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

• Outstanding.

  
  By A216RI6MJ3YPD9 on 2007-11-13
  I've owned 5 different kinds of iPods, as well as the original Zune, and I must say, that this product is by far the best of the group. I spent the day trying to return my iPod Classic (80GB) so that I could get my hands on one of these---and I had to look just about everywhere in town to find one.
  Is this better than the iPod Classic? Undoubtedly. I can make a fair comparison, as I have been toying with the Classic for the last two weeks. I've had iPod Nanos (first and third generations), 3 iPod Videos (5G), and an iPod Classic (80GB). The iPod is a fine product line, but I had too many bad experiences with the 5G video to want to keep them. I heard that the Z80 came out so I went and bought that one instead.
  I'm going to spend most of my time here discussing how the Zune 80 compares to its predecessor, the Zune 30, as well as the iPod line--as it has set the standard for mp3 players for the last few years.
  
  Screen- The glass screen looks much better than the original Zune's plastic one. The 320X240 resolution looks great. It looks far better than the Classic's screen. You can turn it sideways to take full advantage of it while watching videos. The iPod Classic's screen can only be viewed from one direction, and it has for the most part remained the same since the fifth generation. The video quality is great. Although this is technically the same resolution as the ipod Classic, nano, and Zune 4 and 8, it still manages to look great because of its size and clarity. You will notice that the quality on the smaller Zune appears sharper, but that's only because there are more pixels per square inch on them, due to the smaller size. Still looks awesome. This screen is slightly larger than the 1G Zune, but overall it is still smaller in both thinness and height. The glass screen is far more durable than the plastic one, and after a few months of testing it now I can say that it does not scratch easily, if at all.
  Build- This thing is built to last. It feels a lot denser and sturdier than the last year's model. The first generation Zune couldn't win a beauty contest by a long shot--but I think this one's a winner. Aluminum back reminds me of the iPod line, although it's much better because it is brushed metal. (Meaning you don't have to keep it in a glass case, and bring out gloves when you want to handle it, like you did with the iPods). The paint, believe it or not, is actually very difficult to scratch. I've put it in my pocket with my keys, and the screen nor the paint scratches. I wouldn't want purposefully subject it to such tests, but it happened, and it's still in pristine condition. I scratched the back of my iPod Classic the first day I got it because of the glossy metal back. Scratching the back of your iPod is inevitable. I really don't see a need for a case.
  Zunepad- The iPod's scroll wheel was a nice piece of work when it first came out. The Zunepad is better. Bold statement? Maybe. But I can now navigate via touch controls in four different directions as opposed to two with the iPod. And it is very easy to do so. I was skeptical at first, but Microsoft nailed it. You can choose if you want to flick your fingers across the "squirqle" to play your music, or you can just press the buttons to navigate. Nothing against Apple, but the scrollwheel on the Classic wasn't nearly as sensitive as the 5th generation iPod video's. Aren't you supposed to make progress when you release new hardware? I had problems with my Classic's scrollwheel's sensitivity. I can definitely see myself navigating menus much faster using the Zunepad.
  
  A few things that I've noticed: Zunepad doesn't work with gloves of any sort (most of the time). Not that big of a problem, but I have noticed something interesting. Even the analog buttons underneath the Zunepad do not work if you are wearing gloves. It must sense that your skin is actually touching it to work correctly. I found that rather odd. I get some response out of it, but it usually doesn't respond the way you want it to. This is a big deal for me, as it is getting cold. Taking off your gloves to change a song is a burden, although I still enjoy using it more than I did the scrollwheel (which worked with gloves.) I've tried cotton, leather, and suede. This sounds crazy, but it is my biggest gripe with the Zune 80.
  Firmware- Not too much different from the original, aside from aesthetics. It just looks pretty. Oversized letters are nice to look at, in addition to some decent animations. You can set your own backgrounds, as opposed to having the iPod Classic automatically flowing album art in the back (I hated that). The "twist" interface is much easier to use than that of the Ipod. I'm pretty sure I can get to a song much faster than someone with an Ipod. It works similar to a spreadsheet, as you have artist, songs, albums etc. listed at the top, with the contents of the respective categories listed below. A simple f lick to the right or left immediately changes categories. Microsoft definitely wins in this department.
  
  Radio- You'd have to pay for this if you bought an Ipod Classic. Although I don't use it, it is still nice to have.
  
  Zune Software- I'll be honest, I've been using itunes for a few years now, and I hate it. When I bought the original Zune, I thought that escaping itunes would be a good thing. I was wrong. The original software was abysmal. BUT, the new software is a vast improvement. It's almost too simple. And it's also easy on the eyes. I may consider using this as my default player from now on---something that I would have never done with the original software. The reason why I got rid of my original Zune in favor of the iPod classic was the software. I was tired of using it. Now I have more reason to keep my Zune.
  After using it for awhile, I have noticed a few quirks with this software, mainly that it seems to sync a small group of songs over and over again. I see this being fixed by Microsoft's next update. I've been using it for awhile now, and I am not entirely as optimistic about it as when I wrote this review. It is STILL superior to itunes, and definitely the original software, but they need to fix a few issues with it. Namely the syncing options. The software recognizes some of the videos in the mpeg 4 format, but not all. I am thinking that this might have been a problem with the conversion software (Xvid->mpeg4).
  
  The sound quality, which is probably the most important part of this review, is great. One problem is that they removed the equalizer, so what you hear is what you get. That wasn't a smart move on Microsoft's part. I think it sounds louder than an iPod, but I'm not an audiophile by any means.
  Premium earbuds. These are alot nicer than most other stock headphones. They're the in-ear type, and they will take some getting used to if you've never used them. Bass response is a plus. I tried them earlier and they are comparable to my more expensive Sony's.
  
  DRM- I don't know alot about this category, so look at the comments that people have left at the end of this review. I don't use this type of content. I do understand that anything downloaded from itunes will not work on the Zune. So if your entire library was downloaded on itunes, don't get this MP3 player. It's their way of making sure you continue to buy their products, as well as preventing piracy.
  
  Wireless sync. I really can't use this. I hear it works nicely though. I can't really imagine using it, so take this one as you will. I really don't see the big deal about this. If I'm syncing my music, I want my Zune to charge as well. Maybe this feature is for lazy people, but I don't see it as useful.
  
  Drive usage. You can't put anything on here that doesn't run through the Zune software. In other words--You won't be using this as a portable hard drive, even though most of us will not fill it up with music. You can do whatever you please with an iPod. There ARE hacks online that require you to alter your registry available online. Google is your friend. Try it at your own risk.
  
  Battery life- Okay, the battery life isn't too shabby when just playing mp3's. I went a weekend with reasonable use without having to recharge it (forgot usb chord in the car). Battery life with video isn't good at all, but I don't think it was too far off from that of the Classic iPod. I'd prefer the large screen and lesser battery life over that of the Classic any day.
  
  
  Conclusion-
  
  I'm not a Micro$oft fanboy, contrary to what this review might look like. I've owned nothing but ipods before owning the 1G Zune. I must say that this seems to be the best one I've owned, and I don't regret returning my Classic.
  It's easier to use, has a nicer screen, very generous capacity, great sound and video playback, a built in radio, and sleek design.
  
  If the iPod Classic can earn four stars, this definitely gets five, as it is the superior mp3 player---by a longshot. It's not without its shortcomings, but they are forgivable, considering we've been under "ipod control" for the last few years.
  
  That's about all I can think of. Hope this helps.
  
  
  

• Hardware improved, software lagged behind

  
  By A22BGR3VZITVKE on 2007-11-16
  I got this new Zune 80GB. The player looks and feels very nice. The material looks very quality and futuristic.
  
  The sound quality of the player is neither better nor worse than the first generation. It was generally good with the first player. But actually, they have removed the EQ option altogether in the second generation. So, you are left with the standard sound that comes with it. But, I found the sound quality very good, way better than other very popular mp3 players, which was the primary reason for me to go with Zune. Its screen is large and very clear. Picture and video quality are very good.
  
  In terms of the software: There were issues that are fixed with two updates by the Zune team. Please see the end of each paragraph to see if they were fixed.
  
  Keep in mind that I am not an Ipod owner. The review is not a comparison of Zune with an Ipod, except in the scroll wheel part below. Here are the facts that you need to be aware of before purchasing Zune:
  
  1. If you were waiting for a drag-and-drop feature where you would just drag the songs from a particular location on your computer straight to your device, you will be disappointed again. Apparently, Zune team does not want to give you that convenience. What I, personally, would have liked to see is this: I drag a group of songs to a playlist in the Zune device which updates it immediately, then the playlist on the library automatically updates (or not, depending on the choice) and my library playlist updates (or not) accordingly without a whole process of syncing of my entire library to Zune just because I want to add a picture or a song to a playlist. I am sure a lot of users have told Microsoft that they would have liked to have this feature. But, you won't get it this time either. Instead, Zune team makes you go through first adding the songs to the library, pulling those songs to the playlists, which is itself a pain because of the separated views of playlists and the music library.
  
  2. The categories on the main interface, such as music, playlists are separated from each other and adding songs to your playlists is unnecessarily very difficult. You don't see your playlists from your song collection interface, unless you switch to other views in order to see one or the other. Very unwise way of organizing and programming since the music and the playlists are quite related to each other.
  
  3. There are inconsistencies between the playlists in the software and the device. For example, let's say you created a playlist in the software and decided to sync it to the device (manual or automatic, it does not matter). However, if you disconnect your device after syncing and browse through that playlist (if it's there), you will see that song list for that playlist is not correct; you are missing a number of songs even though you synced the whole thing. This is very annoying if you counted on this sync and now you are out of home. The real frustration is there is no way to correct this problem even if you synced over and over again! Also, the alphabetical order of the playlists is also different in the software than the one in the device. Zune device ignores "The" in front of playlists (or artists, words, etc.), but software does not, resulting in the incorrect placement of the playlists. FIXED by the second update.
  
  As of June 2008: If you delete a song from your library, the playlist that has that song does NOT update automatically. Therefore, you need to do it manually. Quite annoying if you deleted many songs and those songs are in multiple playlists. This should be fixed with the next update.
  
