Look, you can't expect a cheap, touchscreen media player to cut through polygons like a hot knife through butter. That's just not how it works. And that 3.0-inch screen on
Creative's new X-Fi2? Resistive. We had a chance to go hands on with Creative's little stop-gap (until the Zii can make it to product) touch-screen player here at IFA and it's pretty much exactly what we expected... or maybe a little worse. The touchscreen responded so poorly to
touch mashes that we asked Creative to reshoot the video out of embarrassment on their behalf. We're not exaggerating. Still, it's not a final product (there's still tweaking to be done to the firmware) and you do get a lot of play for the buck (32GB for $230) if that's all you're looking for when it drops later this month. Watch the demo after the break -- do it!
posted Sep 2nd 2009 2:06PM
he says its a three inch screen twice
Did you miss this gem:
"if that's all your looking for when it drops later this month."
Don't publish if you're illiterate.
lol awsome
Yo, Engadget! Please pass to Creative that for 230 euros I'll get Nokia 6720 classic smartphone with GPS, 5mp camera and lots of other features. 230 euros is way too much for mp3 player. Way over the top. $200 is max for pmp. Not $350.
Seems they couldn't let Apple show camera-enabled players before they show "Zen, or what it should have been 3 years ago".
"The touchscreen responded so poorly to touch mashes that we asked Creative to reshoot the video out of embarrassment on their behalf. We're not exaggerating."
OUCH. But, seriously, shouldn't you show us the player how it really was (the first time?). It's not like it's your fault they decided to demo a (hopefully) far-from-final product.
What I find funny about having them redo the demo is I actually imagine it's a lot worse than it probably is. What's the sense in having them save face with another chance at the demo if you'll then go and say that the first was actually much worse?
In the demo the rep said this was right off the plane from Singapore, and there'll be a few more firmware updates before release. Speed is usually one of the last things fixed in firmware updates.
Got to love the resistive hate.
It's not hate; it's just the lack of progress. Capacitive FTW.
Got to resist the love's hate.
Just increase the sensitivity of the resistive touch screen (a good quality one).
why the hell does this thing have a name that fits in the Sound Card line? Creative X-Fi, Soundcard. Creative X-Fi2 .... ipod wannabe...
The logic of some of these companies never ceases to amaze me.
maybe cuz it's an audio player.
The logic of Apple fanboys never ceases to amaze me...
@Information Central: Maybe that's why I don't like any music made after 1990.
230 euros, not dollars.
And continuing my line of thought from my comment, given that, that makes it about $320, or $30 more than the far superior Zune HD.
Or, per say, it isn't. Direct translation of euros to dollars isn't the actual price:
32GB: $229 US
16GB: $179 US
8GB: $129 US
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Labs-Player-Touchscreen-Speaker/dp/B002NKLRF2/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1251925960&sr=8-15
Someone should ask him why the X-Fi stuff (creative marketing for equalizer) would need to put back any low frequency sound in compressed music? Most compressed music is passed through a low-pass filter before compression, and low-frequencies are the "easiest" to compress, hence no "lows" are missing.
Also, no amount of signal processing wizardry is going to put back information lost during _lossy_compression either.
The problem is no longer lossy compression; it's DYNAMIC compression.
All (yes, all) popular music is destroyed by the record companies before it's released in any form, to make it "louder". Not only does this turn people off to music by making it a fatiguing wall of noise, but it prevents lossy compression algorithms from taking advantage of louder sounds that mask soft ones.
There is no reason to own high-quality equipment or to use high-quality media when all of the source material is irrevocably destroyed by its publisher. And they're doing it ON PURPOSE to NO BENEFIT.
The abject stupidity just nauseates.
So for an extra $60 I can get the Zune HD that stores the same amount but is infinitely better in every way? Why would anyone buy this? It's not cheap enough to really be cheap and it looks too crappy to compete at that price.
Mark, I love your comments and love the Zune HD, but please don't turn yourself into one of these Apple fanboys who bring up the name of iPod on any post and bash any other media players out there.
