Creative Zen X-Fi 2 MP3 player review

Can Creative crack the touchscreen market?

Reviewer: Paul Lester
Review Date: 20 November 2009
Manufacturer: Creative
Price as reviewed: £129.99 (16GB)
Latest price: compare

Our score

8/10

Full Review

It seems strange to think that one-time MP3-player market leader and current "catch-up merchant" Creative has only just arrived with its first touchscreen player, but in an attempt to appeal to the tactile generation it has upgraded its impressive Zen X-Fi for just this purpose.

The X-Fi 2 ditches the keypad that used to sit alongside the display and now simply offers a "home" button to return to the main menu. The rest of the controls are operated via the touchscreen interface and aside from a microSD card slot for expanding the generous internal storage (the X-Fi 2 is available at capacities from 8 to 32GB) there are no other notable external features.

Creative has gone the whole hog with touchscreen operation then, and it wasn’t long before we were cursing the lack of a dedicated volume adjuster to avoid the rigmarole of unlocking and trawling through menus. Unfortunately this isn’t too easy to do as this is far from the most responsive touchscreen on the market, paling in comparison to Apple’s (admittedly far more expensive) recent efforts.

While things do improve once you get used to the pressure and angle at which you need to browse the features and settings, it’s fair to say that we were a little let down by what should have been the headline feature of this new player.

Creative appears to have taken a rather token approach to the new operation, preferring to rely on its strengths – namely the X-Fi sound schemes and value for money – to appeal to the modern consumer. Luckily it certainly knows what it’s doing in this area, and the audio quality available by tweaking the range of different effects is excellent. We were also pleasantly surprised by the solid, well-rounded ear-buds supplied, which are far better than you would typically find on a portable player.

One advantage touchscreen adoption does bring is a larger display, and the 3-inch (400 x 240) LCD is certainly clear and colourful enough to do justice to video and photo content, being just about big enough to enjoy feature-length clips on the move.

File support is also very good here and the X-Fi 2 is able to handle a range of conventional formats as well as less common FLAC and AAC audio. There are also a healthy range of additional features that include an FM radio, clock, alarm, calendar, task and contacts list along with a voice recorder via the built-in microphone.

A decent battery life allows for around 20 hours of audio playback and just over 4 hours for video, and it’s fairly slim and light weighing in at 75g.

We were extremely impressed by the audio quality on offer with the X-Fi 2 and suitably comfortable with the large, colourful display, but it’s a shame that the touchscreen operation wasn’t given more attention, particularly as this (along with the slightly larger display) will be the main draw for most. Creative still offers a versatile, solid player at a very reasonable price but those who are expecting it to compete with Apple’s superbly responsive iPod touch from an operational point of view will have to accept this sacrifice for the admittedly substantial savings on offer.

Verdict

Creative is up there with the best on the market in terms of audio quality with its X-Fi range, and this new model would certainly suit those who prioritise the viewing of video or photos on the move. These factors are its saving grace as the headline touchscreen isn’t great, and though this would have been forgiveable if common operations such as adjusting volume were catered for using dedicated controls, we can’t help but think Creative missed a trick with its first ever touchscreen player, even if it is significantly cheaper than similar rivals.

Full tags

Audio, MP3 players, Creative, Creative Zen X-Fi2

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advancedmp3players.co.uk, Amazon.co.uk, play.com, pixmania.co.uk, iTunes, apple.com/uk, ebay.co.uk

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Comments

Personally, i find the Creative's product very similar in appearance with the Apple's ipod touch. The only reason why people would buy something else rather than Apple would be related to pricing.
Now, I am proud to say i found a place where I can get my Apple products at prices that are less than any retail. The ipod touch is featured here: bit.ly/1xgIlP with $75. Now, i ask you: between a Creative at 140 euro and an Apple at half price..what would you choose?! Posted by tiffanywestatl, United States
@Tiffanywestati
The one with the best sound, best hardware compatibiity and best codecs (my audio library is mostly in flac, not in apple lossless).
According to what I read and experienced myself, that means Creative.
By the way, firmware was updated, enhancing screen responsiveness. Posted by Loriant, France
I think that the zen xfi2 is already a catch by itself for its low price point. And they seem to be having this offer now where you buy any capacity of the zen xfi2 and you get to purchase the aurvana air at $20pounds off http://uk.store.creative.com/ Posted by james, uk
@tiffanywestati
I'd choose to look for my own prices rather than take the word of someone who's probably getting some kind of commission for promoting a site. Posted by GK, UK
First impressions based on a few hours of use.

Size: One of the things I liked about the Zen V is that it was so light you could barely feel it in your pocket. The X-Fi 2 is bigger and feels heavier, not massively, but it is noticeable.

Touch Screen: Even after installing the new firmware the touch screen is very hit and miss. Basically it's not really very good. Pressing one icon often triggers the wrong function, other times it registers that it has been pressed but nothing happens. Sometimes nothing happens at all. Scrolling through the menus is also a little weird as in they go down-up, i.e you have to scroll up to go down, when surely the natural way to do it would be to scroll up to scroll up and down to go down.

Sound Quality: This is where the player really excels. Sound quality is superb, especially if you set the X-Fi functions to your preference. I've never heard another MP3 player that sounded this good. It also comes with excellent headphones that seem to be unbranded Seinnheisers.

I got this new at £90 for the 16GB version. Basically you can look at this player in two ways. In the first it is a competitor for the Apple iTouch in which it fails completely in terms of the poor touch screen and lesser functions. However, I prefer to look at it in a different way, if you want a superb sounding MP3 player with a decent amount of flash memory that can also do other things, albeit in a limited way like video, photos etc, then the Creative is a reasonable bargain due to the excellent sound quality and low price.

Personally I'm really only looking for something to stick in my pocket and play on random so this player suits me find, however if you are looking for something more with necessitates a lot of screen touching, perhaps this isn't the one for you.

Posted by Monica Ester, United Kingdom
I found the user interface absolutely terrible to use, navigating to songs via the scrolling alphabet list was impossible. Worst purchase I've made for a long time although when you manage to randomly select a song to play the music quality is great. I would avoid this product and at the very least try using the player if you do decide to buy one. A great disappointment. Posted by Cameron Muir, United Kingdom
I have to say that I'm Very dissappointed that I bought an X-fi 2.. yes the sound quality is excellent but the features on it are lacking and the volume control should be manually over rideable.
any videos I transfer bounce and when I loaded the centrale software it crashed my notebook. it wouldn't even boot up...
at this level this device should have a very high level of connectivity and be able to handlle pdf files etc.....as it is, it is very mediocre indeed Posted by steve, ireland

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