Zune 120 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)
by Zune
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Our Price: $449.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $189.00 (click here) Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Zune 120 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)
Customer Review: Better than iPods in virtually every way!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was never a big fan of Apple's iPod. When their first-gen iPod came out, I was still using flash-based 512MB mp3 player, and never saw the need to get a giant piece of plastic with a screen. After a while these devices kept getting more and more storage and all you'd ever hear about is these 30GB iPods.
So needless to say, as soon as I heard Microsoft was attempting to make an "iPod killer", I was excited. I was eager to try out the Zune as it wasn't an iPod, and that itself is worth a try in my opinion!
Regardless, I didn't own a 30GB Zune, as just when I was ready to buy one, the second-gen 80GB model was announced. I also wasn't a big fan of the brown color - which had a lot of people laughing at it.
I owned the 80GB model for almost two years and loved it - and now I got myself a 120GB. Both are basically the same player (in physical size, too), just the coloring is slightly different and obviously the capacity. Therefore I will review the two units as if they were the same player.
Now keep in mind, I'm no Microsoft fanboy. I think Microsoft is every bit as evil as Apple in terms of their forced upgrades, digital rights management, and generally not caring about their users. But on the other hand, they make great hardware.
Features:
I'm going to try to be as honest as possible here, as I know Apple fanboys will chew me out otherwise.
Music - Obviously the iPod and Zune both play music. But then again, it wouldn't be an mp3 player if it didn't. Some specific nice things about the Zune, though... for one, the vertical screen. The iPods seem like a waste of space to me - why do you need a gigantic scroll wheel? While the Zune and iPod are both 320x240 resolution, the Zune looks pretty amazing, and showing nice large album art just helps it feel more authentic. You can even set a background picture... which last time I checked cannot be done on the iPod! (background picture for the menus, and for songs that don't have an album cover)
Another nice feature the Zune has is its incredibly fast seek speed. What I mean is, I have several thousand songs on my Zune, and I'm not always in the mood to just have any random song playing. So I'll press "next" over and over, and with any non-Zune player I've used, that gets more and more lagged each song and can end up even crashing the player due to pressing the buttons too fast. That's not the case with the Zune - it can keep up and seek songs with amazing speed. On that note, it has the best fast-forwarding and rewinding system I've seen too - I have actually TRIED it on an iPod and it's very jerky and hard to find an accurate point in the song, whereas with the Zune you can.
Videos - The iPod and Zune obviously both play videos too. What I like about the Zune, though, is its larger screen. The player itself is nearly identical in size to an iPod Classic (I mean, like a millimeter difference), but it's so much easier to watch videos without squinting since it makes better use of the screen. The videos have the same great seeking as the songs, and look crystal clear. (Well, within reason, you need good source videos. I encode them as mp4 myself so I make sure the bitrate is high enough to make them look amazing)
Formats - This is one area the Zune has a clear advantage in. Apple's iPod can really only use mp3 and mp4 formats. You can add WMAs to your library but iTunes will force you to convert them to mp3. For videos it only supports mp4. The Zune, on the other hand, will accept mp3, mp4, AND Windows Media formats natively. so any WMV videos you have, as well as anything from iTunes, will work fine! I buy songs on iTunes all the time (since they're better quality and don't have pesky DRM) and add them straight to my Zune, no conversion needed. iTunes videos work as well, but they will require you to strip the DRM off, which I can't discuss here.
Navigation - This is another area that I give massive props to the Zune in. I have never been a fan of the scroll wheel - I just never understood the logic in spinning your finger in a circle to move up and down a list. I was always preferential to D-pads... until the Zune Pad came along. The Zune Pad can be used as a standard directional input, with up/down/left/right, and center button, but it's also touch sensitive. That means you can just swipe your finger to scroll, and much much faster than an iPod's scroll wheel. With about 2000 songs, I managed to go from A to Z in all of four swipes. On an iPod you'd be spinning that wheel for quite a while. If you don't like the concept of swiping your finger, no problem - just turn touch off. Then it acts like your standard buttons. Now, words don't do the Zune Pad justice - if you want to find out more I'd highly recommend going to a store like Best Buy and trying one of their shelf units in order to really see how it works. Overall, though, it's much more user-friendly.
