Creative Zen X-Fi 2 review

Creative's first touchscreen MP3 player - but does it measure up?

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Creative zen x-fi 2
The Zen X-Fi 2 is the first touchscreen player from Creative

TechRadar Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Excellent sound quality

  • +

    X-Fi expand works!

  • +

    The price is right

  • +

    microSD expansion

  • +

    Good earphones bundled

Cons

  • -

    Touchscreen is horrible

  • -

    No one-hand operation

  • -

    Sluggish menu system

  • -

    Plasticky design

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It's no secret that Creative is in a spot of bother.

Dwindling fortunes have caused the Singaporean company to scale back its operations in order to concentrate on its core businesses - making PC soundcards and MP3 players.

The problem for us is that Creative used to make the best MP3 players of them all. Back in 2005, the Creative Zen Vision:M was totally kick-ass and put the iPod equivalent at the time to shame.

However, since then we have seen two things happen. Firstly, the Apple iPod improved massively, with millions of dollars of R&D resulting in the release of the world-beating, brilliantly-constructed iPod touch.

And secondly, Creative's fortunes dwindled, and while the original Zen X-Fi had brilliant sound quality, it was not in the same league as the iPod nano or touch in terms of either design or interface.

zen x-fi 2

Creative's next big thing is the Zii Egg, a Google Android-powered touchscreen X-Fi device that has more in common with the latest mobile phones than previous Creative MP3 players. It looks seriously impressive.

But while we're waiting for that one, here we have the latest in the long-running Zen series, the Creative Zen X-Fi 2.

James Rivington
James Rivington

James was part of the TechRadar editorial team for eight years up until 2015 and now works in a senior position for TR's parent company Future. An experienced Content Director with a demonstrated history of working in the media production industry. Skilled in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), E-commerce Optimization, Journalism, Digital Marketing, and Social Media. James can do it all.