Singapore-based consumer electronics specialist Creative Technology has this week officially announced the upcoming availability of its complete new line of Zen X-Fi and Zen X-Fi with Wireless LAN digital multimedia players.
Creative officially launches its portable Zen X-Fi multimedia players. Image: Creative.
Creative is positioning its Zen X-Fi line as providing “a breakthrough in sound quality for MP3, WMA and unprotected iTunes music” thanks to the inclusion of it proprietary X-Fi Crystalizer, which restores the highs and lows to music during playback that were lost when ripping music into the player’s compatible formats.
“This allows you to listen to your music at a higher quality than was previously possible on any MP3 player,” trumpets Creative, while also actively highlighting the player’s related Wireless LAN aspects, which enable users to wirelessly stream or download music, video and photos from their PC to the Zen X-Fi via a wireless home network.
“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,” enthused 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,” he added. “We addressed the issue of the poor quality of digital music by inventing X-Fi technology, which restores the quality of music that was lost during the digital ripping process, and now for the first time ever we've been able to implement this technology in a ZEN.”
And to help bolster the delivery of that significantly enhanced musical content, Creative is also bundling a set of its premium EP-830 in-ear earphones with every purchased unit of Zen X-Fi Wireless LAN and Zen X-Fi portable media player.
Other features connected to the Zen X-Fi line include the new Creative Centrale interface, a built-in speaker for shared music playback, X-Fi Expand for a more natural listening experience that closely simulates stereo speaker sound, an SD memory slot for storage expansion, a generous 2.5-inch TFT display screen with support for 16.7 million colours, an onboard FM radio, and a built-in microphone.
The Zen X-Fi Wireless LAN model also comes with exclusive free instant messaging over leading services such as Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger.
The new Zen X-Fi with Wireless LAN is available now through online destinations such as Amazon.com, Buy.com, Newegg.com, Fry’s.com and Creative’s own online store. Creative says its Zen X-Fi model is scheduled to hit retail before the end of July.
The Wireless LAN model comes in either 16GB or 32GB storage flavours, with those respective sizes secured in return for $199.99 USD or $299.99 USD. The more modest 8GB player (which comes without Wireless LAN) will cost $149.99 USD when it arrives in the next few weeks.
Creative will also be looking to boost the Zen X-Fi brand by offering up various related accessories including an obligatory TravelSound Zen X-Fi docking speaker station, which will launch later this summer with a $49.99 USD price tag.
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