Games - Well, I have to admit, this is the one feature I will concede to the iPod on. The Zune comes with five games - all of them fun, but only five games nonetheless. As of right now you can't download or buy new games (though developers CAN use the XNA interface to run their own programs using the Zune hardware, including games), whereas with the iPod you can. No matter, this is an mp3 player, not a gaming device - go buy a DS or PSP if you want pocket gaming.
Radio - Probably top on my list for choosing a Zune. I listen to the radio a lot, and iPods simply do not have a radio in them. You can buy addons, but why waste money on pesky accessories? The Zune has more than just a tuner, though - it has the ability to recognize song tagging from FM broadcasts, and you can save them to your cart to buy later. If you don't use the Zune Marketplace - not a problem, just check the song title when you get back to your PC and go get the song elsewhere. Additionally, this is great for taking to gyms that broadcast their TV stations using FM - so even if you don't have any good FM stations where you live, the ability is there and very useful.
Wi-Fi - another Zune exclusive feature. The Zune has wireless syncing - meaning that if you set it up in the computer, you can sync your Zune from anywhere, provided you added new songs since the last time you synced it. It can also connect to the Zune Marketplace from any standard Wi-Fi connection (no computer needed!) and you can buy songs wherever you are. (Similar in functionality to the iPod Touch on that regard). Unfortunately it doesn't have a web browser, but that's the joy of the new Zune HD player. It also has the ability to wirelessly send songs to other Zune users. Now, I'm not going to act as if this is the coolest feature ever- as I warn you, Microsoft DOES encrypt these tracks. They limit the recipient to 3 plays per song, after which it will refuse to play - and you cannot add the song to your library. The feature has the potential to be very cool but due to copyright police we'll probably never see any mp3 player on the market that has completely free song sharing. You can, however, send pictures to anyone else, as well as podcasts. Still, the functionality is there, and it's great for sharing a new song you found with your friends without having to hand them your player.
Other cool perks - Hey, the Zune does more than just what I've listed - for example, you can use [...] audiobooks, you can view pictures on it (I didn't mention it simply because picture viewing is, well, picture viewing. It's like a video, but it doesn't move.), etc. The best way to try all the features is to go to a store and try one hands-on.
Software - Well, this is really the only thing I don't like about the Zune. Like the iPod, the Zune is a MTP-based device (for those who aren't computer-literate, MTP basically means you can't use it as a hard drive, and you have to use software to manage what's on it), and uses "syncing" through Microsoft's own Zune software. The software can get fairly annoying - especially its tendency to randomly change your album art, etc. Overall it's no worse than iTunes - and I dare say it's slightly LESS of a resource hog than iTunes is. It still requires you to add everything through the Zune software and sync it, however (I have mine set up as a "guest" so it will never auto-sync, I just manually add and remove things). Like iTunes Genius, the Zune software can give you song recommendations based on your song plays. Unlike the iPod, it has the ability to base it off what you play on your Zune player, not just the software - provided you link it to a Windows Live account.
Overall, the best features about the Zune are the FM radio, the large screen, and the general ease-of-use and intuitive controls that make it (IMO) easier to use than an iPod. It's also pretty user-friendly so even beginner can use it fairly well.
I couldn't be happier with the Zune hardware (software, yes), when it comes to mass storage players the 120GB Zune is the best you can get. Just because iPods are popular doesn't mean the Zune isn't any good - I can't encourage hands-on trials enough. If you're considering buying an iPod (or even a Zune - in which case, good decision!), the best thing you can do is head down to a local electronics retailer (Best Buy will have Zunes on display for sure), and try their demos. You just might like it better, like I did!
Customer Review: A Thorough (Long) Review from a Zune 30 Owner an a iPhone 3G Owner
Summary: 5 Stars
No matter your opinion on Microsoft, the amazing fact remains that every time they update a Zune they include a free software update for all past Zunes making them nearly identical as the new Zunes. I am sure one day this may stop due to the fact that the new hardware will require a different type of OS that won't work on the old Zunes (i.e. a Zune Touch or something). Until then, I am have been a very happy past/present Zune owner for this reason.
