Zune 80 GB Digital Media Player (Red)
by Zune
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List Price: Our Price: $159.79 You Save: $89.21 (36%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days 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 80 GB Digital Media Player (Red)
Customer Review: Zune 80 GB
Summary: 4 Stars
I have enjoyed using my Zune the software is quite easy to use, and the FM radio feature was useful while camping to get storm information.Customer Review: fantastic hardware, horrid software
Summary: 3 Stars
Over 400 reviews already written here so I will try to keep my brief. I am a web developer so I am fairly good with computers, software and gadgets... just keep that in mind. Here is my take on the Zune:
PROS:
1. beautiful - very slim and sexy piece of equipment and the red is a nice touch.
2. good headphones - these are ear in semi noise-cancelling headphones. They do their job quite well. The sound is clear, deep base and they look very nice and modern.
3. georgous screen - the huge screen definitely sets this apart from the ipod. When you fly a lot then having this monitor is a huge benefit. Solid display at a good size
4. quality sound - the sound is very good in all accoustic ranges.
5. FM Radio - I still listen to it. Hello NPR!
CONS:
SOFTWARE - This is the puzzling point. Here we have a company that rewrote the book on usability with windows software, office software, internet software and so forth. Yet they give you an application that, although its intuitive in many ways, it acts at times like it has a mind of its own. Drag and drop is not a simple feature. At times you need second party software to prepare the mp3s to be recognized as belonging to the same album/folder/artist.
Let me reiterate, software is Very frustrating and it is the biggest stepping stone to getting this piece of equipment. I personally would recommend purchasing your Zune from a place that you can return it within a couple of weeks and giving the software a serious test drive. Try its audio syncing, podcast feature, video transfer and so forth. Even for someone like me who is comfortable with applications, I am stunned at how severly limited the application is.
Zune also isn't recognized as an external drive. Forget about using it to carry data from place to place. Hello, its 2008! Worst of all, you can't use windows explorer to drag and drop and manage stuff on your zune hd. This is perhaps my BIGGEST complain. You have to go through their semi-archaic software to manage your music and at times when it syncs, it will screw things up on your zunes HD; files will not belong to the correct artist, some will get deleted cause they no longer are on your PCs HD.
No Equalizer - To this day I havent found anything on how to adjust the sound...
BOTTOM LINE:
Purchase this if you wanna give it a try. Its good but only buy it from a place that you can test drive it and return it. Spend LOTS of time initially learning the software. This is going to be the big challenge. Try every aspect of the application and see if you can live with it... C+ product. God I could have sworn that Microsoft had something to do with making good software?.. If Apple had FM and a big screen on their IPOD, they would have easily won my dollar.
Customer Review: 3rd time is charmer?
Summary: 3 Stars
1st Attempt to rate the product- Helped no one. It was filled negativity about my subpar experiences with Zune service personnel. Result: 11 out of 11 Zune marketing people who comb Amazon Zune reviews said my review didn't help. No surprise there.
2nd Review- removed the negativity about poor service, etc. But did recommend that
"If you want an MP3 player buy the best storage to price offering from anyone because apparrently brand name doesn't equal quality. After all, these devices all work the same. The same podcasts are available to all mp4/mp3 players, so is the music." 0 out of 0 people were helped.
Current review: Just the facts:
70,000 plays and knock wood, this replacement is still kicking. Since some of my favorite songs are 20 minutes long, the time running is now >5500 hours after nearly 2.8 years on the same device. Regular usage is pretty high you'll note. The first two were real duds apparrently.
If you really decide to pay this much for an MP3 player, or a Zune- get a warranty. Note: if your primary device breaks, the replacement shipped from MSFT is only good for three months under warranty) So be sure to purchase the extended warranty for the replacement Zune ASAP or it will expire.
Finally, would I consider buying a Zune again? If you asked me anytime before this replacement device was recieved, I'd have said 'No!', maybe 'Heck No!'.
Now I'd say "maybe". Good graphics, ample storage, good sound, but get the warranty. Initially I was 'delighted". I've never been 'Happy" since the first two failures, lately I've been 'relieved' that it has been no trouble.
