PDA

View Full Version : Review: Microsoft Zune - Maleficus



.Maleficus.
03-16-2007, 05:52 PM
Microsoft Zune

Here is my review of the 30Gb Microsoft Zune.

Overview
I have had my Zune for about 2 months now. I've had time to put on lots of songs, movies, and pictures, and I have a pretty good idea on the quality of the device. But first, here are some things to know about the Zune.


30Gb Storage Space
3" Color Screen
WiFi for transferring media to another Zune device


These are all very nice features. The 30Gb of storage space allow for tons of music (7,500* songs), about 7 full movies, or hours of photo viewing pleasure. I currently have about 1,050 songs on my Zune, and still have ~23Gb left, with a few of the preloaded movies and photos still on it, but more about those in a bit. The 3" screen is absolutely beautiful, and the picture quality is second to none (on portable devices..). The colors are crisp and clean, it has a very nice resolution. Perfect size for mobile video/picture viewing too. And lastly, the WiFi for transferring media. I haven't used this feature myself, as I'm the only person I know with a Zune, but I imagine that when Zune popularity rises, it will be a quite handy feature for sampling music from new artists. Now, here are some of the things packaged with the Zune.


Earbud Headfones
Sync cable
Ultra-suade Case
Installation Disc


The earbud headfones have one very nice feature to them. The back of the headfone is a metal piece. When close to the other headfone, they stick together (magnets). This is a very nice way to keep them from getting tangled and messed up while the Zune is in your pocket, or the like. The sync cable is a pretty standard thing; one end plugs into the Zune, the other end plugs into a USB port. Every time it is plugged in, the Zune starts to charge. The ultra-suade case provides a nice little protector for it, and the color comes matched with the color of the Zune. And lastly, the installation disc installs the Zune software, what the Zune uses to sync movies, music, and photos. It also can act as a media player and music ripper.

First Impressions

My first impression after opening the box was, Microsoft really took care in packaging it nicely. This doesn't always make a big impression, but after having a few things come it crap packaging, and ending up broken before I use them, is a welcome surprise. I plugged in the headfones, and peeled off the sticker telling how to turn the Zune on. I turned it on, and it even came charged! I went through the interface (which is very intuitive I might add) and looked at some of the preloaded movies. Some where good, others were a waste of space. It seemed like Microsoft was just looking for something to put on the Zune so consumers could play with it before they added music and photos. This is sometimes good, and sometimes bad. Most of the movies were crap, and put on to showcase the picture quality of the screen. After I got bored looking at those, I went over to the pictures. They had 3 albums - 1 about graffiti, one about something I forgot (didn't make much of an impression) and one aobut rock. I looked at the rock one, and found that the pictures were very cool, and they were one of the good editions to the Zune. So, those stay. Other 2, gone. Finally, I went to the Music category. Again, mostly crap. I got home, installed the software (which took a while) and promptly deleted the music, most of the videos, and most of the photos. I also found that you can take any photo on the device, and make it the background. Very cool.

Installation/Syncing

I really don't have much to say about the software installation, other than it was pretty straight forward, and took a long time. I don't know why, but it took almost 10 minutes to install. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me. The syncing is very quick, and very good. If you update your music library and plug in your Zune, they software will search the Zune, find what it's missing, and add them to the device. Pretty nice not having to add the songs manually. Now I haven't synced any movies or photos yet, but my entire music library took about 1 or 2 minutes, so the speed won't decrease much, if at all syncing photos or videos.

Layout

The Zune has a pretty standard design. Play/Pause button, Back button, Next/Previous, volume control, and select. The volume and selection buttons are part of the circle (looks like the iPod wheel). Up is Vol. Up, down is Vol. Down, left is Previous song, and right is Next song. The Play button is used for playing, pausing, powering on, and quick shutdown. The quick shutdown does not completely turn off the Zune, and will use a little battery, because it allows for the Zune to but used without needing to go through the initial load process again. I rarely ever use this because I want all the battery life I can get. The back button is used to go back, and if you hold it in it will take you to the main menu. This is nice if you want to quickly get to videos from the music screen, etc. It is also used in conjunction with the Down button to completely power down the Zune. The Zune itself is also very sturdy and well built.

