still using it

The Good:* Amazing sound quality* Smooth video playback* Sharp display* Navigation Shortcuts* Upgraded earbudsThe Bad:* Display is always on* Tedious network setup* Wireless stream drains battery quickly* Windows 7 support limited to Creative Central onlyOverall:Background: I have used the following mp3 players prior to purchasing the Creative Zen X-Fi: Sandisk Sansa M-230, , , and (I have used product links for the ones that I have also reviewed).Setup: Following the quick start guide, I installed the software from the mini-CD which included Creative Central, Creative Zen X-Fi Video Converter, and Audible Manager (for audio books). The installation prompts you to register the software and your player after connecting the player. The screen asked for the serial number but didn't give any instructions where to find it. There are a lot of numbers on the device, and I guessed at one. The screen took it, so I assumed it was correct. However when I went to register for chat service, I found that this number was invalid. Still without guidance, I rotated the package around until I found yet another number with S/N next to it on the side of the packaging. It shouldn't be this hard, but at least you only have to do it once. Finally, I setup wireless networking, and I was glad that this is also something that you only have to do once. I have a 128 WEP encrypted network with a hidden SSID. I had to key in both my SSID and the 26 character hex network key in order to connect. The interface for doing this on the X-Fi is similar to a standard cellphone, and it is brutal. Creative should add network setup as a feature from within Creative Central to give a better user experience.Music Transfer: After leaving the device to charge, I came back to transfer music using Creative Central. I have used Windows Media Player and iTunes in the past, but this software isn't too hard to learn. The help screen gives instructions for how to transfer music that are easy to follow. I selected music album by album from the artist view and used the "Transfer" menu to queue them up for transfer. I liked that you can add items (at the artist, album, or song level) to a transfer queue rather than having to drag and drop to a sync list. However my favorite feature on this is the ability to rip a CD to your computer and transfer to the X-Fi in one command. The only knock I have on Creative Central is that it will not allow the same song by the same artist to be transferred to the player from multiple CDs. This seems like an odd limitation because it is unreasonable to expect a live version of a song to have a different name. This is a minor nit that can be worked around, but I thought it worth mentioning.Video Transfer: All of my videos of interest are from Amazon, and I was pleased that I was able to transfer these to my X-Fi using the Amazon Unbox software. Unbox was able to detect the X-Fi, and it was a simple matter of clicking the transfer button after downloading the portable version of the videos to my computer. I don't anticipate making heavy use of this, but it was nice for it to be so easy.Audiobook Transfer: Audible (the online audio book download site) supports the X-Fi directly from their software. I was able to easily select The Unabridged Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and transfer both part I and II to my X-Fi with no problem.Music Playback: I am not what anyone would consider an audiophile, but I am flat out impressed with the music playback on the X-Fi. I listened to the demo on Creative's site, and it piqued my interest in trying out this feature. The difference is subtle in some instances, but it is much more obvious in others. A perfect example is on the lead track from Guns 'N Roses Chinese Democracy. I had always thought that this song had a long, dull opening; however, that's because I wasn't hearing all that was there. There is a Chinese dialog that I had never heard before. Chinese Democracy is a great album for demonstrating the difference that X-Fi makes because there is a lot of variety in instrumentation.Video Playback: Video playback is very good. I watched the pilot episode of Community that I got from Amazon's video on demand service. The video transferred over from Unbox was not exactly the right size for the X-Fi screen, and it was like watching a letterbox version of a movie on an old narrow screen TV. This probably took 10-15% of the real estate, but I was able to see the picture well enough. I consider video transfer a nice to have, and I do not expect to make heavy use of this. One final thing of note is that the videos from Amazon cannot be processed by Creative Central or Creative Zen X-Fi Video Converter due to copy protection.Navigation: One of the features that I really like on my Sansa Fuze was the navigation wheel, and I wondered what it would be like switching to the X-Fi that is button based. It would have been awful with 16 Gb of media, but Creative added a nice feature for navigation. If you press the left button, it takes you over to the alphabet, and you can skip to the beginning of each letter within the artist, album, or other menu.In the Music menu, I like the "DJ" feature. It has an "Album of the Day" option that will choose something from your collection to play. I use this from time to time if I don't have something specific in mind when I turn the player on. There are some additional features of the "DJ", but you need to build up a usage pattern for them to be meaningful.Wireless Functionality: I enabled the Creative Media Server on my computer. I used this to stream a CD that was on my computer that I had not transferred to my X-Fi. While sound quality was good, this was (as you might expect) quite a drain on the battery. A 35 minute album took about one third of the battery level.As for the chat functionality, I cannot imagine anyone making use of this. As mentioned in the setup, the interface for entering text is like a cellphone, but there is no T-9 or Word option for easing data entry. Sending more than one or two words would make me pull my hair out.Conclusion: The Creative Zen X-Fi is a feature packed mp3 player with great sound quality and a great display. It is easy to setup and use. You may wonder why you should choose this player over the non-wireless 8 Gb player. Here are the keys that set this apart for the price difference: an additional 8 Gb of storage and upgraded earbuds. If you consider the earbuds alone, their price is greater than the price difference in the 8 Gb player and the 16 Gb. If you have any questions that I have not addressed, please feel free to ask in the comments section below.

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.And the things that are not so great:*) Well, as is the "case" with many non-Apple players, accessories are not easy to come by. This seems to be a bit thicker than its predecessor so I don't think the old Zen cases are going to fit very well. Also, the power button has been moved to the back of the player which will mean you need a special case to be able to access the power button. As of this writing, I can't find a single X-Fi leather case out there, not even from Creative. -- Update: I just ordered a leather case direct from Creative, hoping its a good one! Update: Found an i-nique case which is very nice, with the only problem being hard to access that power button on the back... still waiting for the perfect case!Thats about it, I highly recommend this player as a heck of a lot of MP3 player for the price (I paid more for my 8GB Clix 2 and a lot more for my 16B Touch!). In many ways I like it better than the Clix 2 although the Clix does have the crispest sound I've ever heard from a player. The Touch of course is a wonderful unit but it is bigger, heavier and more expensive.