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405 of 420 people found the following review helpful.
A Thorough (Long) Review from a Zune 30 Owner an a iPhone 3G Owner
By Super Mum
No matter your opinion on Microsoft, the amazing fact remains that every time they update a Zune they include a free software update for all past Zunes making them nearly identical as the new Zunes. I am sure one day this may stop due to the fact that the new hardware will require a different type of OS that won't work on the old Zunes (i.e. a Zune Touch or something). Until then, I am have been a very happy past/present Zune owner for this reason.I owned a Zune 30 for 2 1/2 years prior to buying the Zune 120. My old Zune worked perfectly and was not a factor in my decision to upgrade. Did I need the extra space? Not really... but I wanted to try out the touch/click "squircle" before the new Zune games were launched. I read that some games may not work (or work as intended) with the Zune 30 since it does not have the touch sensitive pad. We'll see how true that is when games are put on to the Marketplace.My opinion after owning the Zune 120 for a couple weeks:The Good:-I am a rabid/avid fan of the Zune Pass. I don't mind renting music, in fact I LOVE it. It really opens me up to new bands without wasting $10-20 on an album I may hate. For $14.99 a month [for unlimited downloads on up to 3 Zunes and 3 Computers] I can download from more songs than I can fathom and not be upset if I pick a few tone-deaf artists along the way. If I love an album enough to keep it I can buy it from Zune or Amazon or whomever. If you think about it, the Zune Pass could save you money by allowing you to test out bands before committing to a purchase. Also, if throwing a house party or having guests over, you can download music for your guests that you might never consider buying for yourself.-Audible support now available. Not sure how much I will use this feature yet but for now I like it and am happy I am not closed off from this option.-WiFi: the options are now amazingly more advanced and now having WiFi on the Zune makes sense. Being able to download songs over a WiFi connection is huge. McDonald's is teaming up with Zune and will be offering their WiFi connection to Zune owners in the near future. While iPod does this with Starbucks, there are many more McDonalds than Starbucks in the U.S. Though not sure if this is a good thing ;)-Channels!!!: I love the new channels built into the software. As a Zune Pass subscriber I love taking advantage of this. The software makes a "channel" once a week of songs it thinks I will like based on a genre (I have a "My Classic Rock" channel, "My Rock" channel, and since I share my Zune Pass with family members a "My R&B" channel). I choose which, if any, channels I want to subscribe to (so I can skip the R&B one if I desire) and it downloads a playlist of sorts that changes every week. Also, I can subscribe to other generic channels (i.e. "Rock" Channel, "Punk/Ska" Channel etc.) not tailored directly to me if I so desire. This has been a great way to sample new bands/music that have relevance to my music style. Of course if you love a song/artist you can always permanently download the songs. If you are an avid gym buff or runner there are some very cool channels titled "Walk" "Jog" and "Run" that have songs which consist of the same range of beats per minute to keep you moving at a constant speed. Very cool.-Mixview: Much better looking than "Genius" on iTunes since Mixview uses album art and artists pictures rather than plain old text and Mixview's suggestions seem more relevant to me than Apple's "Genius." This can always change in the future as each product develops and I am excited that there is competition in this arena since it can only make this better and better. If you don't know what Mixview is, it is Zune's way of gathering data based on your music preferences (and the preferences of others) to recommend new music to you. Pandora (the Internet Radio website) does a BEAUTIFUL job at this. It's free and I would check it out if you have never used it before. Amazing.-Battery Life: Much better than the Zune 30 which is a nice surprise. Leave WiFi off for a longer battery life.-Accessory Compatibility: the charger, dock, remote, car charger, etc. from the Zune 30/80/120 all work together wonderfully. If you have the version 1 dock you will need to remove the plastic insert in order to have the 80/120 fit. It only takes a few seconds and is very painless. I would add a link to websites that show video/pictures on how to do this but Amazon removed two posts in the Zune forum where I did this. Do a search, it's out there. The cases for the Zune 30 do not work with the 120 but the 80 is the same size and both use the same cases. Heard there are problems with older FM transmitters working with the newer Zunes. Not sure how prevalent this problem is as I use an AUX jack in the car.