Creative has a legendary status in the audio world, and the Zen Air SXFI TWS earbuds are the first TWS earbuds to natively support the brand’s Super X-Fi surround sound technology. They do so while also offering adaptive noise cancellation, dual-device pairing, wireless charging, and a combined 39 hours of battery life.
These features are packed into a compact form factor with a sub-$100 price tag. After a week of using the Zen Air SXFI, we can confirm that they are a worthy choice thanks to their rich feature set and pleasant sound reproduction. While surround sound wasn’t our primary focus, we enjoyed our time spent watching movies and TV shows on supported platforms like Netflix thanks to Creative’s SFXI surround sound technology.
Design
The Zen Air SXFI features an all-plastic design with a matte finish. The buds are in-ear with replaceable silicone tips and short steps. The top halves house remapping touch sensors, and each earbud is equipped with three microphones.
The earbuds and their case weigh 51 grams, with each earbud weighing 5.4 grams. The fit in the ear is great, although we had to swap the default ear tips for smaller ones to get a proper seal. The case measures 64 x 43.85 x 29 mm, which is slightly larger than most competing products.
The Creative Zen Air SXFI can be purchased in any color you want, as long as it’s gray. The matte finish on the case and buds helps protect against fingerprints. The inside of the case has a shiny silver finish that reminds us of the copper hue of the Creative Aurvana Ace 2 that we reviewed earlier this year.
The case has four LED lights to indicate battery level and a pairing button on the front, and a USB-C cable on the bottom for charging. The good news is that they also support wireless charging and should work with any Qi-compatible pad.
The retail box comes with the standard set of accessories, including a short USB-C cable, spare silicone tips, and something we don’t see very often — a fabric pouch that fits the case and protects it from scratches.
Features and Companion App
The Creative Zen Air SXFI feature 10mm neodymium drivers. They connect via Bluetooth 5.3 with support for multi-point pairing, but are limited to the older AAC and SBC codecs, so you won’t be streaming high-bitrate audio here. The buds also support adaptive active noise cancellation with a dedicated Ambient mode and four-way manual control in the Creative app. Each earbud includes triple microphones for optimal voice pickup.
The key selling point is the SXFI spatial audio system, which uses Creative’s computational audio to create surround sound tailored to the shape of your ear and head. You’ll need to download an additional SXFI app to your phone, which will ask you to scan your face and ears.
Once you’ve got the SXFI set up, the earbuds should deliver a more immersive audio experience with a wider soundstage and a multi-speaker experience. Creative has been developing this surround sound technology for a few years now, and the Zen Air SXFI are the first TWS earbuds to launch with SFXI hardware out of the box.
The biggest breakthrough with the SXFI hardware in this version of the Zen Air is that once the initial head mapping is done, it works with any media on the device — local and streaming.
The Creative app offers all the basic features you’d expect from a companion app. You can switch between noise-cancelling modes: ANC, Adaptive ANC, and Ambient Mode. ANC and Ambient Mode offer four-stage scene control, so you can fine-tune how much outside noise is muted or let in.
The app also lets you customize touch controls with single, double, and long taps. A long press controls volume, which is always a welcome addition to any TWS product.
Creative also offers a myriad of EQ presets, including 17 media-based and an additional 25(!) for gaming titles, including popular fan favorites Call of Duty, DOTA 2, and CS:GO. You can also customize your own EQ profile using the slider.
The features section is complemented by a low-latency mode and an IPX5 classification, which only applies to the headphones and not their housing.
The only feature we missed here was a sensor that detects when the headphones are worn, which pauses music playback when you take the headphones out of your ears and resumes it when you put them back in.
Performance and sound quality
By default, the Creative Zen Air SXFI offers a distinct bass presence and clear mids. We liked the instrument separation, which is better than most earphones in the sub-$100 category. The overall sound profile is pleasant and offers enough detail when it comes to Bluetooth audio streaming. Keep in mind that you are limited to AAC and SBC codecs here.
As for the SXFI’s performance, we’d steer clear of using it while listening to music. It tends to push sounds forward, for lack of a better term, towards the front of your face, resulting in less detailed sound with muted mids, weak bass, and a flat soundstage. This is also the case when watching movies and videos, where the SXFI didn’t help make the experience more engaging. The lack of head tracking is another wasted opportunity.
As you might expect, the default EQ is more bass-heavy, but you have more than enough built-in EQ presets to choose from. In our experience, Classical stood out as the best option, but you can also customize your own EQ profile.
Noise cancellation is better than most budget in-ear headphones we’ve tested recently, providing noticeable reduction in ambient noise without distorting the sound too much. The excellent in-ear fit certainly contributed to the solid ANC performance.
The six built-in microphones (three on each earpiece) provide good call quality in quieter environments but struggle to pick up voices in louder environments. We had no connectivity issues during our review period. The touch controls worked flawlessly and registered all of our taps without a hitch.
Battery life
Creative says you can get up to 39 hours of total listening time with the earphones and case, and the earphones themselves last up to 12 hours (with ANC off). During our use, the earphones lasted for 7.5 hours with ANC on and the volume set to 50%. The case offers five full charges, and you can charge them wirelessly with any Qi charger, which is a nice bonus.
Verdict
The Creative Zen Air SXFI’s primary focus is on surround sound, but we didn’t feel a significant benefit when listening to music or watching movies in SXFI mode. The soundstage felt flat, and the lack of head tracking made for a less than ideal surround sound experience.
In normal SXFI-less mode, the headphones delivered a vivid soundstage, albeit with a more bass-heavy character. Custom EQ options helped fine-tune the sound output, which, combined with the headphones’ ergonomic design and powerful ANC, provided a pleasant listening experience.
Battery life is excellent, and considering the retail price of $80/€80 (currently discounted) and all the features it comes with, the Creative Zen Air SXFI gets our seal of approval.
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