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Zune

It's been a good while I've owned this portable music player by Microsoft (about 6-7 months) and I thought I'd give it a short review here.

I had previously been the owner of an Apple iPod, third generation, bought back in the summer of 2004 which was a good PMP although the battery life had started decaying to worthlessness within a couple of years and the device itself was all scratched to hell within a year(a mirror like metal back was never going to stay that way for very long unprotected).

Having considered buying the current iPod classic I was tempted over by the then newly released Zune due to its larger screen (the resolution is the same as the iPod though), ability to play FM radio and its wireless synching. There was a small obstacle in my path and that was Microsoft's disregard for anyone living outside the great United States; I suppose this was a safe way for them to test out their new product and its associated online marketplace before branching out too far. Ebay, naturally, solved that problem and it was in my hands all the way from Florida in 10 days or so.

Specifications:

• 11x6.1x1.3 (LxWxB) (cm)
• 90.7g
• 3.2" LCD display
• Wi-fi (b/g)
• 80GB storage
• FM Tuner
• 20 hr/5 hr battery (music/video)

The Good:

FM Tuner:

The tuner works great and has great reception using the earphones as an antennae. The device has selectable RDS (UK/US/Japan) so the station name associated with the FM frequncy is also displayed along with any other messages transmitted.

Large Display:

Small in the grand scheme of displays but better than many other PMPs of the same class. Great for watching video podcasts on and associated track's album art looks impressive.

Casing:

No scratches really visible yet unlike on my previous 3G iPod.

The Bad:

The Zune Pad (sometimes):

You control the menu with sweeping motions of the zune pad which usually work well but when it comes to selection a menu option by pushing in the centre of the pad sometimes it registers that as a side push and goes to some other menu. Worse still is when you hit the opposite button to go back to the previous menu it doesn't remember how far down you were and you have to scroll all the way back down. Bloody annoying.

Zune Software:

It's not great, doesn't work with last.fm and doesn't even work with Windows Live Messenger's now playing thing. You'd think they'd be able to use Windows Media Player or something instead of yet another program. Oh well.

The Indifferent:

Wireless Functionality:

I thought I'd actually use this but I haven't bothered. I just synch up the Zune when I'm needing to charge it up, or plugging it in to the USB. It's more hassle setting up the wifi than just doing it normally (I assume)...

Conclusion:

85%