I owned a Zune 30 for 2 1/2 years prior to buying the Zune 120. My old Zune worked perfectly and was not a factor in my decision to upgrade. Did I need the extra space? Not really... but I wanted to try out the touch/click "squircle" before the new Zune games were launched. I read that some games may not work (or work as intended) with the Zune 30 since it does not have the touch sensitive pad. We'll see how true that is when games are put on to the Marketplace.
My opinion after owning the Zune 120 for a couple weeks:
The Good:
-I am a rabid/avid fan of the Zune Pass. I don't mind renting music, in fact I LOVE it. It really opens me up to new bands without wasting $10-20 on an album I may hate. For $14.99 a month [for unlimited downloads on up to 3 Zunes and 3 Computers] I can download from more songs than I can fathom and not be upset if I pick a few tone-deaf artists along the way. If I love an album enough to keep it I can buy it from Zune or Amazon or whomever. If you think about it, the Zune Pass could save you money by allowing you to test out bands before committing to a purchase. Also, if throwing a house party or having guests over, you can download music for your guests that you might never consider buying for yourself.
-Audible support now available. Not sure how much I will use this feature yet but for now I like it and am happy I am not closed off from this option.
-WiFi: the options are now amazingly more advanced and now having WiFi on the Zune makes sense. Being able to download songs over a WiFi connection is huge. McDonald's is teaming up with Zune and will be offering their WiFi connection to Zune owners in the near future. While iPod does this with Starbucks, there are many more McDonalds than Starbucks in the U.S. Though not sure if this is a good thing ;)
-Channels!!!: I love the new channels built into the software. As a Zune Pass subscriber I love taking advantage of this. The software makes a "channel" once a week of songs it thinks I will like based on a genre (I have a "My Classic Rock" channel, "My Rock" channel, and since I share my Zune Pass with family members a "My R&B" channel). I choose which, if any, channels I want to subscribe to (so I can skip the R&B one if I desire) and it downloads a playlist of sorts that changes every week. Also, I can subscribe to other generic channels (i.e. "Rock" Channel, "Punk/Ska" Channel etc.) not tailored directly to me if I so desire. This has been a great way to sample new bands/music that have relevance to my music style. Of course if you love a song/artist you can always permanently download the songs. If you are an avid gym buff or runner there are some very cool channels titled "Walk" "Jog" and "Run" that have songs which consist of the same range of beats per minute to keep you moving at a constant speed. Very cool.
-Mixview: Much better looking than "Genius" on iTunes since Mixview uses album art and artists pictures rather than plain old text and Mixview's suggestions seem more relevant to me than Apple's "Genius." This can always change in the future as each product develops and I am excited that there is competition in this arena since it can only make this better and better. If you don't know what Mixview is, it is Zune's way of gathering data based on your music preferences (and the preferences of others) to recommend new music to you. Pandora (the Internet Radio website) does a BEAUTIFUL job at this. It's free and I would check it out if you have never used it before. Amazing.
-Battery Life: Much better than the Zune 30 which is a nice surprise. Leave WiFi off for a longer battery life.
-Accessory Compatibility: the charger, dock, remote, car charger, etc. from the Zune 30/80/120 all work together wonderfully. If you have the version 1 dock you will need to remove the plastic insert in order to have the 80/120 fit. It only takes a few seconds and is very painless. I would add a link to websites that show video/pictures on how to do this but Amazon removed two posts in the Zune forum where I did this. Do a search, it's out there. The cases for the Zune 30 do not work with the 120 but the 80 is the same size and both use the same cases. Heard there are problems with older FM transmitters working with the newer Zunes. Not sure how prevalent this problem is as I use an AUX jack in the car.
