Cons: A little on the big side. I wish I could believe that could happen I love my zune 30! I recently upgraded to a Zune , which is even better hardware, but the Zune 30 will remain in my family until it stops working. It will be a hand-me-down for my son in a year or two. It looks amazing! July 17, July 15, The 30GB models are perfect for storing music and video. The hardware is pretty sturdy, too -- ours have survived more than a few drops.
July 12, I also bought the Zune 30 within 4 days of release. The guy showed me this and i have not given it up since. Ever since i have had my Motorola Razr, i have felt the need for devices with large screens and back then, this is also what sold me on the Zune. I still carry around my Zune, using it mostly for podcasts now, however I was jammin out to some old Metallica the other day :D.
No need for me to upgrade, the Zune 30 does all I need it to do and i still have about 13 gigs free. I purchased my Zune 30 on its launch day.
At the time I was ridiculed for not getting the ipod. But soon after I realized that the Zune 30 was a wonder of its own. Though it might be a brick, its the features that keeps me playing music on it constantly. And the screen size was amazing, after watching videos on it I wondered how ipod owners watched things on that tiny screen. Then the other Zunes came out and were way more thin.
But there is a secret I was listening to my Zune 30 as I was writing the review. I have yet to live somewhere where the ever-loving inter-net is so reliable that I can always stream radio, so I like FM radio in the ugly brick, and I definitely like how reliable it feels, and is. July 8, I got the zune because is was a tad cheaper than the ipod. It sounds great, the screen is wonderful and the ui is easy to use. The software is where the zune fails.
Even though I have a fast computer, the software is just plain slow. The frustration just grows with larger music collections. The features and ability to update song information is lacking to all of the alternatives out there. Even Windows Media Player would be a much better option to use, but of course, Microsoft prevents you from using it with the zune. July 3, I received a Zune 30 as a gift and have loved the player since day 1.
Any complaint muttered about the Zune aside from 1st gen design appeal has almost consistently been with the software. One of the best features is the inclusion of an FM tuner. Once during a tornado producing thunderstorm and again during a hurricane.
It seems basic but when the power is out and you feel isolated having that silly FM receiver is definitely reassuring. This player is loaded with features now as well including the ability to sync wirelessly, tag songs for purchase that are heard on the radio, and excellent Xbox integration on top of excellent performing hardware.
The Zune is an excellent buy. July 2, If you asked me which MP3 player I wanted, I would have said none. I came across the Zune on woot. Navigation on the Zune is done via a 4-way directional pad and 3 buttons. The menus are well organized and easy to navigate through. Scrolling through long lists is eased by showing the alphabet when the up or down directions are held in place. The Zune 30 currently supports music, video, pictures, podcasts, audiobooks, and even has an FM radio receiver and support for a few games.
The Zune has good sound quality and features a built in equalizer with several presets for acoustic, classical, electronic, hip-hop, jazz, pop, and rock. If you can get past the size, video on the Zune is quite enjoyable. The only downside to the Zune is that you need to use their software in order to sync content onto your Zune. My biggest complaint is that it runs sluggish on older hardware I use it on a 3Ghz Pentium 4 but seems to be okay on modern systems.
I personally use my Zune for Podcasts and Audio books. I got this as a gift on the day that it came out.. Never had a single problem with it. Its rugged, dependable, sleek looking and just perfect for me.
The sad thing is that Zune got off to a bad start so not many people have heard of it. And the people that have either love it or hate it. Oddly enough the people I know that hate it have never actually tried one. I let a good friend of mine, loyal apple fan try it out, he loved it so much he went out and bought one for himself.
The wireless sharing, large screen, cool looks, and free upgrades struck a chord with him. Cant go wrong with this player. July 1, WeightBattery LifeAll in all a great music player that candle handle video but requires a lot of trascoding for popular formats like Xvid, H.
The Wi-Fi sync is great in theory but not so much in practice due to limitation of strength of signal. ZP Subscription makes it veritable music discovery machine especially with the auto updating channels and 10 free DRM songs a month.
On Windows, the Software although processor intensive is much more stable and friendlier than iTunes. The free feature updates of later generation Zunes is also welcome. The limitation of video codec support is the only glaring deficiency in this PMP. Two years ago, I was in the market for a hard drive PMP. Two years later, turns out it was a good choice.
First, the hardware and design. Other than that, bare. So I love how the hardware has held up over time. When I bought my Zune, it could listen to radio, look at pictures, listen to and share music, and watch video, and that was it. And the software was just a skin of WMP.
