The In Crowd

I've been using the tester unit of the brand new 30GB Microsoft Zune mp3 player sent to me by my dude Cesar on and off now for a good few weeks. And with the 60GB video ipod I bought last year inexplicably crashing on me at least once a week for the past few weeks, I was definitely in a good frame of mind to give the Zune a fair shot unlike many of the apple/ipod fanboys out there. But with Steve Job's recent news, pretty much anything I've got say here has been rendered almost moot and irrelevant as are just about every mp3 player out in the marketplace right now including apple's own current line of ipods! Microsoft's now got their work REALLY cut out for them if they want to keep anyone focused on and excited about their Zune players.

 

That all being said, here's my take on the Zune:

 

First off it's not as ugly as everyone claims although why anyone would want to cop one in brown is beyond me and it's rugged minimalist feel isn't nearly as sleek and sexy as the ipod. The screen is bigger than on the video ipod and really nice & sharp looking. Watching the sample videos that came pre-packaged with the player, I'd be shocked if anyone wasn't blown away by the picture quality plus movies and videos are viewed by turning the player horizontally so you get even larger an image and less of the letter-boxing effect than you do on the ipod. It also has a "Resume play" function to allow you to start viewing from where you last were in the video if you switch away to play music or stop a video which is a nice touch but since I hardly play videos on my ipod, I'm not really sure if the ipod has that same functionality (?).

 

Sound-wise, the Zune seemed to be at least on par with the ipod although I didn't really A-B them to verify that but I was happy with it overall. The Zune also includes an FM radio which is a nice little additional feature that Apple should really consider adding too if they haven't already for the iphone (?).

 

A lot of folks have been complaining about how the Zune has an ipod-like scroll wheel but that doesn't work like the ipod's. This is correct but pretty much a non-starter as a serious con for the player. Yeah it took me a minute to get out of the ipod mindset in using the controls but it didn't take that long and once I was used to it, it worked pretty much as well as the ipod as far as I'm concerned. In fact, I liked the FF/Rew controls on the Zune better and the Back Menu button was an improvement in my view too. 

 

Here's a few cons that I definitely had issue with though:

 

It doesn't work with Macs (yet) which is a BIG issue for me since most of my mp3 music collection was migrated over to my Powerbook laptop from my slow-ass, virus and spyware ridden PC desktop. Luckily, that PC still had some music on it and worked well enough to load the Zune software on and give this thing a test-run. The battery life on the Zune is also not that great. It definitely seemed to last a LOT less than my ipod's does.

 

Another a big issue: no gapless play which admittedly Apple had only just fixed on their own player's software recently but this is something that should have been addressed out the gate by Microsoft. It's crucial for fans of hip hop and electronic music that leans heavily on DJ-mixed albums and mixtapes as well as for classical music listeners. This is a major faux pas not having this in place.

 

Also, Microsoft has banked almost their entire marketing campaign for the Zune on the "Welcome to the Social" concept:  the fact that Zune's built-in wi-fi capability allows users to beam and share music with fellow Zune owners. Aside from the fact that many critics have vilified Microsoft for the limiting DRM, 3 plays or 3 days restriction on beamed music, even for CC-licensed music, music for which you may own the copyrights and music labels offer DRM-free, my issue was more of the "if a tree fall in the forest..." variety: in the 3-4 weeks during which I actively used the Zune, I repeatedly attempted to locate other Zune players as I walked around town, took the subway etc. but never found another zune on the network to beam stuff to. If sales of this player don't pick up and reach some kind of critical mass quickly, this functionality is gonna bascially be useless. If I was in Microsoft sales & marketing I would REALLY consider doing some kind of deep discount deal with campus bookstores or tech centers at college campuses to get this thing into the hands of as many young people as possible but that's just me. Maybe even group purchase rates so groups of friends who may end up trading music amongst themselves have an incentive to consider buying the Zune instead of ipods or other mp3 player brands.

 

To wrap up, I don't really buy a lot of digital music so I can't really speak on the quality of the Zune marketplace (pictured left) via-a-vis itunes. Price-wise Zunes are basically the same cost as an ipod so the argument comes down to whether you're willing to step away from the mass of ipod users and march to the beat of your own drum. If you have a crazy collection of itunes-purchased music, it might be tough to argue that the Zune has enough extra features to justify you abandoning it (since you can't migrate itunes-purchased audio files onto the Zune, only open mp3's), but if you're not in that position, I would recommend you consider this player. Unless of course you're holding out til June to cop the iphone!

 

Read more about the Zune as reviewed in... 

 

The Washington Post 

 

Houston Chronicle TechBlog 

 

Fox News

 

 

On the net:

 

The Zune official website here.

 

Buy Zune players and accessories via Amazon.com here.