Interface

When the Zune initially loads, it takes about 10-15 seconds. Not too bad, but it could go faster. The interface is very intuitive too. When you select an artist for example, you can either use the Up/Down to select an album, or use the Left/Right to select a new artist from the alphabetical list. Same holds true for when you are on an album screen: Up/Down for song, Left/Right for new album. Nice. The rest of the layout is self explanatory. Back button to go back, Up/Down to go up or down, etc.

Power Management

The battery life is ok, but it could be longer. When watching videos, I doubt you'll make it very far past one movie before the battery is dead. Music I'd say is around 8-ish hours. Photos, a little less. There are ways to extend the battery life, like turning off the backlight, or turning off WiFi, but a longer battery life would still be better.

Sound/Video Quality

The sound and video quality is second to none. The sound is far superior to the old MP3 player I had, and can reach quite high volumes. The picture looks tons better than my friend's iPod, partly because of the bigger screen, and partly because overall it is just better. Videos are crisp, and music has no noise at all.


Verdict

Overall, the Zune is a great product. Fine build quality, superior sound, and great features to back it up make it a fine choice for a portable media player. While it still has it's flaws, the features outweigh them completely.

Pros:

Excellent Picture/Video
Great build quality
Great interface and design


Cons:

Shorter battery life than expected
Preloaded stuff wastes space
Software install took ages
No clock!


Rating

9.5/10


I hope you enjoyed my review and found something useful, thanks for reading! If there is anything you have questions about, please post and I will try to answer them, and if there is something you think should be added, I will add to this.

Guardian
03-16-2007, 06:02 PM
+rep for spending an hour typing that up.

TheGreatSatan
03-16-2007, 07:35 PM
I'm surprised that with all those cons it still got a 9.5

Redundant
03-16-2007, 08:28 PM
I'm surprised that with all those cons it still got a 9.5

That's probably because there is only 1 "real" con:

Shorter battery life than expected
Preloaded stuff wastes space -Just delete them.
Software install took ages -Do it while eating dinner.
No clock! -Wear a watch, look at cell phone.So the only con I see is the battery life.

.Maleficus., which color Zune did you get? Oh, and 'Welcome to the Social', whatever that means. :p

Zephik
03-16-2007, 11:16 PM
That's probably because there is only 1 "real" con:
Shorter battery life than expected
Preloaded stuff wastes space -Just delete them.
Software install took ages -Do it while eating dinner.
No clock! -Wear a watch, look at cell phone.So the only con I see is the battery life.

.Maleficus., which color Zune did you get? Oh, and 'Welcome to the Social', whatever that means. :p

Agreed

Thanks for the review Maleficus! ...now if only I could afford one. :sigh:

Maybe I'll give my Apple 30GB Black a review...

AS IF! We all know that apple is the ****! No no, you misunderstand me, I meant the kind that comes out of your bum. ;)

I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO DO THIS! I FINALLY BEAT YOU ALL TO IT! :D

:pics:

.Maleficus.
03-17-2007, 12:25 AM
I got the white one. The brown reminded me of poop being brown and green, and the black one just didn't appeal as much as the white.

And TGS, yeah, the cons were only minor things, the main one was battery. The rest is all top notch (though I really would like a clock..)

d_stilgar
03-17-2007, 04:56 AM
I got the white one. The brown reminded me of poop being brown and green, and the black one just didn't appeal as much as the white.

wait, are you saying that the brown zune is brown and green, or that your poop is brown and green?

.Maleficus.
03-17-2007, 08:17 AM
wait, are you saying that the brown zune is brown and green, or that your poop is brown and green?
... The Zune is brown and green lol.

progbuddy
03-18-2007, 08:24 PM
Microsoft Zune

Here is my review of the 30Gb Microsoft Zune.

