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Wednesday September 2, 2009
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Details are emerging from Creative's Singapore headquarters this morning about a new touch-screen-based portable media player. The ZEN X-Fi2 will be available in 8GB ($129.99), 16GB ($179.99), and 32GB ($229.99) capacities and can be pre-ordered from Amazon now.
The player looks, well, a lot like an iPod touch--but I suppose that can be said about most touch-screen-based PMPs now. The X-Fi2's 3-inch TFT LCD will feature 262,000-color support, but no word yet on the screen's resolution. Codec support seems well thought out, if not overly generous: MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC, and Audible4 for music; WMV9, MPEG4-SP, DivX4/5, and XviD for video; and JPEG and BMP for photos. There's a microSD expansion slot, and 32-preset FM radio, and the ability to display RSS content feeds while offline.
The player will also come preloaded with some music tracks from a variety of artists courtesy of eMusic and James Patterson's maximum Ride: the Angel Experience, as read by Evan Rachel Wood. And, as always, the X-Fi Crystalizer is loaded onto the player, for those who wish to play around with stereo-enhancing effects.
Not bad, but there seems to be no true Internet support, which puts the player a notch behind the Zune HD and whatever new iPods we see next week. Price, however, could make all the difference. Creative has always made decent players--some of them even excellent. So for the people who care more about music and videos than Web browsing, the ZEN X-Fi2 could be just what they're looking for--and certainly cheaper than the $220 and $290 16Gb and 32GB Zunes and iPod touches.
Look for a full review at PCMag.com in the coming weeks.
Posted By:
Tim Gideon
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