-The Squircle: This is the only "big" difference between the Zune 30 and the 80/120. It did not take long for me to get used to using this but my learning curve may be shorter than others as I am used to swiping on my iPhone and now clicking seems more difficult for me. (You can turn this feature off if you just want to use the squircle as a click pad.) When I went to buy a case I found that most cases covered the squircle and was concerned it would mess with functionality. I want to report that it did not take away the ability of the Zune to notice my movements. However, the case makes it not as smooth of an action as the bare squircle (I have a silicone cover that makes my finger "stickier" against the case so the glide isn't as smooth). Something to think about when purchasing a case (which I would recommend.. see "The Bad")
The Bad:
-I LOVED the Zune 30 casing. That was one beautiful thing that the Zune had over the iPod. The iPods scratched and showed wear very quickly and the Zune 30's casing was virtually indestructible. With the new casing (party in the front/business in the back... the reverse mullet) it seems that the possibility for scratching is now higher. The shiny front is a fingerprint magnet and the matte black back has a silver/gold metal underneath (as evidenced by Microsoft's Zune Originals website where you can have your Zune engraved professionally.. they "scratch" [engrave] a design and the gold/silver color appears). Not sure how deep you would have to scratch to get to that color and I won't volunteer to be a guinea pig. Sorry!
I highly recommend getting a case and I am a sucker for buying a screen protector as the Zune is nearly all screen on the front and should remain beautiful and scratch-free.
The "I don't care"/ "No opinion":
-The Clock: There is a clock now.. and I don't care. Many did so they will be happy. No alarm built-in, so beware clock lovers. (Microsoft updates the firmware and software quite a bit so you never know if this could be added soon.)
-Buy from FM: I hate the radio in my smallish town. There are only a couple decent stations but they aren't good enough for me to stop listening to MP3s and tune in. For those who have better stations and are in to Top 40 or what is new on the charts this may be an amazing option for you. Getting artist and album info over Zune's FM radio could be helpful if your DJ never states the name of an artist (like so many don't) and, if you really like the song, you can download it immediately or tag it for download later (depending if you are in a WiFi hotspot or at home with plug in hand).
-Headphones: the Zune 30 came with "run of the mill" headphones, the Zune 80 came with "premium" headphones and the Zune 120 went back to the "run of the mill" headphones. I use third-party headphones ($100+) so I don't care what comes in the package. Others might so here it is.
-Games: as of today's date, there are no games available for download on the Zune Marketplace. This is supposed to change soon and I sure hope it does. However, there are two games that come loaded on the Zune when you plug it in to the computer and update (Hexic and Texas Hold 'Em). Apple has the upper hand here and has done wonders with the App store. I hope Microsoft takes note and does something like it with the Zune. Heck, I hope the do something even better so then Apple steps up their game even more... and around and around we go. Competition is great for consumers.
I think here is a good place to mention that I love my iPhone 3G AND my Zune and I need to have both in my life to be happy (in the materialistic sense). I don't listen to music on my iPhone due to limited space (after adding apps, photos, podcasts, etc. there isn't much room for music) and also because Apple does not have a subscription music "rental" service. Ideally I would like to see Zune make a phone similar to the iPhone or the iPhone to have a subscription based music service (both phones would need a large capacity drive) so I could carry around just one device (either iPhone or ZunePhone depending on the offerings). Until that day I live in harmony with my Zune 120 and my iPhone 3G.
Customer Review: The best hard-drive-based player on the market. Period.
Summary: 5 Stars
Okay, lemme get this right out there now: I *DESPISE* iPods. I never liked their silly shiny white cases and their silly little wheels (and, until recently, their silly little DRM), vastly preferring Creative Labs' line of Zen/Jukebox/Extra/etc. players with actual buttons and a rocker switch that didn't require swirling your finger like a doofus for a full minute to get to the middle of the alphabet without overshooting. Never mind my Creative's relative durability vs. many of my friends' iPods that didn't get through their first year. Oh, and the 40 GB Creative was $100 cheaper than the 30 GB iPod at the time.
But progress is progress, and my music collection finally outgrew its 40 GB allocation about 4 years later. Imagine my disappointment to learn that Creative no longer built players larger than 32 GB; even with the optional 16 GB SD card in the expansion slot, it would really only be a stopgap measure while I shopped for an even larger player to last me in the long term. I was crushed that the only manufacturers of portable media players with more than 32 GB of storage capacity were Apple (120 GB iPod Classic), Microsoft (80 and 120 GB Zune), and Archos (32-500 GB, in 2 screen sizes), a relatively unknown French company that boasted more than its share of service- and reliability-related horror stories. Since the iPod Classic was out of the question for me, that left Microsoft's Zune and the Archos "Internet Media Tablet."
