Microsoft’s New Zune MP3 Player Review (In My Opinion)
I just got my Zune from Costco last week and I must say I am pretty impressed. The little player is a tad bigger than my iPod but the screen is well worth the added gerth. The battery life is impressive if you mind the normal rules of an MP3 player (create playlists, stop fumbling with the player when you don’t need to be, etc)… actually I mess with my Zune quite a bit. With 4000+ songs on it and I listen to about 10% I really need to keep fast forwarding from song to song to find my goodies.
I guess I should break it down into pros and cons.
Pros: (Da Good)
- FM Transmitter
Really I don’t need to say more about this. The antenna is the headphones so they get a very clear crisp signal. Sadly this is better than my car at the present. - Price
At $249.00 on the shelf not a bad price for the extras you get. - Big Clear Screen
The screen on this thing makes my old iPod look… well old. It is large, crisp and clear. The Zune comes loaded with some videos, both music and movie previews, and the images are stunning. I was very suprised in what I saw in a player that was so small. - Sound is MUCH gooder…. (AKA better)
I am not much of a music connoisseur, but I do know sound. I am sure that some will be pretty angry with me here and say it is just my headphones or I am crazy, but out of the box, the Zune sounds much better than my iPod ever did STOCK. - Controls are solid and basic
I can’t argue with Apple fans on this one. The iPod does have the UI down… but I have gotten so use to my wheel that I guess I just never had any chance to see it from another point of view. It is like moving from I.E. to Firefox. They are similar but they do it different. The navigation is SOOO much easier than using the iPod. I love that when I scroll through my music the screen puts a big letter on the side to tell me where I am in the alphabet. It is a major timesaver for me. - Battery Charging
FINALLY!!! A battery monitor that shows me how much the battery has charged while it is charging. This made my day. It might seem like a small acheivement, but I hated not knowing how much juice my iPod had unless I unplugged it. So far the battery indicator seems to be correct and not a SWAG (the bad kind)
Cons: (Da Bad)
Yes, there are some…. =/
- iTunes vs. Zune software
I could go on at length about this, but iTunes wins hands down. I think when you are on version 7.0 vs. 1.0 you have somewhat of an advantage but shame on MS for not making this better out of the box. MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT. - Accessories… OUCH!!!
So Apple was guity of this when they came out with the iPod… the accessories where nasty expensive, but that was compared to the device being at $499.00 not $249 ($229.00 from Costco). I have the basics for my iPod… just the FM transmitter and a car charger. With the Zune those are going to cost me about $79.99. What a horrible price point if you ask me.
I am sure more will come up as I continue to use it. So far… very happy.