Zune 80 GB Digital Media Player (Black)
by Zune
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List Price: Buy Used: from $135.00 (click here) Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Zune 80 GB Digital Media Player (Black)
Customer Review: A solid, well-designed high capacity MP3 player
Summary: 5 Stars
I already own an iRiver HP120, which I love. But it's over 5 years old, and it's getting a little tired. I really like the form factor of my iRiver (held vertically, not too small, not too big), and most newer players don't look like it at all. I wanted something that WASN'T touch screen based, as I use my MP3 player a lot in the car and I don't want to have to look at it in order to use it. I bought my wife a Cowon iAudio6 about a year ago, and it's really sweet. The new iAudio7 is flash based and holds 16 GB, but it's actually a little too small in size for my taste. I like the new Sonys, but their capacity is too low (even the newer 16 GB 800 series models). I have an enormous music collection, and I listen to it a lot. I kept eying the Zune, and went back and forth about 5 times before buying it. The things about it that appealed to me were: the form factor, the capacity, the interface, the build quality, the battery life. The things about it that prevented me from buying it right away were: the fact that it's made by Microsoft, the fact that it's completely non-customizable, the poor reviews of the Zune v1.0 software, the fact that it can't act as a USB host, and mostly because you can't access the Zune device without using the Zune software -- and it's locked down pretty tight.
I have the Zune now for a few days and my first impressions are as follows:
The Zune device is well-made. I really like the size and shape -- it's almost perfect. The screen is awesome. The interface is surprisingly good and is fast. I like the touch pad (squircle). The sound quality is very good. The wireless capability is actually pretty cool. I can sync my Zune over my 802.11g WLAN at home (supports WEP, WPA, WPA2, TKIP, AES) without connecting it to my PC. I wish it had equalization controls like the original Zune, and more tweaking options like my old iRiver.
The Zune software is better than I was expecting. It does have some strangeness to it, but it works fairly well. For me, it's main shortcoming is that I can't customize how it presents my music collection. You have limited sorting options as to how the contents are displayed. It's not a show-stopper, but it's worth mentioning. I haven't played with the online aspects of sharing yet via the 'social', but I will get to it in time. In order to participate in this stuff you will need a Windows Live account, although you are NOT obligated to share your Zune collection if you don't want to.
So far, I am impressed with this little device, and I don't think that I made a mistake buy buying one. It looks like it will last a long time, and I can only hope that future firmware and software updates will address some of my gripes. Overall, a very impressive second effort by Microsoft. I think they got it right this time.
Customer Review: Excellent device
Summary: 5 Stars
The Zune 80 is an excellent device in so many ways. The design is breathtaking, the screen is big and attractive, the whole device has a the perfect size, the unscratchable back is just amazing, and it all just builds up together to provide an amazing experience. The device is extremely responsive, the central button (the 'squircle' as they call it) is very smooth and amazing to handle, just touching lightly and scrolling upwards or downwards scrolls through the lists, etc. The software inside is also excellent, the interface is very friendly, and the menu is two-dimensional, meaning you can move from artist view to playlist view to song view to album view easily, you can select an atrist and browse albums in a very clever way, etc. The Now Playing screen is very attarctive and using the side-scrolling, you can move between songs while in the Now Playing screen. Different touches result in different responses from the device; it behaves just as you want it to, for example, when in the now Playing screen, a very hard and big sidescroll needs to be made to move to the next song, while scrolling up or down very lightly instantly changes the volume; a quick scroll in the music list scrolls at a higher speed, displaying the first letters of the song/artist as you scroll and touching a quickly scrolling list results in having it stop.
The computer software is really good, but I believe this is where the product needs to be improved. If you have your music list in one place, it'll be very easy to manage, but otherwise it'll be hard to manage everything.
In comparison to the iPod, I definitely see this as an iPod killer. When compared to the iPod classic, the zune is so much better, offering the same hard disk size yet a much better interface and more features. There's Radio, there's music sharing ('squirting' as its called), etc. The button in the zune is much more responsive and useful than the iPod's scroll wheel; it provides two dimensional scrolling rather than a simple one dimensional scrolling, and its much more smooth and responsive. The UI is also better organized and more attractive overall.
The Zune 80 is good and can also be compared to the iPod Touch. The iPod touch is more than just a music device so in that way the Zune might be seen to be behind, HOWEVER, when it comes to the music capabilities as well as responsiveness, the Zune is amazingly better in my own opinion. No matter how much I tried to act smooth with the iPod touch, my fingers always seem big and bulky and mistakes in moving around and pressing the right things always occur. The Zune's touch-sensitive button is as smooth in many ways, yet its easy to use and making such mistakes isn't an option.
Overall, highly recommended.
Customer Review: pretty damn good.....
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had the same 20g ipod for almost 3 years (gen 3 maybe? I don't know, first generation with the click wheel), finally died on me the other day, so I went out and bought this the next day. I was very very happy with my old ipod though, especially since it lasted me 3 years of constant use...I just felt like...I guess, not going with another ipod.
But onto this. I am extremely happy with this, I'm sure I would've been happy with the new ipod as well, since I am coming from primitive. The scroll pad is amazing...it really is. I like it better than the ipod click wheel by a lot. Yes, the faster you move your finger, the faster it scrolls, but you can also flick your finger across a few times, and it will practically scroll through your entire collection at a decent speed (where you can still tell alphabetically where you are at all times). You can then just rest your finger on the pad for the scolling to stop that instant. It's very hard to overshoot what you're looking for. I don't think I could think of a better way to get through long lists.
