rasi2290's Full Review: Microsoft Zune Black (120 GB) MP3 Player
C'mon, folks. The iPod is so 2006. Sure, the iPhone gives you a touch screen and... a phone. But it's got a flash drive, so it only holds 16gb of music.
If you're any kind of music lover, that won't do. And video uses even more space. Besides, maybe you've already got a phone, or you just prefer actual buttons. That leaves the iPod Classic, which holds 120gb, and is comparably priced to the Zune 120gb. If you've got lots of music or video to hold, these are your two best options. So...which one do you choose?
Before I start the review proper, here's a quick rundown of what I like about each player. If you don't care how these players compare, or you just want to skip my overly zealous raving, skip to the review.
<b>What I like about the Zune</b>
1) The Zune 120gb is sleek and snazzy. Let me make this clear up front: it's not clunky, ugly, or "Microsoft-ish". People only think that because it used to be. That was the 1st gen. Zune, and they're not like that anymore. Microsoft switched manufacturers, from Toshiba to Flextronics (they make the Xbox), so it's a completely different device. And if you actually hold one in your hands, you'll think it's pretty cool.
2) Bigger screen - 3.2" to iPod's 2.5".
3) Scratch-resistant, like the iPhone, but unlike the iPod Classic, which is still scuff city.
4) Better interface - mostly because of the bigger screen. The Zune fits more information on its screen, 12 lines vs. iPod's 9, without sacrificing readability. At the same time, the Zune menu interface uses much larger, more readable lettering.
5) Wifi. You can buy songs right on your Zune, directly from the Zune Marketplace. And you can share your music with anyone in range.
6) Zune Pass. For $15/month, you can choose any 10 songs each month to keep permanently, plus unlimited downloading/listening of whatever you want. It's a music lover's dream.
7) Radio. And, if you like a song and the radio station broadcasts the ID tag (most do), you can download that song right onto your Zune using the WiFi. If you have the Zune Plan, this will be free.
8) Microsoft doesn't leave its customers high and dry. When they released their 2nd-gen Zune, it had a completely revamped interface and better performance. they wrote the firmware so that it could be used on 1st-gen Zunes, too. And they made that firmware available as a free download. So, the existing customer base got to update their 1st-gen Zunes with the new interface, for free. That's pretty awesome, and exactly the opposite of how Apple operates.
9) A/V output through headphone jack. That's audio and video through your headphone jack, no dock required if you're using composite. You just need the 1/4" to composite cable, and plug it right into your TV. Neat-o! The Zune 120gb does output component video, but you'll need the Zune AV Pack - that's a charging dock with component outputs - sold separately.
10) You know that new Genius feature in iTunes, that works like Pandora radio by suggesting new music based on what you like? Well, that pales - pales, I tell you - in comparison to the Zune's version of that, called Mixview. Genius is a boring gray box with tiny text, no visuals, and little information. Mixview is a full-screen visual diagram of related artists, with mouse-over details.
<b>What I like about the iPod Classic</b>
1) Battery life, rated 36 hours to Zune's 30 hours.
2) iPods work on Mac or PC, but Zunes are incompatible with OSX. You'll need Windows to sync them.
3) No equalizer.
The first two aren't a big deal to me, and I don't think on-board equalizers really improve the quality of the music, so that doesn't matter to me at all. But it might to you.
And for the record, I don't have any vested interest in the Zune. I used iPods for many years, and I loved the 5th gen. iPod I reviewed for this site a few years ago. But once I got a Zune, with the Zune Pass and its unlimited music, I never looked back.
Time for the review.
How's it sound?
I compared this Zune to a 30gb iPod w/Video, using Shure SE-210 In-Ear earphones. I set the EQ to off on the iPod, and chose songs of comparable quality.
