Make a note

But look closer, and you’ll see the most obvious difference — the Zen X-Fi2 operates in landscape mode. It’s also a tad smaller.

At first glance, you may mistake the Creative Zen X-Fi2 for the Apple iPod Touch. It's almost the same size, has a metal-coloured, plastic back panel, and just one button on the edge. But look closer, and you'll see the most obvious difference — the Zen X-Fi2 operates in landscape mode. It's also a tad smaller.

The X-Fi2 has good ergonomics and is really lightweight. Its 3" TFT screen attracts fingerprints, but feels sturdy and resistant to scratches. Its large font is easy on the eye, and there's a TV out slot which isn't of much use since the cable isn't bundled.

The player supports only the WMV, MPEG-4, DivX and XviD formats, but the picture quality is excellent. Photographs are crisp and there's an inbuilt image editing application that allows you to add effects and play around with the colours.

Why you should consider buying this player is because of its sound quality.

Great music
Not only is the overall thump good — with chunky bass notes and smooth highs and lows — but there's also an application called the xFi which makes the transitions more pronounced. The in-ear headphones fit well and do their job phenomenally.

However, you may be put off by how the touch-sensitive operating system operates. Scrolling the song list or any other item on the menu is painful because of the low sensitivity. Reducing volume and unlocking the player aren't as easy as you'd want them. Once, the player even froze while playing a song and had to be restarted using the reset button. But no data was erased.

There are other niggles too. The player isn't shipped with Wi-Fi/ Bluetooth compatibility, and it should have had at least a couple of more useful applications (besides Sudoku, the one game it does have). Radio reception is good at most places. On a full charge, the player gives about 20 hours of music and 5 hours of video, which isn't at all bad.