Okay, I’ve had my Zune for a couple of months now so I’m able to dive into my likes and dislikes.
Overall: I like very much and I would totally recommend it to others. (For other reviews check out here, and here.)
Here are a list of the features that I liked and care about having (scroll down to see the explanations):
1. Good, nay, GREAT earphones.
2. Storage
3. User interface and software
4. Radio
5. How it looks (yes, i’m superficial)
Here is a list of stuff that I don’t really care about:
6. WiFi
7. Pictures
8. Zune Social
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1. Earphones - Are they comfortable? that’s really the main priority that everyone has. Sound, price whatever else…it all comes second to comfort. And these babies are comfy! I can wear them for hours. I also extra double love that the cords are wrapped in material, kinda like those friendship bracelets I used to make in grade school. It helps when you need to untangle them; it slides easily because it’s not rubber. And it looks nice.
And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. Just look at my photo of my premium Zune headphones on flickr: it’s one of my most viewed photos because people care about them. And this guy also wrote about the headphones. See….people care about comfort. Anyway, I digress.
What was that? Did you say something? Oh, you mean that these premium earphones aren’t standard and you have to pay extra for them? Phew, well, good thing I got mine for free.
2. Storage - I don’t need 80G. But I need more that 4. They gave me the 8G and its perfect! I have enough room for my podcasts, playlists, and tons of music. I don’t care about album art (stop throwing tomatoes) so that also saves a lot of space for me. I think 8G will hold me over until it’s time to buy another MP3 player…probably in the year 2020.
3. User Interface and Software – Wicked! Everything is organized the way you think it should be organized, which makes everything easy to find. It’s slick (colours and font) and makes a little bubble sound when you scroll through everything.
Too bad I can’t say the same for the software. It….sucks. Okay, maybe I didn’t spend enough time using and learning about it. But it’s probably because it takes so long to load. It’s really pretty looking but I want speed and simplicity rather than pretty. It’s also difficult to load podcasts. I will give it another shot but I wish they had something that was a lot simpler and less flashy. I hear about similar problems with other MP3 interfaces but still, that’s no excuse.
4. Radio – Can’t tell you on this one. I live and work in the same town, which is a valley, which means that I can’t get any radio stations not even the AM ones. It’s not a Zune problem, I have the same issue in my car. It sucks because the one thing I miss about driving to work was listening to the Dean Blundell Show. (someone told me they are making podcasts though…sweet!)
5. Looks – It’s sleek, it’s black, it’s sexy. I love it. The size is perfect, I love the scroll touch pad thing WAAAAAAY more than the iPod one. And so far it still looks brand new; maybe it’s scratch resistant? We’ll see after a few more months.
6. WiFi - You can share music with other Zune owners if you are standing next to each other. Sure, we played with this cool function (even have a video of it) but I never use it and HATE the 3 Play feature.
7. Pictures - I’ve never been one to carry pictures on me. I don’t even have pictures on or around my desk. I keep my pics on Filckr and when I want to look at them I look at them.
8. Zune Social – This is something I thought I would be into but I’m not. I think it’s becasue I just don’t really like forums that much, or I didn’t feel like there was anything to talk about. i tried to use it to troubleshoot some stuff (related to the interface) but didn’t ind anything helpful. I gave up on it early….but like I said, I’m impatient.