  4. Zune software has very important syncing problems. In other words, it incorrectly communicates with your device to put songs, videos, pictures, and update the information there, etc. For example, I noticed one very important thing. The software syncs a particular group of songs over and over again each time you plug the device in, even though these songs are already in there. Interestingly, the software lists these songs only once when you search for them, but if you plugin the Zune device 10 times, the same group is synced 10 times! However, the device shows these multiples. For example, you would have 10 copies of the same song visible to you under the artist that one of those songs that keep being copied. These syncs eat up storage on the player and after a couple of syncs you will run out of space on your Zune for this reason. FIXED.
  
  5. Let's say you have 10 albums for a particular artist. And you want to add this artist's songs in a playlist you created by album names. The newest album first, the older one second, and so on. When you select all the albums and then carry it over to the playlist section, it will NOT add the songs according to album year, name, etc. It will add them all in a disorganized way and you cannot sort them unless you do them yourself by dragging each song. Considering the number of songs in all these albums, this would take forever. And, most importantly, you will NOT be able to sort them by albums in the playlist that contains all these songs. All the sorting options from the playlists are absent. It would have been nice if we could sort in the playlists.
  
  6. The option to sync automatically or manually is simply not working. So, every time you connect your device and want to sync a single picture, it will start syncing everything in your collection automatically even if you choose to sync by selecting "let me choose". This is quite frustrating because it creates a so-called "sync group" for your entire song collection and deadly-slows down the operation on the zune device. The software sometimes crashes or stops responding. FIXED.
  
  7. Many useful features, such as the EQ, have been removed from the software, even though their functionality have been somewhat questioned. In addition, editing tags is no longer available. In the software, you cannot see how many songs you have in a playlist. It's just very inconvenient.
  
  8. Album names, song lists, artists classifications, album arts are all wrong in the Zune software. There are many albums that show under wrong artists or vice versa. I had Bjork showed under Arcangelo Corelli, despite these two share not a single album name at all. There are many other examples like this. The bad news is that there is no way to fix this annoying problem by editing in the software; it simply does not work. As of June 6th 2008, there are still problems with this feature. The software still finds some album information wrong and gets them wrong.
  
  9. When you have many songs, like around 8000 or more, the screen animations and the responsiveness of the device software declines. The transition animations between menus on the Zune device responds slowly as you add more songs. FIXED.
  
  10. If you are using manual sync, trouble awaits you. Let's say that you decided to sync a particular song by manual sync. You happily did that by right clicking the song and selecting "sync". Now, you want to listen to it. If you search for that song by the artist under artists or album under albums menu on the device, you will not be able to see that artist or the album that song belongs to. You will only be able to find the song you just added by using the song names menu because you decided to sync via song. Interestingly, and of course incompetently, when the software adds the song to the device, it does not update the artist or album fields. Similarly, if you choose to sync through album, you might not be able to see those songs by going through artists or song names. The common sense is when you add a song via the individual song, album, or artists, all fields should be updated, right? But, no. Zune is quite different. You find the song only through the method you chose to sync it. Sensational job. FIXED :)
  
  11. This point is very important. The Zune support team is pretty much useless. The help section of the software is like a bad joke. Download and you'll see. If you buy the device and you cannot figure out something or you do not understand why it does a particular thing even though you did not ask for it, you will be on your own. They are uncoordinated with each other, every time you ask for help for the same problem, each agent will try to give you a different work-around. I had to teach one of the guys there about an update with particular KB (stands for "knowledge base") article at Microsoft because just couple hours ago, it was suggested by his colleague for my problem and which did not help. The only consistency the support team has is to ask you if you have upgraded your firmware and software. If you answer positively, they will ask you to erase everything in the Zune device and resync, not a good option if you have already done it after talking to one of them, it failed to solve the problem, and you have many songs in your library. If they luckily understand your problem and the steps you have already taken, they will put you on hold and "look in" to your issue. After minutes, they will say that they've got nothing in the knowledge base for you. In fact, they will even go as far as to say that it is the first time they hear such a complaint as yours. THIS IS STILL A PROBLEM. THE ZUNE SUPPORT TEAM IS STILL USELESS, UNFORTUNATELY.
  
  12. With regard to battery, the music performance is good, though not excellent. Cnet reported the music performance to be 22 hours. Microsoft claimed it was 30 hours. The judgement is yours. Certainly it is better than the first generations of course, though there are considerable number of people who have problems with batteries (search for this problem on the forums of Zune). And, for video I was able to watch videos for little over two and a half hours. The earbuds are also a lot better than the ones that come with other popular mp3 players. They are much more quality, we need to give credit to Microsoft for this.
  
  13. You still cannot use it as an external hard drive. It would have been really convenient to have this feature. There are hacks for using it as a hard drive though. But, officially, you still cannot do that.
  
  14. The wireless sync option is really handy if you have a home wireless network. This is a very nice idea. But, it would have been a lot better if one could actually connect to Marketplace and buy songs.
  
  15. The scrollwheel is still not similar to iPods. I am not saying this is better or worse, since this depends on what a particular person finds more comfortable. Its functionality has improved though. Personally, I found the Zune device control more functional. But, it depends on the person using it.
  
  16. The Zune software has a serious number of playlist problems. For example, if you accidentally delete a playlist, you will not be able to recreate the same playlist because the software will say that it does exist even though you just deleted it and it does not show up on your screen.
  
  Also, if you select marketplace to browse songs, the page does not load for a considerable number of people, especially for some . It shows every image on the page black. For the playlist, marketplace, and the problem # 4 above, I have talked to the Zune support team and the expected happened. The first person I talked to asked me to restart and reconnect which, needless to say, did not help (see # 11 above). Then she transferred me to a more experienced technical support member. This is what they call "escalation". The experienced technical person told me that Zune software has a lot of issues, it is still in "Beta", and they were getting a lot of calls. The result is I was not able to find a solution from the support team to the problems I experienced. I hear you ask: "It has been a year since the first software was developed. Why is the software still rough and has a lot of issues? Why does Microsoft want us to beta-test it?" Very good question. If you are anxious about Zune, I strongly suggest you do not buy it because you'll try to find work-around to the problems that the programming team should have solved long ago. The product is still not good. The problems are not that advanced (does the playlist problem look that advanced to you?). They are the type of problems that an ordinary computer user would notice easily. We need to admit: Microsoft is very sluggish in this and apparently still thinks that we'll use whatever they release. Their strategy is to wait until the very last minute of holiday season, release whichever unpolished and bug-full version of the software and hope to catch up by "updates" which do not help at all.
  
  There are people who post replies to my review that the problems and/or inconveniences I have experienced are specific to me because my computer was not "up-to-date" or because of some other reason. This is not true, I have an up-to-date computer. Even so, if I am one of those many people who experience this, you could be one of them as well. It is the proportion of those who are unsatisfied compared to those who are. I observed, in the case of Zune (I have no idea about Ipods), that the proportion of those who are unsatisfied is too much. Also, some problems I have indicated here are completely objective. For example, how can the problem of very weak help documentation of the software be specific to me? You can download and see it yourself. Or the absence of drag-and-drop, playlist sorting, wrong album art (tag problems that results in multiple song syncing)? Also, many readers disregard my original disclaimer that I am not an Ipod owner, and think this review serves the purpose of boasting Ipod. This is not true either. I have never used an Ipod and will not buy one because of their poor sound quality (this is my personal opinion about Ipods). I do not know whether or not their performance is satisfactory. This is not the scope of this review.
  
  Overall, with two updates the software became much more useful and competent. There are still a few problems that need to be fixed. Yet, the Zune has become a much better product than other mp3 players.
  
  

• Dangerously Close to PERFECTION!

  
  By A130YN8T37O833 on 2007-11-14
  Dangerously Close to PERFECTION!
  
  Dangerously Close to PERFECTION! I always wanted to buy the original Zune but didn't bother due to the fact it was only 30GB and at that time I was already on my 80GB iPod. When I was on my 80GB I was already on the borderline of a shortage in GB so I was ecstatic when Apple released the 160GB. I have so much videos and that's what takes up all my memory space. After purchasing the 160GB I realized how disappointed I was. I hated the new cheap plastic cover they used; the screen didn't get any bigger, the user interface was spotty and slow (because it takes time to load album art), the scroll wheel was AWFUL and very unresponsive. In short, I was disappointed. The only plus was the memory space. Now the only way I would have enjoyed the iPod was if the 160GB was released in the body of the iPod touch. Instead Apple decided to only utilize 8GB or 16GB as some sort of test drive before the bigger drives get released. I called everywhere in Manhattan yesterday for the Zune & nobody had it. They either had it or their 6 dollar an hour minimum wage employee refused to check if the item was in stock when I called. Anyways I called Circuit City and or course the 18 year old kid that answered said they had tons of Zune's & that he unloaded it off the truck himself the night before the release date but at the same time he refused to put one on hold for me. I go out of my way to go to Brooklyn and of course when I got there they didn't have any. Lucky for me while I was at the store a customer was returning his Zune because he hated the user interface and he thought the device was too big so he exchanged it for an iPod Nano classic. Ok let's get to device. Overall I am very pleased with the device. Like I stated it's dangerously close to perfection, but not quite their yet. I love the design; its very sleek, sexy, futuristic, and very heroine sheik (Wish other colors were available). I've been using iPods for years so I am use to iTunes and the iPod structure menu. So it took a quick second to get use to the Zune interface. The scroll wheel is nicely designed and can be used in 2 ways. Like the original Zune you can hit to select or touch the scroll wheel to browse. The best of both worlds and you get to turn off the touch feature if you want as well. I like the menu setup and I like the fact that you can customize the backgrounds with what's included or with your own pictures unlike the iPod. The pictures look nice & crisp on the 3.2 inch LCD screen. The only thing that was a disappointment was that the album art when a song is being played isn't the clearest image. I guess in order to save memory space the resolution was toned down. I love the fact it has a radio. After having an iPod for so long I realized how many years it was that I didn't get to listen to the radio due to the fact one wasn't built in. Zune also has updated software so that was a nice change even though I didn't see anything wrong with their original design. Last compliant is I wish with all the technology we had that syncing songs would be at faster speeds. I clocked myself last night & it took 3 ½ hours to port all my songs which was about 6500 songs & just a few movies & TV shows onto the Zune. Please note to all teckies out their lets build a better way of syncing songs so it doesn't operate at the speed of a crawling turtle. Bottom line is I am so pleased with my Zune. It really has done what the iPod hasn't been able to do and that's called EVOLVE. Having both devices I really prefer the Zune over the iPod. It's the best of the bunch and with some more advertising people will actually pay attention to this device. Bye Bye iPod Nation, Hello Zune Nation.
  
