Closer Examination

The Creative SXFI Air headphones come in black or white, and matching the other accessories seen on the previous page, I have the black version here. The white version still uses the black earcup cushions, so technically, it's black and white. These are over-ear headphones with protein leather on the headband, so don't go about expecting to find genuine leather here. That would generally be a mistake anyway, which is a conversation for another time. Construction is fairly simple, and the headphones themselves come in at ~340 grams, which is on the heavier side of average even for wireless headphones, especially with all the plastic used. The Creative logo adorns the headband exterior and melds in well enough to make the point without being obnoxious about it.

Inside are 50 mm neodymium magnet drivers rated for a frequency response of the usual 20 Hz to 20 kHz, and the headphones don't need much to drive them with an impedance of just 32 ohms. These are clearly meant to be paired with phones, supported by the SXFI Air C variant that loses Bluetooth connectivity for a lower price point. The earcup cushions are made out of high-density memory foam inside the same synthetic leatherette as the headband, which can be extremely subjective, with some liking the comfort and others finding it too warm over time. With slightly smaller ears on an averagely sized head, it was a bit of both for me personally, so take that for what you will.


The earcups themselves have more going on, which partly explains the associated weight as well. Besides the Super X-Fi DSP hardware inside, RGB LEDs shine through a small ring of diffused plastic situated between the yoke connector and plastic housing on each earcup. We see more branding for Super X-Fi here, with it almost taking precedence over the Creative branding itself. Despite the holes on the housing, the SXFI Air is closed-back. There is a metal band for both structural integrity and smooth, discrete clicks for headband height adjustments. These increments are numbered to help you adjust both sides evenly, and it is a quite user-friendly process overall. The earcups are marked with a large "L" or "R" to denote the sides, and build quality is fairly good even considering the large amount of plastic. There are some glossy sections, which are easily identified with the plastic wrap out of the box, but with a satin finish to its plastic surfaces, the SXFI Air is not a fingerprint magnet.


Creative added a lot to the table for I/O, another weight contributor. On the left side, we see what the company calls a "NanoBoom" microphone, which is removable. It is adequate, with some noise reduction across a rated frequency response of 100–8000 Hz, but not to where it justifies this as a gaming headset. Of course, you can attach compatible microphones to the 3.5 mm jack, but no doubt the company would rather you buy their own gaming headset variant, the SXFI Gamer, should you want a wired headset. Also on the left side is an interesting addition, a microSD slot for a microSD card (up to 32 GB, format FAT32) filled with songs in MP3, WMA, WAV, or FLAC formats. This effectively converts the SXFI Air into a media player, removing the need to connect it to an external source!

There is also the expected 3.5 mm port for the provided cable, allowing analog line-in, a power button associated with programs that alert you to the current status mentioned in your ears by a soft-spoken female voice, and the USB Type-C port for the digital connection option. The internal 1300 mAh Li-ion battery is also powered via the Type-C connector, and there is an indicator LED here, too. A dedicated source button to switch between USB and Bluetooth modes and another dedicated Super X-Fi toggle button round off this option-rich section. The latter also have associated voice signals, and then you get to the right earcup where there is... well, nothing. If you were expecting volume and media playback controls here, those are covered in a couple of pages from now. I will say that the layout of all these interactive buttons is well done, with no real issues in distinguishing what is where.