What do you want to know about the Zen X-Fi?

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by Lawrence

the controls bug me. You know, all those buttons.

They bug me too Lawrence. I've never been a fan of smaller buttons like that and I can't stand using them let alone using them for a chat function that isn't at least a qwerty keyboard.

Originally Posted by Cipher7

How is there no yahoo, gtalk, or msn? I thought this was (heavily) advertised?

Since when does Creative advertise any of their players, let alone heavily advertise them?

Originally Posted by Cipher7

Seems like sound quality is meh...

Seems to me the sounds quality isn't meh, but the X-Fi feature may be.

Originally Posted by EnzoTen

They both seem to have the same power, so my answer would be that they will not drive bigger phones better.

I've read that the X-Fi is a tad louder. Maybe not much to tell right away, but still a little louder. Can you confirm any increase in output at all?

How is the speaker? I was wondering if the speaker was at least amped because non-amped speakers connected to the headphone jack has always been way too low in volume even when turned up all of the way.

Originally Posted by no9

but it should at least be better than my 4 yr old ZVM.

Yeah, but it seems DAP's these days are going in the opposite direction in terms of usability and feature sets. Manufactures seem to try to cram as many features in their players, but end up poorly implementing them and removing the ones that were working great.

[CrowdAds]

[EnzoTen]

Originally Posted by BobbyRS

How is the speaker?

Really good for a slit in the bottom of the player. Not something that you can fill a room with, but good enough for watching videos in your hand or playing podcasts at your desk.

[Cipher7]

I'm debating whether I should get this or a D2. Putting aside MY preferences, which would you rather keep for long term? I'd just like to know which one you like better.

[EnzoTen]

Originally Posted by Cipher7

I'm debating whether I should get this or a D2. Putting aside MY preferences, which would you rather keep for long term? I'd just like to know which one you like better.

Personally i dont like the D2s touch interface and the X-Fi's sound quality is nearly as good as the D2 from what i remember- you would have to do some hardcore listening with some serious headphones to tell the differnce. So for the reason of interface, more than addequate sound quality, and wifi streaming i personally would choose the X-Fi over the D2.

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by EnzoTen

Personally i dont like the D2s touch interface and the X-Fi's sound quality is nearly as good as the D2 from what i remember- you would have to do some hardcore listening with some serious headphones to tell the differnce. So for the reason of interface, more than addequate sound quality, and wifi streaming i personally would choose the X-Fi over the D2.

Now I'M confused?!?!?! It sounds THAT GOOD? Oh boy, I may have to rethink this!!!

[Cipher7]

Well you swayed me towards a zen x-fi that much more, I'm also curious if you tested out video playback, and might I ask when the official review will be up?

Another question, when it say's mpeg-4 support,does that mean it can play .avi or is it referring to .mp4 and I need to convert? I understand that with the d2 I do not need to convert, just transcode to the right resolution, but am I getting this right mpeg-4 is not the same as avi?

[BobbyRS]

Really good for a slit in the bottom of the player. Not something that you can fill a room with, but good enough for watching videos in your hand or playing podcasts at your desk.

This is great news for me. I use a external speaker with mine as almost as much as headphones. I watch a lot of TV shows..... Anyway, it is a pain to also carry around this speaker all the time. Funny.... the added feature of the X-Fi over the Zen that I see myself using the most is the internal speaker (although I really like the new picture zoom as well). I may use the wi-fi, but pretty much my entire library of music is on my Zen, so I really don't have anymore music to stream.

[RiNSpy]

What about the Wi-Fi? Does it allow you to connect to encrypted channels? Does it allow you to point it to a third-party mp3 stream url?

[EnzoTen]

Originally Posted by RiNSpy

What about the Wi-Fi? Does it allow you to connect to encrypted channels? Does it allow you to point it to a third-party mp3 stream url?

Yes it supports WEP, WPA-PSK, or WPA2-PSK security. It will not connect to third party streaming. But you can connect to Creative's MediaBox wich streams limited podcasts chosen by Creative.

[EnzoTen]

The battery time for streaming over Wi-Fi is about 3 hours. This may improve when they fix the fact that the screen will not shut off while streaming.

But really this is awful.

[Lawrence]

Does it support some good old high-quality ~700mb Xvid DVD rips, like the ZVM could?

[EnzoTen]

Originally Posted by Lawrence

Does it support some good old high-quality ~700mb Xvid DVD rips, like the ZVM could?

No, it's the same as the Zen.

[Cipher7]

Well I don't mean to be rude, but can someone answer if mpeg-4 support is pretty much saying it can play avi files? Or does it have to be in mp4 format? (which means I have to convert)...

[BobbyRS]

The Zen can playback AVI using the DIVX or XVID codec, so the X-Fi should do the same. Check out the Zen FAQ (my sig) for more info. Much of it holds true for the X-Fi as well.

[RiNSpy]

Originally Posted by EnzoTen

Yes it supports WEP, WPA-PSK, or WPA2-PSK security. It will not connect to third party streaming. But you can connect to Creative's MediaBox wich streams limited podcasts chosen by Creative.

That really kills the whole purpose of WiFi for me. I thought I could listen to online radio streams.

Dammit.

[scytheavatar]

So the sound quality is a massive improvement from the Zen? There's quite a big gap between the Zen and the D2.

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by EnzoTen

The battery time for streaming over Wi-Fi is about 3 hours. This may improve when they fix the fact that the screen will not shut off while streaming.

If you put it on hold, the screen usually will turn off. Does it not do this while streaming over wi-fi?

Also, is the Creative software required for wi-fi streaming from a home network?

[EnzoTen]

Originally Posted by BobbyRS

If you put it on hold, the screen usually will turn off. Does it not do this while streaming over wi-fi?

yes!... that worked. Testing the life again, will report back.

Originally Posted by BobbyRS

Also, is the Creative software required for wi-fi streaming from a home network?

None needed, it picks up upnp network devices.


The Zen X-Fi review is up.

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by scytheavatar

So the sound quality is a massive improvement from the Zen?

Besides the added X-Fi features, the sound quality should be the same since the Zen and Zen X-Fi uses the same SoC. The Zen lacks some output power and basically requires the use of low impedance IEM's to bring out the best in its sound quality. The better the IEM's, the better the sound quality on the Zen is emphasized.

Originally Posted by EnzoTen

The Zen X-Fi review is up.

Outstanding! Great job; very nice pictures and videos as well!

From the review:

Nothing has changed from the previous Zen players on the photo viewing side.

I believe there is an improved zoom feature on the Zen X-Fi over the Zen. You should now be able to zoom in and out while selecting an area to zoom on.

Oh, it looks like Creative just released a new firmware version (second one in a week now I believe) for the Zen X-Fi to address improvements in the X-Fi playback.

[The DarkSide]

Great review, as always EnzoTen!!!