Note: This review was first published on 30 July 2024.
Earlier in the year. Creative announced the launch of new Super X-FI (SXFI) products, including noise-cancelling headphones and wireless earbuds. What sets the Zen Air SXFI true wireless earbuds apart from the other Zen Air products is the inclusion of Creative's SXFI technology directly into the earbuds. If you're unfamiliar with SXFI, it is a headphone technology that aims to let you enjoy a far wider soundstage on in-ear monitors and headphones. Essentially, it seeks to replicate the experience of listening to a multi-speaker setup through your headphones using the principles of head-related transfer function. It might sound like hogwash, but it works.
The TL;DR version:
Even if you don't care for SXFI, the Zen Air SXFI's attractive price and suite of features make it a compelling option for anyone who's on a tight budget.
Note: You can find the Creative Zen Air SXFI on Lazada, Shopee, and the official Creative online store.
This time, Creative has implemented the SXFI technology directly into the Zen Air SXFI earbuds. This means that you can enjoy SXFI audio with streamed content from the likes of Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Netflix, and more.
This provides the Zen Air SXFI with much more flexibility over older SXFI products, such as the Aurvana Ace 2, which were capable of applying SXFI effects only to locally saved content. For the past few weeks, I tried out the Zen Air SXFI and these are my thoughts.
Design and comfort
The “head” of the earbuds is rather large when compared to other earbuds. Photo: HWZ
At first glance, the Creative Zen Air SXFI looks almost exactly the same as the earlier launched Zen Air Pro, down to the size and shape. If you're feeling a little lost, we can totally relate. Creative has way too many Zen Air products in its lineup that not only look similar but are also spaced apart by a mere $10 in price point, and all of them were launched within a year.
Back to the Zen Air SXFI, it adopts a stem design for the earbuds and weighs just 5.45g for each earbud. The charging case is rather thick, and in all, the Zen Air SXFI weighs 51g. Like most earbuds, the Zen Air SXFI has touch controls, which can be customised in the Creative app (more on the app later). The touch receptors are in the round upper part of the earbuds, and they work well enough.
In my use, the Zen Air SXFI fit snugly into my ears, and I found no signs of it falling off even if I ran with it. That said, fit is a subjective matter, and your mileage may vary. The earbuds have an IPX5 rating and come with medium-sized silicone tips pre-installed. As for accessories, the earbuds come with an extra set of ear tips in various sizes, a short USB A to C charging cable, and a small fabric pouch to store the earbuds.
Features and usability
It took me about five minutes to set up my SXFI experience. Photo: HWZ
Compared with other earbuds, setting up the Zen Air SXFI requires the user to download two applications instead of one. The first application is the SXFI application, which lets you set up and personalise the SXFI experience. Overall, the process of setting up SXFI was relatively easy, and it only took me about five minutes to sign up for an account, scan my head, and update the firmware of my earbuds to support the latest Super X-FI Gen 4.
Speaking of scanning my head, SXFI technology creates a personalised audio experience by mapping an individual's head and ear shape using artificial intelligence. It then processes the audio using algorithms to tailor it specifically to the listener's unique hearing characteristics. The idea is to take your head and ear profiles to tweak the sound output so that it seems like it's coming from speakers instead of your headphones.
The other app is the Creative app, which lets you toggle and adjust the Zen Air SXFI's other features like active noise cancellation and ambient sound mode. Overall, the Creative app is comprehensive and offers users a great deal of customisation.
Upon launch, you can see the current mode, battery life, equaliser status, and more. The app has a bunch of equaliser presets that you can choose from and a slider that you can manually adjust to your liking. Besides EQ, you can also customise the tap controls to best suit your needs.
While both applications serve their purpose well, it would have been nice if Creative merged the two apps together to simplify and streamline the user experience.
I suggest turning off the audio prompts in the device settings. Photo: HWZ
The earbuds connect via Bluetooth 5.3 and support multipoint connection which allows you to pair it with two devices simultaneously. Overall, connectivity is good with no stuttering, dropouts, or any perceivable lag. Speaking of lag, there is a low-latency mode that can be toggled in the device settings to further boost audio and video synchronisation. For codecs, the Zen Air SXFI only supports the most basic AAC and SBC codecs.
I found the Zen Air SXFI's ANC to be decent. It's no match for the likes of flagship earbuds like the Sony WF-1000XM5 or Apple AirPods Pro, but it reduces surrounding noises to an acceptable level for a decent listening experience. The transparency/ambient sound mode is functional, but it could be improved. Voice capture isn't the best and it sounds unnatural and overly digitised.
During my time with the Creative Zen Air SXFI, I found its battery life to be good, and it lasted around 7.5 hours on a single charge with ANC on. Creative says that the earbuds can last up to 12 hours with ANC off and will have up to 39 hours of playtime with the charging case. Judging from my experience, this all sounds entirely reasonable. The charging case charges via USB-C and has support for wireless charging as well.
Wireless and audio performance
The case is rather large and can’t be easily pocketable as compared to the Airpods Pro or the Sony WF-1000XM5 Photo: HWZ
Inside the earbuds is a custom-tuned 10mm neodymium driver. Without SXFI enabled, the Zen Air SXFI's sound signature is relatively balanced with a slight emphasis on the bass. The mids are mostly balanced, but the vocals sound dull and flat. If this sound signature isn't to your liking, you can tweak it using the EQ function in the Creative app.
As for SXFI, activating it can be a double-edged sword. For music, it can make vocals sound soft and distant - a byproduct of giving you a live stage performance delivery in your ears. It can also drastically weaken the bass response. What once sounds deep and full in songs like The Hills by The Weeknd now sounds flat and weak. While your expectations can vary, my recommendation is to turn off SXFI when listening to music - unless you yearn to have a concert experience. Happily, the SXFI experience is more positive when watching movies. With SXFI enabled, the surround sound effect is much more pronounced and makes movies sound more immersive and exciting.
One thing to point out is that the effectiveness of SXFI can vary depending on your head and ear profile, so your personal experience with SXFI may vary. If you are new to SXFI, I would urge you to audition these earbuds first if you get the opportunity.
As for microphone performance, the Zen Air SXFI has a triple-microphone setup for each earbud, which may sound impressive, but the overall sound quality captured is rather average. Furthermore, unless you're in a quiet environment, the microphone tends to pick up background noise, which can be distracting.
Our take
Watching movies with SXFI enabled is a treat. Photo: HWZ
Overall, the Creative Zen Air SXFI is a great value-for-money option. The sound quality is decent, as is its active noise cancelling (ANC) performance, and its battery life isn't bad either. Furthermore, you can now enjoy SXFI with any content. The icing on the cake is that, despite all that it offers, it costs just S$109. Even if you take SXFI out of the picture, you would be hard-pressed to find another pair of earbuds with all these features at this price point. The Zen Air SXFI represents good value and should be high on anyone's shopping list for the most bang-for-the-buck earbuds for as little money as possible.
Note: The Creative Zen Air SXFi is priced at S$109 and is available for purchase on Lazada, Shopee, and the official Creative online store.
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