Review of the Microsoft Zune Portable Media Player

The first thing that caught my attention when I first heard about the Zune was the rumor that it would feature Wifi built into the player. This excited me greatly because I knew then and there that the Zune was the next big thing. Bill Gates called the Zune “future proof”. He is absolutely right! I’ll get into this a little later.

I bought my two Zunes the day they were released knowing that little fact. I purchased a white Zune and a black/blue Zune. The price was great! $249.99 for the next gen media player was right on target to take on the iPod. This pricing ended up working very well, as the Zune in November rated at #2 best selling player right behind the iPod.

With each purchase of a Zune you get a 14-day trial to Zune Pass, a marketplace for unlimited music downloads. This is Microsoft’s new way of paying for music. With a monthly payment of $14, you can download as much music as you want and automatically sync it to your Zune.

The Zune Hardware:

The Zune comes in a beautiful brown/pink box which feels quite heavy at first. Opening the box reminded me of opening a 5th Gen iPod. It’s very stylish and features an extra amount of compartments to make opening the box a fun experience. When I first held the Zune itself, the first thing I though was “Sexy!”. This thing feels absolutely wonderful in hand and the casing is made of a hard industrial grade plastic which has proven to be immune to any scratches since I bought it weeks ago.

If you buy a black or brown Zune the cases for those feature an “after-shot “effect. The black Zune actually has a blue hue to it and the brown Zune has a green hue. It’s very stylish and adds to the sexiness of Zune. The Zune is put together like something the military would use. When you hold it makes you feel like it is invincible. The front of the Zune has the 5-way navigation controls. The controls feel great but if you are a previous iPod user, you may find it disappointing. The other two buttons are flush with the Zune but are still easy to press. The left one is the “back” button and the right one is for play/pause. On the top of the Zune is the hold switch and the headphone port.

The 3 inch screen is protected with a hard plastic lens that also seems extremely resistant to scratches. Seriously, whatever Toshiba (the manufacturer of the Zune) used to cover this screen should be used on every screen in the world. The screen is very bright and the colors are vibrant. Watching movies and viewing pictures on the Zune is a very pleasant experience. No more squinting for me! The large screen is also perfect for the album art that is displayed during music playback. The interface is intuitive and easy to use. You will become a Zune master with only a few minutes of use. It consists of the “forward/back” system similar to the iPod’s.

Music:

When you enter the music menu, the menu items appear at the top of the screen. You can scroll left or right to each section. The sections are; playlists, songs, genres, albums and artists. Your music is automatically categorized and the Zune PC software downloads album art for all your songs. You can rate your music on the go or add songs or albums to the quick list. The quick list is an on-the-go playlist. Customization of the quick list is limited and the feature is not meant to create professional playlists. The order of the list is based on the order you add songs to it. The albums menu features all your albums including the names, artists and the album art besides each listing.

Of course, you can shuffle all your music. The shuffle feature is great and I never hear the same playlist twice. The sound is good using the pheadphones that come with the Zune. But you would probably want to upgrade your headphones. I have been using Sony DJ style headphones and the music from the Zune sounds absolutely wonderful.

Videos:

The Zune supports native playback of Windows Media Video (.wmv) and the Zune software converts most .avi’s and .mp4’s. The .mp4 format is used by the iPod and all videos converted for the iPod will playback perfectly on the Zune since the Zune’s resolution is the same as the iPods (240 by 320). I can’t say I have ever watched a full movie on a small device before but with the Zune’s large and bright screen, watching through an entire movie on a bus or plane is a treat! I especially enjoy watching episodes of 24 or Invader Zim on the go. I haven’t found myself bored since I purchased my Zune because now I mostly watch videos on the go. The items on the top menu in videos are; all videos, music videos and movies. You have to let the Zune PC software know which menu you want a certain video in. Other wise every video will go into the “all videos” menu.

Pictures:

The Zune software will automatically sync all the pictures in the “My Pictures” folder on your PC to your Zune. When viewed on the Zune, all pictures are displayed in landscape orientation. For some pictures this isn’t optimum though, as they would look better being displayed “longways”. This system is in place because of the TV out function of the Zune. You can use an A/V cable to plug the Zune into your TV and view your movies and pictures on the TV. I haven’t tried this yet but I will and write up a review of the feature including a nice video of it in action.

You can view your pictures on the Zune by the folder or by date. You can also set any picture as your background on your Zune. As you move from the main menu to any submenu, the background zoos in slightly and gets darker. It’s pretty cool. You can also start a slideshow by folder which comes in handy when plugged into the TV.

Radio:

The Zune has an FM radio built into the device. It uses the wire of your headphones as an antenna and reception is actually pretty good. I can even pick up some stations better on my Zune than I can in my Mazda 3. The Zune uses an autoseek to find channels. You cannot enter a channel in. When it finds a clear channel, it will bookmark it.

When you tune into an FM station that supports Metadata, the Zune will display the station name including the song name and artist. Sometimes it takes a few seconds to load the data but it is a cool feature none the less. Pressing the Pause button during FM playback will only mute the audio. You cannot record FM radio. And I don't see that feature in the future.

Community:

The one feature the Zune has that no other player has is it’s built in Wifi. This allows you to send songs and pictures to other Zune’s within 30 feet from you. When you send a song to another person though, they have to go by the 3×3 rule (3 days or 3 plays).

After you have played the song 3 times or had the song for 3 days, the song becomes disabled and you can only view the songs metadata. Recently there has been a hack to bypass that which can be found in the “Hacks and Mods” section of this site.

The Community top menu consists of; Inbox, Me and Nearby. The Inbox is where songs that are sent to you are stored. Nearby let’s you see what other people are listening to. You have the option of blocking another Zune from sending you things. Not sure why you would need it unless some pervert is trying to send their nude pics to you constantly.

Right now the Wifi is used only for that purpose. But, as Bill said, the Zune is future proof. The hardware is there and all it takes is a firmware release to unlock more potential. We can expect great things later on from the Zune team.

Settings:

The settings menu allows you to turn on/off the Wifi, adjust the equalizer, set the transition time for slideshows, set the backlight timer, adjust the brightness, turn the TV out on/off and change your online status to either detailed or basic.

Battery Life:

I can watch through about 3 or 4 full length movies before the battery dies. The Zunes battery is pretty much on par with the 5.5G iPod. I can listen to music all day with the Wifi turned off, without having to recharge the Zune. So I would say the battery life is exceptional.

Conclusion:

All in all I believe the Zune is a very capable device and I would defiantly recommend it to anyone who doesn’t already own an iPod. Even if you do have an iPod, I suggest looking into the Zune. Microsoft has put out Zune kiosks in many retail stores including Gamestop and Target for you to try them yourself. A+ Microsoft!