After months of agonizing consideration, I finally settled on the Zune over the Archos for several reasons. First and foremost, none of the North American retail outlets that Archos claimed sold Archos devices at the time were anywhere near me, so I would've had to order it from Amazon (Best Buy has since started stocking the 16 GB version, but this obviously would have been much too small for me). While this obviously isn't a problem in-and-of-itself, I was not comfortable buying a device with such a terrible service reputation as the Archos from a seller I could not return it to in-person. I know Amazon's return policies are good, but I wasn't taking any chances with a $300 piece of electronics. Second, while the credible technical reviews I read of the Zune were almost overwhelmingly positive, those for the Archos devices were largely mixed. Most said the internet was painfully slow, the audio quality was simply "acceptable," battery life was abysmal, the touch-screen interface was (quite literally) hit-and-miss, the OS was bug-ridden and only metastable, build quality wasn't up to industry standards, etc. Plus, the company "nickel-and-dimes" users to death by selling video codecs, accessories, etc. that really should have been included in its $300 purchase price (like a wall-charger).
I bought my Zune at Best Buy almost exactly 2 months ago today, and I'm extremely happy with it. While it's true that the Zune doesn't come with a wall-charger either, the Microsoft-branded ones for sale at Best Buy are about half the price of Archos'. The player itself is also substantially cheaper than the 120 GB Archos: it was selling for about $250 at Best Buy when I got it, but I had a store coupon for 12% off, so I only actually paid about $220 (putting it to within $5 of Target's even lower price). The "squircle" control, which functions very much like a laptop touchpad, is much easier to use than that blasted iPod wheel. It will scroll directly proportionally to the force of your stroke, and exhibits inertia so you don't have to keep stroking/swirling. I'm also much more comfortable with dedicated "back" and "play/pause" buttons separate from the rest of the controls. The OS/user interface blends graphical flair more typically associated with iPods with the ease-of-use I was accustomed to after 5 years with my Creative. One particularly noteworthy example is the easy ability to queue music in an impermanent "Now Playing" playlist. Several of my friends have tried to claim that their iPods have such capability, citing the "on-the-go" playlist feature, but these people are obviously mistaking the act of creating a playlist with simply queuing something up. iTunes also lacks this feature, which is the main reason I don't use it.
I have yet to deeply probe the limits of battery life, as I'm one of those people who is in the habit of keeping all of his electronic devices charged whenever they're not in use. I realize this isn't strictly the best thing for battery longevity, but realistically, we're also talking about a device with a product cycle of 4-5 years anyway. I have no reason to believe battery life to be much under the claimed 30 hours of audio playback. Audio quality itself is perfectly fine to my relatively undiscerning ears, but is obviously dependent more upon the quality of the source media. I also haven't spent any time poking around the Zune Store. If you're anything like me, and still get 95% of their music on actual plastic discs or from Amazon's awesomely user-friendly mp3 store, you likely won't either. One caveat about this point, however, is that Microsoft only allows Zune devices to sync with the proprietary Zune desktop software. Some people love it, but I'm not one of them; I use Windows Media Player as my primary music software, and really wish they'd add Zune support for it since they're obviously both MS products. Having said this, however, the sync feature of the Zune desktop software is superb, fast, and virtually seamless.
Don't listen to the people complaining about how it's "not an iPod." Of course it's not. And I don't wish to rail against the idiocy of this sentiment, but it does the person expressing it a disservice by betraying said idiocy. If you're one of those people who reeeeeeaaaaally *has* to have an iPod, you probably shouldn't even be reading this. For people like that, iPods are more a fashion statement and a means of belonging than a functional piece of equipment, so nothing I can say about the virtues of this product could persuade them to consider something else. What it boils down to is this: if you don't like iPods but want a player larger than 32 GB, this (or the 80 GB version) is the ONLY player for you. Until they've vastly improved the firmware and durability, built a bit more market share, and set up more corporate infrastructure here in North America, don't waste your time looking at Archos devices unless you want to run the risk of blowing $300+ on a brick you may or may not ever get fixed. Even if you don't hate iPods, I strongly urge you to seriously consider the Zune. It is very much a competent and credible competitor to the iPod. I, for one, am extremely satisfied with mine despite being prepared not to be so thoroughly thrilled.