The sound is fantastic in my opinion. I don't know if ipods made theirs better since my old one, but I could never find one of their EQ settings to make everything I listened to sound the way I wanted. I have already listened to this for hours and hours, and everything sounds great. All highs are there, bass comes in perfectly with the included headphones (and there are no adjustable or preset EQ settings). The headphones are very similar to the Sony Fontopia (~$40) I've been using and are just about on par with them. The magnet to help prevent tangling, and the braided wire is a nice little touch too!
Software I'm still getting used to. It really isn't bad, but it's not the greatest. I don't like how you can't easily change song properties as you could with itunes (highlight all songs by one artist, right click, change the artist names to be the same, and you're done). I haven't found a way to do that with this yet. If anyone knows how, please inform me. Other than that, I'm fine with it. I'm a windows media player 11 user (solely used itunes before that came out, and then only used it for ipod synching), so getting rid of itunes is not a problem for me at all.
REALLY REALLY REALLY wish you could synch this with WMP...that is a superbly dumb move considering you NEED windows to use a Zune.
Overall, the thing is beautiful. I'm not overly critical of anything. If it works without frustrating me, I'm happy...and this makes me happy. Maybe the ipod would've too, but I'll be glad to help a viable competitor out so apple stops controlling this market.
Customer Review: Great Player
Summary: 5 Stars
Update: DO NOT use the lock switch as a glorified OFF switch like with an iPod. Apparently the lock switch has issues when the Zune is not in use. You can use it with no problem to keep from switching songs, adjusting volume, etc. while listening to the Zune, but if you use it when the Zune isn't playing and is charging, it can crash it. Instead of the lock switch, click and hold the BACK button and the DOWN click on the wheel at the same time until the Zune turns off. It won't turn back on until you press and hold the play button, so this will preserve your Zune battery charge during extended periods of non-use. Using the lock switch to keep the Zune turned off is a BAD iPod habit. :)
Original: After my 2nd generation (15gb) iPod died after 4 years of use, I found myself in need of a new player. Having success with my prior player, as well as all the power cords, etc., I first looked at the new iPods.
That's when I realized that none of my cords will work with the new iPods and I'd have to buy everything all over again. So, I compared costs to the Zune.
For less than the 60gb iPod alone, I was able to buy the 80gb Zune, 2 docking stations (v1), 2 remote controls, 2 power blocks, 1 car charger, 2 A/V cords, and 4 sinc cords.
As all my music is from CDs (rather than bought via iTunes), converting to the Zune software was as easy as downloading the software. It automatically pulls everything from the My Music, My Videos and My Pictures folders on the computer.
While the playlists didn't automatically add to the Zune software, the playlist titles and song names did, so it was just a matter of using the list of song names to re-create the playlists. Much easier than trying to re-create them from memory alone.
The software is easy to use and has a pleasant look and feel to it. Very easy to move around in, and syncing to the Zune was as simple as right clicking (I turned off the auto-sync, so I can pull only specific stuff into the Zune as desired).
The Zune itself is very stylish and easy to use. The sound is great. The buttons are easily worked. After having an iPod, it took a few minutes to get used to the scroll - I kept scrolling in a circular pattern. Once I got used to a "paper turning" movement with my thumb, I find it easier on my hand to scroll on the Zune.
While I didn't think I cared, I rather like the "social" ability. It's easy to send a song to a friend's Zune, and fun to see Zunes come in and out of range. I'm almost positive my Zune was sending "crash" waves to a friend's iPod today also. :)
Customer Review: Throw away the factory headphones. Don't even show them to anyone.
Summary: 5 Stars
The 80 gig zune is awesome. Everybody that uses it automatically tries to manipulate the wheel like it's an ipod. It doesn't do circles, it does straight lines, vertical and horizontal. The touch function works very well after a minute of playing with it. If you're in a rush to get to a song and you keep swiping it will fly past your selection so to stop it you place your finger on the button as if it where a spinning wheel and it comes to a dead halt. Nice touch.
The sound quality is awesome but the first thing you have to do is throw away the horrible head phones it comes with. I thought the thing was a dud until I put in a different set of headphones. There is no equalizer but sound is very rich and full, even for crap mp3's I've had since I was a teen.
The software can be annoying. It tries to be a combination of windows media player and itunes at the same time so it has decreased functionality in some respects in order to be easier to use by stupider people. My favorite function, open song in folder is still there but harder to get to.
The best thing about the new software is it doesn't make it hard for you to copy your music onto your other pc's. You can add music onto your zune simply and you can take it to another computer, download the zune software, and put the songs from your zune onto any other computer (as long as it also has the zune software which you can pull down for free from the internet as long as you have the zune on you). I haven't tried to max out the number of computers I can copy songs too but so far I haven't had a problem.
I've downloaded from the store, it's easy, the songs copy to other computers, no bs, no problems. The only problem I've had is wireless syncing to other zunes. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but there is no explanation as to why.
The extra wide screen is nice for watching podcasts it's just to bad there are so many bad podcasts out there. I try to stick with the ones that are professionally done. The store doesn't have much to offer in the way of movies or television yet but I'm waiting.
Ah, this is my big complaint, if you're putting videos on your zune, make duplicates of the videos as it re-renders them into 320 by whatever to fit the zune's small screen so when you watch the videos have shrunk. Watching a video so small on a 32inch monitor sucks. Test it with expendable video first.