Andrew Watson

Creative Zen X-Fi

Posted on 01. Nov, 2008 by Andrew Watson in Hardware

I bought an original Creative Zen over 4 years ago (before Apple took over the mp3 playing world) and had more than my money’s worth from it… so when it started to play up I could hardly blame it.

It has gone everywhere with me… to the gym, numerous trips around the world, even to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.

The mobile phone industry and now the PMP industry would have us all believe in a great convergence of products. But this doesn’t make sense to me… when I am on a plane, climbing a mountain or in the gym… I want to listen to my music, not receive a call, text or email message.

Do I envisage a world where I would be listening to my music, waiting for an email, playing Fifa football in a Nintendo DS like way and messaging friends at the same time – no… so maybe I dream of one unit that can provide me all of the functionality required for the previously listed activities, utilising one set of keys and buttons – no… and that is the problem with convergence – no one will be able to produce a unit that can successfully master all those functions.

 Anyway, naturally I looked at the ipod (and was fairly tempted by the touch) but kept holding off hoping the Zune would be released in the UK. However with no imminent launch, I looked around at the other players available before coming back to Creative… and just by chance a new player that really looked interesting… the Zen X-Fi.

After much consideration, and recalling the joy my last Zen brought me, I bought the
Creative ZEN X-Fi 32GB With Wireless Lan ! Well done Creative, I love it… it does everything and more than my old Zen and yet is a fraction of the size ! Friends have been so impressed they have also now bought one… so if you are looking for a great sounding and looking MP3 player, the Zen X-Fi are certainly worth looking at… a little innovative gem that sound brilliant, stores all my music needs and is a perfect size to fit into my pocket next to my mobile phone.