MP3 Creative Review

The Good

Both players have lots of features; good battery life; large screens; multiple sizes available

The Bad

Prices are on the high side; Mozaic lacks LCD display; Zen X-Fi comes only in black

The Bottom Line

If you don’t want an iPod or Zune, either the MP3 Creative Mozaic or the Zen X-Fi could make a good choice.

Review

If you’re looking for an affordable alternative to Microsoft or Apple’s audio players, checking out the MP3 Creative players might be a good strategy. Creative Labs does have a good reputation in the industry and produces dependable products overall. The two newest examples of MP3 Creative players are the Mozaic and the Zen X-Fi.

First, let’s take a look at the MP3 Creative Mozaic. This player comes in four sizes: 2 GB, 4 GB, 8GB, and 16GB models. Depending on which you choose, you can hold between 500 and 4,000 songs. The player also comes in multiple colors: black, silver, and pink.

Although the MP3 Creative player has a nice sized 1.8 inch screen that screen is not an LCD display so it’s not quite as good for viewing videos and photos as it could be. The battery life is about 32 hours for music and five hours for video.

This model comes with an FM tuner and built-in speaker (for sharing music with other people), but no expansion slot (for adding more memory). Prices for this model usually run between $60 and $150 depending on the size hard drive you choose.

The Zen X-Fi, like the Zune, does support wireless synching which means you can transfer music to and from your MP3 Creative device without being attached by wires. This is definitely becoming a popular feature as more people move towards wireless computing.

However, that’s not all the player has to offer. Like the Mozaic, the MP3 Creative Zen X-Fi comes in multiple sizes, including an 8 GB, 16 GB, and 32 GB model. The 32 GB model can hold up to 8,000 songs or 120 hours of video. Unlike the Mozaic, the Zen X-Fi sports an LCD display and a larger one at 2.5 inches. That makes it larger than the screen for the iPod Nano.

Battery life for this model is also a bit better: 36 hours for music compared to 32 for the Mozaic. Although it does come with an FM tuner and built-in speaker, this MP3 Creative product also has an expansion slot so you can increase the hard drive even further. Unfortunately, this model only comes in black. Prices for the Zen X-Fi range between $130 and $280 depending on the size and where you make your purchase.

Overall, the Zen X-Fi and the Mozaic are excellent additions to the other MP3 Creative products that have been released over the years. They have a good selection of features that should be popular with any music lover, plus they come in a range of sizes to meet the needs of casual listeners and audiophiles alike. The Zen X-Fi may be a bit better overall but the Mozaic is more stylish.