  
  

• Better than iPod Classic, but could be better

  
  By AZPEN64PTBL74 on 2007-11-13
  [UPDATE 4]
  
  The rating is actually 4.5/5, but since Amazon doesn't allow fractions, I put down 4 stars.
  
  [Disclaimer]I work for Microsoft. I think I have been objective in this review--you can draw your own conclusions.[/Disclaimer] Also know that I do not work in the division that makes the Zune, so I have no insider information.
  
  Let's start with my likes and dislikes of the Zune 80:
  
  THE GOOD
  * Beautiful, bright, large, glass (not plastic) screen. The size (3.2") is so much better for viewing videos and pictures.
  * Size and weight (lighter than iPod Classic).
  * Capacity (80 GB).
  * Built-in Wi-Fi and associated wireless sync.
  * ZunePad.
  * UI (both of the device and the PC software).
  * FM radio.
  * Ability to rent music (allowing one to listen to whole songs before deciding whether to buy or not).
  * Build quality.
  * Customizable backgrounds.
  
  THE NEUTRAL
  * Wi-Fi sharing--if there aren't enough Zuners around you, this is not of much use.
  * Simplification of the 5-point song rating scale to a 2-point (like/dislike) scale.
  
  THE BAD
  * None of the Zunes work as mass storage devices (portable hard drives)--every other player on the market has this ability, so why not the Zunes?
  * Automatic playlists are no more.
  
  
  Now for a more detailed review of some features...
  
  SYNC-ING: USB OR WIRELESS?
  
  Here's the deal: Over-The-Air (OTA, aka wireless) syncing is going to be slower that USB syncing, but more convenient. So use USB sync for bulk transfers (e.g., when you sync your Zune 80 for the first time ), and OTA sync for smaller, incremental transfers (e.g., nightly updates). To realize the usefulness of wireless syncing, consider this setup: keep the Zune dock connected to your Home Theater (HT) receiver in the living room, then when you put your Zune in the dock, the player gets charged, the music gets synced and you can play your Zune's music through your HT setup! I think the wireless sync is a very useful feature and finally MS is beginning to realize the potential of the on-board Wi-Fi (though more is possible).
  
  MUSIC: RENT OR BUY?
  
  Both. Renting music allows me to try out unlimited number of songs an unlimited number of times. Buying allows me to not worry about keeping up a subscription--I know that my favorite songs will always be with me. Renting also works well for "in" or "hip" music--this type of music typically gets overplayed and becomes boring before long. The subscription model allows me to fill up my Zune with the latest music for (say) a party, while keeping my options open for permanently acquiring some songs. The Zune Marketplace supports both models.
  
  ZUNEPAD
  
  The ZunePad is a great combination of D-pad (Directional-pad) and a trackpad. It took me all of 30 seconds to get used to it. Scrolling through long lists of songs is a breeze and fun too ;-). You swipe up, down, left or right to navigate the Zune. A quick flick of your thumb will send a long list of songs scrolling in the intended direction, and a touch on the ZunePad will stop the scrolling (the scroll will come to a natural rest too). The whole action is very intuitive and works as expected--for example, the speed of list scrolling is proportional to the speed of your upward or downward swipe.
  
  
  COMPARISON
  
  It is inevitable to compare any new entrant in the Digital Audio Player (DAP)/Personal Music Player (PMP)/MP3 Player market to the corresponding iPod--the Zune 80's natural competitor is the iPod Classic 80 GB. To compare the Zune 80 to any other device in the iPod family would be like comparing bananas and oranges ;-).
  
  How the Zune 80 is better:
  * Larger, better screen (screen size vital when watching video)
  * Wi-Fi and associated wireless sync (possibility of new features via firmware updates)
  * FM radio with RDBS display (a saving of approximately 50 bucks vs. iPod Classic)
  * Sound quality
  * The UI is far more visually pleasing, both on the computer and on the device
  * Subscription-based access to entire Zune Marketplace song catalog
  * Zune marketplace has a well-developed social aspect to it (not such a big draw for me personally, but others will like it more).
  * ZunePad. Thumb motions on the ZunePad are simpler than on iPod's clickwheel (or so says my right thumb, still recuperating from a serious, though unrelated, injury).
  
  How the iPod Classic is better:
  * Mass storage device capability (aka portable hard disk)
  * iTunes store has bigger song collection, and has videos too
  * Cover Flow (while visually snazzy, CoverFlow isn't very useful for people like me who have mostly individual tracks, not albums).
  
  
  SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS
  
  1. Enable mass storage device mode/capability (aka portable hard drive functionality).
  2. Use built-in Wi-Fi to enable direct download/purchase/rental of songs from/to the device (I hope this is already in the works).
  3. Bring back automated playlists.
  4. Let users choose 2-point or 5-point rating scale.
  
  
  I will add more to the review as I keep using the device...
  
  

• Great media player

  
  By A2G63LEIC0GE85 on 2007-11-14
  I got this device yesterday and I haven't been able to keep my hands off it. I was one of many people who made fun of the v1 zune but this device is a huge improvement.
  
  The interface of the desktop software is very clean and easy to navigate. The software on the zune works really well. The Zune pad is a big surprise. I wasn't so sure when I saw pictures of it but this touch sensitive pad is great. It makes navigating your media very effortless.
  
  Setting up and using wireless synching was incredibly easy too.
  
  Now for the down side:
  1. Getting help when using the desktop software could use a little "help".
  2. Every once in a while there's some distortion on the headphones
  3. Increasing the volume while playing video isn't as easy as it is for audio
  
  Overall, this is a great device and it's going to be my buddy for a long time.
  
  
• Better than I thought it would be
  By A2TRCQVUSQEQU on 2007-11-14
  I have been an ipod owner for many years. I always had a good experience with them, but when it was time to get a new player none of their offerings really matched what I was looking for. Yes, the itouch is beautiful, but 16gb for that price ... not gonna do it.
  
  When I saw the second generation Zune was coming out, I checked out the specifications and decided it was time to "switch".
  
  What I like:
  1. Solid engineering; it is heavier than an ipod and a little bit bigger, but I kind of like the weight of it. I even feel cool having it because it isn't the same mp3 player I see everyone else has -- that is pretty superficial though.
  
  2. The touch wheel is actually a nice interface. This works great even though you do have to adjust to it a little. Navigating through menus is easy and they pretty much nailed it.
  
  3. The menu system looks and works great ... makes some other devices appear "dumb". I hate to say it is hip, but yeah it is.
  
  4. FM Radio ... granted I am a sirius user, but I was surprised how great this feature works. I am sure I will get a little use out of that. My gym has TVs that run sound on radio frequencies, and I was never able to listen to them with my ipod.
  
  5. It has a nice sized screen. This was a good middle ground between the itouch and the ipod classic for me. When I thought about the features of the itouch that I would actually get the most out of it was the screen. This screen seems to have a good quality and you will see my negative comments of it below.
  
  6. Good price for the features.
  
  7. Good sound quality and a decent pair of included ear buds. I have owned a lot of ear buds including some higher end models like shure e2s. I think they supplied a pretty good pair. Beyond just the ear buds I think I can tell the difference compared to my ipod, but that might just be a new user euphoria experience.
  
  8. Can customize the background -- adds that personal touch.
  
  9. Wireless syncing.
  
  What I don't like:
  1. Video quality is not bad, but it could be better. If the resolution was higher I think this would be a 5 out of 5, but it really shouldn't be a deal breaker; it still looks pretty good.
  
  2. The zune desktop software isn't shabby at all, but it does take a little getting used to. I have noticed a few things that are lacking or not working great. This is one of those areas where, hopefully, we won't suffer for long if releases are distrubuted periodically.
  
  3. I wish the wireless syncing was faster and there were more options of when to do it. My network is setup in a way that causes a couple of trips between systems, so I probably am adding some latency. It is a cool feature to add one song, podcast or even an album, but I would like some more automation added.
  
  
  
  I have only had it for 2 days now, but I am really glad I decided to get this compared to the ipod classic and the itouch. Both of those players have their good points, but the Zune seems to really fit with what I want and need.
  
  Great player - it is a good buy - I am very happy with this purchase. I would give it 5 out of 5 stars if it only had a couple of slight improvements. As another reviewer said - 4.5 stars if it was possible.
  
  
• DO NOT BUY - SOFTWARE HORRIBLE!!
  By A3FCL4APUQPOKF on 2007-11-14
  The Zune hardware is pretty good (because it's made by Toshiba), but the new software they make you put on your PC is an abomination. The new software is actually MUCH worse than the original software that came with the first Zunes. They have dumbed down the new software to the point that it's VERY crippled! They have removed many good features. The new software was supposed to be an upgrade, but it's a massive DOWNGRADE. This is so insulting to us customers, to give us something that is much worse than what we had.
  
  The people on the Zune team are really horrible. They are incompetent in everything. They are terrible at creating software. They completely ignore the customers and what we want, even though we have told them many things that we want. The Zune is capable of many more software features, which the Zune team refuses to give us even after an entire year has passed and the competition is now far surpassing them. We the customers get no support from the Zune team. So be warned, if you buy a Zune, you will be abandoned. The Zune team is a joke, except it's not funny after you spent $250 on their machine. So I recommend do not ever buy a Zune because you'll get really terrible software and no support. I bought a Zune one year ago and in that time we have gotten nothing. We only got a couple of very minor updates that did not give us any new features whatsoever and made no noticeable difference.
  
  The Zune is very poor in features compared to other premium mp3 players now. It just has basic abilities, and that is really not good enough anymore. The latest mp3 players from Apple, Samsung, and other companies have many more and better features than the Zune now.
  
