The Creative Zen X-Fi2 is the latest in a long line of rivals to the iPod Touch.

And Creative has made a worthy attempt with the Zen X-Fi2 - while it may not be quite the MP3 player that the Touch is, it does come close.

As the name suggests, the Creative Zen X-Fi2 is an update to the X-Fi MP3 player, with a few notable upgrades. There’s a larger screen this time around (3-inches with 400×240 resolution), and this time it’s a touchscreen - Creative’s first. Unfortunately, this shows - the touch interface is nowhere near as intuitive or responsive as Apple’s.

The Zen X-Fi2 also offers support for a wider range of audio formats. This includes the Free Losslesss Audio Codec (FLAC), which many audiophiles consider to be the ideal format for digital music, and iTunes Plus (unprotected AAC format). Then of course there is support for all the standard audio and video formats, including WMA, WAV, WMV9, XviD3 - to name just a few.

Audio quality is where this player really shines. Creative claims X-Fi technology restores audio to high levels of clarity and simulates audio from high-end speakers by intelligently moving the earphone stereo source away from your ears. In any case, most people will find audio quality to be superior to that of any iPod. The excellent included earbuds also help.

Rounding out the package, Creative has also equipped the Zen X-Fi2 with an Fm radio and voice recorder as well as an RSS reader.

Storage options and pricing are 8GB ($154.50), 16GB ($199.95) and 32GB ($272.68).

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By Caroline Warnes