MP3 Players Review

Zune 80 GB Digital Media Player Black (2nd Generation)

Customer Reviews

Zune 80 Gig

My wife bought me the 80gig Zune for Fathers Day. I had told her I wanted one after playing with the Zune software, which can be downloaded at Microsoft's website for free, for a couple of months and after reading reviews on Amazon. The only other player I have owned up to this point was a 3rd Generation 30 gig Ipod. In my opinion, the Zune blows the Ipod out of the water. I found the Zune software to be intuitive and simplistic. When the software was originally loaded and run the first time it synced with my Itunes collection, automatically bringing in all music not protected by DRM. It also had no problem recognizing my photo files and bringing them into the software as well. Since I own an Xbox 360, I was able to log onto the Zune Social and Marketplace right away using my 360 account. It also imported all of my Xbox Live friends into my Zune social homepage. Although none of them use the Zune software, I still thought that was a cool feature and really shows how Microsoft is trying to bridge the two products together. The Zune Social is Microsoft's musical copy of MySpace. You can create you own "homepage" where you can tell about yourself and it displays the music you have been listening to to the Zune community. This is a unique way to network with others who listen to music with similar tastes as yourself and can help you in finding new artists. It clearly states that the Social is still in Beta testing and is not something you have to participate in to use the Zune or it's PC software. The Zune Marketplace is probably the softwares biggest weakness. Microsoft insists on using their points system, which was originally created for the Xbox Live marketplace, instead of just using a saved credit card to purchase music as on Itunes and Amazon. This may have the potential of scaring off some customers. This doesn't effect me too much, though, since I have been strictly using Amazon to buy all my MP3's for the past several months. Hard to beat DRM free music at cheaper prices than Itunes or Zune Marketplace. If you are not doing this yet you need to be, NOW! There is absolutely no reason to buy DRM music. NONE! As for the Zune device itself. When I first synced the Zune to the PC it did a firmware upgrade to the Zune and, once finished, then started moving all the music to the device. Flawless process! After about two hours the battery was fully charged and ready to go. The "squircle", as some call it, is a little different than the Ipod, but works in a similar fashion that I found easy to use. When my wife first tried using it she found herself annoyed at first that it didn't exactly "work like the Ipod" but she quickly got the hang of it. I enjoy the FM radio capability. I would have enjoyed an AM receiver even more since I listen to a lot of political talk radio and my local sports teams. Maybe in a future model they will add this function into the device. Later on, I added in photos of my daughter. The display looks fabulous. All of my pictures show beautifully on the screen as well as album covers. As other reviews point out, there is no equalizer. This troubled me at first, but after listening to the device for about an hour I could care less. The sound is superb and the earphones are, without question, a hundred times better than the Ipod's. In comfort and sound, the Zune headphones are fantastic. The in-ear headphones do a good job of blocking out ambient noise and allowed me to keep the volume at reasonable levels while doing yard work for about three hours. My ipod would have left my ears ringing due to my having to turn the volume way up to overcome the hedge clipper noise. I am excited to see how this works on a plane ride, since I also always have to crank my ipod up to overcome the jet noise. I also really like the fact that the Zune does not use proprietary file types as Apple forces you to do. The device will accept just about anything you want to put on it, including TV you have recorded using Windows Media. In conclusion, the Zune is a solid device and I am extremely happy with this wonderful gift. I have already showed it to several family and friends and have encouraged them to consider a Zune for themselves. Dump the ipod, get yourself a Zune!

Superior

So far, I've only had one problem with my Zune. Out of the box, it took several tries to get the syncing right, but as soon as I did, everything was perfect. The sound quality out of the Premium Earphones is awesome, you don't lose the deep sounds as is the case with most earbuds. There is one problem with the sound, however. The Zune team left out an equalizer in favor of a cheaper player, so if this is an important feature for you, watch out for the Zune. The screen is glass and looks great despite the relatively low resolution. Videos and pictures on the screen are crisp and clear. Games are supported and some are pretty fun. The podcast support is simple, and so is the wireless stuff. Wireless sync is a really cool feature, though I don't use it much. I also was skeptical about the Zune Pad, as I don't like touch pads, but it is a really responsive and cool tool. Overall, it is a great player, far better than any iPod. I love mine.

Great item

My husband loves this. He can store so much music on it. It is perfect for what we need.

True audiophile quality

The functions on the Zune80 work just fine. What is important, is how it sounds! Very flat frequency response, bass that extends down further than other players, and the highs are accurate and clear. You shouldn't use an equalizer when you have this much quality by default! Playing WMA lossless, the sound quality is almost unbelievable. I run mine from it's dock to my hi-end tube headphone amplifier and it is a great source! You will not find this level of sound quality coming out of an iPod, not even close!

Great product if you're willing to figure out all the quirks

I bought this product mainly because I loved the screen which is about twice as big as the ipod and better quality for movies. However figuring out the software that you have to install to use the zune is frustrating. First of all it took me over three hours to download the software and install it because the first 8 attempts wouldn't install onto my computer. Then once i had finally gotten the software i added all of my music but then discovered that you can't delete you're music off of your computer without deleting it off of the zune as well. so unless you have a 80G computer memory space it's pointless to have an 80G Zune. However I've sort of worked around this by not linking my zune to my computer and instead connecting as a guest. Anyways after that, my zune refused to download any videos even though they were the right format. So I had to contact the Zune company and they told me to reformat my zune which meant that i had to delete everything off of my zune including the media that came with the zune. Now its working ok and i do like it alot but be warned that you'll hate it before you love it.

Keyword : zune