  I really hate the Zune team because they seem hell bent on denying us new firmware features for our Zunes. We keep pleading and they keep ignoring us. They won't even give us a measly clock on the Zune. And now they give us this new PC software which is massively worse and massively less functional than the original one. It is crippled. I can't stand it anymore. I am sorry I bought a Zune. I am sick of being ignored and given very bad service by the Zune team. I have had enough. I want out. I don't want anything more to do with Zune. I'll probably buy a Samsung YP-P2 because it has a lot of features I've wanted.
  
  It seems like what Microsoft does is give us major products with huge problems and expect us to be the beta testers and suffer through it for a long time, and they generally take far too long to fix the problem, if ever. Here is a clue for Microsoft: you are supposed to thoroughly test your products and work out the bugs before you put them on the market. The customers are not supposed to be your beta testers. From now on I will not be inclined to buy Microsoft products and will look for alternatives.
  
  Also, a suggestion for the Zune team: give people a freaking manual along with their software!!! Stop making people figure out everything on their own, or go searching for a manual online, or learn how to use the software from other people on the internet. Give people the dang manual up front so they can have all the info from the beginning. Don't make people hunt for information on how to use the software. That is so stupid! It's like you think it's cool not to give people manuals for your software. Not only should you give people manuals, but it would also be nice to give people visual tutorials to make things even easier. You know nothing about business or serving customers, obviously! The entire Zune team should be fired and replaced! Get some competent people in there for a change!
  
  
  
• Great player with some of the most atrocious software ever......
  By A20CUKQ5NZ3B12 on 2007-12-13
  Pros: Great Player w/ ample HD space, Great interface, Huge Screen, Wifi capability w/ wireless sync, Radio Tuner, Touchpad interface improvement, ZUNE originals!
  
  Cons: Horrendous software, Click Wheel is still a better interface
  
  After using my 5th Generation iPod's screen stopped working just a little above 1 year (conveniently out of warranty) I decided that I didn't want to buy another apple product for my next mp3 player. The Zune 2 had just come out and the 80GB of space was quite appealing (upgrade from 30GB) and the player seemed rather improved from the first Bricky Zune. After testing the interface in the store and checking the size I was quite convinced this would be my next mp3 player. What really sealed the deal was the Zune Originals offer from MS that allowed you to laser etch a custom picture from a set # of artists onto the back of the player.
  
  So I waited anxiously for my Zune (shipped direct from the factory in China). When it arrived the player was solid as expected and the interface was smooth..... And then everything went downhill from there. I started by simply installing the Zune software and when that was done I selected my music folders. First thing I noticed was that the ways to manipulate the sorting were incredibly limited compared to ITunes. You couldn't sort by priorities (like Album> Artist). So I either had to choose between browsing artists (where the albums would be scatted around) or by album (where the artists were scattered throughout the whole list). To top things off in browse mode, things are jumbled in the album view where it splinters off albums if you have various artists or feat. artists in a single album... Not great. Of course this could be overcome by a simple search right? Nope... the search function is horrible and non-interactive. It's not even close to as smooth as the itunes search and from the search page you cannot sync songs directly from there. Either way it makes organizing any collection a complete pain. Second off the Zune doesn't double as a portable HD if you need it while the Ipod does. And third, I often bring my mp3 player to work to play music on my PC (since my work PC has limited HD Space). For some obscure reason the Zune software does not play songs directly off your Zune unless you copy them to your HD collection first (defeating the purpose of doing it in the first place).
  
  It really upsets me that Microsoft had a great chance to take a customer away from Apple's Ipod reign and completely screwed it up with horrible software. I wanted to enjoy the zune but it's just been a miserable experience so far that I can't recommend to anyone (esp since it's about the same price as the ipod classic). Sure, things might improve in the future and the software might be updated, but I wouldn't buy this player and bank on that. I'm even tempted now to sell my Zune at a loss on ebay and go buy another iPod so I can use Itunes again (which I don't particularly like all that much to begin with). I could go on about the positive aspects like the wireless sync and the social aspect, but really it's all just overshadowed by pure un-useability..... It's sad how they didn't even get the fundamentals correct with the software. Here's to hoping for an improvement (and I'll update my review if one comes). Oh yeah, in case you're wondering "why so low". Because these crippling problems basically make the player practically useless to me.
  
  
• LOVE IT!
  By A2UKPNO8K0V0IL on 2007-11-15
  It was crazy hard to get my hands on one of these, but luckily Circuit City still had one available for a local pick up. I've been using it for almost 3 days now and I can say that it is far, far better than my 60gb video ipod.
  
  It has everything I ever wanted and then some- great big display (although the video could be a bit brighter), great interface, light & sleek, no annoying DRM, customized background with a backlight dimmer (so you won't go blind in the middle of the night when trying to change an album), and a nice radio (lots of kudos here!).
  One of the most interesting features is the wireless sync which is extremely useful if you have news podcasts since it will automatically download it in the morning without hooking it up into the computer.
  It's also extremely easy to set it up. I have a Netgear router and it took me literally 3 mins to make it work.
  
  I've waited a long time for an mp3 player like this and it was worth it! Beware though- this is a very different device than the new ipod touch. It targets a different kind of consumer so make sure that you know exactly what you want/don't want before making a decision.
  
  _____________________________________
  **UPDATE** Jan 30 2008
  
  I wanted to write an update on my 2 month Zune experience.
  I still think it's an excellent product, BUT the software that comes with it takes a lot from my 5 star review. If I could, I would give it 3 stars right now since I'm going nuts over it.
  Microsoft should really be ashamed of putting such piece of garbage software out! Yes, they rolled out an update recently, but it still sucks. And yes, it looks pretty, but after you're past the point of 'look, a transparent pic of Michael Buble,' you end up biting your nails and cursing the world since ID tags are so screwed up AND there is no easy way to make them right.
  
  Customer service is in India and they are just beyond useless. Msoft should fire 70% of them and use that money to actually SOLVE the problems that the software has. Right now the only help you can get is from a couple of Zune forums where users help each other. Horrible, just horrible!
  
  Also, what I find annoying is that I really have to be careful to press the button right in the middle. It is so sensitive that a lot of times instead confirming the selection it will go either right/left/down/up.
  I also get tired of having to click so many 'play' selections before actually playing a song from an album. It would be really nice if there would be an option to see all the songs from one artist at once instead of going from album to album.
  You should also know that you can't make your own playlists from the Zune. The only playlist you can make is the one 'quick list' which kind is the generic Zune playlist. You also can't delete individual songs from it- it's all or nothing. I'm REALLY hoping that the next firmware update will solve this because it really really sucks.
  
  External hard drive capability would be nice too, but I don't really care that much about it.
  
  
  
• Pleasant Surprise - goodbye iPod
  By AEJJH9OG0QMCQ on 2007-12-16
  There is no such thing as a perfect digital player - they ALL have some shortcomings. That being written, I am pleasantly surprised by the Zune 80 gb player. I have owned hard-drive based MP3 players since 2003 when I bought my first one. I was recently using the 5G 60gb iPod and it needed replacing so I start researching players again. After a great deal of research, I bought the Zune but didn't open it right away. I waited a few days. That was a mistake. For a few days, I just used the free Zune software. I have read some reviews that the software is terrible. I initally agreed but after learning it, I realized I reacted in haste. Sometimes it is a bigger challenge to 'unlearn' other product's software. That was my case. Now I like its simplicity. I would recommend some improvements to it though but it is fine in a general sense. The player is quite good. The sound of the music, to me, is better than my iPod. I did a direct comparision listening to the exact same songs with the same headphones on each device and that is how I drew my conclusion. I have read a review that reported a great deal of problems with synching and so forth. I have experienced none of those issues. No doubling of songs. I do see it run back through the list of everything but it isn't resynching everything. To me, it is checking the index of the Zune software's list of files to the index on the Zune looking for differences to know what to synch or ignore. Here is my list of Pros and Cons for the Zune 80.
  
  Pros:
  *Better sounding music (even without equalizer - go figure)
  *Choice to use click method and/or touch. If you aren't a huge fan of the iPod click-wheel, you will really appreciate the Zune. I love that change. The touch function is more natural. To scroll up, run your finger up on the touch pad. To scroll down, run your finger down. Or just click on the top/bottom/left/right of the touch pad to navigate. Again, it really is very natural to use.
  *Extremely easy on the eyes. This is a pleasure to view. Easy to read.
  *Friendly navigation. Again, unlearning other players is the biggest hurdle but worth getting to know the device. Once you do, you will really like this device.
  *Larger viewing screen.
  *Radio - with RDBS. Very nice feature.
  *Supports Podcasts. I subscribed to X-Play's video game review podcast with no problems.
  *Nicer headphones included. They come with headphones that have inserts to help find a better fit.
  *The quick add playlist is very friendly to use. I didn't really like the iPod one mostly because I wasn't a huge fan of the clickwheel.
  *Substantial feel. It handles like a quality effort was put into it.
  
  Cons:
  *Battery life. Not long enough for me.
  *Some software design improvements needed on the Zune device and the Zune software on the pc. I could list a set of improvements but I won't. They are more tweaks that I believe the development team could easily add. My field is software so I know I view things from a different perspective.
  
  Overall: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. I am glad I did not buy another iPod. I am excited about music again thanks to this player. I am actually looking forward to buying CD's and DRM-free music. And remember, there is no such thing as a perfect digital player. Keep an open mind when you are browsing for players. There are many good choices out there, not just one. Oh, and please don't give away music. Pay for it so the artist that you love can devote their creative talents to making even more music. (No - I don't work in the music industry in any way. I just want to at least support the artists that make the music I want to hear.)
  
  
• Good player but disappointing desktop software
  By A1USDI30TVY2C5 on 2007-11-14
  The Zune 80 may be an excellent player, but you are forced to use it with the Zune desktop software. Unfortunately, this software, while user friendly, is a huge disappointment.
  
  In this review, I will be comparing the Zune desktop software to the Ipod desktop software (Itunes) which, as far as I'm concerned, is still far superior :
  
  
  Downsides :
  
  * First of all, on Zune contrary to Itunes, there's no real song rating system (i.e. 1 to 5 stars). Instead, there's a "like it or not" system. That's not very useful when you want to create smart playlists.
  
