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I’ve slowly come to the realisation that, for computer speakers, once you get past the mid-range price point it becomes all about diminishing returns. There are some really solid budget picks (with Creative’s Pebble Pro being our budget speaker of choice), but the $100-200 range is where you get the most features and the best price-to-value ratio. Go beyond that and you’re spending a lot of money for only incrementally better sound and some non-essential luxuries.
And nothing quite proves that better than the Creative XF1, a set of compact yet incredibly useful speakers with a whole host of neat extra features. And they even come with two cork stands to prop the speakers, which can go entirely unused if you like your speakers flat, but It’s still plain neat that they come in the box for no extra charge.
Naturally, the more compact you go, the less room you have to jam speakers full of large tweeters and woofers, and as such, the balance with the XF1 isn’t just where to cut costs in each unit, but just how small you can condense them down before the sound starts to take a hit.
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And Creative, for the most part, has nailed that balance, with a set of speakers that are small enough to fit on my desk, but loud enough to shake it.
Buy if…
✅ You’re running out of desk space: The XF1 are a small and understated set of speakers that felt at home on my admittedly pretty small desk.
Do not buy if…
❌ You want high-end sound: Though sound replication is very strong for the price and size, you aren’t getting audiophile-level quality.
The XF1 offer mighty sound in a small package, with robust connectivity and some great presets. You naturally have to make compromises for compact speakers, but Creative have done a creative job of finding the best ones.
Features
Creative XF1 is loaded with great little design decisions. For one, it has a robust set of connectivity options, with it working via USB Type-C, aux, and Bluetooth. And that Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity even supports LDAC wireless, so it retains a high level of quality no matter the connection.
The single button on the front of the right speaker can not only be spun to adjust volume, but also clicked to swap between the connectivity modes. This means swapping from my gaming PC to my phone or laptop requires no more than a mere button press. And, in practice, this works really well too. With my default audio setting being the speaker, I can click to connect to Bluetooth, and my rig swaps to my plugged-in headphones, which is effectively a poor man’s version of the NZXT SwitchMix (and being much cheaper, ‘poor man’s’ is apt).
It’s a pretty simple set of speakers otherwise. Simply plug it into the mains, connect it to the left speaker, plug it into a device and start playing sound. One neat feature that comes in the box is a set of cork stands. Without clicking into place or requiring any tools, you merely place the speakers on top and can elevate the speakers at a 15° angle. Generally speaking, being able to elevate the speakers, and therefore elevate the tweeter and woofer, means that it directs the sound more towards you. You may not use the stands, but the fact that they come in the box for free is a solid extra.
Sound
The XF1 speakers have striking quality and clarity for the price and size. Bass, mids, and treble come through clear and are easy to pick out in the mix. And it offers strong sound reproduction at low volumes, which some speakers struggle with (here’s looking at you Edifier G2000 Pro). They can also get fierce loud, which is likely linked to the fact that they are 72 watts RMS. Even the Kanto Ora, a significantly more expensive set of desktop speakers, only offers an RMS wattage of 50 watts.
Naturally, you will get better-sounding speakers if you spend more (like the Kanto Ora I just mentioned), and if you are willing to dedicate the space for it, you can get truly superb sound quality out of the likes of the Mackie CR3.5BT. But I have yet to find a set of speakers that offers this level of quality out of its size and price.
It’s a speaker designed for games, music, and movies, and it handles them all well thanks in part to smart EQ modes in its software. The gaming mode cuts a tad from the upper mids, whilst giving a light boost to everything else, whereas the music mode drops bass and raises sub bass and upper mids. The Movie EQ also cuts the bass somewhat, while raising everything else.
There’s a rather impressive amount of EQ options in Creative’s software, including EQ presets for specific games. The GTA preset is higher on the upper mids, where the Last of Us provides a boost in bass and upper mids, with light cuts in the lower mids, sub bass and highs. I love how varied these presets are, and I think the speakers are at their best with a very slight uptick in the bass. Still, even at its default preset, the XF1 is a tiny force to be reckoned with.
The metallic clangs of Abyssus are as metallic and clangy as you’d want them to be here. It pounds when you shoot the shotgun, but it’s able to catch the nuance of a soft hum or whir. Abyssus is a game all about its murky, watery atmosphere, and that atmosphere is unhindered coming from the light frame of XF1.
For something a bit more aggressive, I sicced the speakers on speedrunner Echobreaker, and found its combinations of synth and techno drums to come through well. When the thumps, the speakers do a good job of representing that thump, shaking on top of the desk.
Moving over to something more overtly musical, Sea Power’s Disco Elysium soundtrack sounds great on the XF1. Trumpets in the middle and high end have real depth to them, where strings and piano fill out the bottom of the mix. There’s a solid clarity to everything, making it easy to pick out each instrument in their own registers.
You aren’t getting audiophile-level quality here, but I also wouldn’t expect it. The bass, mids, and highs are all clear and easy to pick out. You can get speakers which offer a deeper sound, you can get speakers that thump a little more when the bass kicks in, and you can hear more nuance in the mix from something more high-end, but what Creative have done for the price is genuinely quite impressive.
Ergonomics
With the width being just under 10 centimetres and length 19 centimetres, these bookshelf-style speakers are light, easy to set up, and can fit on many a desk. Being front-facing, they are clearly designed to sit on top of a desk and point at you from just a few feet away. The size and setup do make them at their best when plugged into a gaming rig, and the included cork stands help carry that sound straight to your ears.
Though it has many connectivity options, you only really need to plug in the power cable and connecting cable between the speakers to get it up and running. That makes it a solid pick in a clean setup with few wires. The benefit of their size and simplicity is that they’re easy to move around and even easier to clean. The only thing you have to worry about when wiping down the XF1 is accidentally moving the volume knob and blasting yourself with The Cardigans, or whatever equally banging band you’re listening to.
Aesthetics
(Image credit: Future)
The review model I got my hands on is the black variant of the XF1, and its looks are simple and understated. There’s a small light near the volume knob to show what device you’re connected to, but it has no other lighting, and it has a very simple Creative Logo on the bottom of the left speaker. Otherwise, it lacks any branding and could fit into a tidy setup with ease.
On the whole, I’d say an understated aesthetic serves these speakers well. They’re pretty no-nonsense in a lot of ways, but can really deliver in the sound department when you crank them up.
Value
Though it doesn’t sound as good as the $350 Kanto Ora I tested back in 2024, it offers a very similar experience in a lot of ways. They’re both light and small bookshelf speakers with strong connectivity, and they both have an all-black, understated look, making them great in gaming and non-gaming setups.
For something a little closer to their price point, they blow the Edifier G2000 Pro out of the water in both look and sound. Though the G2000 Pro’s throwback is more unique, I think Creative wins in looks, sound clarity, and software.
Though they’re more expensive than the Logitech Z407 (at around $120), which is another set of mid-range speakers, I’d be picking the XF1. The Z407 does come with a subwoofer, offering bigger bass, which is a huge boon, but sound quality, connectivity, and ease of use are top-notch here. The XF1 also comes with a subwoofer output jack, so you can plug in your own subwoofer if you have one.
If you just need something, I wouldn’t go for the XF1. In fact, there are a few cheaper Creative speakers I’d be picking if my budget were tighter, like the Pebble Pro or the Sound Blaster GS3. Still, if you’re looking at around the mid to high $100s, there’s nothing else I’d be putting on my small desk.
The Creative XF1 are firmly a mid-range set of speakers, with a mid-range price to match, but you are getting a lot of features and clear sound in return.
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