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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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Zune 120 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)
Customer Review: Fantastic product!
Summary: 5 Stars
I love my Zune. After 4 iPods (in a span of 10 years), I decided to try something different. I never really had an issue with my pods, but I was curious about the Zune. I decided to purchase the Zune 30 a year after it was released. The player [Zune 30] was extremely durable, and I loved the device interface; although hated how I had to click in order to scroll down. There was much to be improved.
Fast forward two years and several major Microsoft updates later, I now own the Zune 120. I absolutely love it. The capacity is enough for me at the moment; although I'm a music junkie. The playback quality of the songs is noticeably better than the quality my iPod's. The features, such as wireless sync, song sharing over the air, and the Zune Pass are wonderful. I lended the Zune to my girlfriend for an entire week so she could discover some new music (over 8000 tracks on my Zune), and she came back wanting to purchase one herself.
Pros:
- Great interface
- Wonderful sound quality
- FM radio + buying songs from FM
- Wireless syncing
- Sharing music over the air with other Zunes
- Improved software (more usable than iTunes, in my opinion)
- Support for podcasts and audiobooks
- Zune Pass
- Purchasing and streaming songs off Wifi
- Free updates every few months; they recently added games.
Cons:
- Battery life could be better
- Included headphones are good but not great.
- That's all I could think of.
Final word:
I still use my iPod nano and video from time to time, but I love my Zune more. There's nothing wrong with iPod's, but if you'd like to give something different a try, by all means give this a try. You can't go wrong with purchasing one.
Extra:
Living in a populated city like NY and taking the train to school every monrning, and coming back in the afternoon, there's always at least one other person on the train with a Zune. Sometimes I get random "let me send you a song" request. Totally discovered a few new artists from random people with the 'send' feature.
Customer Review: A Music-Lover's Player
Summary: 5 Stars
Poor little Zune. Less than 72 hours after owning it, someone has already told me that Zunes are "uncool". I couldn't disagree more. After owning two iPods, I've found it to be a refreshing change.
Set-up was simple, but fairly time consuming. The software took quite a while to download. Since my music collection was pretty disorganized, I spent a few hours deleting and editing song titles while the Zune synced, which may account for the slowness. (Tip: Make sure your "My Music" folder is nicely organized before syncing--it makes the whole process easier.) But so far, these are my only complaints.
I love the user interface. It's so simple to me--so much more simple than the ipod I used to have (a 30 gb video). The display is beautiful and there are so many little details that make it a pleasure to use. I downloaded a wallpaper to put on it from the Zune Originals site, so it already feels more "personalized".
The sound quality is excellent. Again, surpasses the ipods I tested, even with the crappy headphones it came with.
The best feature by far is the Zune Pass. I'm currently using the 14 day free trial and I already know that I definitely want to keep up the subscription. So far, I've downloaded nearly 100 songs, quickly and easily from both my computer and wirelessly from my Zune. I'm pleasantly surprised that the Marketplace has so much of what I want, especially since I've heard criticism that it's "not as good as iTunes". I've found obscure albums and songs and been able to download everything I want with the Zune Pass. Plus, you can permanently keep 10 each month (the rest you can keep as long as the subscription is valid). Personally, I think this feature alone blows iPod out of the water.
To me, the bottom line appears to be this: If you really love music, love exploring new artists and hearing entire albums for a reasonable price, the Zune is definitely the player for you. If you're bothered about having a really hip player with lots of available accessories, go with an ipod.
Customer Review: First impressions, very nicely done, this grandpa loves it
Summary: 5 Stars
I have owned my Zune 120GB unit for 3 days now. This is my first digital player. All my friends have had ipod's for years, but I didn't want to be limited to itunes and those small screens. Maybe my eyes are going bad at my retirement age. Hmmmm
The first day I was surprised when I found my Zune in the mailbox, like a book, maybe I was worried it would get lost. The unit really isn't much bigger than my motorola razor phone. As instructed, I downloaded the Zune software, glad we have DSL, not sure I could wait for the dial up.
After an hour, I had loaded about 15 albums that I had saved in MP3 format and started listening. Those files took almost no space. Wow, great sound, the included earphones don't do the unit justice, I had some better ones, and ordered the premium Zune phones. That night I learned how to play the game Texas holdem, nicely done, and fun.