  * Speaking of smart playlists, there's no way to create one on the Zune software. You have to manually put the songs you want in your playlist, which is a pain compare to what I'm used to with Itunes. On Itunes, you can create smart playlists based on music genre, years, song rating, duration of the songs, etc. You are out of luck if you want to do the same with the Zune.
  
  * Also, with the Zune software, editing a song information - particularly adding an album cover - is an awkward process and editing multiple songs at the same time is simply impossible. The easiest way I've found to edit songs is to get into windows explorer and work from there.
  
  * There's very few ways to filter your songs, albums and artists in Zune compare to Itunes. There's like 3 or 4 different filters in Zune, including alphabetically, compare to something like 30 on Itunes. (Edit : Ok, I just found like 15 hidden filters in Zune, so its not nearly as bad as I first thought)
  
  * Finally, when you are playing a song on the "now playing" interface, you can't easily access the song information, let alone edit it.
  
  
  Upsides :
  
  * Nice layout, beautifully designed.
  
  * User friendly
  
  * Excellent sound quality.
  
  * Can Sync with Windows Media Player
  
  * Wireless Synching with the Zune player
  
  * Wireless Synching with Xbox 360
  
  For me, one word describes very well the whole Zune software experience: inconvenient. It's unfortunate because I really wanted to like it. The good news is that, contrary to the hardware, the software can be improved with upcoming patches.
  
  Despite the flawed zune desktop software, I think the Zune player is still a very good choice. With good sound quality, premium earbuds, large display, nice interface and plenty of features you won't find on other players - like fm tuner and wireless abilities - the zune 80 is a great value and is hard to ignore.
  
  
• Sold the Zen for the Zune...was it worth it??
  By A1OMXVXXP07F05 on 2007-11-29
  I had the Zen Vision: M for quite some time and was very happy with it. It did everything I needed it to do so I had never really thought about upgrading. Then I started putting movies on it and quickly found out that more storage capacity would be a good thing (my Zen was the 30gb). I tried everywhere to get one of these things, even signed up for notifications when they became available online via email alerts; I could never login fast enough to snag one. Then one day on a whim, I walked into my local WalMart and snagged the last one! Let the fun begin...
  
  The unit is neither light or heavy, to me it feels just right and solid. Mine came charged to the degree that I could hook it up and sync my stuff right away had I chose to. However, I waited and plugged it in for the full charge. My Zen arrived with a depleted charge and I had to charge it overnight just to begin with it.
  
  The software was a breeze to install (I disabled all firewalls and anti virus) and when I hooked up the Zune, it was installed no problem. I told the software where my files were that I wanted transferred from an external drive and it began immediately.
  
  The Zune marketplace is OK. I can't find any video downloads (TV shows, movies etc) so hopefully that is coming soon. The podcasts are fantastic.
  
  The display is fantastic on the unit with movies and video podcasts looking crisp and clear. Compared to the Zen, the screen is a wonderful upgrade.
  
  Battery life on the music is crazy long. My Zen would struggle on 9 hours or so, but the Zune is still more than half charged after a 10 hour day at work. I haven't watched a full length video yet, so I can't comment on that. The wireless sync though, will also kill your battery life.
  
  Here's what I don't like.
  
  The sync connector to the Zune is flimsy. For whatever reason, it's hard to get a perfect fit into the Zune on many occasions, however, it will still sync, but the connector is at an angle. I'm afraid the connector will break, or the piece in the Zune is at risk of snapping.
  
  Wireless sync is way too slow to be really useful at all. A video podcast that was only synced 6% of the way wireless, drained my Zunes battery more than halfway after 30 minutes. Hook it up to the PC and it's transferred in under a minute. My hope here is that the Zune will get an update on the wireless function to be able and get on the web...We can only hope.
  
  The inability to delete anything from the Zune only by using the software is completely stupid. Any time I want to delete a picture, video, podcast etc, I have to sync up and delete it through the software. Dumb with a capital D. The Zen would let me delete anything, anytime and it does come in handy.
  
  I don't think the Zune displays as many of the mp3 tags as the Zen. I could get the year of the album, track number, producer, and play count. On the Zune, you get album and track. That's it (unless I'm missing a button combo while the track is playing).
  
  So for the overall upgrade, I'm pleased. But there still is room for improvement on the next update or Zune altogether.
  
  
  
  
• 1 word SOUND!!! it blows the "Idontknowwhatmusicissupposetosoundlikepod" away
  By A20SQFKSB55UX3 on 2007-11-14
  I'm only giving this 4 stars because i can't believe the zune creators didn' put any kind of equalizer on this thing no equalizer at all huh. but i must say it sounds freaking awesome even without an eq. let me start off by saying i have used the new classic ipod and i can't believe for such a popular and expensive item they sound the way they do my musicjust did not sound the same on an ipod. well i bought this yesterday and OH MY GOD this thing sounds incredible i challenge anyone who has an ipod to go and buy one of these and listen to the sound and tell me your ipod can even compare. and if you don't like it just return it. but anyone who has been using an ipod for years don't know what there missing. this thing is awesome for sound alone but all the other new features are killer to. hopefully the eq will be addressed in a firmware update. go out and get one you will love it uhhhhh what music should sound like!
  
  
• In one word WOW!!!
  By A2HO4Q48Y181QZ on 2007-11-13
  I totally disagree with the reviewer below who says this unit is flimsy and cheaply built. I find this player to be very solid and feature rich. The ZUNE 80 player has trumped my expectations in about every aspect. The interface is terific and the library is very intuitively linked together. The player really takes advantage of the album art and integrates it to create a really stylish GUI. The sqircle controller at the bottom is very responsive and intuitive for browsing. Before I bought the player I heard a rumor that when the player was locked the touch pad stayed active, however this is not the case. Everything just seems really well done and you can tell Microsoft put a lot of effort into this product. The sync software took me a few minutes to get oriented with, but I have had absolutely no problems with it and had my device syncing my media in about 5 minutes. The wireless sync was also very easy to set up and is a nice touch as are the premium headphones that come with this model. Not only do the headphones sound good, but they have braided cloth cords that don't get all tangled up as easy. All in all I was very very impressed by the ZUNE 80 and decided to go with it instead of the iPod for the following reasons:
  -Much bigger screen than comparable iPod
  -Premium headphones compared to the stock white iPod ones
  -Nice matte finish that isn't a magnet for fingerprints
  -Built in FM tuner which is an extra accessory you have to buy for the iPod
  -Wireless syncing
  -Zune accessories are universal across the models
  -Microsoft has been good about upgrading old model's firmware (The first generation players were allowed all the second generation features for free!!)
  -I personally also like the interface better
  
  So basically much more value for the money than the iPod in my opinion.
  
  
  
• Zune A Mediocre Player: Updates Could Help
  By A2APBN357CE8MP on 2007-12-01
  1) No manual anywhere that I can find. After purchasing the Zune, I took it out of the box and began charging it up. I then took the Product Guide and the Start Guide to the couch, thinking I would read up on all the features of the Zune while it charged up. Wrong! The Product Guide is just filled with safety and warranty gibberish in ten different languages, and the Start Guide, which does deal with actually operating the player, is all of four pages! It appears that the entire user guide is online: http://www.zune.net/en-us/support/usersguide/yourzune/default.htm, and it's not even in PDF format so I can print it off. So, in order to find any information about operating the player you need to go surfing around the Zune web site. This may be fine for some people, but I think it's a pain. You'd think for $250 they could include a manual. Does anyone know where I can find one? I'm still looking....
  
  2) A new Zune comes disabled. When you first take the Zune out of the box, you can't use it. Whatever button you press, it says "To start, visit www.zune.net/setup." Okay, so I do that. It took me four tries to finally make a connection to Microsoft's server. Each installation attempt took a while (about 20 minutes, times will vary), so you're talking almost 90 minutes just to get the Zune to turn on. I'm not sure if this is because the Zune servers are being over whelmed with new Zune purchasers, but if you're buying this as a Christmas gift, be warned. You may want to open it up and install the Zune software a few days before Christmas. I'm not sure why (profit margins I guess) that Microsoft didn't include a CD-ROM or flash drive in the box with the software, or better yet, have the operating system already installed on the device so that it is usable when new.
  
  3) No direct digital camera file transfers. It's hard to understand this. The technology has been around for a few years, and they're touting this device as a music listening, picture viewing, video watching marvel. So, let me get this straight. You're away on your vacation. You are cruising around, enjoying the sights, taking a bunch of photos. You have your Zune, your digital camera, and your .... laptop! Or better yet, maybe you have your entire PC in your backpack with a massive battery pack or a portable generator. Come on Microsoft, get your head out of the sand.
  
  4) You can't turn the thing off! The way the booklet tells you to turn it off is by holding down the "play/pause" button. This only puts the player in standby mode. What that means is the battery will drain much faster when you're not using it. After trolling the Internet I found that this problem is widespread. I also found a solution: hold the "back + down button (center pad)" simultaneously for several seconds. The device will eventually "completely" shut down.
  
  5) Reviewers keep mentioning how great it is that you can output video from the Zune to a TV, unfortunately there is no video out cable included. You'd think for $250 they could
  give you this $8 cable in the box.
  
  6) Stupid Item 1: You can't delete songs, pictures, videos directly from the Zune. You need to delete items in the software and then re-sync to remove the items from the Zune.I have a $50, 1 GB Creative Labs player that I use for the gym that allows you to directly delete songs. Why not the $250 Zune?
  
  7) Stupid Item 2: Rating System. From Microsoft's web site, "A heart means you like... a song. A broken heart means ... the song just isn't for you." Why on earth would you put music on your MP3 player that you don't like!? Somebody at Microsoft needs to get a clue. Don't they ever market test this stuff. This is dumb beyond words....
  
  8) Stupid Item 3: You can't access the player as an external hard drive. The technology has been around for awhile. I believe there are some hacks available to make it possible.If that's the case, I can't imagine why they didn't include this feature.
  
  9) No support for audio books from Audible.com. Another oddity. I guess I'll use my Creative player for those.
  
  10) An improved battery meter: one that tells you exactly what percentage (or better yet hours and minutes) of battery power you have left.
  