It is $60 less than a Zune HD, and has much more codec support than a Zune HD, making it in a market of its own. End of story.
... sadly, people will buy this instead of the Microsoft device because unlike the ZuneHD, the X-Fi 2 will be sold in markets beyond the American.
Saad, there is nothing wrong in making a valid comparison with a competing product. If somebody wishes to say that the Zune HD and iTouch can push more pixels faster, has a better music download service, etc. compared to this then that is a valid argument and what Engadget has a comment section for - just like saying that the price of this is $230 while the others are higher priced (although, there are some saying the price should be in Euros, not USD, which makes this higher priced) and supports more codecs is also a valid point.
The objections many of us have, and I believe you have objected also, is when somebody makes a comment of "iPhone FTW" and nothing else, or "iPod is better because it has X more users than (insert other device name here)" as if people using one device over another device makes the more popular device somehow better, or twist the argument as below such as where they say the iPhone is $99 while ignoring the monthly fee, is what is wrong and people should argue about.
@Saad
how about letting mark express his own opinion?
and BTW, like phillipe mentioned, at 230 euros it's a lot more expensive than the zune's gonna be. and having extra codecs is not going to make it competitive relative to the price. end of story.
@Saad: I'm not just going to go around and make baseless attacks on other players for not being the 'HD. However, I think I'm perfectly entitled to make comparisons between competing products. Even if it's $230 and not 230 euros, it's still not cheap enough considering the lackluster stats(that we know of so far). Comparisons can be made and the Zune HD offers a significantly better screen in every way(bigger, OLED, capacitive), HD radio in addition to the FM this has, Wifi including a browser and ability to download music/apps. Sure, it's more expensive(again, assuming $230), but there's not enough of a difference in price to justify the lower quality. Codec support isn't going to cut it, especially since the vast majority of consumers wouldn't have any codecs that the Zune HD doesn't support.
Im buying the Zune HD and ive already preordered the 32GB model.. but if you are looking for a competitively priced PMP that plays music and videos from 'less than legal sources' as the presenter so elegantly stated, than this might be for you.
@John, no the Cowon S9 would be for you.
iPod Touch
8 GB - $229
16 GB - $299
32 GB - $399
Zune HD
16 GB - $249
32 GB - $280
Zen X-Fi2
8 GB - $129.99
16 GB - $179.99
32 GB - $229.99
When iPod Touch have firm ground on apps store and Zune HD have much better hardware.
this one seem focus to music and video. deliver lower price using low cost cpu less eye-candy.
it's main product is 8GB version (as you can add SD Card)
... well you got what you pay.
@put4558350: Just thought I'd point out the Zune HD 16GB is actually $219.99.
The 8 GB version for $129 looks attractive considering it has an SD slot for expansion.... and considering I paid $200 for a iPod nano just a couple years back....
hmmm.. and an iphone is 99 bucks, let me think about this one.
Have fun paying service contracts. Not saying this Creative player is a good deal (it actually sucks), but that's not the best comparison. Considering it comes out to $320, though, it's safe to compare it to the iPod Touch or Zune HD, both of which are superior and near in price range (or cheaper, even).
@Deowolf
Converting Euros to USD isn't the how you measure a product's price range in the states. Most likely you will see this the 32GB version around $200-$230 when it's released in America.
Looks easy to use at the lightest of touches.
An absolute pile of ****
Sometimes i wonder why companies make stupid decisions such as this. You already have a good product called the Zii EGG.Why not invest your money into optimizing the functionality of the plazma and android interface. Hire Good and smart people and work hard at tweaking it to its highest potential. We will wait for you as long as you keep us informed. You saw the public response of the Zii egg product anouncement, It is a product that can carve out a good sector of Apple's pie but nooo, you still decide to waste capital. Foolish absolutely foolish.
I know it is not as easy as I make it sound but it can be done and Creative has a lot at your disposal.
Kinda painful watching this. This really does look shitty.