First test: [i]Clocks[/i], by Coldplay. I suspect this song has a lot of midrange, which is part of why it has that open, soothing, new-agey feel. This sounded a little better on the iPod. Specifically, the chimey key thing, which intros the song and continues throughout, had a little more ring to it. Also, the soundstage seemed a little more open. It sounded great on the Zune, but not quite as open, which made a difference for that song.
Second test: [i]Stan[/i], by Eminem. This song has a lot of texture and range, and also a very crisp beat. Not to mention the Dido song in the background. This song sounded better on the Zune, especially once the drums kicked in. It had more definition than on the iPod - I could make out the sounds more distinctly and completely. And this time, the Zune had the wider stage.
My hunch is that Microsoft, knowing there'd be no EQ settings, optimized the player for what most listeners would prefer - a little more bass and treble than midrange. That comes through on a song like [i]Stan[/i]. The iPod's flatter response leaves more midrange for those keys to ring out, giving [i]Clocks[/i] the advantage there.
Both sound excellent, and I think these differences are a matter of personal taste.
Initial Impressions, Aesthetics & Dimensions
The Zune "experience" has a very specific branding and visual style. Like I said, it's very un-Microsoft-like. You get your first taste of this if you order your Zune from their Zune Originals website. There, you can choose 5 lines of text to engrave on the back, or 3 lines plus a graphic, or just the graphic. They provide a bunch of graphics, unfortunately you can't upload your own. But it's fun to try different combos and preview them on the screen.
Or, you can just buy one at a store, like I did. The packaging is similar to an iPod's - compact, smooth matte surface, just large enough to hold the player and its scant accessories safely. The packaging slides out like a giant matchbox to reveal one shiny digital audio player, a manual, and the usual crap earphones that come with all MP3 players. Chuck 'em and get something decent. I like my Shure SE210 in-ear monitors, but almost anything is better than what comes with these players, be it Zune, iPod, or whatever.
The player feels solid and well built. The earlier 2nd gen. models had silver backs, but the 120 is the same color all around, glossy black in front and matte black in back. It's scratch-resistant all around. On top is the earphone jack, lock switch, and wifi antenna. The three control buttons, also matched to body color, are on the front.
Width: 2.4" Height: 4.3" Thickness: 0.5" Weight: 4.5 oz
That's about the same as the iPod Classic, slightly thinner and lighter, but slightly taller.
Installing the software is easy and straightforward. It'll walk you through the process of connecting your Zune for the first time, naming it, etc.
Interface and Use
You control the Zune with three buttons: play/pause on the right, back on the left, and the Zune Pad in the center. The Zune Pad looks vaguely like a scrollwheel, and it is both click and touch sensitive, but there's no circular scrolling. You can click in four directions plus the center, or you can drag your finger in those same directions. Dragging is speed-sensitive, so you can flick through a long list pretty quickly, and you can cycle down from the bottom to jump back to the top.
I think this is an improvent over the iPod's touch/click wheel. That wheel dedicates all four click functions to playback or navigation, leaving nothing for directional clicking. Which means, of course, the only way to scroll through lists is by spinning your thumb in a circle. And it works pretty well for medium-fast scrolling, but don't tell me you haven't tried scrolling really slowly and jumping over the song you wanted, scrolling back up, etc. We've all been there. It's hard to scroll slowly on an iPod. Not an issue with the Zune, because by making "play/pause" and "back" separate buttons, they freed up the "up" and "down" parts of the wheel for directional clicking. That means you can touch/drag scroll to go fast, then click scroll for fine control. It works a lot better. The left and right clicks work the same as an iPod, FF/RW and next/previous song.
The Zune's starting menu is:
MUSIC VIDEOS PICTURES SOCIAL RADIO MARKETPLACE GAMES SETTINGS
From "Music", you can sort by artist, album, song, genre, or playlist. You can select a shuffled deck from the top of any of those screens, or you can go directly to a particular artist or album and shuffle just those songs.