  11) Proprietary USB cable. Why? Why? Why? Would you do that? You couldn't make it the same as my digital camera, external hard drives, other MP3 player GPS, etc...?
  
  12) Wireless syncing.... yawn... ho hum. Who cares? All it does is eat up the battery life, and it's slow. If you could browse the internet with it maybe it would be of some use. Give me back the equalizer.
  
  13) FM radio. Wow, that's cutting edge. Do I really need another portable FM radio? Now if it was an HD radio that would be worth buzzing about.
  
  You may not believe this, but I'm not a Zune basher. I think it's currently the best jukebox-type player on the market for anyone that wants to rip their music in high fidelity with the lossless codec. I think Creative Labs used to be the best, but now they appear to be focusing on smaller capacity flash-based devices or portable video players. If you're someone who is more concerned with video than audio, check out the Zen Vision W. For music the Zen Vision M was an excellent player, but it has been discontinued with apparently nothing to replace it. As far as Apple goes, their players have been plagued by poor sound quality (and are for people that don't know the difference) and mechanical failures.
  
  I get the impression that Microsoft rushed this to market for the holidays. How else do you explain the lack of a unified user's manual either in the box or online? I'm hoping that they address some of these issues in future firmware updates. Support for open source lossless codecs would be nice as well, and the DJ feature that the Creative players have is excellent. Maybe Microsoft could buy that from them (or copy it : ) ).
  
  I hope this review helps some prospective buyers. I've only had the Zune for a day, so I'll try to post a follow up later on.
  
  
  
  
• Shiny and pretty letdown.
  By A12S3XBSDILK8T on 2007-11-13
  After owning an ipod and having it die, I decided to go with something else.. And I found I rather liked the Zune I played with in the store. When I found that the second generation Zone was coming out, I waited and got my hands on one as soon as they came out.
  
  First, it is quite pretty, and the glass screen is very nice. It is well-built, and has the potential to be a great music player. However the touchpad is tricky to use, even if you switch the touch function off and use it as buttons. It has four directions and a center select, but it is small and featureless. I find it difficult to scroll a lot without accidentally selecting, and vice-versa.
  
  The required software is abysmal. It makes me long for iTunes. Again, it looks pretty, but is buggy and clunky. It frequently gives album art to the wrong files. I accidentlly deleted a playlist, but couldn't re-create it because it says it already exists, though it's not showing. If you have thousands of files, it is difficult to dig through them an manage them in any way. The search function is terrible, and you can't simply drag things from Windows Explorer into the software, which would have made things far easier. The software is slow and bloated; a lot of time is spent waiting as the computer hesitates because you clicked on something.
  
  Anyway, with a fantastic screen and great audio, I like the player itself, other than the scroll button. But that, along with the terrible software, is just another example of the modern tendency to make things complicated and pretty, just for the sake of having it look pretty and be complicated, at the expense of usability. Because simple, easy-to-use lists aren't good enough; they need to be changed into icons and animations and other garbage to impede practicality.
  
  
• Absolutely Horrible
  By AKK40KB6BYJA0 on 2008-05-20
  I REALLY wanted to like this Zune. My excellent 20 GB Zen Sleek Photo is out of space, and no one seems to be making 30 GB + units anymore other than Zune. After dedicating the better part of two full days of my life to getting this thing running, I have finally thrown in the towel and instead will get a second (used) Zen Sleek Photo. Here are the problems:
  
  1. Zune is incompatible with Windows Media Player (WMP).
  
  Are you kidding me? Microsoft (MS) has spent the last 10 years coaxing consumers to use WMP, and now they sell an MP3 player that is incompatible with it? ASSININE.
  
  Instead, you have to use Zune software, reestablish your library and playlists. Yes, there are hacks/workarounds that will let you use WMP instead, but be ready to invest some time in them.
  
  2. Zune will not play songs protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM).
  
  ARE YOU KIDDING ME? The 883 songs I BOUGHT AND PAID FOR from Microsoft's own MSN Music, Wal-Mart, and Puretracks cannot be played on Zune? But if I got songs through a file-sharing service, those play fine? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? The worst decision I ever made was buying songs from MSN and Wal-Mart.
  
  3. Zune does not allow you to view all songs by an artist. Instead, you have to view all albums and drill down from there. Unfortunatly, unless every song on an album has exactly the same information (date, genre, style, etc.), the songs will be split and shown on two different (but identically-titled) albums. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? But hey, you can get some more hackware and spend hours of your life changing the tags in all your files. That sounds like fun.
  
  4. Zune does not allow you to make playlists on the unit. You can only make them through the Zune software.
  
  5. Zune does not allow you to see any 'details' (such as the year) related to a song.
  
  The only positives of the Zune compared to my Zen Sleek Photo is that the Zune has a large screen and very nice interface, lets you either touch or click the touchpad, and has 80 GB. However, if you have to spend countless hours of your life setting up your library all over again, and tracking down another copy of the 883 songs you legally bought (or burning them to CDs and ripping back to Zune), it's just not worth it. Mine is being returned.
  
  
• Enjoying it more than I was expecting
  By A6JC4Y2F6DDBL on 2007-11-14
  I have been quietly waiting for Zune to support WMA lossless playback. Just when I had given up hope, out comes the Zune 2. I am using it with Vista, and haven't had any trouble yet adding the software or getting the Zune to run. Even the wireless sync worked without complaint. I am impressed that after playing it for about a day I haven't heard a skip even when it's churning through WMA lossless files that sustain 700-800 kBps. I suspect that with constant playback I will end up getting about 5-6 hours doing that, which is not bad.
  
  
  
  
• Zune 80 GB possible iPod killer? Almost.
  By A38YKA4ZG21K86 on 2007-11-14
  The new Zune 80 is either hated or loved. I've read reviews mentioning it to be the iPod killer. While I think it comes close to contending with the audio player currently holding the largest market share, it misses out on a few points.
  
  The headphones that are packaged, are great if you're used to those garbage headphones packaged with other players. However if you have quality buds/cans or what not, I would suggest sticking with those.
  
  Let's look at the dimensions. The Zune, by dimension is rather small by comparison to it's now older (and lower capacity) brother the Zune 30. It's 2.4" wide, 4.25" high and 0.5" thick. Around 25% smaller than the original, it also sports a much larger 3.2 inch screen made of glass. That's something I found interesting. As far as I know, most players have plastic screens. The added durability and clarity of the glass screen is very nice.
  
  Enough of the dimensions though, I'm certain that software questions are prevalent somewhere. The Zune software, which is NOT packaged with the snazzy box that the Zune 80 comes in, is downloaded from the Zune's website. It looks pretty, but I can't honestly say I enjoy using it. Yes, you can sort audio by Artist, Date and Genre, it also requires association with mp3s. As in, you MUST use it for mp3 audio playback to use the software. That gripe aside, the software is fairly simple to use, syncs well and while I had some problems on my laptop, I had no issues on my desktop, or several of my friends. (I was fortunate in that they allowed me to test my Zune and software with several different brands. My laptop is the only one that experienced any issues). While the software left me wishing it worked on my laptop, the Zune's GUI is very nice.
  
  A bit simple, with large text, but still very nice. Scrolling using the touch pad was complemented on the GUI with a large version of the letter appearing as you scroll fast. Tapping the pad stops it, while pushing down on the pad select the song/album/playlist, etc. (More on the touch pad in a moment)While the screen shows a giant version of the current track's album art, and you can select a background image of your own there is one gripe. Where did the EQ go? Microsoft, please rectify this. I am not a hardcore audiphile, and my headphones work great (Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 3 Live) with the Zune, I do like the option of selecting my own EQ settings.
  
  The wireless, which is used to sync with your computer if you wanted to, works great and the setup (going back to the software for just a moment) was simple. Unfortunately, if you leave it on and forget to turn it off, it will eat up your battery life like a hungry elephant. Just remember to turn it off, and the battery life is great.
  
  Back to the touch pad. I feel this is the most innovative part of the player. It is not simply a touch pad, but tactile controls as well. Called a squircle, I had my reservations but it works amazingly well. The scrolling is great with the touch pad, and the faster you move your finger on it the fast it scrolls through the songs. Alternatively you could hold down the touch pad, which would also allow scrolling. The touch controls can even be turned off for those who prefer tactile controls, a definite plus for people like me who only used audio players without touch controls, although as I stated the touch pad is very nice, responsive but not TOO sensitive.
  
  Of course, the audio is the most important part, and the audio quality is good on the Zune. Podcast playback works great in both audio and video capacities. The video, with that very large screen looks great, and after going through several different videos of varied genres look amazing. The Zune natively supports H.264 and mp4 video playback, just in case anyone's wondering.
  
  As you can tell, the Zune has a great feature set, making it a great player. While the Zune can compete with the iPod and even possibly give it a run for its money, I think it would put it far beyond by making some additions with firmware updates, such as EQ. Other than that, it's a solid player that I think many people will enjoy owning. Keep it up Microsoft, and you may even get some of that market share back.
  
  
  
• Come join the squircle
  By A3KAEWHGDCWZEN on 2008-04-03
  It's not quite as fancy as the iPod Touch but it's got a much better price. For the same cost as the 80gb iPod Classic, it's the indisputable winner. Do yourself a favor, as I did: try out the iPod Classic and the Zune.
  
  The Zune has a screen that lies size-wise between the iPod Classic and Touch. Best of all- it's a beautiful scratch-resistant glass screen. The video and images are stunning.
  
  I thought the iPod had a cool interface with the touch-sensitive circle. Well, Zune has it beat with the "squircle" which is a four-way click pad and a touch-sensitive brush pad. It works better than you might expect. When scrolling long lists, you lightly brush the squircle pad up or down and the list scrolls at a speed commensurate to the speed at which you brush the pad. The scrolling even slows down after a few seconds kind of a like the wheels of fruit in a slot machine. It's a cool effect hard to describe. Again, get a hold of a Zune and check it out. You'll love it.
  
  Sound quality is excellent. I've had many earphones and listened through the iPod phones. The Zune comes with high-quality buds that sound amazing; much better than the iPod buds. I'm a musician and what my friends call a music snob. So take it from one- these sound great.
  
