Much like smartphones, earbud technology has plateaued in recent years.
Previously premium features like active noise-canceling (ANC) technology are now commonplace on affordable earbuds, and the current trend of including AI is a step sideways at best.
This is why I’ve stuck with my Google Pixel Buds Pro since they launched in 2022. They offer ANC, tap controls, Fast Pair, impressive battery life, and a fantastic transparency mode.
However, receiving a pair of Creative’s Zen Air SXFI earbuds has made me rethink whether I’m missing out.
The Creative Zen Air SXFI earbuds have it all
All the features, all the time
Earbuds from a relatively niche brand like Creative might seem like an odd reference, but on the surface, they offer all the features you could want from earbuds in 2025.
Adaptive ANC, up to 39 hours of battery life (12 hours per charge), surround sound, IPX5 water resistance, and more, for $80.
It’s a collection of the best features of modern earbuds at an affordable price, and while this means compromises, you can’t help but be impressed by what Creative is trying to achieve here.
But let’s take a step back and examine the Pixel Buds Pro for a moment.
I’ve used these earbuds nearly every day since August 2022, and since then, I’ve struggled to find a reason to replace them.
I don’t use all their features, Google Assistant being the most prominent, but they’ve given me everything I want from earbuds, or so I thought.
After a few weeks with the Creative Zen Air SXFI, I can confidently say they won’t completely replace my Pixel Buds Pro.
However, the Zen Air SXFI earbuds have introduced me to fun ideas that have made me realize that when I do buy a pair of new earbuds, they won’t be the Pixel Buds Pro 2.
The features I care about
Convenience and ANC
If you care about sound quality, don’t spend money on a good pair of earbuds; invest in a quality pair of headphones.
Sure, there are some brilliant earbuds out there for audiophiles, but they physically can’t come close to the quality of over-ear headphones. What matters most for earbuds is convenience, battery life, and ANC.
The Pixel Buds Pro’s tap controls are fantastic. You can tap to play, pause, skip backward and forward, and swipe to adjust the volume. You can also tap and hold to change the ANC settings, which I’ve set to toggle between ANC and transparency modes.
The Creative Zen Air SXFI offers a similar suite of tap controls, but they require frustratingly strong taps, and the ANC controls toggle between four modes, and you can’t remove any from the rotation.
I like being able to toggle modes in a second when I’m about to engage in conversation (Adaptive ANC has an annoying delay on both sets of earbuds, so I don’t use that), but the Zen Air earbuds force me to take them out or avoid eye contact for several seconds while I toggle through the modes.
ANC isn’t great on either set of earbuds, but I can confirm that, as long as you aren’t taking flights or walking through busy streets every day, you don’t need to spend more than $100 to get decent ANC in 2025.
If I were to leave it here, I would be content to stick with my Pixel Buds Pro for the foreseeable future. But SXFI has changed my view on what I can expect from earbuds.
SXFI adds a dynamism to my sound that I wasn’t expecting
Spatial audio can change your world
SXFI is proprietary technology from Creative that aims to “recreate the experience of a high-end multi-speaker system” through nifty software magic.
The reality is that while I stick with my Pixel Buds Pro for music, movies and games are best paired with the Zen Air SXFI.
The surround sound effect from the Zen Air SXFI is phenomenal for movies and games (although there were notable exceptions).
While it took a lot of fiddling with the sound settings to get it right, the immersion of surround sound from earbuds is something I can’t imagine living without.
For games and movies, SXFI creates a 3D sound effect that is particularly pronounced in FPS games. Dialogue-heavy movies aren’t ideal, as some dialogue comes out flat and lifeless, but action movies and games are brought to life.
I’ve found myself reaching for my Zen Air SXFI when playing Halo more than my dedicated gaming headset.
However, while SXFI is proprietary, spatial audio isn’t. While I loved SXFI when it worked, it wasn’t as consistent as I would have liked.
Creative’s over-ear headphones, the Zen Hybrid SXFI, worked better and more often, but I rarely find over-ear headphones comfortable. Earbuds are always my go-to for music, movies, and games.
Tap controls, effective ANC, and spatial audio
The Zen Air SXFI earbuds, in trying to do everything, have made me rethink what I can expect from earbuds in 2025.
In short, don’t compromise on ANC and tap controls, but features like SXFI can change your world. Perhaps I’ll give Bose’s Immersive Audio technology a try.