But now, I have a strong, easy to use podcast feature, audiobook compatibility, games albeit a limited selection, but they were free , song downloads from any hotspot, and overhauled interfaces both on device and PC. Pretty good for a PMP from , and all for free.
Overall, my Zune 30 has had incredible longevity, between the free software updates and robustly designed hardware. You can buy tracks or just listen to audio previews. Another thing is that you can share photos and music to other Zune players via wi-fi sharing, though I never did have a chance to do that since zunes are not widely used here in the Philippines.
The interface of the Zune is very good! Go Zune! Unlike iTunes, the Zune software automatically adds songs to your library when place them in your music folder. Features like build in radio, fm song tagging, WiFi sync, and games are what make the Zune better. Also Microsoft has stayed committed to the Zune by providing software updates and creating a community around the Zune.
The UI which has become quite famous and is now being spread to other Microsoft products such as Windows Mobile 6. Overall I would highly recommend the Zune players. The Zune is a better device than the iPod. If you just want an MP3 player, the Zune is the king. With a few caveats. The hardware is beatiful, the screen is great, and the UI of the device is second to none.
Scrolling through songs is a joy, adding them to your now playing playlist is easy. Finding and playing music is simple and works great.
Being able to queue songs is very handy. Sound quality is excellent and it can power even higher impedance headphones very nicely. The Zune 30 was a bit ugly. Well, the brown ones anyways. The black ones were boring but the white one is quite attractive. I bought the brown Zune30 the day it came out and am still using it at least until the Zune HD comes out. I love how the device I bought 2.
Microsoft has really made me loyal Zune fan. I love the Zune hardware and software - I even bought my wife a little red Zune4. Both of our Zunes still work and look like new. It was very competitive with the iPod, despite its lackluster appearance. At launch, the WiFi was useless more on that later and the hour battery life really lasted more like hours.
When the Zune first launched, it featured an outstanding user interface. Large, readable text and large album art for the Now Playing screen. And if you upgrade to the latest firmware, the Zune 30 will blow you away with its interface. Everything is slick and fluid. Text is extremely readable, you can download tracks from the marketplace via the WiFi, use channels from the Zune software, and even play games.
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Low , The best accessories for your new Xbox Series X or S These controllers, headsets, remotes and more can take your gaming experience up a notch. This sharing feature allows users to share music and photos but not video within the same room--albeit with limitations that many of us already know: three plays of a song within three days.
Shared photo files, on the other hand, have no limitations. We'd love to see Wi-Fi expanded so that one could sync or purchase music wirelessly or even see Zunes across the globe , but having played with the device, I see why Microsoft is starting small. So far, the Zune experience out of the box and beyond has been predictable and solid. Wi-Fi or not, it's one excellent media player. Quickly, about the box and its contents: the Zune packaging is minimal but has flare.
You actually lift the Zune out of the box by pulling on its brown ribbon nice touch , and the bundled earphones and rubbery USB cable are nowhere to be seen until you realize the flaps adjacent to the Zune lift open.
In addition, you'll get a suede case, a software CD, some guides, and a sticker in the package. While we'd love to see more--such as an AC adaptor-- the introductory Zune experience is well done. Body design: At 4. In my opinion, it's a nice size and weight 5. I will say that a protective case such as Belkin's clear case does make it too big for my tastes. The colors are subdued and the shell has a translucent matte finish, and more importantly, the body does not attract fingerprints though the screen does.
The double-shot effect of the secondary color green on the brown version, bluish on the black, translucent on the white definitely gives the player visual pizzazz.
The built-in battery will last up to 14 hours for audio. Interestingly, the back says this in fine print: "Hello from Seattle. It's a durable device that will withstand scratches, bumps, and bruises, though the primary seam of the device looks as if it might burst open after a hard fall. You'll want to scroll the circular controller at first impulse maybe even second.
A true iPod-like click wheel would have made navigation on this device even easier than it is. In reality, the five-way tactile controller a. Unfortunately for southpaws, you can't flip the screen or controllers for left-handed use. Also, there is no dedicated volume control--that is handled on the appropriate screen by using the up and down controllers.
The back of the device features a circular dip and it mirrors the d-pad up front. This is supposed to give you a better feel for the d-pad especially as it's used with two hands in landscape mode. There is no kickstand as seen on some PVPs, but you can always get an optional case with a built-in method for propping up the Zune. The three-inch screen may not measure up to true portable video players such as the Archos , but it is definitely good enough to watch video, view photos, and navigate effectively.
