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137 of 140 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
As near to perfection as you can get. , 11 Nov 2008
I really did my research. I looked at several other MP3 players on the market, read reviews and really agonised over my choice.
The X-Fi was one of the first players I looked at and read reviews on. The reviews by and large were positive and it was becoming a clear choice for me initially, until it became obvious that the software provided with it was for Windows only. The player then was beginning to sound very Windows centric, which worried me, being a Mac and Linux user. I was put off.
I then dabbled with the notion of getting an iPod. Despite being a Mac fan, I have always had reservations about getting an iPod. I looked at Nano's and the Classic as alternate options. The price tag, along with reviews about poor sound quality and the need for investment in better quality headphones was a turn off. Also (as far as the Nano was concerned) no way of expanding storage capacity.
I still felt myself drawn to the X-Fi. The final element that swayed it for me was being able to buy the 16GB version of the X-Fi for £106 - compared to it's RRP of £140. It was the clincher.
I'm glad I jumped at it! I've had the player for a two weeks now, and it has been fab!
All the positives in previous reviews are correct. It's easy to use, the sound quality and video playback are ace. Battery life is great. The expandable storage is fab. It doesn't integrate as pointed out (the SD memory with the player), but I don't find that a huge bugbear. It still ID3's the tracks, so it's still totally workable. You can't pull tracks onto the player from the SD card, only photos, but it's still no big gripe for me.
The biggest positive for me was this. Despite being provided with Windows software and having a program called "Creative Centrale" that only runs on a Windows machine, my Mac can see it. I use a program called XNJB which gives you an MTP user interface to upload/download MP3's with relative ease. It's not the MOST compatible way to do it, but if you, like me, are a Mac user and were reticent to buy Zen products due to incompatibility, rest assured.
My only gripes are the fact that it doesn't come with a mains adapter for charging and the USB cable that comes supplied is WAY too short. The X-Fi feature is bogus. The player has such great sound quality that it's rendered useless. Unless you have REALLY poor quality MP3 tracks (and frankly, why would you?), I doubt you'll ever switch the X-Fi feature on. And for me being a Mac user, I couldn't get the player to recognise AAC tracks. It does on an SD card, ID3 tags them and all, but NOT if I load them on the player itself.
All in all though, the player is fab. I'm glad I went with it. I'm overall very happy. I'd give it 4.5 stars out of 5, but Amazon don't do half stars. I'd only take half a star off for the minor negs.
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43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Zen X-Fi, 22 Sep 2008
One word, superb...
I've been using iPod's for the last few years, and although I must say the click wheel is far better than the traditional buttons used on the Zen its still quite easy to navigate through large libraries.
The best bit... the sound. With iPod's it frustrated me that there was no custom EQ, and that the sound got quite poor and distorted when you added extra bass. The Zen sound quality is quite simply amazing... even with the supplied earphones (which are actually pretty good, a first! The iPod ones are crud!)
If you prefer thin, tinny sound with great navigation... get an iPod.
If you want something which gives you truely amazing music on the go, get a Zen... believe me you won't be disappointed!
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112 of 117 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Much better than the predecessor, wirelessly browse and download your music from the actual player!, 21 Aug 2008
Ive never written a review on amazon although always shopping here, I actually got the player from another shop which was about 50 quid cheaper, but I am still loyal enough to amazon to come back and add a comment.
So first off, Ive only had the player a day or so, the weight of the thing is incredibly light, it feels a bit lighter than a matchbox.
The earphones are pretty good, I brought some similar earphones not too long ago, sennheiser's which were about £40 and top quality, well im now using the actual earphones that came with this player, they are really good! We all know earphones that come with players are normally just rubbish, so this is good!
There isn't a screen defender included, you know the kind that protects the actual screen, I remember having one on my old 32gig Zen.
So lets get to the good stuff, the software is good, it scans your whole machine and locates any mp3's it can find and updates its own database of your music, I think its quite clever.
Which means that when its scanned your pc, you click on albums and it lists every album it could find on your system, you just then add it to your player, same goes for artists and I think Genres, so it does all the hardwork for you.
Ok so heres THE best part, people are wondering about he ability to transfer your music wireless, because at first Creative just mentioned you can access and play it wireless.
Well here you have it, they already have a new firmware out and it lets you transfer your music wireless, now im not just talking about "connect device..." wireless, I was able to walk around the home, browse all my music from my pc and press download, which is awesome when you just want to chill out and watch TV and don't really wanna be sitting at the desk, I was so impressed with this, and to think no other player has this functionality, they seem so confident with this wireless function that the usb cable they provide you is about 4 cm long lol.
As people have mentioned before, the battery life does drain when you use the wireless ability, so I cannot give a good opinion of the battery life compared by the old Zen, because I have been using wireless alot.
The buttons on the actual player does take a bit of time to get used to, but this thing is so small they really did have to bring down the buttons in size and compact.
I for one think this is better than any ipod, I used an ipod before and sent it back, I didn't like its software , its functionality and I have stuck with Creative's Zen series ever since. So I just hope that someone that has used an ipod and this zen can give a much better comparison than what I actually can provide.
Finaly thoughts, its smart, compact, very light, easy to setup, battery charges in quick time, also has a speaker built in if you want to blast your music, cant say its a great speaker, but it does the job
Thanks for reading
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