I will chime in on this thread since I just got my x5l 30gb in the mail today, and no point making two threads. Lots of people are picking these up/ considering them, and we should refer them to this thread. Lots of great info!
anyways onto my first impressions:
originally I had bought a creative zen touch 40gb, simply cause I needed a lot of space to store as many albums as I could. Well I decided for 100 dollars more I could compromise and lose 10gb, gain a few hours of playback time and a nice color screen. Fast forward to opening the box. The player is packed ok. For the price I would really expect a nicer box, like the ipods, but I can't complain. One thing I noticed and immediately smiled at,
they include screen protectors! altho only two, they are very useful and most people end up having to buy these online. /
mini tip, to put on a screen protector professionally, and not have all those hideous bumps/ air bubbles, simple wet the protector with rubbing alcohol. Then lay it flat on the screen, and use a paper towel to press as much alcohol out as possible. Leave it to dry for a few hours and you will have a perfect screen protector/
It did take a while to charge, I don't know exactly how long, but less than 3.5 hours for the full charge.
/New owners, charge the battery up to full before using it! you will screw up the battery if you charge it for 40 mins, and unplug it to play with it/interupting the charge cycle. The first few charges be sure to empty the battery completely before plugging it back in. This ensures your battery will mantain its max capacity and last longer, it's known as cycling and applies to all rechargables, even nimh./ I will time the next charge cycle but that may be a few days away
as for the player, its actually very light, considering there is a 30gb drive and extended battery in there. I'm amazed at it frankly, if you are worried about it being more cumbersome than the normal x5, get real! this thing is small and light, if you can't carry this in your pocket perhaps you should consider leaving your keys/wallet at home too. Build quality is very good, the aluminum case is a big plus, and the annodizing is very well done. With this said I did not like the feel of the navi joystick. Its small, and has a pretty good edge to it, so it is not very comfy navigating. People with large hands look out. It takes some getting used to and definately isnt for everyone. Also like it was already mentioned, the rubber protector for the bottom peripheral jack is not connected to the player, I see this getting lost very quickly. I know it's nit picking but finding another one of these is hard!!
so first time turning it on, plugging in ksc 75's, and WOW the intro movie/ad blew me away. The player sounded huge, lots and lots of bass, especially with the koss ksc's. I looked at the eq settings, and turns out of course the bass is set to full, fx are set to full to impress/wow. This sounds ok on the stock buds but with real headphones they are a bit too much. Initial navigation was very fustrating, due to not RTFM. because of the basic controller, you have to memorize patterns and directions to navigate. So if you don't like to read manuals then don't expect to know how to work the player. I actually think the player is too simplified and that a larger comfier navi-joystick on the center of the player would work much better. It's basic and sleek, but a little too much so, and takes a little time to get from menu to menu.
the color screen is quite nice but definately shows the weakness of the gpu, videos are acceptable but you will see artifacts/ choppiness if you look for it. All in all very watchable though and better than I expected. I was planning on watching anime on this but I shall see if the subtitles are readable after I try it. Sound quality is quite good, but I won't go into that much as I believe all mp3 players sound about the same.
the usb/line inout/ charge jack adaptor. this piece really brings the player down. They may have done this to cut costs/ simplify design, but I am not impressed. While it's usable, it's not very stable and you could not, IMO, use portably without risking damaging the player. Reason being it sticks out quite far, and the idiot who designed it placed small tabs/bumps on the piece, surrounding where it plugs into the player. Now this would be great if there were slots/indents in the player to accept these and click/lock together, but there are none! so the adaptor cannot meet flush with the player.
inital impressions summary:
pros: a lot of player for the price, good looking color screen and excellent enclosure material. light and small. Player is assembled with normal philips screws, so you can actually disassemble the unit yourself if need be. Handy recording button on player so you don't have to fumble through menu's for it. included ear buds look nice, and sound ok. There is virtually no bass on them so the eq is tuned for them, but the mids are listenable and highs are ok. they don't hurt my ears like many other stock buds. plugging it into the computer is very easy and drag and drop is a huge huge convienence. The transfer speed is very good, and i uploaded an entire cd (670mb) in about a minute. Included software is intuitive and useful.
cons: screen is a little small, navigation joystick takes getting used to and hurts the finger at first. adaptor is annoying. headphone jack is on the side of the player?! why not at the top? this sits kinda weird and wont work well with tight pants. no included remote (even a cheapie with no screen would have been nice). the volume is impossible to adjust while scrolling through songs, and this is very annoying, since the volume control is also the navigation control. The controls themself are a semi complicated and you do need to read the manual. not as userfriendly as an ipod wheel.
more to come this weekend, when I have more time to sit down with the player, and the computer!
