Review on Creative Zen X-Fi 2

Creative company has made a come back to the field of manufacturing MP3 players. It has a touch sensitive screen interface and has nitpicky buttons. Before when Creative was rocking in this field, Apple Company was no where in the scenario. Unfortunately due to some dwindling, Creative had to take a back step, but now they have turned up again with a new Zen X-Fi 2 which has astonishing features and design. These are all discussed in detail below.

Design & Features:

The screen is of 3inches in size with an average native resolution of 400 x 240pixels. There is a ‘Home’ button in device’s front alike Apple which gets back to the home screen. There is a huge cell that has helped in raising the battery life. You can playback the music up to 24hrs and also watch videos for 5hrs. The hold / on / off button has been changed into a flushed into the chassis like on the touch iPod. Drag a bubble off the touch screen and your screen gets unlocked.

Processing the sound is improved in this MP3 player. Audio is mixed up to replace the devotion which is lost while compressing the music and thus gives a high-end smoothening and deepening of the bass. X-Fi2 can be availed in many flavors like 8, 16 and 32GB which can playback videos via monitor or a TV for which you need an additional cable. Xvid and DivX formats can also be played in this player. Some of the extra features offered in this player are calendar, organizer, clock and FM Radio. There is no wireless networking available in this player which allows you to stream into the audios via PC in net.

Performance:

If you think that, Creative being a leading brand in manufacturing MP3 players, thus performance will be at the top, then you are a fool!! It’s not like what you are thinking! Let me explain to you about this very clearly. First of all, the price of this player is £129 for 16GB MP3 player, which is a bit costly. Now, coming to the touch screen of this player, it is a nightmare when used. This has a resistive screen for which much firmer press is required on the screen and thus it feels quite sticky and is less responsive. Zen X-Fi2 is bit lethargic and the touch screen is not that much easy to employ.

When you wanna scroll inside menus then you might feel somewhat clunky and also consumes more time to get some songs or album you want. This touch screen interface has ruined this product completely. If you wanna change the volume when you are hearing a song, you need to first unlock the device which can be done only if the bubble is moved off the screen. It doesn’t work out in a single time; you need to carry this out many times to unlock the device which obviously is very time consuming.

Next, tap the screen to bring up the required option and later click on the volume badge and drag the dial to the preferred level. This process takes around 11secs to carry out. Things to be done on X-Fi2 take more time than other iPods. As there is no accelerometer present in this X-Fi2, the screen is anchored permanently into landscape mode. This player can’t be handled in a single hand and viewing the menus sideways is intricate. The performance of sound is very much impressive in both video and music and fantastic by enabling the crystallization.

On top of the screen is a permanent button which is used to turn off or on the player without doing any type of navigation in the now-playing list. The ear buds which are given with this player greatly isolate the noise and give a different pleasure while listening to the music and is better then the other plastic earphones. The functionality of X-Fi present in this, absorbs more battery and thus reduces the battery life and also power. The expand option which is present in this player, simulates the virtual 3D sound stage and brings the music which is flat to life.

It makes the music very much lively instead rendering it as a flat music which is being played through earphones, thus improving the music sound. You have an option of switching this on whenever you want that option to be played for that particular music. Thus, this music player is a decent, excellent one which marvelous sounds quality and in general this player is easy to use. Astonishing thing is that X-Fi enhancement which has been provided with this MP3 which even enhances the sound quality.

The appreciating part is that the screen is vivid and huge where in you can find any menu easily. The price is quite agreeing too for this good quality sound production. The thing that disappoints you is the touch screen which is not user friendly and is not much impressive and thus is regarded as an unnecessary addition. Even the menus which are clunky should be smoothened to make it worthwhile. The tricky interface should be rebuilt, so that it works swiftly and then only people will accept this player in this intuitive world.

Conclusion:

On the whole this MP3 player is a decent one. I prefer Zen X-Fi player over this X-Fi2 because of its user friendly interface and the X-Fi audio which has been provided with the player. Zen X-Fi2 takes more time in getting adjusted to it, either usage wise or setting wise. Ultimately, this is a good player for the people who can afford up to £129 on a 16GB Mp3 player.