Microsoft Red Zune 30GB

...the Zune can be Upgraded. Microsoft are very reliable when it comes to updating software, and this really does pack a punch to the Zune meadia player.
One last little point about synchronising with the Zune, is that you cannot use Windows Media Player with the Zune. I personally cannot see a problem with this, as the Zune media player is virtually the same piece of software in many ways.

The Zune marketplace is amazing, and ...
...see how good it really is. For something so new, it has a very wide range of music. Virtually every artist I searched for was located by the ZMP, and is in a perfect sound quality - every one is 190KBps, and not a drop below. Some new albums did require you to purchase the songs, which is a bit annoying if you have a Zune pass subscription. On the subject of the Zune Pass, I believe it is a great way to collect music. You can download as much music ... more

Before I say anything, there is a very two sided argument about ipod's versus Zune. Many, if not all reviews on the web are biased towards one side, and I will *try* to keep my review as open to both arguments as possible.

Now, first things first, the price. I had to ship mine over from America to the UK. The price including postage and packaging was roughly £150. Only £125 was for the player itself. Then VAT and other ridiculous taxes were added when it reached the UK, making the total price of the player £200, which is only £10 more expensive than an ipod.

The packaging of the Zune is very high quality. It is a sort of odd plastic/cardboard in brown, which looks very sleek and stylish. Presentation is good, with "welcome to the Social" written on the inside sleeve as you slide it open. Under that flap is where the Zune is displayed. My Zune is in a Dark Grey/Black colour, with a light blue halo round the edge, which does look very neat and tidy. The screen looks Massive when compared to an ipod, and is about 7/10ths the size of the whole player, and has a hard, think layer of plastic covering it. For the past 2 months that I have had mine, the screen is not even remotely scratched yet, but finger prints are easily smudged over it. The rest of Zune is made of a very hard rubbery plastic, and it has a soft touch to it. While the Zune is about twice as thick as an ipod, but it almost makes up for this by being made of the very think plastic. You would not expect to damage this easy.

When first turning on the Zune, the main interface loads, showing the Zune logo, and a loading bar at the bottom. It takes 10seconds to load up. Once in the main menu, you can finally see the screen sharpness. It is incredibly detailed, far better than anything I have seen. The colours are very vibrant, and it is very bright (yet it can be adjusted in three settings - low, medium and high).

Connecting the Zune first time round can be a pain. The installation is slow, because of update searching, and took what felt like 10minutes to complete. Upgrading the Zune interface took little time, even though the checking for update screen took an age. Once connected, the PC and Zune work seamlessly - with your PC recharging the Zune as it synchronizes.

On that note, the battery life of the Zune is good. I have not fully tested this, because my Zune is recharging a lot of the time, but I have to say that in the 2 months I have owned it, I have only got one message stating low battery. A little note I should also make, is turning it off. In the manual, the way to turn the Zune off is by pressing and holding the play/pause button. This leaves it in a Hibernation state - It will turn on instantly, but it is constantly using up energy, even when hibernating.However, if you press "Down" on the scroller, and the "Back" button it will turn it off. This will mean that it has to load up the Zune interface again, but uses no energy. So depending on how you are using the Zune, you should turn it off accordingly.

The Zune Media player (I will call it ZMP) is rather good, but has quite a few problems. The ZMP does take a long time to load up, but knowing Microsoft, this will probably be fixed in an update. The interface design is based on the actual Zune player, which can seem a bit cheesy, but overall, it is pretty neat. Mixed with the official Windows XP Zune theme that is availible on the zune.net website, your PC can look nice and stylish.
Adding Music with the ZMP is as easy as with the similar WMP11, and settings can be customised for your library quite simply. The overall presentation and layout of your music collection is fantastic, with album covers making album identification far easier and better looking. Some albums do not get an automatic album cover, meaning there is no picture. Updating this yourself is a pain, and pasting it into the player can take some time.
Videos and Pictures are new to ZMP from WMP11, and while this is helpful, it does not seem to collect new information of recently added media - e.g., if you get a new picture on your pc, it will not display it in your pictures section of the player. You have to add it yourself. Even though the ZMP is the worst part of the whole Zune "experience", I should mention that everything related to the Zune can be Upgraded. Microsoft are very reliable when it comes to updating software, and this really does pack a punch to the Zune meadia player.
One last little point about synchronising with the Zune, is that you cannot use Windows Media Player with the Zune. I personally cannot see a problem with this, as the Zune media player is virtually the same piece of software in many ways.

