Creative Zen X-Fi Disassembled
For those who were wondering what’s inside the new Creative Zen X-Fi, here is your chance for a peek. The Zen X-Fi opened up similarly as the Zen did with clips around the edges holding the face to the back. However, this time the face separates from the backing with the circuit boards and such attached to the back plastic plate. Also this time around there is a little bit of glue applied to each clip holding it together; this likely the reason the Zen X-Fi feels a little sturdier than the Zen.
I would only recommend opening your Zen X-Fi for repair and not just for fun since you may not get it back together with the same tight feel it had before. If you are planning on surgery I would recommend checking out the Zen teardown video for some pointers on getting the case cracked. Otherwise below are lots of pics of the wireless player splayed for your viewing pleasure.
Also be sure to check out the Zen X-Fi review.
Comments
dragnandy on July 20, 2008 10:07 PM
very nice. few days after its release and you guys already opened it up. grahm this is your own zen x-fi right? do you use it as your main player? or what do you use mainly?
Feng on July 21, 2008 2:23 AM
omg you guys are my hero!!! first day review is broken into already!!! :) my question is, can someone post a guide to replacing the zen v m hdd to compact flash?
Grahm on July 21, 2008 9:48 AM
@dragnandy
Yes it is mine. I have been using it as my main player for the last week or so. But im not sure i have a "main player" although the Sansa Clip and the Zune are frequent in my rotation. However, i could easily use the X-Fi as my main player since it does play nicely with my Shure SE530s.
Barron on July 21, 2008 11:25 AM
Does it have an x-fi chip or is it just software.
keybowvio on July 21, 2008 9:22 PM
^^^Yeah, that's what we really want to know, is there a chip in there?^^^
sundog on July 23, 2008 12:05 PM
I feel so... dirty, somehow.
srozzman on July 24, 2008 7:11 AM
It doesnt have an X-fi chip in it, for it would drain the battery way too fast; instead, the X-Fi features are just software emulating the effects of an X-fi chip
The_Handy_Andy on July 24, 2008 6:06 PM
not knowing what an x-fi chip looks like but looking at the PCB of this player and the PCB from the zen there seems to be at least 2 additional chips (the square ones). One is the gold/bronze coloured one. I am going to guess here and suggest that this could be an x-fi chip. I don't think its something to do with the wifi as I read somewhere tonight that the existing zen chip already had this in it, it just wasn't implemented.
sam on August 1, 2008 6:42 PM
if wanna just open it into half u could have given it to me
BPK on August 15, 2008 10:14 AM
Does this support Napster like most of the other Creative products?
jasmine on September 17, 2008 7:54 PM
hey grahm my names jas & i got my zen x-fi about 3 weeks ago & still cant seem to download songs on it, how would i download songs on it wut should i use...?
Dave C. on October 4, 2008 11:39 AM
Testing.
Dave C. on October 4, 2008 11:43 AM
Some have raised the issue of battery replacement. From the above pictures, a ruler, and research at a local electronics outlet, it seems no big problem to get a two-lead Li-ion of proper size to wire in. Cell phone replacement, or "recharger". (Lenmark is big in that area.) Advantage: the replacements I've seen have somewhat greater capacity -