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I just got the 32 GB version of the X-Fi to replace my previous Creative Zen Vision M 60 GB which died after a year and a half of hard and very satisfying use. The X-Fi is a gem: small, sturdy, fast and feature rich. I love the sound of the X-Fi Crystalizer and Expand sound quality enhancements and the small speaker is surprizingly good though I usually listen through the great ear buds or a JBL On Tour portable speaker (which I also highly recommend). I was able to quickly reconstitute all my music and audio books from backups I had made. The flash memory seems somewhat faster to load than hard drive models. The screen is nice and bright if you set it high brightness, the radio works very well with good reception when the ear buds are installed (they are used as antennas), and it has the built in microphone record feature which I have been using to capture my mothers life story in instalments in her own words. Since I always have my MP3 player on me, I always have a recorder and am ready when she is in the mood to talk. Creative seems to be able to improve their players again and again and I must say I am delighted with this model. I hope it eventually comes out in a 60 Gb or 160 Gb version, but for now I don't know why anyone would by an IPOD when they could get this Creative.

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.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3NTXEHASELNF9 Hello, heres is a quick look at the player in action, this review is using the 16 gb version but the 16 gb and 32 gb are the same.

Pros - great looking screen, great sound.
cons - could find out how to use msn on this (says in box you can, tricky software.