It has three brightness settings and though the display is slightly washed out, it's colorful and bright enough for outdoor use. Conveniently, when the backlight turns off, you can still make out the screen on a nice bright day such as album art , so definitely keep the backlight to a minimum on this battery-hungry device.
Interface: The GUI is attractive, intuitive, and customizable with your own photo. The main menu features music, videos, pictures, radio, community, and settings options. As mentioned, the twist navigation makes it convenient to find albums, artists, genres, and playlists without returning to the main menu. Pressing either up or down will quickly scroll through lists, and as seen on the iPod and the Gigabeat S before it, the first letter appears as an overlay this does not work for photos.
When scrolling through album titles, the thumbnails will disappear. From the "sophisticated interface" department, the appearance of menu items will dim the background image or content, and videos will continue to play in the background when you call up its info screen.
The unit's large screen makes it easy to view content--up to 10 songs per page fewer items are shown for albums, which feature tiny thumbnails of album art.
Photo thumbnails are small but numerous. The playback screen is album-art centric, with the art covering at least 70 percent of the screen and fully flush with the screen's edges. A neat, round, glowing marker lets you know where you are in the track the same glow is used in the volume indicator, which shows up in the upper-left corner when activated. This is consistent within the Zune software, too. Hitting the center select button during playback of any media will open a context-sensitive menu PMC software requires hitting left or right.
For music, you'll get the option to adjust play mode, rate the song, show a song list, or flag a song flagged songs and photos transfer to the Zune software in list form and will show up front and center. Strangely, you can't access the numerous EQ settings from this menu. Features: Here's where things get tricky, particularly if you're a hard-core portable-media fan. You'll have to burn and rip, or find some way to convert. Video support is worse.
There is no video content available for purchase on the Zune Marketplace at launch. It will, however, feature more than two million tracks, both a la carte and subscription.
The software will not support DivX or XviD either, so you'll have to find a third-party conversion method. Too bad the video support is weak, since the three-inch screen is nice beats the iPod , and the player controls are precise. Video does feature unlimited bookmarking. Microsoft has some work ahead if it wants to transform this music-centric device into a competitive video device.
Media Center support would have given the Zune a nice source for content. But again, it's not a matter of the hardware--it's because Microsoft seeks to simplify the experience, presumably for new buyers of portable players, and then expand features as the Zune community grows and evolves. We do love that you can wirelessly beam photos to other users with no limitations, though the feature is useless without other Zunesters in site. You can listen to music while viewing photos and slide shows, but you can't assign a song to a specific slide show.
Slides show transitions happen in increments from 3 to 15 seconds, with only one transition type, which is fade. While viewing a photo, you can zoom in with one step and navigate around the screen. The FM-radio interface is minimal and simple to use. On-screen, you see a linear, dial-like line with the station above it in large numerals. There seems to be unlimited available presets, but no autoscan for them. Instead, the device can be put in autoscan mode, which simply goes to the next clean channel.
We do like the built-in RDS radio data system feature that will display the station, the genre, and sometimes the song title on certain compatible channels. Got to have two to share: Out of the box, our Zune did not have community or Wi-Fi features. New Zunes will go through an automatic firmware update the review unit has Version 1. Sharing content by using ad hoc Wi-Fi is pretty cool, although it is limited to sharing within a range of 30 feet, and you can't share video.
Microsoft stated that in open space, the range is closer to 40 and higher. Also, you can't just jump onto anybody's Zune and start cherry-picking--the only way to initiate contact is to share your music, not "steal it.
You initiate by turning on the Wi-Fi, choosing the Community option, and selecting Nearby. The two other Zunes in our room appeared, and we could view what they were hearing, such as "Listening to radio This keeps this temporary library separated from the regular library to avoid confusion.
Contrary to popular belief, there is no DRM wrapper placed on the file. Instead, the device's in-box manages the rights. You can choose to clear the in-box or a specific file, but that info will still be transferred to the Zune software, which features an in-box view.
This is where you can pick up the songs you like or have flagged. Look for Microsoft to expand the Wi-Fi capabilities soon. It takes about 10 seconds to transfer a song. Longer songs can take up to 15 seconds. Since you can play a song three times or within three days, you might be wondering what happens if you play a part of the song. A "play" equals at least one minute or half the song, whichever comes first.
I'd love to see a customizable thumbnail that identifies your device to other users--today, it's just text.
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