-The Squircle: This is the only "big" difference between the Zune 30 and the 80/120. It did not take long for me to get used to using this but my learning curve may be shorter than others as I am used to swiping on my iPhone and now clicking seems more difficult for me. (You can turn this feature off if you just want to use the squircle as a click pad.) When I went to buy a case I found that most cases covered the squircle and was concerned it would mess with functionality. I want to report that it did not take away the ability of the Zune to notice my movements. However, the case makes it not as smooth of an action as the bare squircle (I have a silicone cover that makes my finger "stickier" against the case so the glide isn't as smooth). Something to think about when purchasing a case (which I would recommend.. see "The Bad")The Bad:-I LOVED the Zune 30 casing. That was one beautiful thing that the Zune had over the iPod. The iPods scratched and showed wear very quickly and the Zune 30's casing was virtually indestructible. With the new casing (party in the front/business in the back... the reverse mullet) it seems that the possibility for scratching is now higher. The shiny front is a fingerprint magnet and the matte black back has a silver/gold metal underneath (as evidenced by Microsoft's Zune Originals website where you can have your Zune engraved professionally.. they "scratch" [engrave] a design and the gold/silver color appears). Not sure how deep you would have to scratch to get to that color and I won't volunteer to be a guinea pig. Sorry!I highly recommend getting a case and I am a sucker for buying a screen protector as the Zune is nearly all screen on the front and should remain beautiful and scratch-free.The "I don't care"/ "No opinion":-The Clock: There is a clock now.. and I don't care. Many did so they will be happy. No alarm built-in, so beware clock lovers. (Microsoft updates the firmware and software quite a bit so you never know if this could be added soon.)-Buy from FM: I hate the radio in my smallish town. There are only a couple decent stations but they aren't good enough for me to stop listening to MP3s and tune in. For those who have better stations and are in to Top 40 or what is new on the charts this may be an amazing option for you. Getting artist and album info over Zune's FM radio could be helpful if your DJ never states the name of an artist (like so many don't) and, if you really like the song, you can download it immediately or tag it for download later (depending if you are in a WiFi hotspot or at home with plug in hand).-Headphones: the Zune 30 came with "run of the mill" headphones, the Zune 80 came with "premium" headphones and the Zune 120 went back to the "run of the mill" headphones. I use third-party headphones ($100+) so I don't care what comes in the package. Others might so here it is.-Games: as of today's date, there are no games available for download on the Zune Marketplace. This is supposed to change soon and I sure hope it does. However, there are two games that come loaded on the Zune when you plug it in to the computer and update (Hexic and Texas Hold 'Em). Apple has the upper hand here and has done wonders with the App store. I hope Microsoft takes note and does something like it with the Zune. Heck, I hope the do something even better so then Apple steps up their game even more... and around and around we go. Competition is great for consumers.I think here is a good place to mention that I love my iPhone 3G AND my Zune and I need to have both in my life to be happy (in the materialistic sense). I don't listen to music on my iPhone due to limited space (after adding apps, photos, podcasts, etc. there isn't much room for music) and also because Apple does not have a subscription music "rental" service. Ideally I would like to see Zune make a phone similar to the iPhone or the iPhone to have a subscription based music service (both phones would need a large capacity drive) so I could carry around just one device (either iPhone or ZunePhone depending on the offerings). Until that day I live in harmony with my Zune 120 and my iPhone 3G.
110 of 119 people found the following review helpful.
Fantastic product!
By Travis Brown
I love my Zune. After 4 iPods (in a span of 10 years), I decided to try something different. I never really had an issue with my pods, but I was curious about the Zune. I decided to purchase the Zune 30 a year after it was released. The player [Zune 30] was extremely durable, and I loved the device interface; although hated how I had to click in order to scroll down. There was much to be improved.Fast forward two years and several major Microsoft updates later, I now own the Zune 120. I absolutely love it. The capacity is enough for me at the moment; although I'm a music junkie. The playback quality of the songs is noticeably better than the quality my iPod's. The features, such as wireless sync, song sharing over the air, and the Zune Pass are wonderful. I lended the Zune to my girlfriend for an entire week so she could discover some new music (over 8000 tracks on my Zune), and she came back wanting to purchase one herself.Pros:- Great interface- Wonderful sound quality- FM radio + buying songs from FM- Wireless syncing- Sharing music over the air with other Zunes- Improved software (more usable than iTunes, in my opinion)- Support for podcasts and audiobooks- Zune Pass- Purchasing and streaming songs off Wifi- Free updates every few months; they recently added games.Cons:- Battery life could be better- Included headphones are good but not great.- That's all I could think of.Final word:I still use my iPod nano and video from time to time, but I love my Zune more. There's nothing wrong with iPod's, but if you'd like to give something different a try, by all means give this a try. You can't go wrong with purchasing one.Extra:Living in a populated city like NY and taking the train to school every monrning, and coming back in the afternoon, there's always at least one other person on the train with a Zune. Sometimes I get random "let me send you a song" request. Totally discovered a few new artists from random people with the 'send' feature.
