Creative Zen X-Fi3 hands-on (video)

This tiny thing in our hands above is the latest PMP from Creative. Portability is clearly the thing here -- the Zen X-Fi3 is extremely tiny and light. It has a little color screen on it, as well, but don't get too excited on that front -- unfortunately the player doesn't sport a touchscreen, so you've got to use the controls on the bezel, which aren't particularly responsive. The interface, fittingly, is also pretty barebones on that front, offering the basic sort of scroll-through menus that defined music players for years.

The highlight of the device -- aside from its exceedingly small size -- is its Bluetooth transfer capabilities. The X-Fi3 keeps with the company's commitment to audio fidelity, thanks to the apt-X codec, which supposedly offers audio quality similar to a wired connection when streaming. On that front, the device also handles FLAC files.

The player will run €99 and €140 for the 8GB and 16GB versions, here in Germany. It should be going on sale in the middle of this month.