Mediocre Melodies Make Me Mope

Not every pair of ANC earbuds can be as good as the AirPods Pro or Sennheiser Momentum 4. Still, I expected more from the $80 Creative Zen Air SXFI, a pair of earbuds with praise-worth noise cancelation but unsatisfactory sound quality.

Creative Zen Air SXFI

$50 $80 Save
$30

Step into a world of unrestrained audio, brought to you in a sleek case that fits in the palm of your hand. With SXFI Spatial Holography, total playtime of up to 39 hours, noise control modes, an IPX5 rating, and more, the Creative Zen Air SXFI is the ideal compact audio companion.

Pros

• Comfortable and secure fit
• Solid ANC
• Decent call quality
• Feature-packed companion app
• Wired and wireless charging

Cons

• Very narrow soundstage
• Default sound profile leaves much to be desired
• Spatial audio is just plain bad
• No hi-res support

Price and Availability

The Creative Zen Air SXFI earbuds cost $80 and are available at both Amazon and the Creative Labs web store. They are only sold in the gray colorway that you see in this review.

Status Quo for Design, Fit, and Controls

The Zen Air earbuds come in a modest gray colorway with metallic accents in the charging case. They look similar to leading ANC products like the Apple AirPods Pro and Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, albeit a bit bulkier all around (especially the charging case). And while other brands lean toward glossy surfaces, the Zen Air opts for matte plastic. I’m not knocking Creative for this choice; it’s merely an observation.

Creative bundles three sizes of ear tip with these earbuds, but I found that the pre-attached medium size gave me a comfortable and secure fit. I had zero issues with the buds bouncing around in my ears, which isn’t something I can say about my AirPods. Conveniently, the charging case has front-facing status LEDs to let you know how much charge is left in the case. There’s also a manual pairing button right underneath these LEDs, and below that is the USB-C charging port.

Like many other wireless earbuds, touch controls are mapped to the flat exterior portion of both Zen Air buds. While the default gestures may be fine for most folks, I went right into the Creative app to reassign a few commands to better suit what I’m used to with earbuds.

Besides the earbuds and charging case, other box contents include additional ear tips, a USB charging cable, and user manuals.

Audio That Just Doesn’t Cut It

The Zen Air buds use 10mm Neodymium drivers and support the Bluetooth 5.3 profile. SBC and AAC support are standard here, but unfortunately, there’s nothing in the way of aptX or any other hi-res compatibility. There’s not even a whisper of these codecs getting support through firmware updates.

Here’s the most brutally honest (and borderline positive) thing I can say about the Zen Air sound quality: it’s fine. But in my book, “fine” translates to “I got these as a gift and need to make the best of them.” Even after lots of EQ tweaking and genre switching, there wasn’t much I could do. These buds aren’t exactly cheap, but they sound cheap. No matter the tune, movie, or podcast, the soundstage presented was always ultra-compressed. At no point did I feel like I was listening to anything other than an MP3 when I was actually streaming high-quality tracks via Apple Music.

For reference, I ended up using a custom EQ with bumps in the bass and treble. You can also choose from a range of Creative presets, which include sound profiles custom-made for certain video games. I wasn’t a fan of the SXFI mode either, which is enabled by default. I’m a slow convert to Spatial Audio, to begin with, and having this feature turned on for the Zen Air immediately killed the low end of whatever I was listening to. Once disabled, the sound was always better. So, there’s that.

Green Day’s Holiday is supposed to be a pop-punk anthem, but the Zen Air had a tough time bringing the vibe. At first, there was too much snare, which I corrected in the EQ, only to notice that the vocals weren’t getting enough shine. After raising the treble, the audio became too distorted, with cymbal hits making the track painful to hear. So, I upped the bass, which made the low end far too dominant in the mix. But I wasn’t giving up yet.

On a recent trip to Florida, I got on a Tears for Fears kick (thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind), so I decided to test one of the biggest songs in the world using the Zen Air, Everybody Wants to Rule the World. This track played okay, though it lacked the glimmering highs so inherent to the TFF sound.

