Creative's ZEN X-Fi player with WiFi gets a lot more real

The Creative kids over at epiZENter have what looks to be a genuine scoop of an unannounced ZEN X-Fi. Not only did they receive this supposedly leaked photo, they also managed to dig out a "ZEN X-Fi Starter Pack" (software and user guide) from the bowels of Creative's own site. Accordingly, we're looking at a new DAP with SD expansion and built-in WiFi, speaker, FM tuner, voice recorder, and the ability to stream media from Creative's "Public Media Server." Additionally, users can chat with Yahoo! Messenger and Microsoft Live! users thanks to the 9-button, cellphone-like keypad. More details and genuflecting lie just beyond the read link.

[Thanks Tony and everyone who sent this in]

[YpoCaramel @ Jun 29th 2008 5:02PM]

I hope it has MSC and MTP (MSC = just drag and drop music onto player as external hard drive). Even Sony, in addition to Cowon and iRiver, has that now.

[Zack @ Jun 29th 2008 6:26PM]

Design-wise: weak. It just looks like a big iPhone with a bunch of buttons shoved on the front.

Capability-wise: nice.

However, I wouldn't buy one. Just the fact that they moved the screen off center to put the logo on the front... very annoying. They could have easily kept the screen centered, and made the logo fit in the space available.

[Alan Swanson @ Jun 29th 2008 7:42PM]

I fell for all the Creative hype that CNET was putting out two years ago. I've owned the "Vision", "M", "Nano" and the V series. Yeah I know, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice and you've pissed me off for a long time. I had problems with all of them, their customer service sucks and they don't (or didn't) have a proprietary video source so even though they advertised them with the ability to play music videos, movies,etc., the only way you can download anything is by creeping around in the world of illegal decoders or start your own band or invite your friends over to watch vacation videos on cool new device.

In terms of operating problems, the Vision has a box to check for duplicate recordings or videos to either alert you or record over the original. Bullcrap! Every time it synced you had another complete set of your files. The Nano had a well publicized problem with the battery crapping out after about amonth or so. Check out their site-they still have a box on the side of their title page "Having trouble charging your Nano?". It's been there for about 1 1/2- 2 years. almost every time I used the "V" series I had problems with the screen freezing or the battery crapping out. Now I have to admit that I was fairly pleased with the "M", though it still had the problem of duplicating files and ultimately mine was stolen. I took that as a sign and went back to iPod, something I really didn't want to do, but I now own the "Touch", the 80GB "Classic" and the 8GB "Nano" and have not had any problems and as most people know, 3/4 of the accessories out there are targeted for the iPod. You may think that I was the one person whose Zen Kharma had been cursed,but if you do, just go to any "Creative" dicussion forums and you'll find volumes of correspondence from people with the same problems or worse.

[Cody @ Jun 30th 2008 1:52AM]

Just log into any apple forum and read about the droves of people having hardware problems with their iPods. You forget, these are made out of essentially the same materials, probably in the same factories, with the same parts. It just comes down to how many people report their problems versus how many are out there.

[TWijaya @ Jun 30th 2008 10:07AM]

I have owned Zen Vison M (30GB) for 2 years now. Never encountered any problems, so maybe you are just unlucky, and recently bought Zen V Plus (2GB) for 2 months, and well, do not encountered any problems too so far.

The only complaints that I have, I will need to buy the Car Charger and Travel Charger separately. But its cheap too, Got it from ebay for less than 6 Dollars for both chargers. So overall, nothing much too complaints.

So, If this came out and turns out to be good, well I will still buy another one.

[Dan @ Jun 29th 2008 8:55PM]

Here is the link to the "X-fi starter kit" file

http://uk.europe.creative.com/support/downloads/download.asp?searchString=%B2

[xValentine @ Jun 29th 2008 11:12PM]

Apple will release a new gen iPods and will evidently destroys this due to Apple being Apple. Even if this is much better in specs, it will just end up to be a 2nd placer tops.

[harry bonds @ Jun 30th 2008 4:32PM]

LETS GO TOUCH!!!

[wleio @ Jun 30th 2008 6:14PM]

A net player?
It's not a good idea.

[rayinjersey @ Jun 30th 2008 11:11PM]

Am I the only one who isn't feeling that keypad? T9 is fine for cell phones but for DAP's with nothing but wifi? I don't get it.

[Nathan @ Jul 1st 2008 2:10AM]

just used rss on my hacked iPod touch to see this article. since the xfi has a mic which my touch does not the xfi will be able to do voice over ip at any hotspot so one could theoretically not have a cell phone, log into home and make calls from the landline.

[PR @ Jul 1st 2008 4:48AM]

Going from my Creative Zen experience I'll be treating the SD Card claims with extremem caution.

They never integrated it into the memory on that and show know signs of putting it right despite huge forum threads, as such I won't be going near this new one.

[zlck @ Jul 1st 2008 10:54AM]

Fine looking player, hopefully it will have video capability similar to the Zen Vision:M. Too bad about the shitty audio codec support. I think the messaging thingie might slurp balls as well the UI. And where the hell are the 64 Gb flash players, seriously.

[PC Tech Support Atlanta @ Jul 1st 2008 6:03PM]

**********
Josh @ Jun 29th 2008 1:03PM
A really interesting concept.. a phone that doubles as a media player.. where have we seen that before..
**********

Josh: I have a Toshiba Pocket PC that's both a cell phone and MP3 player. And a real computer, too! Oh, and it has an SD slot so memory is unlimited.

Age? I got it used 3 years ago via eBay. So it must be 4 or 5 years old.

Nuttin' new...

Terry

[PC Tech Support Atlanta @ Jul 1st 2008 6:14PM]

I bought a Zen a week ago.

CREATIVE: who in the hell did your usability testing???

Just a few "bugs":
1. it won't turn on if plugged into a power source via the tiny USB port.
2. if it's running and you plug in power via the tiny USB the time & date are reset back to factory specs.
3. if you are playing (for instance) a book on tape there is no "Pause" capability.
4. if you are listening to a book on tape there might be 20 or 30 chapters involved. There is no reminder of what the last chapter you listened to.
5. I recorded a movie script I was memorizing. It was 3 files on my SD chip. Listening to the sequence was no problem. BUT when the last one finished why not have the big "OK" button do something intelligent? Such as: loop back to the first file. Instead it stops playing and I have to hit the tiny "One Step Back" button and then the "OK" button. Not very much fun in the middle of the night driving 55 miles per hour!

There are more gaffes in the usability design of the Zen but right now I have to leave.

Let me say, as a commercial photographer, I've put my portfolio on it and folks to whom I show my work are most impressed with the Zen.

BTW the purchase was a no brainer over Zune because the Zen had an SD slot.

Overall rating of my Creative Zen: 8 out of 10.

Terry Thomas...
the photographer
Atlanta, Georgia USA
http://TerryThomasPhotos.GooglePages.com

[entropyman @ Jul 2nd 2008 1:16AM]

cou;d be nice- I like the whole keypad thing- I had a vision M that my GF is now using since I have been using my archos 604 wi-fi- I like the big screen, but it might be nice to have messenger and a small form factor- though I would miss the touchscreen