Review: Creative ZEN X-Fi Style MP3 Player
Don Bradbury takes a look at this well priced offering from Creative Technology
| Product | ZEN X-Fi Style MP3 Player |
|---|---|
| Company | Creative |
| Web | uk.store.creative.com |
| Price | RRP £69.99 for 8GB up to £139.99 for 32GB. A/V cable £17.99. |
| We like | size and weight; good battery life; audio/picture/video replay (from compatible formats); adjustable brightness display; Creative Centrale management software; voice recorder. |
| We don't like | Lack of video format support. |
| Rating | 8/10 |
| Requirements |
While the world can be said to be full of MP3 players, and that not every new one that appears bright and shiny onto the market will necessarily be seen as better than the last, it can generally be assumed that the latest model in a given price bracket, from any one supplier, will be something of an improvement on their last, such is the pace of technological development.
Having this in mind, we looked with anticipation at the ZEN X-Fi Style. It's a neat, rather swish little device weighing in at 56grams and measuring 83.6mm x 48.7mm x 11.7mm thick. It features a clear, bright 2.4 inch LCD screen and an array of multi-function controls. The latter, of course, can be something of a mixed blessing, depending on how well you get on with such devices, but small items such as this don't have space for adding many hardware controls. While those that are present will be all that most people will want or need, using them can be a little problematic until you get used to the menus layout.
Notably, this is true of the upper and lower front-mounted hardware controls which were indistinct, bearing tiny symbols that were, on our red sample, coloured the same as their background. The symbols were so tiny that you had to either be myopic to read them or learn their application very quickly from the software manual. Similarly, use of the black central control button, which bore no symbols at all, should be quickly digested.
Creative Centrale
The first thing to do - after plugging in the dedicated USB lead and player into your PC and leaving it for four hours while the battery is charged - is to locate the Starter Pack folder on the player that houses the setup.exe file and run that file from there. That installs the Creative Centrale software which lets you manage your existing media, and your files can be automatically transferred from your PC to folders on the player. It's initial scan of the computer took some time, depending on the amount of media you have, but you must put relevant files into folders the player recognises so letting Centrale have its head is a double winner.
There's a help file in the Creative ZEN X-Fi folder that's installed in Program Files, and that will be used to augment the multi-language but otherwise very basic hardcopy quick start guide.
Centrale also offers a neat CD ripping facility that you'll probably find useful. And when it comes to file tagging, which is also offered, it's useful to be connected to the Internet at the time as it can then automatically operate MusicID from Gracenote to retrieve information concerning the relevant track.
Capacity
The player comes in 8GB, 16GB or 32GB capacities; we had the 8GB model for review, but that can hold an amount of media that is probably sufficient to satisfy the majority of users.
The player supports multiple audio formats including FLAC and unprotected AAC from iTunes Plus. Photo formats include JPEG and BMP, with TIFF, GIF, and PNG supported after conversion via the software. It also supports the reading of RSS feeds offline so you can connect to your computer and download the latest offerings. The player can take RSS feed downloads in their entirety, with both text and images, and you can sync the player via its USB connection while downloading these RSS feeds to read them on your player.
FM Radio
There's a 32-presets FM radio, and that works as well as you'd expect, i.e. the number of stations of decent strength that the automatic scan will find depends on your locality. Reception of those stations was, again as you'd expect, somewhat hit and miss depending on the orientation of the headphone cable which acts as an aerial, plus the possible interference of signal-grounding objects such as trees and buildings, but that's par for the course with mobile FM radio receivers. The sound quality from the stronger stations was, in general, impressive.
The 320 x 240 pixel LCD screen supports 262,000 colours, so you can play movies and stills in good quality on it. Support for audio formats such as MP3, WMA and Audible4 are the mainstay of this player of course, and these played well.
Navigation of the player's contents could be somewhat problematic, as we said, until you become familiar with the process. We would have liked to see a dedicated volume control because locating that via multi-function controls while tracks of differing loudness were already playing could be a little frustrating at first. You very quickly get used to the adjustment process, however.
There's also the interesting addition of quite a decent integral speaker, housed in the rear panel. You wouldn't expect hifi quality from this speaker, and even less so, a high volume, but it's a surprisingly usable alternative to the headphones when the occasion demands or allows for it. You won't bring the house down with the volume you can get from the speaker, but it's listenable-to on a personal basis and amazingly free of distortion at quite high volume settings. It's amazing what they can do with tiny speakers these days.
Videos
The ZEN X-Fi played all it's own AVI videos OK but refused to recognise our own video files in that format, as pointed out. It failed to even list the other video format files we downloaded to the player for trial, such as MPG and M4V, which all played fine from the ZEN X-Fi while attached to the PC. Failure to play such formats on the ZEN itself will be down the usual codec problem, no doubt. You could try converting your files under software control, or try out the player with someone else's files in a required format, but preferably take your own video files on a USB drive and ask for a demo with the player at the store.
Our only device lockup occurred while trying to replay videos, but a stab at the Reset button, and a brief wait while the database was automatically rebuilt, sorted that.
Playing on TV
For £17.99 you can buy separately the Creative ZEN A/V Cable for the ZEN X-Fi player, which worked very well - or use your own adapter - to plug the ZEN X-Fi's output into your home TV via the three coloured sockets. Switch to the appropriate AV channel on the TV, and replay the images for an audience that way.
Get one of your pictures on the player's screen first, set the output to TV Out PAL mode (in the UK), and either slide show the pics or progress through them with the Player's control button.
Reproduction was very good considering the magnification involved and the resolution of the system, and while a longer cable would prove useful if you wanted to step back from the screen while in manual control, in autoplay mode you can just set the Player down and leave it to run.
Voice recording
The integrated voice recorder was found to be very useful and of good quality reproduction; the microphone for this was housed in the top panel of the player. Also in these panels were the on/off switch, the headphones socket, the mini USB port for charging the player via the PC, and a reset button on the bottom panel. At the front were the three multi-function controls. Using these you can select options, control volume and so on.
There's also a personal organiser incorporated. With this you can set your own customisable alarm tone and keep your appointments in an organised state using the handy calendar that's included, downloading your existing setup from the PC for the organiser.
Creative use what they call the X-Fi Crystallizer and X-Fi Expand technology to improve the sound quality for this Player. The former "intelligently restores detail that is lost during file compression" according the Creative literature. Be that as it may, sound quality was indeed decent, though as is usually the case with modestly priced MP3 players, what deficiencies there are can usually be put down to the earphones. The quality of sound reproduction from the supplied set was good, and will be found quite acceptable by most users, but it can be improved upon with a more expensive set, possibly Creative's own Aurvana In-Ear2 which we have reviewed separately, though with an RRP of about £90, that's appreciably more than the MP3 player itself as it comes.
In conclusion
With a claimed battery life of up to 25 hours while playing audio files, or 5 hours for video replay, the ZEN X-Fi Style makes a worthy entry into the MP3 player market. It's not the most expensive, and it might with advantage be upgraded with a better set of 'phones to do justice to the amplifier and perhaps also the technical 'enhancements', though the system as sold is perfectly usable. It takes a while to become accustomed to using the controls, but Creative Centrale constitutes a useful front-end wherewith to access, manage, and control all your files. Overall, we think most users will love their ZEN X-Fi Style as it comes, although video producers will want to check format compatibility prior to purchase.