Customer Review: I love it, but I'm one of the lucky peeps
Summary: 5 Stars
So... seeing that there are already 405 reviews, mine probably won't see much of the spotlight (if you're reading this than either you spent a lot of time reading or my review somehow got a lot of helpful ratings :D
btw, the five star rating doesn't count as a perfect, I just "love it". And yes, this is a godly long review. I still have a life :(
Anyways, I bought this back around March 2009, currently December 2009 as of now - which should be about 9 months? It's still working fine, no problems. Filled up about 80 GB of the 120 so far, mostly through videos. For a brief summary, the Zune 120 is an awesome product, it will not disappoint, and will hopefully last a very long time.
Note - there are defective players out there (keep your fingers crossed, you may have noticed the myriad of reviews where someone got a bricked up Zune) But for reals, there's a low chance that you'll get a broken one, or one that will break in a month or something.
Some overview (All the positive stuff - go down more if you want to skip and read the negative part)
Product---
-Interface - awesome, nice big words, easy to read and whatnot. You won't have any complaints about it, believe me.
-Screen - Big. My friend tried to make mine look small and puny by comparing it to his iPod touch (such comparisons are inevitable), and kinda failed because the Zune 120 screen is only about 10-15 percent smaller than that of the Touch
-"squircle" and buttons - cool, takes a while to get used to, but once one does become accustomed, it's easy to use and convenient. Can be a bit weird to play some games though. Also, for anyone who buys a silicone case, the squircle works through the skin
- Battery life - Decent. It's not the kind of life that allows you to watch the LOTR trilogy in one sitting, but lasts long enough for a few days of use, depending on how heavy that use is. Personally, I'm a trickle charger (I charge even when the battery's at 80 percent), so I don't run into that many issues
- Audio Quality - I've only tried a 50 dollar headphone with this, so I'm pretty sure that the audio quality is pretty good (nice bass), but I wouldn't know how much more if you attached a $1,400 Sennheiser headphone to it >_>
Although, the Zune software allows you to rip CDs at WMA Lossless, which ranges from 700 to 900 kbps >:D (screw FLAC) And with a 120 GB hard drive, I don't think anyone would care if a single song at that quality took up about 25 MB
- but with the included headphones, quality won't be as good as it could be
- Durability - Scratch resistant. You will be awed by its uber resistantness. Just kidding. It CAN be scratched, obviously, but for normal wear, no worries - I have one scratch on mine because I accidentally scraped it against a concrete floor, and that's it.
- Other features- the Radio and marketplace are pretty cool, you get to hear 30 second previews of pretty much any song on the marketplace for free (there might be some loading if the internet connection is slow though)
- Apps - Don't buy this for apps...just don't
So, everything so far has been mostly positive. Now for the NEGATIVE stuff
The BIGGEST, MOST SCARIEST, HORRIFYINGLY scary thing about the Zune is the software. Now, this is a sort of hit and miss. Some users will be perfectly fine and be happy and have no problems whatsoever. Some may be so angered and annoyed that they rant on the Zune forums for days on end.
Of course, anyone who buys this doesn't have much choice in deciding what kind of person to be, because they might get a defective product, or their computer will have problems installing the software. But, one thing to watch out for is that the current 3.2 firmware for the Zune 120 causes no end of problems, and the DRM for the Zune Pass subscription causes no end of problems as well(Although some people do fine with it). I know this because I regularly participate in the Zune forums. In particular, try to stick with the 3.1 firmware (it's available somewhere on the Microsoft website)
Overall, I really really really like mine. If someone offered me an iPod Touch for my Zune I would laugh in their face. Of course, most people who are interested in this will be going for the nice big large hard drive that holds everything and is impossible to fill except by people who have 30,000 songs or something (how do people get that many songs?!) Which means that comparing it to a flash drive player is just irrelevant.
Which means that you people out there will be deciding between this and an iPod Classic, or one of Archos' gigantically huge PMP's (one of them has a 500 GB HDD...like, wow), or some other product out there. Which are all fine alternatives. Personally, the Classic isn't as good compared to this - [...] did a comparison and the Zune 120 came out on top.
[...]
