Creative partners laptop maker Clevo to offer OEM clients Super X-Fi

CREATIVE Technology is working with Clevo, the Taiwanese original equipment manufacturer (OEM), to offer its Super X-Fi headphone holography as a hardware solution to Clevo's customer base, it said on Thursday.

One of the largest OEM laptop makers, Clevo designs and builds laptop chassis for various household brands. It markets its products in over 50 countries, Creative said.

With the collaboration, Creative's Super X-Fi technology can be integrated into the Clevo laptop design as a hardware solution, which includes the Super X-Fi UltraDSP chip. Clevo's next generation gaming laptops would be the first to feature the new tech.

Clevo executive vice-president Stephen Chien said: "Laptops today are being used more and more to experience cutting edge graphics with today's gaming and movie content, and Super X-Fi will give end-users the chance to experience a home-cinema experience right from their laptop with headphones. This is going to be a game-changer in the industry, and will help us re-frame the purpose of what a computer is: an entertainment platform par excellence."

Super X-Fi gadgets create headphone sound in "three-dimensional" detail, using a computational audio technology invented by Creative.

The technology allows users to feel like they are in a battlefield when playing games, and feel like they are in a cinema when watching movies, said Lee Teck Chee, vice-president of engineering at Creative.

Mr Lee added: "Clevo is well known in the market to be always pursuing cutting edge technologies for their products. Super X-Fi is flexible and scalable, and can be implemented in a wide range of platforms and solutions, from devices to headphones, to mobile phones, to tablets, and more ... This is the first OEM partnership we are announcing."

Creative said in January that it would be focusing strongly on OEM partnerships to bring Super X-Fi to market, after getting a good response from some large players at the CES tech trade show in the US.

The Clevo collaboration is Creative's first progress update since then. Orders will depend on uptake from Clevo's customers.