Zen XFI Announced

Published on July 17, 2008 in Technology. 7 Comments Tags: , , .

So, it has arrived. About a year too late if you ask me. Creative had some awesome MP3 players a couple of years ago with the Zen Vision:M leading the pack, and then things went all pear shaped around the time when the Apple Touch arrived. For some daft reason Creative chose to begin producing peripherals for the Apple iPod range thus ignoring their own Zen range. This caused much confusion amongst Zen fans and many pondered where the company was going as they began to shut down one of their larger production facilities.

It was at this point that I defected to Apple. Fans including yours truly pondered as to why there was no player from Creative featuring their superb XFI technology, a type of tech that aims to improve audio – and it does make a difference.

No successor to the Vision:M was apparent and I had wasted too much time waiting. I bought an iPod Touch, featuring possibly the worst audio quality this side of a Blaupunkt car stereo. It was then that Creative announced the Vision:M’s successor – the new Zen. Sadly the Zen was good but not as good as the Vision:M in the video playback department. I decided against purchasing it.

A whole year later they produced the goods. Earlier this week Creative announced the new Zen XFI, and what a top bit of kit this is. It offers nothing new to the market sadly, and not even their XFI tech is enough to make it noticeable. Too little too late in my opinion. The competition have caught up a long while ago (Microsoft’s Zune, Samsung’s YP range, Cowon, Archos etc).

Specifications

  • 16GB or 32GB capacity
  • Built-in Creative X-Fi technology
  • Dimensions: 55 x 83 x 12.5 mm
  • Weight: 70 g
  • SD / SDHC card slot
  • 2.5 inch screen displaying 16.7 million colours
  • Built-in speaker
  • FM Radio with 32 station presets
  • Battery life:
    • 25 hours audio (15 hours with speaker) based on 128kbps in WMA
    • 5 hours video
  • Supported audio formats:
    • MP3, WMA (DRM 10), AAC (M4A), WAVE, Audible
  • Supported video formats:
    • WMV9, MPEG4, DivX, XviD (320 x 240)
  • Supported photo format:
    • JPEG (Baseline: Up to 16.6 Mega Pixels)
  • Voice Recorder format:
    • IMA ADPCM (16 kHz, Mono)
  • Wireless LAN: (16GB & 32GB Model ONLY)
    • Wireless streaming
    • Downloading of content
    • Emotive Text Chat with Friends
No, this is not a toy I will be obtaining although the temptation is there just to do a review only – and yes I am that sad. I pine for the days when I could listen to pristine audio again through my Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 Pro earphones. My recent flop purchase of the Cowon D2 may have been a bad decision but it reminded me of just how poor the audio is on my present Apple iPod Touch.

Fortunately, I have found a top detailed review for those who want this player. Hell if I wasn’t sold on my Touch and it’s applications I would be getting this in a flash. Review at Nothing But Creative

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