Creative Zen Air review : Affordable wireless earbuds

The Creative name has been in existence for a very long period. In reality, I recall being pleased when Jim Martin, the site’s editor, demonstrated his Creative Nomad Jukebox to me in the past. It had 6GB of storage for a sizable MP3 collection. Even though this specific product is long gone, the business is still advancing, as evidenced by the brand-new TWS earbuds we have here. At a very low cost, the Creative Zen Air offers active noise cancellation in addition to Super X-Fi technology, which really brings your music to life.

But can the earphones rival the impact of their predecessors?

Best Prices Today: Creative Zen Air

Design & Build

• White plastic casing
• Disappointing touch controls
• IPX4 splash proofing

The flowers are packaged in a substantial white container with a flip-top cover that bears the Creative legend. The front of the case features a tiny light that illuminates when the case is charging, which is made possible by the USB-C connector on the back.

The blooms themselves, which are also a little on the chunky side, are visible when the container is opened. They have the traditional in-ear bud shape, with an expanded stalk for the touch controls and mics and a bulbous region for the drivers.

Although the exterior edges of the stems are flat rather than rounded like the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2, and Apple’s earbuds didn’t have active noise cancellation, the design is evocative of the original Apple AirPods. The connection button is located between the earbuds. Press and hold it for a few seconds until the light begins to flash, and you should be ready to go.

The Bluetooth 5.0-equipped earbuds rapidly pair with a variety of devices but you won’t get the simultaneous dual connections provided by products like the Redmi Buds 4 Pro, which are significantly more costly. The majority of the time, the signal is robust with only rare dropouts, but these are typical of most TWS earbuds, particularly those at the lower end of the price range.

Disappointing touch buttons are located in the top portion of the stems. It’s hit-or-miss when double-tapping to play/pause or swap between sound modes; instructions frequently don’t register or are performed slowly, so you end up attempting them again and unintentionally pausing playing just after it resumes.

After some time, you get used to where to touch, but while using the Creative Zen Air, I never really learned to trust the controls because I found them to be far too unpredict medium-size

The 5g light weight of the buds makes them pleasant to wear in the ear, but I did have to swap out the medium size tips for the large ones because one kept falling out of my ear. This is uncommon for me because I typically find that the mediums work well for me in the many other buds I’ve evaluated. Although it’s not a problem, if you always use the big ones, I wonder if these turn out a little ti

The Zen Air has an IPX4 waterproof certification from Creative, which basically makes them sweatproof for the exercise or able to endure moderate rain when you’re out and about. However, avoid wearing them while bathing or swimming because they are unlikely to live.

Sound Quality & Features

• Decent sound quality
• Weak ANC
• Super X-Fi sound for downloaded songs

Two 10mm Neodymium speakers are used to transmit sound, and the Creative Zen Air certainly produces some nice tones. Songs have a good quantity of bass for a set of budget earbuds, and they sound complete and balanced.

Strong mids make audio lively but keep it on the mildly shrill side unless you listen to material that has been blended that way, of course. If you want a little auditory escape, you shouldn’t have any difficulty drowning out the continuous drone of life because they can get quite noisy as well.

That’s advantageous because the ANC offered by the earbuds isn’t particularly strong. You can switch between the three available modes—Noise canceling, Ambient, and Off—by double pressing the left bud.

Although the addition of ANC is remarkable for such low-cost earbuds, what you actually get is more of a form of noise muffling than chatters cancellation. I discovered that the ANC didn’t really have what it took to drown out a few people’s chatter while I was sitting next to them in a coffee shop.

If anything, the setting simply lessens the intensity of nearby sounds, but you can still hear the majority of what is happening. When you switch to the Ambient environment, the microphones are activated to add a small amount of background noise, making everything a little bit clearer. This is useful when you’re waiting for a train notification or for your name to be called in a doctor’s offoffice

Another option is Super X-Fi, which offers immersive music through an app that maps your ear and head structure in order to individually adjust the frequencies. All of this sounds great, but it has some serious constraints when put into use.

It is unfeasible for you to handle the phone’s camera while mapping, so another devices need a helper. Second, you have to download the recording you can listen to to your phone. (or other device). Since the SXFI program you use cannot access downloaded material from streaming services like Spotify, YouTube, or Netflix, this sounds easier than it is.

So, if you’ve managed to keep a collection of audio that isn’t through a streaming app, you’ll be fine; otherwise, it’s trickier than you might imagine. I’ve purchased a number of MP3 songs when I use the Amazon Music app to obtain them, they don’t show up on the list that the SXFI app is able to access. Although there are a few excellent demo songs included, I don’t believe most people will find use for this function.

Battery Life & Charging

• Up to six hours playback
• Wireless charging
• Case can recharge buds three times

Though that is with ANC turned off, Creative promises a maximum of six hours of playing from a single charge. I discovered that even when I switched between settings and had the level fairly loud, the earbuds lasted for over four hours at a time. This is a good quantity of time, and if you cut back on the ANC, which I found to be mostly useless, you can get even more.

The container can replenish the buds up to 70% in just 15 minutes, but it takes about an hour to reach the final 30%. Even so, it won’t take long to get you back up and going if your battery unexpectedly runs low.

When the charging case is completely charged, it can power the Zen Air earbuds for up to 18 hours. You can top off the case again using Qi-compatible wireless devices. On inexpensive wireless earphones, that function is uncommon.

Pricing

There’s no question that the cost of the Creative Zen Air earbuds contributed to some of the limitations listed above.

These are available directly from Creative for $39.99/£54.99/€59.99, which is a fair price for good-sounding earphones with mediocre ANC. They are also available on Amazon.

Verdict

The Creative Zen Air offers acceptable sound quality from a cozy set of earbuds for a reasonable price if you’re not anticipating the moon.

Although the Super X-Fi function seems like something that most people will attempt once and then never use again, the ANC is not that remarkable. More significantly, the tiny touch targets make it difficult to use the touch buttons.

If the latter were superior, these would be good (though constrained) blooms that we’d suggest. You might be better off with different choices as they stand now.