  Several folks have complained about the software. It does have some quirks but is actually quite functional and simple to use. I am sure that Microsoft will continue to fine tune it and it will get better and better. You will also uncover hidden features as you use it more. The screen saver mode, which isn't obvious to find, is super cool and visually compelling. You've never seen your album art so neatly displayed.
  
  And best of all, I have thousands of high-quality mp3's on my Zune (320kbps) and still have plenty of room. Not one single song has DRM or Apple's dreadful proprietary protection on it. I can upload and download my songs anywhere, anytime, with anyone. That's the way it should be.
  
  With my Zune, I bought the overpriced AV and car connection kits. While they cost way too much, they are essential add-ons. In fact, they should come with the Zune. But that whole greed thing gets in the way of companies' priorities! Anyway, the kits allow me to listen to my Zune everywhere. And that's pretty much all I do. I can now listen to my huge cd collection all the time. I put my Zune on shuffle mode and get to hear songs from my collection that I haven't heard in years. I'm finally getting my money's worth from all those cds I bought and listened to only once or twice.
  
  My Zune has already been put through its paces. I have listened to it all day long for weeks, without giving it a break, and it has never experienced a single mishap. It has performed flawlessly and made me a very happy music lover.
  
  The price of the iPod Touch is too much to spend on a freakin' mp3 player with only 8 or even 16gb. And the Classic just doesn't "touch" the Zune. If you're licking your lips at your friend's Touch or iPhone, the Zune won't turn you on, but if you've been considering the Nano or Classic (or any other mp3 player), the Zune will impress you mightily. I've never been a Microsoft cheerleader and I've always been fond of Apple but I think the Zune really is the better mp3 player.
  
  I have shown mine off to friends and two of them have gone out immediately and bought one. That says more than all the words I could say (or write)! It's really that cool.
  
  
• 80 GB ZUNE wins against 80 GB iPod
  By A1PCO81OBGCW53 on 2007-11-21
  I purchased this Zune last weekend and I am currently very happy about it. I returned the iPod that I purchased a week ago and I was a lucky one to find the Zune for exchange.
  
  First, Why did I return the iPod? I had problems with the iPod while watching video Podcasts. It was freezing,resetting, etc. After a massive research in Apple's discussion boards, I realized that the 2nd generation iPod has many more freezing problems. It deletes people's libraries, keeps on freezing till the battery runs out etc. Everybody was complaining that Apple released the product without enough testing. So, after spending 4 hours with their customer care, they pretended like there was no problems with my device even disconnected me twice on purpose. That was it. My first Apple product was gone back fairly quickly.
  
  I am verry happy with exchanging the iPod for a Zune. I was lucky to find one on 17th of November because it was out of stock almost everywhere.
  
  SCREEN:
  It's screen is almost TWICE AS BIG as iPod's, the image is BRIGHT and CLEAR for both pictures and videos. It is great! Microsoft took the advantage and used the screen very well. THE ALBUM ART LOOKS GREAT while you are listening to music. The fonts in song /album/artist lists are perfect size you may see a lot on the screen.
  
  NEW TOUCHPAD:
  iPod 6th generation's click wheel was awful. People with 5th generation even says that it was more responsive before. MICROSOFT WIN AGAINST THE CLICK WHEEL WITH THEIR NEW TOUCHPAD. It is like the touchpad's of laptops, works like a scroll bar while you are searching for music or moving in your library. The faster you scroll, the faster it goes in the menu and with a touch it stops, if you release it slows down and stops eventually anyway. So I liked the touchpad a lot, much more then the irresponsive click wheel of iPod. It was a nightmare to go to the next song in the list with the click wheel. Zune's touchpad also works as a direction pad so you may just click if you need to go just to the next song, or album in the list. The back and pause/play buttons on the sides of the touchpad helps a lot as well. You may press the back button and go back to the main menu. While you are listening to a song you click the center of the touchpad and then you may move to another song in the album by up/down or even move to another album of the artist by left-right. It was not this easy in iPod.
  
  BATTERY:
  I watch video podcasts a lot so I cannot give a good review for battery life. But they say it runs 12-14 HOURS only for listening to music.
  
  SOFTWARE:
  Zune has its own software. iTunes has been out for a long while and Zune software cannot compete with it yet...However, I found it enough for my needs. I transferred 50 GB of my music at once with NO ERRORS OR INTERRUPTIONS. I hope it keeps on running without problems in the future.
  
  EXTRAS:
  iPod had a lot of extras, clock, calendar, alarm, games, etc. Zune has NONE of them. One bad thing is that there is NO EQUALIZER you gotta live with what you get.
  
  RADIO:
  Zune has a radio INSTALLED in it, I have been reading to the radio only at the car but if you cannot watch a game and want to listen to it, there you go!
  
  WIRELESS:
  I have not tried the wireless sync. I bet I'll have problems because my wireless is not that reliable. But we tried to transfer files from my Zune to another friends 30 GB Zune and it worked pretty well. If you have friends around with Zune's, you may SHARE YOUR MUSIC, and listen to the shared files for a limited time.
  
  FILE TYPES:
  Zune is DRM-free, you may transfer divx and wmv files as well.
  
  EXTERNAL STORAGE:
  You MAY NOT USE Zune as an external hard drive like you can do in iPod. I could not do it so far. However, you may transfer the music on it to another computer.
  
  OVERALL:
  I definitely recommend the 2nd generation ZUNE over the 6th generation iPod.
  
  I think Apple has just started to move to other directions with iPhone and iTouch and they are OK if they loose the competition to Zune in massive mp3/video players. If they keep on disappointing their customers like this, they will eventually loose it.
  
  
• Major junk
  By A19T73BVPSN8N2 on 2007-12-01
  This item is junk. It's too small and blurry screen and the thing doesn't work as a normal storage area. That means that you can't use it on any computer unless you install the drivers and if you own a Mac or a Linux machine you can't use it at all. You can't use it for anything but music either (so no backup for my important documents although the disk (should) be large enough).
  
  Next to that, the music on there is not compatible with any media player unless it's Windows Media Player (which is an archaic program). The music you buy is also only playable on the Zune and you can't even transfer it to another computer or home theater system nor burn it to a cd.
  
  The headphones and audio output in general is awful, bass is too weak and when plugged into the stereo system gives an awful tone.
  
  Stay away from it, it's underpriced because it can't sell, get an iPod or a Sansa MP3 player that allows it to be recognized as an external disk.
  
  
• ATROCIOUS!!!
  By A1FK63M5VIVNH5 on 2007-12-25
  WOW!!! - I've just followed every therapist's advice and took my 5 minutes of "WALKING AWAY". I'm trying to write this as calmly as I can... Let's just say that Microsoft & Zune have destroyed my Christmas Day!!! - THIS PRODUCT IS A HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE IN EVERY ASPECT POSSIBLE.
  
  ISSUES:
  
  1) YOU CANNOT PLAY YOUR FILES FROM THE ZUNE ON YOUR COMPUTER!!!
  WHAT?!? - HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? - The Zune I got is an 80GB device & my hard disk space on my computer is also 80GB. If I'm at home & want to listen to music from the Zune... I CAN'T DO IT! I'd have to import the songs from the Zune back to my computer's hard disk!!! - Is it just me? Am I the ONLY person who would like to playback from the mp3 player on the computer? With an iPOD you connect it, iTUNES opens up, you see the device, and you can play what's IN YOUR DEVICE. Not with Zune. This device is meant to be loaded with whatever media and to be used on-the-go.
  
  2) CUSTOMER SERVICE IS A SCARRING NIGHTMARE. You'd think that Microsoft makes enough income to not have to outsource something as important as their customer service support; but no!!! - I called the Zune support line at 9:00 A.M. on Christmas Day and got off the phone at 10:22 A.M., Along the way, I spoke with three people and we went through every possible way of dealing with this issue. The problem is that the customer service personnel don't understand fluent English very well and one has to slow things down, use simple words, and explain each issue in a child's way. Trust me folks, I work with people from India and I am a trilingual person (Born in Italy, raised in Puerto Rico, and married to a Peruvian lady); I am also a special education teacher and my job description requires extreme degrees of patience. I called, spoke simple terminology, spoke slowly, and was highly polite. THEY STILL DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE SIMPLE ISSUE OF WANTING TO PLAY WHAT'S IN THE ZUNE ON MY CPU. We edited the software, renamed files, entered the software as a "guest"... and every step of the way, the associate kept being surprised by the outcome. I was put on hold in 8 INSTANCES and finally when I asked for the supervisor, a "LEVEL 2" person got on he phone and told me that the only way to play back from the Zune on my computer is to import the files from the Zune back to the computer!?! After a few minutes of getting off the phone, I called back to ask if maybe Windows Media Player could play back what's on the Zune. After another 25 minutes and being put on hold 2 more times, the answer was "NO".
  
  
  IN CONCLUSION:
  
  IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOUR MUSIC ON YOUR PC OR IF YOU DON'T MIND PERFORMING 15 STEPS TO GET YOUR MUSIC BACK ONTO YOUR HARD DISK, GET THIS DEVICE. IF THIS IS NOT YOU, THEN GET AN iPod AND STAY FAR AWAY FROM THIS DEVICE. ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS FOLKS!!!
  
  
• 1 star is too good for microsoft zune
  By AEFIEC7METKBC on 2007-12-24
  I am very unhappy with my well thought out decision to purchase a zune.
  When I buy a product, I want a product that does what it says with no strings attatched.
  For example: Buy a media player...take it out of the box...hmm looks good...load and play mp3's. I am a happy customer.
  Not so with microsoft zune.
  To even use the zune after you open it up, you MUST connect to the internet and download software!
  This immediately annoyed me because when you pay $250 for a mp3 player it should work out of the box/or have software included.
  Does anybody disagree with this?
  So, while feeling violated as a consumer, I begin downloading the appropriate software from the zune site. 38mb on dial-up.
  Hours later, still without 1 song on my new mp3 player I finish my download.
  Click setup....now I must first update windows to install the software for my $250 mp3 player.
  Apparently ms is not happy until they complete a full cavity search.
  No thanks.
  Sending it back.
  This consumer will look elsewhere.
  If there is no acceptable alternative then I will do without.
  At least I used amazon who I have never had a problem with.
  