Overview
I have had my Zune for about 2 months now. I've had time to put on lots of songs, movies, and pictures, and I have a pretty good idea on the quality of the device. But first, here are some things to know about the Zune.


30Gb Storage Space
3" Color Screen
WiFi for transferring media to another Zune device


These are all very nice features. The 30Gb of storage space allow for tons of music (7,500* songs), about 7 full movies, or hours of photo viewing pleasure. I currently have about 1,050 songs on my Zune, and still have ~23Gb left, with a few of the preloaded movies and photos still on it, but more about those in a bit. The 3" screen is absolutely beautiful, and the picture quality is second to none (on portable devices..). The colors are crisp and clean, it has a very nice resolution. Perfect size for mobile video/picture viewing too. And lastly, the WiFi for transferring media. I haven't used this feature myself, as I'm the only person I know with a Zune, but I imagine that when Zune popularity rises, it will be a quite handy feature for sampling music from new artists. Now, here are some of the things packaged with the Zune.


Earbud Headfones
Sync cable
Ultra-suade Case
Installation Disc


The earbud headfones have one very nice feature to them. The back of the headfone is a metal piece. When close to the other headfone, they stick together (magnets). This is a very nice way to keep them from getting tangled and messed up while the Zune is in your pocket, or the like. The sync cable is a pretty standard thing; one end plugs into the Zune, the other end plugs into a USB port. Every time it is plugged in, the Zune starts to charge. The ultra-suade case provides a nice little protector for it, and the color comes matched with the color of the Zune. And lastly, the installation disc installs the Zune software, what the Zune uses to sync movies, music, and photos. It also can act as a media player and music ripper.

First Impressions

My first impression after opening the box was, Microsoft really took care in packaging it nicely. This doesn't always make a big impression, but after having a few things come it crap packaging, and ending up broken before I use them, is a welcome surprise. I plugged in the headfones, and peeled off the sticker telling how to turn the Zune on. I turned it on, and it even came charged! I went through the interface (which is very intuitive I might add) and looked at some of the preloaded movies. Some where good, others were a waste of space. It seemed like Microsoft was just looking for something to put on the Zune so consumers could play with it before they added music and photos. This is sometimes good, and sometimes bad. Most of the movies were crap, and put on to showcase the picture quality of the screen. After I got bored looking at those, I went over to the pictures. They had 3 albums - 1 about graffiti, one about something I forgot (didn't make much of an impression) and one aobut rock. I looked at the rock one, and found that the pictures were very cool, and they were one of the good editions to the Zune. So, those stay. Other 2, gone. Finally, I went to the Music category. Again, mostly crap. I got home, installed the software (which took a while) and promptly deleted the music, most of the videos, and most of the photos. I also found that you can take any photo on the device, and make it the background. Very cool.

Installation/Syncing

I really don't have much to say about the software installation, other than it was pretty straight forward, and took a long time. I don't know why, but it took almost 10 minutes to install. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me. The syncing is very quick, and very good. If you update your music library and plug in your Zune, they software will search the Zune, find what it's missing, and add them to the device. Pretty nice not having to add the songs manually. Now I haven't synced any movies or photos yet, but my entire music library took about 1 or 2 minutes, so the speed won't decrease much, if at all syncing photos or videos.

Layout

The Zune has a pretty standard design. Play/Pause button, Back button, Next/Previous, volume control, and select. The volume and selection buttons are part of the circle (looks like the iPod wheel). Up is Vol. Up, down is Vol. Down, left is Previous song, and right is Next song. The Play button is used for playing, pausing, powering on, and quick shutdown. The quick shutdown does not completely turn off the Zune, and will use a little battery, because it allows for the Zune to but used without needing to go through the initial load process again. I rarely ever use this because I want all the battery life I can get. The back button is used to go back, and if you hold it in it will take you to the main menu. This is nice if you want to quickly get to videos from the music screen, etc. It is also used in conjunction with the Down button to completely power down the Zune. The Zune itself is also very sturdy and well built.

