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There’s ‘Style’ in the new Creative Zen

written by Gavin Smith on Apr 8th, 2010
Category: Creative

Creative has revealed two new funky MP3 players which will be released under the infamous Zen brand, the Zen X-Fi Style and Zen Style. While the Zen Style is the more affordable of the two, the X-Fi Style has a few more features making all that more appealing.

Not to be confused with the Zen X-Fi 2, the X-Fi Style features a slick 2.4-inch (320×240) screen. Although not confirmed, we suspect the screen is touch-sensitive. The player boasts a range of storage capacities including 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB but leaves out any expandability via an SD card slot.

The claimed 25-hour battery life of continuous audio is rather respectable without forgetting the five hours worth of video. Unlike the Zen X-Fi 2, the X-Fi Style boasts a built-in speaker for times when those earphones get plain annoying. The device supports a whole host of audio/video file types including support for MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC and WAV audio files and MPEG-4, WMV, XVID and DiVX files.

Additional features include an FM tuner, voice recorder, sound equalizer, and RSS reader (which requires a PC sync rendering it useless). Prices will vary depending on storage size (from $114 to $178) with the player initially making an appearance in Singapore. A stateside release is expected soon after.

The entry-level Zen Style will come in two different variations – the 100 and 300. The differences are subtle; the 300 reigns supreme with its FM tuner and external speaker. From the 1.8-inch screen to the smaller storage capacities (4GB, 8GB or 16GB), the aforementioned Zen X-Fi Style is leagues ahead over its counterpart.

File format is limited. We’re talking support for MP3, WMA, WAV and Audible formats while video support is almost non-existent. That’s because video playback will require that you transcode your videos to a special propitiatory format which is only decodable by the player itself. On that note, the battery life, capable of 32 hours of continuous audio or 4 hours of video, is on par with the X-Fi Style.

The Zen Style will retail for around $64 and $114 (depending on storage size) when released in April.

[via Electronista]

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  • Creative Zen X-Fi 2 with touchscreen
  • Creative X-Fi 2 receives firmware revamp
  • Creative Zen X-Fi 2 to receive price slash
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