One thing I'd like to see - which I've never seen on any player - is a "play all", sorted by artist. In other words, play all my songs in the order they appear on my desktop - go through all the Alice In Chains, then all the Arcade Fire, then all the Beck, all the Bjork, album by album. And I'd like to enter this mode from shuffle. Meaning, if the last shuffled song was from Beck, and I say to myself, "gee, I'd like to hear the rest of this great Beck album", I could just leave shuffle mode and the rest of the Beck album plays out.
No player that I know of does this. And for some reason, nobody cares except for me. Bummer. However, the Zune does come close, with a "go to artist" feature. You're playing your shuffled deck, that Beck song comes on, you click "go to Artist" and you're looking at your Beck collection. You can't continue from the same song, but it's something, I guess.
When actually playing a song, you'll see the album cover over most of your lovely screen, and you'll need to click once for options, one more time for the song list.
In general, I think a click or two could be removed with some interface tweaking, but for the most part, using the player is straightforward and simple.
Videos - Works like you'd figure, pretty simple. You're meant to view all videos sideways, so the Zune Pad automatically rotates 90 degrees, and what used to be "up" and "down" now control forwards/backwards video searching, and the old "left/right" now control volume.
Photos - pretty straightforward. You sort by folder or date, turn slideshow on or off. I do have a gripe here - photos are displayed horizontally. Period. You can't rotate them, so your portrait-oriented photos are going to be sized down to fit the sideways screen, with big black letterboxing on the sides. No way around that except rotating them on your computer.
Social - this is a part of the Zune "experience" that has a TON of potential, and which is very slowly becoming fleshed out. Unfortunately, a big part of it depends on the "critical mass" of having enough Zune users to "socialize" with, and they haven't reached that magic number yet. Maybe with the rumored ZuneHD, which will talk to your Xbox...but that's just speculation for now.
From here, you can scan for other Zune users using WiFi. If you find one, you can share songs with each other and play Zune games. You also have an inbox, which syncs to the Zune Inbox on the desktop software, both of which hold the stuff others have shared with you. Then you've got the friends section; you can assign friends from the software and they'll show up here.
Radio - by default, left and right auto-seek whatever stations are available. You can turn this off in Settings and fine-tune yourself, if you prefer. Center-click to save a preset, go to an existing preset, or (if the radio broadcasts this info) save the song to your Marketplace cart. It'll download the next time you sync.
Marketplace - simplified text-only version of the regular Zune Marketplace. From here, you can download songs on the go using WiFi. This is great if you have the Zune Pass, because you can download whatever you want, whenever, wherever there's a wireless connection. It's a bit tedious to enter artist or song titles using the pad, but still pretty cool.
Games - Checkers, Hexic, Texas Hold 'Em, Space Battle (Galaga type deal), and Sudoku come loaded; you can download others. These games are pretty basic, good for killing a few minutes here and there. They're probably a lot more fun in multiplayer, over WiFi, but I haven't tried.
Settings - Toggle wireless (you only want to use it when you need it; it's an energy hog), sound effects, screen lock, and adjust settings for music, display, the zune pad (toggle touch on/off), radio, clock, and language.
And that's about it for interface and usage on the player.
File handling and compatibility
The Zune plays these audio formats: MP3, WMA, and AAC. Your Zune Pass music will of course be WMA, to enable DRM. You can choose to download in MP3 format for your 10 free songs each month and any others you purchase or rip from your CDs.
The Zune plays these video formats: MPEG-4, H.264, Quicktime (.mov) and WMV. The Zune software will automatically convert these files to the proper size and resolution for playback on your Zune. It doesn't play AVI, which is a popular format for torrents, so you'll need to convert those yourself.
The Zune will not work on OSX.
Zune software, Marketplace, and synching
One could write (and many have, do a search) multi-page articles on the Zune software, but it buttons down to this: The Zune software beats iTunes all to hell. Go on, search it. Reviewer after reviewer is flabbergasted at how much flak this device takes, when iTunes looks exactly the same as it did nearly 10 years ago, while the Zune software has - like the device - been constantly evolving into a clean, aesthetically pleasing, very functional piece of software.