Interface

When the Zune initially loads, it takes about 10-15 seconds. Not too bad, but it could go faster. The interface is very intuitive too. When you select an artist for example, you can either use the Up/Down to select an album, or use the Left/Right to select a new artist from the alphabetical list. Same holds true for when you are on an album screen: Up/Down for song, Left/Right for new album. Nice. The rest of the layout is self explanatory. Back button to go back, Up/Down to go up or down, etc.

Power Management

The battery life is ok, but it could be longer. When watching videos, I doubt you'll make it very far past one movie before the battery is dead. Music I'd say is around 8-ish hours. Photos, a little less. There are ways to extend the battery life, like turning off the backlight, or turning off WiFi, but a longer battery life would still be better.

Sound/Video Quality

The sound and video quality is second to none. The sound is far superior to the old MP3 player I had, and can reach quite high volumes. The picture looks tons better than my friend's iPod, partly because of the bigger screen, and partly because overall it is just better. Videos are crisp, and music has no noise at all.


Verdict

Overall, the Zune is a great product. Fine build quality, superior sound, and great features to back it up make it a fine choice for a portable media player. While it still has it's flaws, the features outweigh them completely.

Pros:

Excellent Picture/Video
Great build quality
Great interface and design


Cons:

Shorter battery life than expected
Preloaded stuff wastes space
Software install took ages
No clock!


Rating

9.5/10


I hope you enjoyed my review and found something useful, thanks for reading! If there is anything you have questions about, please post and I will try to answer them, and if there is something you think should be added, I will add to this.

I can add to that. I also have a Zune (black w/ blue surroundings)

Some more tech specs:

400 MHz CPU
64 MB SDRAM
32 MB flash

The pictures can be zoomed-in upon, you can set your own background, etc. The housing cannot be scratched up easily (I use a case to protect the screen, Agent18, don't have a scratch on it yet :p). Also, the audio quality is much higher than my iPod Nano (I use Bose in-ear headphones; that helps, too). The GUI is user-friendly, and you can listen to music and stream pics and videos to the Xbox 360. The accessories, such as the Zune dock, allow you to watch the movies on your zune on your TV.

Battery life could be a bit better (with the backlight on "low", I get 12 hours of battery life).

Good review, Maleficus. +rep

Guardian
03-19-2007, 11:29 AM
I got a Sansa e280, 8 gig FLASH MP3/MP4 player, and it costs $250, same as zune. And Unless you accually need the 30 gigs (christ!) the sansa's pretty cool. It stays cool like all the time, Access of files are faster then a hardrive, the screen is like 2 inches, and you don't need any software for it. Its smaller then an ipod Nano. Its really cool. It weighs preacticley nothing. It also has a nice Micro SD expansion slot. So you can go up to like 12 gigs.

If you don't need the 30 gig and want somthing small, go with a Sansa e200 series, the E250 (2 gig) is $100.

Redundant
03-19-2007, 07:16 PM
I got a Sansa e280, 8 gig FLASH MP3/MP4 player, and it costs $250, same as zune Just wondering but, why would someone buy something with a much smaller screen and less memory for the same price? Seems very overpriced. If I got a portable media player, I'd want one with a screen at least the size of the ipod video. And when you put videos on there, space can get used up pretty quick.
One more thing, do you actually strain your eyes watching video/pics on a 2" screen? You can lose your eyesight looking at small screens. 3" or bigger is much better.

Omega
03-19-2007, 09:24 PM
Just wondering but, why would someone buy something with a much smaller screen and less memory for the same price? Seems very overpriced. If I got a portable media player, I'd want one with a screen at least the size of the ipod video. And when you put videos on there, space can get used up pretty quick.
One more thing, do you actually strain your eyes watching video/pics on a 2" screen? You can lose your eyesight looking at small screens. 3" or bigger is much better.

I had (and unfortuneately just lost) an iPod nano, 8gb. It cost 250$.

