Creative ZEN X-Fi 8 GB Video MP3 Player

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.

I have no doubt that it is the sound of perfection, the greatest sounding MP3 player ever. I own the original ZEN and find that the quality is great but as I got Soundblaster extremegamer X-Fi, I know there is room for improvement. I hope to see the ZEN with built-in speaker and here it is! I hope to see X-Fi integrated to ZEN and here it is! I hope to get longer battery life and here it is! I hope to get 32GB at greatest value prices (bundle with high quality earbuds EP-830) and here it is! When I bought this (from Creative in Singapore at S$399 the day it was released) and load my songs in, with X-Fi crystalizer ON, X-Fi expand ON (some people don't like surround, so you can off it), paired with EP-830, the music is even better, louder, ups and downs better, better bass without distortion, the best that you can get so far. The wireless streaming feature and instant messaging (wifi) is a plus but I have yet to seriously use them. There is no internet browser. The 9 button is comfortable to press and improves navigation over the original ZEN. It is slightly thicker than ZEN, but it looks and feels more high class due to the sliver backing and chrome edge and the slightly heavier mass. Overall, it is a great improvement over the original ZEN and offers better value and full package for sound of perfection (EP-830 with X-Fi and ZEN quality). You can also buy a docking station with built-in rechargeable battery (not yet available) that also charges ZEN X-Fi. Will update once I got more results on wireless features.

This player is fantastic! It sounds amazing, looks cool, and has tons of features. This thing is the size of a credit card and weighs next to nothing.

The thing that sets this player apart is all the extras it has. FM Radio, SD card support, divx and xvid video, microphone, wifi and external speaker. No other player has this many features! It sounds phenomenal and the video playback is fantastic. One of the coolest things about the player is that you can delete files without plugging it into the computer.

With that said, it still has its flaws. The software that it comes bundled with (called Centrale) is atrocious. It doesn't have a syncing feature, it's extremely slow, and doesn't upload album art automatically. Uploading my 20gb of music took 5 hours! If you drag and drop in windows explorer it takes about 90 minutes. This program was supposed combine all the creative programs into one easy to use package but it is hard to use and has too many flaws. I ended up using the old Creative Sync Manager to upload the songs.

Pros:
+ Fantastic Sound
+ SD Card Support
+ FM Radio with great reception
+ External speaker sounds surprisingly good
+ Videos look great
+ Customizable Menu and Themes

Cons:
- Awful software
- Not Divx Certified (only plays certain types of divx, message me if you want to know how to convert easily)
- Interface takes a while to get used to

Overall, I am extremely happy. It's a great player with a ton of features; I'm just hoping Creative will start to spend more time on their software.

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.

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.

The creative centrale software shipped with player is worse than useless. You can not create playlist in the order you want. Tried to force the order of the mp3 files, the software chopped the number from the mp3 title. The software takes control of the mp3 file tag information. Which can not control by you. The player does see the folders of mp3 files copied to the device using explorer. Called several time to tech support, they did not understand the issue. The orginal ZEN player is great, purchased the ZEN X-FI for the improved sound. The software with the ZEN is great, work perfectly, the way I want. Tech support did not understand the difference in the players software. If you a player the controls your mp3 files based on the tag info, the ZEN X-FI is for you. If you want more control over your player and mp3 files, the ZEN is for you.

I have nothing but complaints about this unit and the terrible customer service I have received from Creative. This unit is full of bugs, as it crashes on me daily and requires resetting very frequently. To name a few: the "My Shortcut" button doesn't work (never really has), it pauses tracks randomly, and Creative's software never finds all the songs on the player. I obtained an RMA and sent it back for numerous problems to have it repaired under warranty, only to receive it back with a NEW problem: a non-working EQ! Creative's customer support offered insulting solutions: 1) Upgrade to the latest firmware despite the fact that I already HAD it, 2) Adjust the EQ while the music is playing - were they SERIOUS?, 3) Send it back to them at my expense. I pointed out that it was their previous repairs that caused the problem and that I had already been without the player for 3 weeks because of it. Their solution to that e-mail was to simply ignore me. When spending over $300 on an MP3 player I expect a superior product and excellent customer service, neither of which exists with Creative. I do not recommend this product unless you enjoy headaches, hassles, and loss of free time.