On this same Florida journey, I was also able to revisit Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. Remember the scene where the 200-foot tidal waves came crashing down on Cooper and the crew? Yeah, it sounded alright through the Zen Air. Again, the buds did an okay job of communicating the gravitas of the scene, but not without compressing the heck out of the mix.

A Win for Noise Cancelling

The Zen Air in-ears boast an adaptive ANC system with three omni-directional MEMS mics per earbud. As a tech enthusiast, I appreciate when headphone and earbud companies provide in-app sliders and toggles for ANC and Transparency, a feature that Creative has included in the Zen Air. This not only allows you to select between ANC, Adaptive ANC, Ambient Mode, or Off, but also empowers you to fine-tune the level of ANC or transparency in your presets.

The buds truly shine in their ability to cancel out external noise. They effectively muted the drone of the 2014 Camry my girlfriend and I drove from Orlando to Miami, as well as the hum of an annoying HVAC system in one of our hotel rooms. However, I didn’t notice a significant difference between the Ambient preset and Off, which may be a minor point for some.

Taking Calls Wasn’t Half Bad

Considering the experience I had listening to music and watching movies, you can imagine my surprise when taking a phone call was one of the best parts of using the Zen Air SXFI buds. While I would have liked a true side-tone option (the ability to clearly hear your voice during a call), my test caller’s voice was crisp, clear, and plenty loud. I also had ANC enabled, and it did a great job at removing background sounds around me.

It was reported that my own speaking voice was clear albeit tinny, which is pretty par for the course with most tiny earbud microphones.

Better Battery Life than Some Leading Brands

Creative claims that the Zen Air buds should last up to 12 hours on a full charge with ANC disabled, with an extra 27 hours provided by the charging case. Most folks (including myself) are going to leave ANC enabled, though, which is probably going to make that 12 hours turn into 8 or 9 playback hours. Still, that’s pretty good.

The case itself supports wired USB-C recharging and Qi wireless, too. I never needed to completely recharge the case when testing the Zen Air, and even after several hours of use, the case still had about 70% of its battery left over. Unfortunately, the only way to keep tabs on the case battery though is with the status LEDs on the front (there’s no dashboard readout in the Creative app).

Features and Customizations in the Creative App

There are two companion apps for the Zen Air buds: the Creative app (for iPhone and Android devices) and the SXFI app (iPhone and Android). The latter is what you’ll use to create a custom head-tracking profile for whenever you enable SXFI playback. The former is your one-stop shop for controls, settings, and customizations.

I tested the Creative Zen Hybrid SXFI headphones not too long ago, so I already had experience with the Creative app. But even if it’s your first time using the app, you’ll have no issues figuring out where stuff is and how to get into customizations. A handy battery life readout (sans charging case) is located right at the top of the home page. Noise-cancelling controls and gesture customization tabs are front and center, too.

Beyond its intuitive layout, the app also runs nice and smooth. The only minor complaint I have is that the Zen Air buds always had to be discovered in the app, even though they were already paired to my phone. (I reported this same complaint with the Creative Zen Hybrid headphones).

Should You Buy the Creative Zen Air SXFI?

Unfortunately, I can’t endorse the Creative Zen Air SXFI. While I appreciate what Creative was striving for—a great-sounding pair of ANC earbuds with Spatial Audio and cool customizations—these in-ears didn’t stick the landing when it came to the most important category of all: sound quality.

If you’re looking for a semi-affordable pair of wireless earbuds, I suggest looking into the Skullcandy Sesh ANC Active or OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro. You may also want to check out our roundup of the best noise-cancelling headphones.

Creative Zen Air SXFI

$50 $80 Save
$30

Step into a world of unrestrained audio, brought to you in a sleek case that fits in the palm of your hand. With SXFI Spatial Holography, total playtime of up to 39 hours, noise control modes, an IPX5 rating, and more, the Creative Zen Air SXFI is the ideal compact audio companion.