42 of 45 people found the following review helpful.
A Mixed Bag of good and bad [mostly good]
By paranoidxe
The Zune is overall a great product and I would recommend it to anyone. This review makes some comparisons to the iPod Classic because many are familiar with the iPod Classic and are debating between these two often.Positives for the Zune:- Sound Quality exceeds that of the Classic, while the classic is good it has too much focus on the low end and really isn't all that great in the mids. The Zune has great balance meaning it plays low/mids/highs exceptionally well, matching the 5th gen iPod in my opinion. [Tested with Bose Around The Ear Headphones, won't be noticed much with cheap/stock ear buds]- Interface is wild and more modern than other MP3 players. You'll feel like you are in 2008 with the device's interface. You can also customize it, while customization is limited to changing the wallpaper its still something not many other players have. [including the classic]- The large screen is nice for video..I haven't ran into any pixelation problems that some people report with the resolution of 320 x 240 on that size of the screen..however your mileage may vary. The screen is much better suited than the dinky 2.5 screen that is on the Classic.- Navigation with the Zune pad is a breeze and better than the Classic. A few reasons being that a) you can press the buttons to adjust volume in your pocket [the classic relies on luck that you can actually get the touch sensitive wheel to respond through your pants], b) the zune pad sticks out from the unit which makes it easier to feel for than the classic which the click wheel is pretty well flush with the unit itself, c) you can navigate with pin point navigation, use the touch function to scroll fast and the click function to get precise.- Microsoft continues to make improvements to the product like the Zune 3.0 release that adds the FM Radio feature that allows you to add music off the radio to your cart or with wireless download the song directly to your Zune. Clock is introduced [a feature that was lacking that people constantly complained about, MICROSOFT LISTENS!], and the Wifi Marketplace is also introduced which allows you to browse the marketplace wirelessly as well as preview/download songs instantly if you have a Zunepass.- The software on the PC looks very modern..where as iTunes has virtually remained the same since its release on the PC. The software has the ability to combine albums with a simple drag n drop which allows you to combine singles into their full featured albums with a simple click. Getting Album art is easy as well as track listings for a album if you are missing tag information..if you are missing tag information and the software can't find it, it will give you a drop down list of all albums on the CD and allow you to choose which track is the right one..none listed? No problem you can keep it its current track name. Manual Sync is NOW supported officially, meaning the device can run independently of your Zune Collection. The software can actually work with a external drive, when I tried with iTunes 7.6 it would close by itself. Mixview is nice, you can simply right click a album click mixview to get a view of several related artists to find new music with.Neutral:- Zune Pass, almost all the music on the Marketplace supports it..some might be annoyed with the fact you have to pay $15 a month forever unless you want to lose your songs, some might also have a problem with not owning the music or that some songs aren't available for the Zune Pass. I personally think its a great concept and I have absolutely no complaints about paying $15 for all the songs I can download.- Smudges and scratches might be a problem for some if you are really picky the new gloss front is prone to scratches from metal objects [keys, coins, etc.].- Its made of plastic which could be taken either a) a good thing because its lighter b) a bad thing because its obviously not as tough.Negatives:- Software is still behind when compared to iTunes but improves with every update. Some complaints include, Rating system is a "Like, Don't Like" System giving you very limited options when you find songs that aren't GREAT but are OK..you either have to hate it or like it. If you are in a certain spot in your collection and click Marketplace then go back your spot is lost and Zune software returns to the top of your list. The same happens when you are at a certain spot in the marketplace as well, you leave and you end up reseting the marketplace back to home.- Marketplace layout is very generic and needs some serious tweaking where as the iTunes Store is very precise the layout of the Marketplace is just sloppy, there really isn't much browsing you can do unless the artist is new because when you browse through artists in a specific genre they aren't in alphabetic order they are just scattered about I assume by popularity.- Premium Earbuds are gone replaced with generic earbuds.Overall a great alternative to the now dying Classic [which didn't get any upgrades beyond battery and the genius feature..unless you consider the 120GB a upgrade from the 80GB model last year]. I do not regret my purchase and would recommend it to anyone.
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