Zune: My feedback
I came back from the Summit at Seattle with a brand new Zune.
After 2 weeks of use, I found that I could be interesting to share my experience with the device, so here is my test !
Cons
- It is like an iPod, but uglier. None of the 3 colors version are attractive to me. Looks like a piece of plastic, cheap (one's man opinion).
- Can't use wireless to transfert music from my computer : SO SO SO BAD!!!!!!!
- Do not play DivX or XviD : BAD BAD BAD!!!
- Do not work with DRM other than Microsoft
- Do not display date or time, not a big deal but it would be nice. My 1998 cellular phone do it.
- Use a software on top of Windows Media Player. I would prefer Media Player only and that's all, thanks.
- No podcast section on software or device
- Earphones are so cheap! Real music lovers have to change them quickly.
- Current listening music is stopped while sharing songs wireless : this is SOOoo bad!!!! Why would I share music this way ?? I want to LISTEN to my music first.
- Accessories are VERY expensives.
- Battery life is so short while playing videos!!
- When you have a LOT of music like me, search is not efficient at all, in albums view, you can sort by artists/genres/albums/single/playlists but you can't jump to a specific letter... The Creative Zen Vision has a far better system for that.
- Do not provide data storage (external drive) by default, but there is a hack for that purpose.
- Movies only plays on landscape format, this is ok but I'd like the screen to switch automatically landscape/portrait layout while watching pictures/movies, like my Canon Ixus digital camera.
- Only 1 zoom level on pictures
- Do not keep track of last played song
- Proprietary USB cable
- Case is too slim to be usable
- Software/firmware needs an update the day you buy it, it's a Microsoft product ;-)
Pros
+ Screen is just perfect!!
+ Accesories are cool
+ 30 Gb
+ UI and menus are impressive, specially for pictures
+ Zune do not exist in the country where I live : geek effect garanteed!
+ Works with Vista
+ Auto software and firmware update
+ Display music tags and information
+ Display album art!
+ Less expensive than iPod (note this is the only comparison point with an iPod here)
+ Scroll long titles: little detail but important to me
+ RDS tuner: radio displays station and tunes names
+ Video player can resume any previous played movie
Conclusion
Is it good ? is it bad ?
Read my list above to help make yourself an idea, reality is Zune is a young product and there is a LOT to do to beat an iPod, because this is the only goal, right? I would definitly not (yet) recommand it to "standard" user (dad or sisters). Go buy an iPod nano and you'll be just fine.
Anyway I like my Zune because it does exactly what I expect : allows me to keep a lot of music anytime, and watch movies/webcasts in public transportation. It takes care of my existing Windows Media Player library and plays wmv videos files.
Some features like pictures zoom levels, date and time, external drive, podcast sync, will probably comes with next software/firmware updates.
Moreover I'm not a "standard" user, I'm a Microsoft geek, I hate mov and Quicktime and I will never install iTunes. So I'm currently happy with my Zune! Hope to get lots of updates soon...
Final words
If you also have a Zune, you should be happy to learn that the Zune team is waiting for your feedback!
Look at the bottom of each page on Zune.net and click "feedback". Or, here's the Direct Feedback link. I'm going to send them a link to this post.
Note
I do not work either for Microsoft or with the Zune team, this post express my personal opinion, comments are welcome, but constructives comments only please.