14 July 2008 – Creative, a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products, announces the ZEN® X-Fi® and ZEN X-Fi with Wireless LAN, the only digital media players for music, video and photos to feature award-winning Creative Xtreme Fidelity X-Fi audio technology.
The ZEN X-Fi and ZEN X-Fi with Wireless LAN provide a breakthrough in sound quality for MP3, WMA and unprotected iTunes music. They feature X-Fi Crystalizer®, the proprietary audio technology developed at Creative’s Advanced Technology Center that restores during playback the highs and lows that are lost when music is ripped to MP3, WMA or AAC formats. This feature enables users to enjoy their music at a higher quality than previously possible on an MP3 player.
The ZEN X-Fi with Wireless LAN also introduces a new way to experience music in the home. Its Wireless LAN capability enables users to stream and download music from a PC to the player over a wireless home network and enjoy the tracks in X-Fi audio quality. All around a networked home, the ZEN X-Fi with Wireless LAN can access music on a PC and play it through the built-in speaker, a home speaker system, or the optional ZEN X-Fi docking speaker system. Users can also stream or download photos and video files in supported formats directly to the player.
The ZEN X-Fi delivers the best possible audio to people on the move. And to help them enjoy the ideal music listening experience, every ZEN X-Fi is supplied with a set of Creative’s premium EP-830 in-ear earphones.
“We’re very excited to achieve this breakthrough of adding our X-Fi audio technology to a ZEN player, setting the highest standard in audio quality for portable music players,” says Craig McHugh, president and COO of Creative. “Some of the top recording artists in the music industry are very outspoken about the poor quality of digital music. We addressed this issue by inventing X-Fi technology, which restores the quality of music that is lost during the digital ripping process. Now for the first time ever we’ve been able to implement this technology in a ZEN.”
Memory choice.
The ZEN X-Fi with Wireless LAN is available in 32GB and 16GB versions, while the ZEN X-Fi is available with 8GB of memory.
The ZEN X-Fi and ZEN X-Fi with Wireless LAN feature:
- X-Fi technology to restore the highs and lows that are lost when music is ripped to compressed formats.
- A built-in speaker to enable users to share favourite songs with friends.
- An SD card slot to allow more music, video or photos to be added to the player.
- A vibrant 2.5-inch TFT display with 16.7 million colour support for an excellent viewing experience with videos and photos.
- A built-in FM radio with 32 presets.
- A built-in microphone for voice recording.
- The new Creative Centrale application for organising, CD and playlist creation, and transfer of a wide variety of video formats including WMV, AVI, MJPEG, MPEG4-SP, DivX 4 and 5 and XviD.
- Using Creative Centrale, the player syncs with Microsoft Outlook Contacts, Calendar, ‘To Do’ lists and more.
- Creative ZEN X-Fi Video Converter, which converts video files to formats suitable for wireless streaming.
- Exclusively on the ZEN X-Fi with Wireless LAN, free instant messaging over popular IM services including Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live! Messenger. This feature lets users chat with friends wirelessly and express themselves using personalised emotive avatars.
Accessories.
The ZEN X-Fi and ZEN X-Fi with Wireless LAN are available with a number of accessories to enable users to customise their listening experience. The range includes:
- ZEN X-Fi Docking Speaker System.
- An elegantly designed leather case.
- A silicon skin to protect the player.
- An armband to hold the player.
- A three-pack of screen protectors.
