Creative Zen Air Review – Tech Advisor

Best Prices Today: Creative Zen Air

$39.99

Creative is a brand that has been around for a very long time. In fact, I remember being impressed when Jim Martin, the editor of this site, showed me his Creative Nomad Jukebox at the time, filled with 6GB of storage for a huge collection of MP3s.

This particular device may be long gone, but the company continues to push forward, as shown by the new TWS headphones we have here. The Creative Zen Air offers active noise cancellation along with the inclusion of Super X-Fi technology to bring your sound to life, all at a very affordable price.

But do headphones have the capacity to impress as much as their ancestor?

Design and construction

• White plastic case
• Disappointing touch controls
• IPX4 splash protection

The buds come in a chunky white case with the Creative legend engraved on the flip-top lid. A small light on the front lets you know when the case is charging, which is made possible by the USB-C port on the back.

Opening the case reveals the buds themselves, which are also a bit large. It’s the classic in-ear headphone design with a bulbous area for the drivers and elongated stems for the touch controls and microphones.

The aesthetic is reminiscent of the original Apple AirPods, though the outer edges of the stems are flat rather than round like the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2, and Apple’s buds didn’t feature active noise cancellation. Between the buds there is a button for pairing, which you hold down for a few seconds until the light starts flashing, then you should be good to go.

Martyn Casserly / Foundry

Equipped with Bluetooth 5.0, the headphones connect quickly to a variety of devices, although you won’t get the dual simultaneous connections offered by the Redmi Buds 4 Pro, but these are a bit more expensive. The signal remains strong for the most part, with only occasional dropouts, but these are common with most TWS headphones, especially at the cheaper end of the price range.

The touch controls are located at the top of the stems and are underwhelming. Double tapping to play/pause or switch between sound modes is hit or miss, with commands often not registering or being executed slowly, so you end up trying them again and inadvertently pausing playback right after it does. restarted.

You get used to the tap zones after a while, but during my time with the Creative Zen Air I never really trusted the controls as I just found them too unreliable.

In the ear, the buds are comfortable thanks to their lightweight 5g construction, although I had to change the medium-sized tips for the large ones because one was falling out of my ear. This is unusual for me as in the many other buds I have reviewed I generally find the mids to be fine for me. Not a problem, but if you’re still using the big ones, I’d be curious if these are a bit small.

Creative gives the Zen Air an IPX4 waterproof rating, which means it’s basically sweatproof when you’re in the gym or able to withstand light rain when you’re outdoors. Don’t wear them in the bath or go swimming, as they probably won’t survive.

Sound quality and features

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

Sound is delivered by two 10mm neodymium drivers and you can definitely get some good sounds out of the Creative Zen Air. Songs sound full and balanced, with a good amount of bass for a cheap pair of headphones.

Loud mid tones mean the audio gets quite punchy but stays on the good side of treble unless you’re listening to stuff that’s mixed in that way of course. They get pretty loud too, so you should have no trouble drowning out the constant buzz of life if you want a bit of audible escapism.

Martyn Casserly / Foundry

That’s a good thing, because the ANC available on the buds isn’t that impressive. There are three modes to choose from – Noise Cancellation, Ambient and Off – all of which can be cycled through by double tapping the left earbud.

Now you’ll have to temper your expectations, as these are cheap headphones so the inclusion of ANC is impressive, but what you get is some kind of noise attenuation rather than proper cancellation. Sitting in a cafe next to a few people talking a bit loudly, I found that the ANC didn’t really have what it took to get their voices out of my ears.

If anything, the mode just dampens noise in the immediate area, but you can still hear just about anything going on. Turn on Ambient Mode and you’ll hear everything a little clearer, as the microphones are activated to introduce a small amount of background noise – ideal when you’re waiting for a train announcement or having your name called in a doctor’s surgery.

There’s also the Super X-Fi feature which promises immersive sound via an app that maps the shape of your ear and head to personally tailor frequencies. This all sounds great, but in practice it has some pretty severe limitations.

Martyn Casserly / Foundry

First, you’ll need someone else to hold the camera on your phone while mapping, as it’s impossible to do this yourself. Second, the audio you can listen to must be downloaded to your phone (or other device). It sounds simpler than it actually is because the SXFI app you’re using can’t access content downloaded from streaming services like Spotify, YouTube, or Netflix.

So if you have managed to maintain a library of downloaded music that does not go through a streaming app then you will be fine, if not then it is harder than you think. I have purchased several MP3 albums from Amazon, but when downloading them through the Amazon Music app, they do not appear on the available list for the SXFI app. Luckily, there are a few demo tracks included, which sound great, but I don’t think this feature will prove useful to most people.

Battery life and charging

• Up to six hours of playback
• Wireless charging
• The case can recharge the buds three times

Creative claims a maximum of six hours of playback from a single charge, albeit with ANC turned off. I found the buds kept going for over four hours at a time, switching between modes and turning up the volume reasonably loud. It’s a lot of time and you can get more if you loosen up the ANC – which isn’t really a bad idea as I found it generally ineffective.

The buds charge up to 70% after just 15 minutes in the case, but the last 30% takes about an hour to reach. Still, if you suddenly run out of power, it won’t take long to get you back up and running.

Martyn Casserly / Foundry

When the charging case is fully charged, it can hold enough power for Zen Air earphones to work for up to 18 hours. You can also use Qi-compatible wireless chargers to replenish the case once more. It’s a rare feature on such cheap wireless headphones.

Pricing

Some of the limitations mentioned above are undoubtedly due to the price of the Creative Zen Air headphones.

You can buy them directly from Creative for $39.99 / £54.99 / $59.99, which is a reasonable cost for decent-sounding headphones, but with below-average ANC. You can also buy them on Amazon.

For around the same amount you can also get the Anker Soundcore Life A2 NC which also has ANC or if you are willing to pay a little more the Redmi Buds 4 Pro are a great choice and should only get you only pull back somewhere in the $70/£80/$80 realm.

Check out our chart of the best budget wireless headphones for more options.

Verdict

If you’re not waiting for the moon, then for a decent price you can enjoy good sound quality from a comfortable pair of headphones in the Creative Zen Air.

The ANC isn’t all that impressive though and the Super X-Fi feature sounds like something most people will try once but never come back to. More importantly, the touch controls can be frustrating to use due to the small touch targets.

If the latter were better, then it would be solid buds (if limited) that we recommend. As they are, you might be better off with other options.

Specifications

• Two 10mm neodymium drivers
• Quad microphones
• Touch controls
• ANC
• Super X-Fi compatibility
• Bluetooth 5.0
• IPX4
• AAC/SBC codecs
• 60 mAh battery (per bud)
• 34.4 x 21.5 x 23mm; 5g (per bud)
• 400 mAh battery (case)
• 60 x 48 x 28.6mm (housing)