The battery life was far superior to that of the iPod Video or Zune, and although it can't play videos (from the factory anyways, I love iPodLinux), that's not too horribly important to me. 8gb of flash memory means no hard drive motor, needle, or platter failure, plus it's aluminum case was quite robust and had lasted for a whole three months without damage.

Remember, some people don't need fancy-video-playing doodads in their pockets. Some of us are fine with just music and reliability. =]

xRyokenx
03-19-2007, 10:08 PM
Great review .Mal. I have the HP Mobile Media Companion rx4240 (http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/product_detail.do?product_code=FA782AA%23ABA&tab=detailed_specs&storeName=storefronts&landing=handhelds&category=handhelds&subcat1=&catLevel=1#defaultAnchor) or some crap like that, which is basically the Zune in Pocket PC format, meaning, quite similar in some ways. It has about the same size screen, and CPU speed. I think it has like 128mb flash and 64mb RAM on it. I stuck a 1gb SD card in there and it's plenty for me. Sorry if I 'jacked your thread, but had to add/say something. I'd write a review, but can't type long due to my wrist getting tired and the other hurting .:( But the Zune is cool, progbuddy has one, and a couple other friends of mine do too. +rep

d_stilgar
03-20-2007, 01:06 AM
... The Zune is brown and green lol.

I was half serious, but I was also being funny.

I would get a Zune if they had 80gb versions. I know you can mod it to 80gb, but it costs more than an iPod to do that, so I'm going to wait until they release one.

Canadian Eh?
03-20-2007, 03:37 PM
This is a zune review not a sansa review. But about not needing 30 Gb, who needs 80Gb on an iPod? (i'm not gonna say **** about the 60 Gb model cuz that has the same hard drive space as my PC :( )

xRyokenx
03-20-2007, 03:40 PM
Yeah, I haven't even hit 80gb on my PC... and I have a 200gb HDD, which is has only reached somewhere between 50 and 60gb mainly due to me not deleting the installers to a bunch of demos I have, and all the games still on there even though I don't play them. :D My dad was saying that if the Zune had a touch screen, then he'd get one, or something like that, but why have a touch screen on an mp3 player? The buttons are all you really need if it has a good interface.

Redundant
03-20-2007, 03:50 PM
My dad was saying that if the Zune had a touch screen, then he'd get one, or something like that, but why have a touch screen on an mp3 player? The buttons are all you really need if it has a good interface.


Sounds like he wants an iPhone. I think the iPhone is ok but it is said to have really bad battery life...

xRyokenx
03-20-2007, 03:52 PM
Bah, I hate anything that's comboed with a phone, unless like an mp3 player. A lot of people told me to get a Pocket PC - phone combo, but screw that, the phone should be separate, so if the battery dies, you still have a phone, but no music, etc. You could carry spare batteries though...

d_stilgar
03-20-2007, 05:41 PM
I have a lot of music. And with video I could hit 80gb in minutes. I had almost 100gb in movies on my computer. 80gb is a minimum for me.

Redundant
03-20-2007, 07:18 PM
You could carry spare batteries though...

Are you kidding me? :redface: Apple doesn't have user replaceable batteries on their iPods and they aren't going to on their iPhone. If only they had not wanted to make it so thin, they could have put a bigger battery in it and it might be useful.


I have a lot of music. And with video I could hit 80gb in minutes. I had almost 100gb in movies on my computer. 80gb is a minimum for me.I can understand wanting more than 4gb of space, but you don't need 80gb. There's no point in putting too much more video on their except by how long the battery life is. (10 hour battery = 10-12 hours of video on it) If you have to recharge it then you will have a chance to put different videos on it. If you're a traveler, though, that's another story.

Guardian
03-21-2007, 11:15 AM
I hate hardrive MP3's, my zune (gave to my brother), I too had the white one. Every tiem I charged it, it needed ze needle.

The ipod nano is pretty good, The sansa has a bigger screen and can play videos, other wise there basicley same thing.

Flash mp3's have huge Differences then the Hardrive MP3's.

It wont be long before they devlop the 60 gig Flash they where talking about.