So, one thing to note is that you MUST NOT exercise with this. I once read a post about a guy who went running with his Zune 120 for 10 minutes, and only ten minutes because that's how long it lasted. Light running or jogging will be fine though, I've tried myself. Just don't do a crosscountry run at breakneck speed. - No crazy shaking or jolting stuff - driving in a car is fine as well though
Customer Review: The Real Deal MP3 Player
Summary: 5 Stars
To those out there that are looking for an alternative to Apple's iPod, this is a more than worthy player for you. Lets face it, when it comes to media players, Apple is king. I'm not going to bash the iPod, because frankly, if it wasn't for Apple the MP3 market might be lagging behind or maybe even overlooked. Apple made the MP3 format feasible and relevant, and single-handedly created a new sector to the electronics market.
To that, I say bravo.
But that aside, I think Microsoft makes a better MP3 player today.
And this is why you should consider the Zune as your next MP3 player. The software is a breeze to use and not only looks great, but it functions with a sweet flow that smoothes out the experience of managing your collection of videos, music, and podcasts. Compared to iTunes, Zune marketplace is a joint effort in artistry and functionality. To believe that Microsoft created a clean, unobtrusive application is an incredible accomplishment.
That is saying a lot.
Within the marketplace itself you can find multiple sources of entertainment for purchase like TV shows and music. The one downside (for now at least, but not for long) is the lack of movie support for the player. As of this writing, Zune Marketplace does NOT have movies, but that will change in the near future. At E3 this year, they have announced a merger of both the Xbox Live marketplace and Zune and you will be able to upload and take movies on the go and other content onto your Zune device. This is an excellent upgrade that will happen early September. If you can wait for this, then I believe this will be a valuable feature for your player.
Also, if you like audio books the Zune supports formats from Audible.com and Overdrive.com.
Aside from the purchasable content, Zune really takes a focus on the podcast content they have available. Not only can you stream podcasts from Zune.net, but you can literally fill your entire player with countless podcasts from different sources like Bill Maher's Real Time, NPR's Radio Lab, and Discovery Channels mini podcasts of Mythbusters, and countless others. This is a key and great asset that really expands your entertainment options.
You want to learn French, Japanese, or German? There's a podcast for that. You want to talk about games, anime, movies or TV shows? Yup, there's a podcast for that, too. There are thousands of topics for you to choose from and if you want to get in the game, Zune has a program to include your podcast into the mix of things.
But what's the point of all this content if you can't take it with you? The Zune device is the perfect companion for you. The device has a squircle touch-sensitive pad that allows easy navigation between your menus. Each menu is arranged vertically and the submenus of each menu are arranged horizontally. This is a very simple and direct method of searching for content and each option is displayed in big letters for easy reading. The one downside is that it might take a few button presses to get where you want, but it isn't a cumbersome method as the menus are quick and responsive to your presses and gestures onto the squircle button. On a slower player this could kill the enjoyment of navigating the slick menu, but the Zune really handles navigation well.
The screen is a big factor, too. Compared to the iPod classic, Zune's screen is much bigger and thus you won't strain your eyes to watch videos. The sound on the player is top notch and all the nuances of any kind of music come through well on the included headphones, but if you want the best quality, I'd recommend an upgrade on those phones. The included ones aren't bad and they sure beat the iPod's headphones, but overall there is always something better to hear your music through.
I could go on and on about other features of this player, but the real sell for this (and I REALLY recommend you purchase this) is a Zune Pass. Yes, the Zune Pass is by far the BEST feature for this player. By purchasing a Zune Pass you can download and play almost any song you want from the entire library carried by the Marketplace. On top of that you get to keep 10 songs for free. In essence you are given 10 credits for songs at the beginning of your one month Zune Pass subscription. If you want a song, you "buy" it with your free credit and you get to keep it. This is a great way to experience new music and expand your collection and your tastes. Anything you don't like you just delete it without any buyer's remorse.
Truly, this combination of services, software and device greatly warrant the purchase of the Zune. I've had nothing but great things to say about the Zune and even though this isn't the market leader in the industry, it makes the market leader seem clueless as to how to properly create a great service for customers.
Is it a buy? Heck yea it's a buy. You will not be disappointed.