Syncing is, by default, automatic. Anything you get from the Marketplace, or anything you rip to one of your assigned folders where it looks for new music, will automatically be synched to the device. You can of course sync manually if you prefer.
There are a few UI quircks, though - you can choose what columns to display (artist, size, etc...) but you can't sort by most of them. And when you're viewing your device, the columns work a little differently and give you even less sorting options.
When you're playing a song, it'll show you the song info on the bottom of the screen, but it won't jump to that song in your list. That's weird.
Now, the store. It makes the iTunes store looks like a Geocities website from 1998: cluttered and ugly. And boxy. The Zune Marketplace, on the other hand, is very open and clean, and makes much better use of the space it lives in. Like everything else, you get that nice, big Zune typeface that makes everythinig a lot easier to read.
Most importantly, you can see all of an artist's albums on one screen. The albums sit across the bottom and act as your sub navigation, so you can just click between different albums without leaving the screen, ever. This is one of those "duh" things that for some reason, you can't do in iTunes. There, you can look at one album, go back a screen, try another album, etc. Bah.
Then you've got Mixview, which, as mentioned earlier, gives you big visual display of related artists and albums. This is just one of the many features, in conjuction with a Zune Pass, that makes this the winning choice for music lovers.
The biggest downside to the Zune Marketplace, of course, is that it just isn't as expansive as the iTunes Store. I believe it has something like 4 million songs, roughly half of what iTunes has. Even worse, not all songs are available with the Zune Pass. I'd say about 80% are, but it's not uncommon to find a song or artist that I still have to pay for, even with the Zune Pass. Sometimes, every track on an album will be available except the one hit single you wanted. My understanding is that Microsoft has no control over this; it's determined by the artist/label. But I can't say for sure.
I will have noticed, though, that if you keep looking through the catalog, you stand a really good chance of finding that same song available, on a greatest hits album or something.
At any rate, because you get to permanently keep 10 songs each month, the subscription nearly pays for itself, so I highly doubt you'll feel ripped off.
The other big hassle with the Zune Marketplace is their hokey "points" system. It's ridiculous. You can't just give them a credit card number; you have to buy their points and use those to buy their content. And because Microsoft apparently has to ensure that something is an overcomplicated mess, the points don't translate evenly to dollars. The good news is this won't apply to Zune Pass subscribers.
<b>Technical Specifications</b> Storage: 120 GB Memory type: hard drive Display: 3.2-inch color LCD Display resolution: 320 x 240 pixels Audio support: AAC, MP3, WMA, WMA Lossless Picture support: JPEG Video support: WMV, H.264, MPEG-4, DVR-MS Song capacity: Up to 30,000 songs Picture capacity: Up to 25,000 photos Video capacity: Up to 375 hours Wireless connectivity: 802.11b/g Wireless range: Up to 30 feet Power supply: Built-in rechargeable battery, AC power adapter (not included), via USB port Battery life (music): Up to 30 hours (wireless off) Battery (video): Up to 4 hours (wireless off) Charging time (AC adapter): Approximately 3 hours (full); approximately 2 hours (90 percent) Charging time (via USB): Approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes (full); approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes (90 percent) Ports: Connector port, Headphone Jack/AV output FM radio: Built-in with RDS Languages: English, French, Spanish Color: Black Dimensions: 2.4 x 4.3 x 0.5 inches / 61.1 x 108.2 x 12.9 millimeters (W x H x D) Weight: 4.5 ounces / 128 grams What's in the box: 120 GB Zune video MP3 player (black), earphones with three earpiece covers, Sync cable
Conclusion
Sweet player, especially when coupled with an unlimited music subscription and a WiFi marketplace. Better than an iPod Classic in most ways, except for battery life and lack of OSX compatibility. I'd recommoned it to anyone.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 229 Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
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