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.