My perspective? Well, in addition to the Zune 80G, we own the iPods, also (albeit recently) own Sony Walkman (Why not a Zune?- it was great deal), and a couple of Sansa's. Hate to admit it, but the Zune, so far is the best of the lot for graphics, battery length, storage, file conversion, video playback, and like most Microsoft products- late bloomers that they are - the features continue to be made available and backward compatible (so far anyhow). iPod still has an edge on podcasts; but now nearly everyone is making their feeds available for iPODs and other MP3 players. The Zune podcast list is growing like a weed. So there may be more parity than some will let on.
Not delighted yet, but if I could only choose between iPods and Zune, I'd pick Zune. If I'm deciding to pick a Zune or other MP3? Look at Sony, Creative and Zune. If size matters, just save yourself the hunting and buy a Zune with the warranty.
Customer Review: Probably should have stuck with the iPod
Summary: 3 Stars
I've had my Zune for about a month now. It looks great, I love the big screen, and I like the control system, or interface. I was very excited when I first got it, but I was ready to throw it through the window that night when I couldn't figure out how to get the software to work. I had to download some patches or fixes or something before it would even be recognized by my computer. Very frustrating, and it doesn't come with a disc just to load the software yourself.
I've also noticed that the software sometimes has glitches while ripping discs. It's not a Zune hardware problem -- in other words the zune isn't skipping, but it improperly rips a song and transfers it to the zune with skips in it. Even if it's only one song from a disc, you still have to go back and re-rip that disc to fix that tune that didn't transfer right. Other than that, the sound quality is very good.
During playback the screen goes completely black after a few minutes. It's sometimes nice to glance at the screen just to see what the title of a song may be or how much longer a song has to play, but you'd have to touch the interface to wake it up to see anything. I'm not talking about the bright backlight, but on an iPod you can still see the screen even after the backlight has gone off. Not so on the zune. Theoretically this should lead to longer battery life, but I don't think it lasts any longer than my old iPod.
And that also brings me to my next qualm. The battery level indicator is not accurate. On the iPod, I saw the level indicator decrease at a constant rate and give me the red warning at the end, and I knew within an hour of when it give up. With the Zune, it still seems like I have half power according to the indicator, but the next thing I know the battery is dead.
My last complaint is that for this price it should come with a wall charger. That is a separate accessory so you have to charge it on your computer. On the plus side, the headphones, or earbuds, are really nice.
I tried the zune because I was sick of the short life spans of iPods. My family has gone through four now and none has lasted more than two years. Time will tell if the zune is more durable, but as long as both machines are performing at their peak, I like the iPod more.
Customer Review: Battery life or defective product?
Summary: 3 Stars
I initially purchased the 80gb Zune through Amazon.com as a *new* product about 6 weeks ago, and at the time it offered the lowest price out there at $199 w/no tax or shipping. After about 2 weeks of waiting, I received this supposedly new product, only to find the top of the item where the lock switch is located was totally scratched up! I immediately mailed it back to Amazon for a full refund, as I did not want to wait another 2+ weeks for yet another possible "used", "new" item.
At about that time I returned the Zune, Microsoft released the 120gb, thereby reducing the price on all their Zunes by about 25%. So, off to Wal-Mart I went, where I purchased the 80gb for $198, plus tax. I've now had the Zune for about 2 weeks, and I had the battery die after only using it about a total of 1 hour. Granted, it sat in my bag for about 10 days without the lock on it, so it's possible that the battery just drained from nonusage. After charging it, (and it took a LONG time before the battery charge light would actually appear on the screen), I then downloaded some songs for a few hours and went to listen to it afterward. After about 20 minutes of listening, the Zune froze mid-song, shut off, and would not turn back on no matter what I did. There was no warning that the battery was running low. Zip. It wasn't until I plugged it in to charge that I discovered the battery was low. I'm thinking that I got a defective Zune and will return it to Wal-Mart this morning and get a new one to re-load my 150 or so songs. I have to say, I purchased this Zune as a replacement to my Dell DJ (20gb), and I never had these problems with my Dell in the 4 years I owned it. Here's hoping for a non-defective Zune when I exchange it today. Sheesh!