The Zune marketplace is amazing, and the 14 day free Zune pass trial makes sure you see how good it really is. For something so new, it has a very wide range of music. Virtually every artist I searched for was located by the ZMP, and is in a perfect sound quality - every one is 190KBps, and not a drop below. Some new albums did require you to purchase the songs, which is a bit annoying if you have a Zune pass subscription. On the subject of the Zune Pass, I believe it is a great way to collect music. You can download as much music as you can handle, and can play it as often as you like (Until your Pass runs out, that is.

Once you have built up a collection of music you wish to add to your Zune, you will need to synchronize to it. If you do not specify a bit-rate that your Zune will use, it puts the media straight on. This takes a normal length of time - about an hour to fill it up. However, if you do run out of space on the mere 30 GB hard drive, you will need to convert songs to a lower bit rate. Conversion can take some time, but is reduced by the ZMP converting 2 songs at a time. If converting the maximum amount of songs possible on your Zune, it can take a full day to convert everything.

So the Zune is finally filled up with music. Playing songs is easy. Scrolling with the button controls is far less strenuous than an ipod of Zen - you simply click and hold. No rubbing the Zune's "hot spots" with your finger, this is as simple as it can get. When scrolling through many songs it will accelerate throughout the search, which is a great way to save time, and big letters are shown on the screen indicating your current alphabetic position. Once you have found the artist you want to listen to, you click the middle button, and the interface will move to the artist's albums. A little album-cover is displayed next to the album name, which is helpful for identification. Once you begin playing, the album cover is blown-up to almost the whole screen, with basic information shown at the bottom (Artist, Name of the song, and play time).

The standard Zune earphones are some of the best I have heard. Compared to some sennheisers, they have more power, but slightly less quality on the higher frequencies. The cheap foam cover supplied with the earphones can fall off in your pocket, but they do help keep them in place when being listened to. There are also tiny magnets on the outside of the earphone body, and this means that the cable will not be knotted when left in your pocket, and will only be twisted. One last thing, if you accidently pull the headphones out of the Zune while playing, it will stop the song in its tracks. Very very cool....

Video Playback is also surprisingly good. I have not noticed any skipping on videos, and the quality is fantastic. One thing that did strike me as simply incredible is High Definition playback. I downloaded a trailer of an HD video onto my pc, with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. On my PC (which is relatively fast), it will almost not play. There is, what seems, a frame rate of 2 frames per second. On the Zune, when NO conversion is used, video playback is perfect. No skipping whatsoever, but the quality is breath-taking.

The Radio is a little extra which makes the Zune that bit better than its competitors. It is as simple as it could get - a line with radio frequencies is displayed, and there is a big number above it saying what frequency you are on. Below the line, the information of the Radio station is displayed. You can either use the Zune to scan for stations, or manually scroll through the frequencies. If you save a frequency as a favorite, it will show a brighter line where the frequency is, and it can be scrolled to quickly when in scan mode, or alternatively, you can click the middle button and choose the station you desire in a list. As for the Quality of the radio, it is what you would expect, and I have not noticed any impurities with the playing.

Finally, the file sharing. I can't see this being used much, but when it is used, it is very swift. Song transfer takes less than 5 seconds! But unfortunately, the wireless does suck power from the battery, so I would not recommend leaving this on.
As for transfer with an Xbox 360, it is as easy as you would expect. Treat it like a seperate hard-drive, and you will be fine. No problems there whatsoever.

In conclusion The Zune is a great piece of equipment. It doesn't have the same styling as the ipod, but for what it may lack in smooth looks, it more than makes up for in its functions and ease of use. The Zune Media player is extremely slow, but is packed with the goods (Media playing, downloading, sorting, editing...), and it is very versatile.
If you are not sure about purchasing this, remember that everything can be upgraded, meaning that it will be like a new player every few months.
Overall, one of the best, if not the best, MP3 players in the market
 

...less