MP3 Players Review

Zune 4 GB Digital Media Player Red (2nd Generation)

Customer Reviews

Best MP3 Player On The Market

Great overall quality, price, and features. The Zune offers a wide array of cool features like wireless song sending to another Zune, and has good album art display.

Major Upgrade

I am a technologist and musician, and love both with a passion...I love this techology and being able to take it with me. Now I own a Zune 8. This review is more about how I think MSFT should improve the Zune and gain some market share over iPod, which IMO is overrated. A little background first: Christmas 2006 I bought my teen girls 80GB iPODS. These replaced Creative 20GB Sleek's which were just not very good, especially the clunky cable design and poor battery life. The iPods are good and lots of folks keep buying them but I am not a fan of being forced to use iTunes. My first personal MP3 player was Creative Zen 1gb for exercising - sound quality actually better than either Zune or iPOd but the interface is tiny, and the unit eats AAA batteries. This year I decided to step up in capacity first with a Sansa Clip 4Gb. But it was hard to read the display and the menus were confusing and fiddly, and it was buggy, so I sent it back. In the mindset of "you get what you pay for" I finally just decided it was worth the extra bucks to go with the leaders, being either Apple or MSFT. I really like the design of the Zune over iPods, especially in the 4 and 8GB offerings. So I ordered this Zune 8GB from Amazon (the price beat all, to boot). It arrived in just a few days, the order being fullfilled in typical Amazon expediance. Zune Pros: great form factor and build quality. Menus are well thought out and easy to navigate. Don't have to use iTunes...IMO iTunes is a pest... Zune sound quality, compared to my teen's iPods, is superior. Also, the FM radio is a huge deal for me and I'm baffled as to why Apple avoids including this in iPods. Con's: the removal of an equalizer and a proprietary cable instead of mini USB (Sansa Fuze now offers this but I think they have other issues i.e. their interface is awkward, quality suspect) Thoughts on Zune: Lack of equalizer - I'm not sure this is a big deal as the sound is pretty good and I have not missed it. I have experimented alot with the iPod equalizer and I never found it to help much. However, I think MSFT is making a mistake here just because people expect it to be there. Proprietary cable interface - only hurts, IMO does not help build market share. Sansa Fuze offers standard USB. Is Zune just copying iPod to have a proprietary cable? what's up with that...I say to heck with the marketing guys - give us standards where it makes sense and proprietize in areas where it does not hurt the consumer. Let the essence of the product - the user interface, build quality, reliability and performance - speak for itself. Build quality: very good. I turned away from buying more Creative and Sansa products after experiencing first hand, and also reading about persistent quality issues. Comparitively, the ZUNE has been trouble free after several weeks. The unit feels good in the hand. Come to think of it I have always had good luck with MSFT electronic gear - even my xBox and xBox 360 work just fine. Battery life: The battery life so far has not been great BUT this is likely the way I use it....I hardly ever use the ear buds as I prefer to run it through AUX jacks into car, home and even my home studio mixer, where I run the volume at like 15, 16 etc way higher than most folks using ear buds so batt life may suffer. But running the sound from the 3.5mm headphone jack into an AUX jack is likely way less efficient than if it were via the main Zune port - my guess being I would get a stronger signal and would not have to crank it to get the signal to overcome lack of preamplification going into the AUX jacks. UI: Compared to the iPod, although I like the wheel on the iPod, the Zune is easy to flip through to find songs. The user interface is well thought out compared to Sansa and Creative products. I would say iPod and Zune are both well design interfaces and it comes down to what you get used to. Accessories: I see a sea of iPod junk,,I mean, accessories,,, when I walk into a store or browse Amazon and alot less for Zune. This likely hurts Zune market share and so it chicken vs egg etc. I think MSFT needs to get on top of this and drive OEMS to build more accessories i.e. a Bose system for Zune with a Zune port (instead of just the AUX jack). Or just go with standard USB for goodness sake. In fact, I think MSFT should pander to technologists like myself and even audiophiles - offer things I take for granted in my home studio i.e. fast USB 2.0 interfaces, higher sound resolutions that appeal to audiophiles etc....just me 2 cents. Apple does not do this and I think Microsoft could win market share by educating folks about better sound quality and features that differentiate Zune from iPod (right, right, going off topic I know but just a little grist for the mill). RAP: I look forward to two things - 80GB of flash memory instead of delicate hard drive techology; and the ability to control Zune from my car and home stereo - not just in a Ford via Synch...hmmm...does Synch even let me control my Zune? Bottom line: Zune is a superior player that deserves way more credit and attention. Maybe version 3 will take the cake.

Love My Zune!

I was late to the ipod game when I decided to purchase an MP3 player and while I still have accessory envy (especially around speaker/docking station options), I absolutely love my Zune! From the initial, simple "out of the box" experience to my "all you can eat" plan in the Zune marketplace, everything I need to do has been straightforward, easy and fun to experience. The device itself is great, with clear menus, a good size screen for such a small device (even for videos) and ample battery life to get me through a week of long runs and cross country flights. This is my second Zune (I also own a first generation "brick") and I am hooked. I hope Microsoft can land enough accessory partners to provide real competition to the ipod as the device itself offers a great alternative.

Zune Review

Zune 4 GB Digital Media Player Red (2nd Generation) I had a little trouble realizing the phone jack needed to be inserted completely (really had to push to completely insert). I find the thumb control to be a little over sensitive for me but every other feature including software installion is A1. I think the FM receiver is an absolute great feature. This is a pretty neat little piece of technology.

This B-Day Present was a big hit

I bought the Zune for my daughter for her 15th birthday and she absolutely loves it. She had nine friends over for her party one month ago and now all of them have either bought one themselves or got their parents to buy them one, even if they already had an ipod. Now they carry the zunes and the cell phones with them everywhere. They really like the fact that they can share zune to zune. They also like the quality of the screen for videos and the amount of storage space for the price.



Keyword : zune