I Love the Ipod Killer

Author's Rating:

Pros: A superior device to the Ipod, and easier to use.

Cons: Not as fashionable as the Ipod, but who cares?

The Bottom Line: 
I would buy this over an Ipod any day. Ipods break easily and are bad software. Zunes are the winners and a better choice over all.

Author's Review
Man this zune is amazing! I used to have every other kind of compact music player you could think of and this is the best one to date. I like this even more than the Ipod. The zune is great! Let me tell you why.

To start, I got this little gizmo for Christmas and I am confident in saying this is the best gift of the year. I am happy with the amount of music I can store on my Zune because it holds 30 megabytes of music, videos and pictures and has a decent battery life. I have uploaded about 90 of my CDs to the Zune and I have only used up about 5 megabytes so far, so as you can tell, this zune gives you a lot. It says on the box it holds up to 7,500 songs. In terms of enjoying music, I like the fact that I can hook up my turn table system up to my computer and put recorded vinyl files onto the Zune, something that you cannot do with an Ipod and most MP3 players. To someone like me, that is a must have feature, because I have lots more records than I do CDs. The sound quality to the zune is actually really good, surprisingly good. The clarity of the music when I listen to it better than that of any standard listening device. It is better than my Ipod for sure. The battery life is an okay 12 hours for music which fits me fine for what I need it for. Some people grumble that they had to charge their Ipod this month, but for me, it is okay. I don't mind plugging in my Zune for a bit to get those 12 hours of listening time. The task of plugging in a Zune is easier than plugging in a toaster, which could only be difficult of you have fingers made of butter.

The Zune also plays your video files for you on a sexy screen that has a resolution that puts any Ipod or portable DVD player to shame. The screen is about 3.5 by 2.5 inches. Not impressed, well it isn't supposed to substitute your wide screen TV. It is supposed to be there for when you're on a plane and you can't stand to see another Pixar movie in Spanish (it happens to me a lot). The battery life on the Zune for movies is shorter because the screen needs to be on, but you can still watch anything for up to three hours and if you have a laptop handy you can plug it in and charge the Zune up in an hour. The Zune holds about 60 2 hour movies. The screen resolution is really good too, and the sound is great. I like the movie playing feature because it gives me, as a college student, the chance to miss out on class discussions but still be there so that I don't get an abscence.

You can store pictures on the Zune as well, which can be handy. I have often needed to show pictures of loved ones or projects or locations, and it simply isn't fashionable to whip out the wallet with pictures tucked inbetween dollar bills anymore. Also, with such a large screen with high resolution, putting a picture on your Zune would look better than if you printed it out often unless you have $5,000 to spend on a printer.

My Zune was black, but you can get it in brown or white, and Microsft has promised to come out with more colors too. It is sad that the creators of Zune didn't come up with a new look for the Zune. They did sort of copy the Ipod look, but this isn't so bad. The Zune handles better than the Ipod. In the Ipod you must rotate your finger around a circle to navigate your way around the screen, which can hurt your fingers after a while. The Zune has the same circle, but you don't have to rotate your fingers, instead you have to push up, down, left and right to get what you want with a little select button in the middle and a play/pause and back button on either side. This is a lot more comfortable on the hands.

You may find that your music collection isn't cutting it for you at the moment, but fear not! If you are in close proximity (120 feet?) to another Zune user, you can download that persons music for the day and listen to it for up to 3 times a day (For theft reasons, Microsoft makes music piracy difficult). This can be handy, and, wouldn't you know it, I have done it off of some complete stranger in a train station. I didn't like the music but it was fun to do. The zune can be set to do it automatically or alert you or just never bother.

The Zune comes in a nifty little box that says "Welcome to the Social" and includes the Zune, a nice pouch to carry it in, a cord to hook the Zune up to the computer, earphones of a high caliber, an instructional booklet and some slips of paper advertising how you can get free music for 14 days. When you install the CD inside, the Zune askes you to give it a name, register it with Microsft and to get a MSM account. I am not sure if you can use it to go on MSM, but why would you want to? Installation is easy and took me maybe 10 minutes.

The only things that Zune has working against it is that Ipod has been around a lot longer and has more people with Ipods than Microsft has people with Zunes, and it is sort of trendy to have an Ipod. Also, Zune is in its infancy, and that could be a problem because a few people might want to wait for more updated Zunes. Also, Zune only comes with one model that has a 30 megabyte drive, wheras Ipods come in all sorts of models.

The good news is that Zune will come out with better types of Zunes with more options and accesories and colors. They also will come out with more updates for software than Ipod does, so your own Zune will never be outdated. Ipod owners now their Ipod will be outdated every 3 months. Also, Zunes are really reliable. They don't break as easily as Ipods. If you do one small thing to your Ipod, it won't work properly ever again. Sometimes you buy an Ipod that was broken to start with. this happens a lot. But with Zunes quality is assured. These guys can take a beating so I've heard, but I'm still going to be careful and not hurt it unless it is an accident.

I love this Ipod Killer!