music library. You have to go into the menu in order to access the SD card. I'm not sure if this would be a problem for me yet, because I do not have any SD card to try it.
FM Radio
The Zen X-Fi has an FM radio with 32 presets. The FM radio reception is superb and works well. Unfortunately you can not record from the FM tuner.
Why only an FM tuner and not an AM as well?
Mic recording
You can also use the X-Fi as a flash voice recorder. This feature works, though I do not know if you can take the recordings out of the X-Fi. I have not fully tested the Mic Recording. Just recorded a few seconds of my voice.
Built-In Speaker
The Zen X-Fi has a built in speaker, located on the bottom of the player. For such a tiny speaker, it actually sounds pretty good. Though it was a bit tinny sounding, you would have to max out the volume. But even at the maximum volume of 25, there is no sound distortion.
EQ Settings
The Zen X-Fi sports 9 EQ settings. Custom EQ, which you can use to customize the settings to your own taste. Acoustic, Classical, Disco, Jazz, New Age, Pop, Rock, and Vocal.
Photo Viewing
You can view JPEG photos on the Zen X-Fi. You can browse by folders and can also listen to music while viewing your pictures. It might be just me or my pictures, but I prefer the Zen Vision M's screen quality over the X-Fi's. It just doesn't seem to be all that vibrant. It's a bit on the dull, drab side.
I love the colors on the Zen Vision M...pack the Vision M's screen onto the X-Fi, and it would be perfect.
Other notable features of the X-Fi
You can sync with your contacts in Outlook, there's also a clock, calendar, and a to do list.
So there you have it, Creative packs a lot of features into a tiny package. The Creative Zen X-Fi is worth investigating if you're in the market for a new DAP. You would not be disappointed with this wonderful DAP. I give it 9 out of 10.
 Great player hogtied with pretty lousy software. August 22, 2008
monoblocks (Seattle, WA)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
In the nearly three weeks that I've had the Zen X-Fi, I'd have to say that the player itself is an excellent device. It's certainly one of the best sounding players available, although personally I think that the X-Fi signal processing is more gimmick than benefit. The built-in speaker is cute, but it seems hardly worth it given its transistor radio-like fidelity. Coming from a wonderfully frustrating experience with its predecessor, the Zen (bricked in less than a month), I knew the design of the onboard UI pretty well already. It's a breeze to learn and navigate, and aside from quirks with playlist generation, is as easy as the interface on an iPod or Zune.
That said, the X-Fi is saddled with some major hindrances, not the least of which is the unstable client software that you use to manage the player. A lot of video formats have to be translated before they will work on the X-Fi; this is done through the aforementioned software known Creative Centrale. Unfortunately it has this irritating tendency to lock up on my media machine and destabilize XP Pro when doing so. You also need this software if you want to use any non-DRM AAC files, like those often found on iPods. These M4A files also need "processing" before an X-Fi is able to understand them, so unlike my experiences with my Sony NWZ-A818, where drag-n-drop management through Windows Explorer is conveniently possible. On the X-Fi (or the Zen, for that matter), drag-n-drop via Windows Explorer or any other file manager is only available with MP3 and WMA files.
The X-Fi also is limited to compressed audio files; it will not understand lossless formats, which is unfortunate given the available storage capacity. Indicated battery life has been disappointing as well. Supposedly good up to 30 hrs of audio listening, by about 4 or 5 hours the charges indicator is down to 50%, making anything close to 30 hours seem like wishful thinking. The nine-button main control array does take a bit of time to get used to, even though it's very similar to the Zen's main control configuration. The nagging irritant is the small size of the buttons, which can be easy to mis-hit even with my smallish fingers. Voice recording is a nice feature, although I doubt that for myself I'll use it all that much. I pretty much feel the same about its Wi-Fi capability; the multitap-fed Chat texting function is useless to me, and streaming from my media PC doesn't do me any favors since 95% of my use time with the X-Fi is far away from home with no available means of access (the X-Fi only searches for media content servers that are on available wireless networks nearby to it).
I'm still more than a little apprehensive when it comes to the topic of durability; my experiences with the Zen and its problems weren't enough to stop me from trying the X-Fi, but they did give pause when it comes to trusting that this device will last until I again get the itch to sample another player. FM radio reception is spotty in my area, and seems to work better (or worse) depending on which set of aftermarket cans I choose to use with the X-Fi.
I didn't care much for the standard in-ear buds; they sound excessively thin and bright to me and also transmit a fair amount of microphonics through its cabling. Instead, I primarily use my Shure SE530 canals with the X-Fi, and the sound between the two is indeed excellent. My multiple pairs of Sennheiser PX100s (each chosen for use depending on how broken-in I want the sound to be) also sounds great with the X-Fi. I've also used my less efficient Sennheiser HD650 and recently purchased Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7 with the X-Fi. With more demanding, less efficient sets like these, the X-Fi does struggle to provide enough amplification, but in a pinch they do work without me having to resort to using one of my headphone amps.
Other nitpicks: I thoroughly dislike the move of the power/hold switch to the back (the Zen had it on the side). Ambivalent about the iPhonesque type styling, although it does lend an air of classiness to the device. Hate the smudge-filled fingerprint magnet of a front face, and dislike the cheap-looking silver back (the Zen's matte black back is more appealing to my eye). The added thickness over that of the Zen isn't TOO much of a disappointment given the increase in features, but it does give the X-Fi a slightly chunkier proportion over the svelte Zen. The reset switch is an improvement over the one on the Zen; unfortunately, I've already had to use it a number times as well.
That's basically it; despite its flaws the 32GB Zen X-Fi offers superb audio and video performance, which for me is still far more important than all else. In the end it's a solid four-star device contemptuously held back by wretched, one-star software. I know full well that Creative has their loyal supporters, but aside from their excellent sound cards I'm still not sold on the overall goodness of the rest of their product lineup. The four-letter curse words seem to come hot and heavy nearly every time I hooked up either the Zen and especially the Zen X-Fi to the computer; none of my remaining current hoard of devices brought on that sort of onslaught, including my dreaded Zune 1.0 player. However once I got the X-Fi loaded for bear, it becomes one of the sweetest performing devices I've ever used. Videos looks great. Songs sound fantastic. If only the software wasn't so BAD...considering all of the intervening years between my first Creative player, the venerable 20GB Nomad Zen and this one, is it too much to ask of Creative for them to finally GET how to write a decent software application?
Creative Zen X-Fi 32 GB Video Player August 18, 2008
L. Smith (Sacramento, CA United States)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I love my new Zen! The sound is awesome. The picture and video quality is fantastic. I love the size and the look of it. I'm so glad that I purchased it and would highly recommend it to others.
Delighted Buyer August 13, 2008
Disappointed (San Antonio)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Zen X-Fi mp3 player is the cat's meow. It works!!! If sync problems occur, it easily recovers by punching the reset button (other players I had did not have a reset). The battery life is extreamly long between charges. It has the ability to add more capacity using SDHC flash memory (functional external memory interface, but could be vastly improved). I do not use the Creative software. I have been using the Windows Media Player.
Some have complained about the nine button cluster used to navigate the menus. I found it to be confusing at first. But after working with it a short while, it became second nature to work the buttons to achieve desired results.
If music quality (execellent), small size, and player functionality are the most important to you, consider this player. I was disappointed by another brand twice (had to return them to Amazon). I am delighted with this purchase and recommend the leather carry case as a must have item.
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