The Creative Zen Air SXFi is a pair of TWS earbuds that sets itself apart from the competition by being one of the brand’s handful of audio accessories to ship out with its Super X-Fi surround sound technology. It’s the Singaporean brand’s way of bringing its own spin of the Spatial Audio technology to the masses, and without having to break the bank while doing it.
What Am I Looking At?
The Zen Air SXFi is a pair of TWS earbuds that are built using the stem design made popular by the Apple AirPods. Instead of a glossy finish, the earbuds and charging cradle use a grey matte finish, with very simple yet striking markings on it.
Still on the subject of the charging cradle, it also shows four LED markers on the front that indicate the battery level of the case. Speaking of battery, the earbuds can hold a charge of up to 12 hours with ANC off and 7.5 hours with it on, while the charging case extends the listening time by to up 39 hours.
As for the software, you can tweak and play around with the equaliser via the dedicated Creative app, but you can also download the SXFi app that allows you to move tweak its surround sound settings, at least on paper. I’ll get to that in another section. Unlike the Aurvana Ace 2 that I reviewed earlier this year, this earbuds aren’t fitted with XMEMs. Instead, they’re running on the more traditional drivers.
What’s Good About It?
Out of the box functionality is surprisingly easy to use. The right earbud of the Zen Air SXFi houses the play and pause function which you tap once to activate. Tap twice, you’ll skip to the next track. Thrice, repeat or go back a track. The left earbud controls the ANC and SXFi functions; tap twice and you’ll cycle through the different noise cancelling modes, while a triple tap turns on the SXFi function.
As is, and by that I mean without SXFi turned on, these Zen Air earbuds sound remarkably balanced, albeit slightly flat. Highs and mids show no indications of breaking. For tracks like Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelt’s Digging My Potato, these earbuds are able to handle the harmonica highs well. Likewise, vocal-focused tracks like Florence and the Machine’s Never Let Me Go sound full-bodied, and by some dark miracle, Lana Del Rey sounds really sublime.
Again, with balance being key, the lows of the Zen Air aren’t particularly tantalising but at the very least, I do feel it rather than hear it. Listening to Nina Simone’s Feeling Good, the deep lows of the tuba gives off that slight rattle, while the constant percussion of the bass drum in Hozier’s Shrike can also be felt.
What’s The Catch?
I have questions about the design of the charging cradle. Considering that it is more ergonomically designed compared to the Aurvana Ace series casings, why on earth Creative decided to situate the USB-C charging port beneath the casing and not at the rear makes absolutely no sense to me. Honestly, it’s a design choice that I can’t fathom and even worse, it wobbles like a little drunkard, and that in turn means that even if I prod it ever so slightly, it tips over.
Earlier, I hinted that the Zen Air’s SXFi app can be very temperamental, and by that, it doesn’t activate and would “disconnect”. By that, the earbuds would still be connected via Bluetooth but the app wouldn’t recognise it and at times would prompt messages that were untrue, including the earbuds being low on battery or not turned on. Oh, and this applies to the Creative app too.
And while SXFi can be turned on physically via a three-tap combo, the spatial audio-esque feature sounds very hollow; it serves its purpose of enhancing movies and shows that support surround sound, but I wouldn’t recommend you using it for your everyday music experience. Truly, it kills any form of sound staging and warps all the pitches.
Should I Buy It?
As a product, the Zen Air SXFi definitely feels more or less complete in its construction. However, it is clear, to me at least, that the earbuds are currently being dragged down by buggy and, dare I say it, seemingly incomplete software.
For that matter, SXFi feels more like a gimmick here than an enhancement, limited to just one aspect of greater aural bandwidth. Having said that, if you’re just looking for a pair of earbuds and you’re bothered about turning on SXFi, the Zen Air are surprisingly affordable at SG$109 (~RM367).
Photography by John Law.
