Microsoft Zune

This is the first generation of the Zune clan. Microsoft Zune was a great start to the now Microsoft HD. It's a very sturdy sized mp3 player and whatever size of gigabytes you get I'm sure you'll be satisfied. You can add thousands songs, pictures, or a few movies according to the amount of space you have. The graphics are really good and customizable especially if you have pictures. I recommend this product to people of all ages, you'll really enjoy it.

Christmas 2007 I received the lovely Zune as a gift. I'd been wanting it nearly all year! When I opened it I was so excited. The only problem was you had to have internet to set it up. We didn't have it at the time, as we'd just moved. So, I put it back in the box (which makes a great travel case) to sit for about a month more.

A month later, after getting internet installed in the house, I downloaded the Zune software and began enjoying my new player. This thing even had games on it to pass the time! You're given choices like Checkers, Sudoku, Texas Hold 'Em, and Hexic. The menus on it are so simplistic, which is good on any MP4 player. Nothing too flashy and everything worked, and still works, in lightning fast time. The controls are so easy to use. I had no problem with them at all. The scroll pad on it does double as buttons. You can scroll left, right up and down, or you can just press each and it does the same things. The Play/Pause and Back buttons are just diagonally up from the scroll pad. Everything is easy to find and operate. It even has a shut off time if you have your music on pause, so that your battery isn't wasted.

Unfortunately, I can't comment on the screen quality due to my Zune screen being shattered by a jealous cousin. But I'm sure the screen is just as top notch as everything else I've mentioned about this player.

Though I do love the Zune, there are a few downfalls to it that make me not give it the full 5 star rating. The battery could last a lot longer. I took it on a trip half-way across the US and it only lasted about the first 5 hours of the trip. I also didn't like the software Microsoft forces you to use. It doesn't update your media properly, no matter how many times you try to fix the settings. You just have to add your files to the player whenever the program feels like adding your new media to its files. I'm sure Microsoft has fixed this problem by now though.

Overall, the Zune is a fantastic product and I'd recommend it to anyone. It's been a very faithful player over the past 4 years. And it's clearly a very strong one, to survive the beating mine received that caused the cracked screen.

After buying this and hearing all the negative reviews I was confused to why it had such bad press. I presume its something to do with the age old Microsoft vs. Apple debate. As I take no side I will try and approach this review with an unbiased view.

So I should start with why I chose Zune over iPod or Creative. For me I personally have used lots of MP3 Players and there are a few main things you have to get right and the rest are just gimmicks you use very little or not at all. For me these important features you have to get right are the Interface and ease of use, the software to sync and how it manages the library, and most of all sound quality.

So for me based on the above I chose the Zune because:

1. Interface and ease of use:

No one comes close to Apple and the Zune in terms of interface you can anywhere you want quickly and easily but as I think the scroll wheel of the iPod is too much effort for me and prefer proper feedback of buttons the Zune won it for me, the buttons are responsive and scrolling is a doddle and no circular motion is needed.

2. The software.

Now its well known that iTunes is the industry leader here and it really is great software. The Zune software is just as good on many fronts but falls behind when it comes to purchasing tracks online, however as I am a strong anti-DRM campaigner and only buy CD's and rip them this is not a factor in my decision making process. I felt the Zune software looked good and handled my 150GB of files excellently and across a network too (as its stored on a NAS device). This is something I appreciate after using my partners Sony Connect software as it only support music stored on the same computer as the software and had to duplicate my music store. One small gripe is that the Album art retrieval sometimes failed to get the album art of some fairly popular albums.

3.Sound Quality

I tried an iPod 80GB Video , A Zune and a Sony NW-A1200 all with their supplied buds and also a pair of V-moda Vibes.

My opinion is as follows:

Supplied ear phones

1. Sony (by far the best quality out of all tested)

2. iPod

3. Zune

with V-Moda Vibe's

1. Sony again (shame the software is just unusable or based on these results I would of bought one)

2. Zune

3 iPod

Baring the above in mind however they all sounded great.

So that's the comparison I shall move on to living with the Zune on a day to day basis and ultimately does it cut the mustard.

Firstly I have to say how good it looks and feels and suspect it will hold up well against scratching as the material is a soft rubberised finish, I have none as of yet on mine. It is a little bigger than its rivals but not big enough to be a problem, it's not as if you are going to go running with it anyway and the trade off is that you get gorgeous looking good sized screen.

I found on a day to day basis that its battery is more than sufficient for a long haul flight or long trip on the road however as with most electronic devices it took a few charges before it performed to maximum performance.

It will be interesting to see what with later firmware releases MS will do with the WiFi feature but at current its pretty much useless. However as with most other reviews I have read they have marked the Zune down against other portable media players because of this added feature and I think this is just plain silly after all its an additional feature that others don't have, I agree yes they could of done more with it and they probably will but to knock it for trying just to me make the reviewers seem biased.

The FM Receiver is excellent its quick, very quick at searching, displays station name and additional text such as track name on many stations.

Video I am not going to go into in great detail as its not why I buy these devices but the loading of them was a quick and easy experience. They look good with no visible digital artefacts however support of more formats would of been better. There are many third party software programs that do the conversion for you and all work quite well.

They could of included a charger in the box, but the dock for me will resolve this issue, other may be annoyed.

Summary

For me the Zune is a wonderful easy to use device that stands up very well against the iPod (not to mention Creative) and as buying tracks from the manufacturers stores is not an issue for myself the Zune wins it for me it may be different if that was a consideration. Don't let the negative reviews put you off as I suspect its to do with amount of passionate Apple followers (and there's nothing wrong with that.)