The second day, I loaded 7 years of photos on my Zune, about 7000 photos mostly taken at 5mp and higher resolution. Surprise, that only took less than 1 giga bite, 118 more remaining. The resolution quality of the display is awsome, easy to share with others in slide show mode. I am going to learn how to load picture file folders better, so I can see the file name. not just the date it was taken. Then I loaded most of my other music collection, just insert into the drive, Zune software rips the tracks, finds the album info, and presto, you drag to your Zune, no need to convert to MP3, neat. Well I'm still under 2 giga bites. Amazing.
Third day, while jogging on our tred mill and smiling, I blow it, and the earphone cord pulls the Zune off and it crashes on the cement basement floor. Takes a lickin and keeps on tickin.
I purchased a Zune car pack with the FM transmitter, so I put it in our family car, and tried it out, very nice sound, I would need a very big box to hold all the music stored in this little player. Impressive.
You get the idea, I love this thing. Can't wait to load some home video of the grandkids.
Customer Review: Best MP3/Video Player!
Summary: 5 Stars
I had bought the original 30gb and the 80gb as they came out, but ended up returning them, scared that there weren't enough accessories. Oneday [...] there was a good deal on an ipod nano and fm transmitter, so I purchased both. I strugged with the user interface of the nano; not what I would call an intuitive design... the wheel is a dumb idea for a list format, there wasn't a way to go to the album or artist from a playing song, etc. It crashed a couple times, left me frustrated, and was stolen out of my car right before Christmas.
THEN I DECIDED TO GET THE ZUNE 120! I was so excited that it came with the A/V pack for FREE from amazon at the time and that there was a new FM transmitter out that had better reviews that the first version. Even though I had purchased and played around with the other Zune versions, I was thrilled at the ease of use compared to the ipod.
Flick your finger up or down on the touch pad to scroll through songs, artists, albums, instead of trying to think if you need to circle your finger clockwise or counterclockwise to get the song you want... The Zune screen is large and has a great picture! It comes loaded with some pretty cool pictures that you can set as your background (maybe NEW ipods can do that, but my nano couldnt!), an fm tuner, and once the update was installed there were games!
One of my faaaaaavorite things is when a song is playing, click in the middle of the touch pad for more options! You can go the album or artist, add to playlist, etc!, something I really wished my nano had had.
The "Social" feature is also pretty fun. After my boyfriend used my zune for maybe 10 minutes he decided he had to have one instead of his really old ipod. After he got it we tried sending songs to eachother. I was impressed with how quickly they sent! We didn't even have to connect to the internet before we sent them.
If you're thinking about switching from an Ipod to a different Mp3 player, check out the Zune! Easy to use, great design, large capacity!
Customer Review: it's a system, not simply a player
Summary: 5 Stars
If you want all your media (music, podcasts, audiobooks, photos, movies, etc.) in one place, then you have a choice between the Ipod classic and the zune 120. Lots of comments already posted on the upsides and downsides of these two devices. (I looked at the Archos 5 but that is really a different category of device and more money too.)
I knew ITunes (and hated it) so I tried the Zune software before I bought the hardware. (Windows only I think. [...]. You don't need the player to get full functionality out of the software or listening from your PC. You can have your account on up to 3 different PCs.) I also tried the 14 day free trial Zune pass before I bought the player to see if it had the music I wanted. If you're interested in hardware, try the software first to make sure it works for you. The service sold me on the device.
The hardware is good, but combined with the pass it really makes sense. All the music you want legally, plus keep 10 a month permanently. The mixview is helpful in finding other stuff you'd like. Download or listen to music on your PC AND your device BEFORE you buy the music permanently.
The podcast utility is excellent. It will play movies and video podcasts better than the Ipod Classic (bigger screen, more codecs).
Wireless sync works well especially with the IHome alarm clock or dock. I don't know if their whole social networking thing will catch on, I doubt it. You get a software "Zune card" that you can place on your Facebook page that helps connect your friends with what you listen to. With Ipods being ubiquitous this can help people using Zune find each other and share what they like.
There is still room for improvement on the player but it all works as it should. I'm impressed by the total experience of the package. It is well thought through. If you want to download lots of music, play lots of podcasts, in a refined, simple system, this works well.