  
• Beware, Zune auto deletes your files.
  By A2PJJZRM0XFIK6 on 2008-05-28
  I wanted to love my Zune. I hated that you supposedly had to have an ipod to have all the newest features in the portable music realm. The Zune was supposed to change all that.
  
  Sadly, the software that you must use, infuriatingly "auto-syncs" with you computer to add new music, but it also deletes any music that you have removed from your computer. So unless you plan on keeping 80gb of music on you PC, then don't but this. If you like having your software do things with out your permission, then go ahead. But when you've loaded 50 cds on your Zune and then decide to make room on you PC's hard drive for more, don't be surprised when you plug in you Zune that it immediately(without your permission) deletes it all.
  
  There are a few "workarounds" (that are actually shunned by the people over at the Zune community suprisingly), but you shouldn't have to fix a brand new device, right? If Microsoft planned on fixing this, I'd say get one and be happy, but it appears as if they are sticking to their broken guns here.
  
  
  Final Note:
  If you plan on getting a Zune, know that it will "auto-delete" any music you delete off your hard drive. Most people don't know this until they get one, so I though I'd warn a few and save the heartache.
  
  
• Perfect for iPod haters!
  By A2SH7OWE8QJYNC on 2007-11-27
  Our family just doesn't do Apple. So that knocked a huge market share out of the running when we started looking for DAPs a few years ago. I muddled through with 2 different Creative models, but when the second one broke within a year (of course after the warranty expired) and Creative wanted $200 plus shipping to repair it, I threw in the towel on Creative. That was in March 2007. I've been wanting to try the Zune ever since, and when I heard an 80Gb was coming out I decided to wait for that one since my music collection is getting pretty sizeable.
  
  I see other reviewers are raving about the touch pad button (whatever it's called). I like this too, but it's really no different from the Creative models of a few years ago. Slide finger to scroll or change volume, press to select something. The other two buttons, back and pause/play, are nice and discreet.
  
  The included earphones are dubbed "Premium" by Microsoft but they're really not. The sound is fairly good if you're sitting perfectly still (and I mean perfectly; you'll have to be careful breathing if you want to avoid the excessive microphonics from the cord). I still recommend upgrading to the Sony MDREX90-LP or the Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro if you have the dosh.
  
  But the Zune itself - ah, beautiful! Slim, with a nice heft to it, just a nice all-around design. The software on the actual device is simple and intuitive. The Zune software for your host PC is also much better than some of the other ones. I made a mistake and put 550 songs on the wrong playlist - it was a matter of select, drag and drop to the correct playlist to fix that. On WMP or the Creative software I'd have to delete them all, then go back and manually add them to the new playlist.
  
  I highly recommend this model which we got at Wal-Mart since everyone else was out of stock.
  
  
• Worth the wait - Absolutely amazing
  By A1QY5TLSFM8EBY on 2007-12-09
  I almost settled for an alternative since these were so scarce, but am glad I waited.
  
  This is a must-have if you've got a child and you want their cartoons/movies available at home, in the car, and on a plane. We previously used a portable DVD player, but dealing with discs was a pain (scratches, changing, etc). Now that we have all the kiddie movies and music on the Zune, all we need is this one device. The HomeAV pack works great at the house when we want to display it on the large TV, and the only drawback is the resolution when displaying on a large screen. It's fine for standard definition or any movies viewed on the Zune screen, but it's not HD quality when sending it to a 50" plasma. We have 83 movies and a ton of songs on the Zune, and still have 32GB available.
  
  I was concerned the wireless features wouldn't be secure enough since our home network is locked down pretty well; however, the Zune supports multiple encryption options (including WPA) & showed the MAC address so I was able to setup MAC filtering too. After the intial setup, we don't even have to connect the Zune to the computer anymore; I can leave it in the car and sync from the garage!
  
  This Zune is also very durable. We've used it quite a bit and it still doesn't have any scratches.
  
  
• Zune 80gb, the best mp3 player out there! Five stars!
  By AOOUOPJCMP1J6 on 2008-01-09
  Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R357K8TL4R8Q4V This video is a basic overview of the Zune. You can see how it functions, and some of the great features. At the end there are pictures of the zune software and the zune marketplace. By Marina
  
  
• Review of Video capability
  By A37BPVPTAM7JWP on 2008-01-13
  I bought a Zune 80GB and a Zen VW. I returned the Zen. I came close to returning the Zune, but I am reluctantly keeping it for now because for the most part it does what I need. I primarily bought the Zune for video and that is the focus of this review.
  Here are some of the things I like about the Zune:
  1. The display is excellent. When the Zune is placed next to the Zen VW, it is easy to tell that the Zune's display is far superior (Crisper picture and better colors)
  2. It has an aesthetic design and the device user interface is also very slick.
  3. 80 GB is great especially for the low price. The Zen VW only has 30GB and the price for other players with comparable capacity is much higher.
  4. The device menus respond quickly. There is very little lag unlike some other players. When you click a video it plays in under a second. The Zen VW can take several seconds to respond.
  5. The case is compact and light weight as opposed to the Zen VW which is like a brick.
  6. The TV episode navigation on the device works very well if you go to the trouble to program the WMV metadata.
  7. The dock (optional) has component and composite output. Without the dock you still have a composite output if you buy an optional cable (which is included with the dock)
  8. The dock (optional) has a remote control and charges the device during use. The dock also functions as a convenient stand.
  9. It can play most WMV files without conversion or transcoding which is good if you use Windows Movie Maker or have lots of WMV files. I found that the Zen VW has to convert every video I tried which usually takes longer than the length of the video.
  
  Now for the bad:
  1. The worst thing about the Zune is the Windows software. It is dumb downed so anyone can use it, which is bad because it greatly lacks many useful options and there is almost no ability for customizing. Also it can be very time consuming to perform simple tasks.
  2. The Zune can NOT be accessed from the Windows Explorer. It would be great if content could be added and removed like with a flash drive. The Zen VW has this type of interface and it makes managing content much easier. The Zune forces you to use their terrible Windows software. There is a registry hack to allow some Explorer access, but it does not work well.
  3. The Zune device does not have any options for editing or deleting video content. Everything must be done in the Windows software.
  4. There are no folders for video. This terrible because if you have a lot of videos it quickly becomes unmanageable.
  5. There is a trick to get video folders by using third party software to edit the metadata of WMV files. You can trick the player into thinking a video is a TV show and then it will put all similar episodes in a folder. However, this can be very time consuming. Also I have not found a program to edit MP4 metadata.
  6. There is no sorting capability on the device for video. If you add all the videos at once it will sort alphabetically when you drop them in by folder. However if you later add videos episodes they will not be in order.
  7. Once you add metadata, the Windows software no longer shows you the filename. Also the Windows software will not display video folders. It only shows you the episode subtitle which is usually something like S02E04. Even worse it sorts by the episode. This causes all shows to be mixed together. They look good on the device, but when you look at the software you can't see the TV show names and you can`t tell what anything is. I find that when I want to add or remove shows, I have to delete all the video off the device and then reload.
  8. There are no video playlists. You need to manually select each video to play it.
  9. The Zune does not play AVI's or DivX. Also the software won't convert them. You have to use third party software to convert them to WMV or MP4. Even then the Zune software tends to need to reconvert all MP4 files. Also WMV files tend to be larger after conversion. The MP4 files seem to have better compression and quality, but they don't work as well with your computer (more third party software is needed.)
  10. Two sets of video are required. Since the MP4 or WMV conversion are usually poorer quality than the original AVI or DivX files, it behooves you to keep both which takes up a substantial amount of computer hard drive space. I keep the originals to play on my computer and keep the conversions so I don't have to reconvert them in the future.
  11. The touchpad is more trouble than it is worth. The touchpad has a dual role. You can press it to navigate or brush you fingers against it to navigate. Unfortunately, I find it is way too easy to brush when you want to click. Fortunately, you can disable this brushing feature.
  12. The wireless is difficult to set up and not very useful.
  13. There is no built in speakers. The Zen VW has speakers which I used frequently.
  14. The Zune does not come with a case or protector.
  15. The Zune screens turns off when the video out is turned on. There are times when it would be beneficial to have the option to use both at the same time.
  16. It requires too much navigation to turn on the video out and the only way to turn off the video out is to turn the Zune off and on. The Zen VW is better because the video out automatically turns on and off when connected.
  17. The screen aspect ratio is the old standard 4:3. Most of the new video content is formatted for HDTV at 16:9 ratio. This means that most of my video has black bars on the top and bottom. The Zune screen is already very small. The bars make the picture even smaller. The Zen VW's screen is much bigger and uses 16:9 which is a big plus.
  18. The optional dock is expensive. Without the dock you do not get the video output cables or the remote. The Zen VW comes with video output cables.
  
  In conclusion, I am still on the fence on whether to keep the Zune. I am very tempted to exchange it for the Cowon A3, because it is suppose to be able to play almost any video without conversion and it works more like a flash drive. The Zune does work well, but it takes way too much time to prepare, convert, organize and transfer video content.
  
  
  
• Impressed - Great Improvement over V1
  By A14EQKDO4QXMRR on 2007-11-13
  The interface so far is a plus. Bigger LCD = better looking movies than the first Zune. I've been using wifi sync for part of the day, and it seems overly slow, but is to be expected on 802.11g. The case also feels like it may not take as good of a fall as the original Zune could, but the LCD cover feels like glass on this one, which is a big plus.
  
  Unfortunately my Zune stopped working after the first few days, and the hard drive began clicking. Upon looking at the box it seems it took a rather large fall so I'm now in the market for finding another 80GB.
  
  

• Solio Universal Hybrid Solar Charger (Silver)
• Solio Universal Hybrid Solar Charger (Pink)
• Solio Universal Hybrid Solar Charger (Black)
• Powerduo Zune-ac Power/car Chg
• Griffin Centerstage Case for Zune 30 GB (Black)

• Zune Leather Case 80 GB
• Zune Home A/V Pack
• Zune Car Pack v2
• Microsoft Zune 30gb Travel Combo Set - Ac Wall Charger + Auto Car Charger + USB Data Cable (3 Pcs)
• Incipio Leather Flip Case for Zune 80 GB (Black)