Why didn't they show how to scroll?
because scrolling on a resistive touchscreen would be just aweful
test
O btw. the LCD has 262K colours........WAIT what? my zen Xfi has 2 mil colours if i rmb properly. wth?
And the Xfi on these Xfi PMPs sucks...seriously. don't consider it if u wan xfi
The big question is: will the sd card integrate with internal memory for a single, unified, full-featured library?
And if not, I might just pick up a clearance sale Zune 120 (I hear Microsoft is discontinuing all but the HD).
Is it that companies feel they can't compete with the iPod classic and so just focus on flash players instead? Or do they figure that everyone rips their music in low, terrible bitrates and doesn't need more than 32 gb?
No, they'll just tell you the firmware update to integrate the SD card is coming, but never produce it. Between getting hosed on that and their terrible Linux support, I'm done with Creative.
Is there really people who buy this stuff?
My HTC Hero is a much better media player for which I can choose among dozens of free music or video players and pics browsers or digital frames apps (with or without music) see dvix or any other format or hear to music in any codec (maybe after the appropriate program has been installed), browse the web, get and answer e-mails or stream flash content via WIFI or mobile broadband. watch TV (app required), use it as AGPS, or as a book reader (epub with 1000s of free titles available), use any headphones including BT stereo, shoot pics or videos... and I could go on and on.
My other phone , a Nokia N97, does all of the above and has an FM transmitter too, so that from my pckets it streams stereo sound to any old FM radio or car stereo, and I also have an old HTC TouchHD that probably is the best media player of them all.
Oh I forgot: you can also make andrecive phone calls and IMs with any of them.
Why would anyone want to carry one of those crappy thing nowadays?
Or even a cheapo point and shoot or GPS receiver, or a voice recorder?
Do you still carry also pocket calculators?
OMG, you seem to have a lot of gadgets!
Well, a pure mp3-player usually is a tad bit cheaper than such a phone (like, several hundreds of dollars), and tends to have superior audio quality as well (only a relatively small amount of people, including me, care about that though). My phone's my phone/internet device, my PMP is my...well, PMP. I'll always use two seperate devices for these purposes, because of difference in audio/video quality/support and also battery life issues.
That said, and even having used/kind of liked the original X-Fi for quite some time, this couldn't possibly be any more disappointing to me. I'm not a hater of resistive touchscreens - provided they're still quite sensitive, which really is possible (my phone's is, and yes, I have used capacative touchscreens and do prefer those over resistive). This is sluggish, looks kind of ugly to me (though that may be because of that background), and it's the least responsive touchscreen I've seen in ages. FLAC support is nice and all.. And the X-Fi feature, after a firmware update, did ocasionally improve the sound quality on my old X-Fi (it really depended on the track)... But for a few more bucks you're getting a superior, actually useable player, like the Zune HD, or for audiophiles, something like the Cowon S9.
Really, really disappointing and unnessecary product. Just go work on that Zii Egg stuff, and change the damn name while you're at it, Creative.
Why is the resistive screen technology not dead yet?
Because it's superior to the crappy capacitive ones. Much more accurate as well.
Really? Because you get to press down on the screen really hard like the poor guy in the video is doing?
Looks like a cheap Chinese MP4 player, Creative, for the good of you and your share holders, don't release this to market. Stick with the Zii and put all your resources there, that's a worthy project.
I'm laughing my ass off like a mother******!!!!!!
They can ship that piece of shit back to Singapore with my sincerest sympathies.
That product should be shot on the spot!!!
Seriously. I got scared when he said it will ship this month. It looks like it needs a couple of more months of testing/tweaking.
umm... 230 euros not dollars...
Why would anyone buy this thing? I'd rather get a Zune HD or iPod Touch even if its half the space, as I'm sure most other people would as well.
god this thing looks fugly
remember when Creative used to be competitors? I used the love them. But seriously? Resistive screen? You might as well throw it away.
Creative is dying....
is it wrong that i still want the cowon Q5W?
that thing amazes me no matter what else I see!