An Inside Look: Zune Media Player

Full Review

The Microsoft Zune media player unexpectedly jumped into the portable Mp3 player market and is now gaining some loyalists. This is because the Zune has a bigger 3.2 inch display and a touch-senstive pad with two buttons button for navigation. It isn’t the thinnest device with a 0.5 inch thickness, but it is still cool to carry around with and comes with a wide range of trendy colors.

Regarding the battery life, it isn’t very amazing and usually lasts after 10 or 11 hours of playtime. Fortunately, you can charge the Zune media player via USB if you are near a PC or have a laptop with you. Doing this will only take 3 hours. To extend the life of the battery by a little bit, you can adjust the brightness levels. The best thing about this is that even the low brightness settings offer a good display even in total darkness.

Song management is pretty good thanks to the click-wheel that allows quick access to the song you want. The “back” button seems a bit out of place, but the interface can easily be embraced after you get the hang of it. The Zune media player also organizes your music based on the tags making it pretty easy even if you load gigabytes worth of music.

The Zune media player comes with a few nifty personalization options both outside and inside the player. On the inside, you can set a custom wallpaper in a similar fashion to cell phones. This also doubles as the album art for songs that do not have one set. On the outside, there are plenty of Zune colors to choose from and special designs can be engraved on the back as well.

Unlike most mp3 players, the Zune has a WiFi option that allows wireless transfer from computers or between Zunes to share songs. The Zune software also comes out a bit buggy and some upgrades pose some problems among some users as well. Overall the Zune media player is a great device that can store a lot and easily play the songs you are looking for.

Product Summary

The Good

The Zune media player has excellent sound quality, good personalization options, WiFi support, and easy song management.

The Bad

The WiFi support in the Zune media player is quite slow and limited with no browsing capabilities. The battery life isn’t the best around and the software can be a pain to use especially to set things up.

Bottom Line

Those having huge mp3 collections should get this player since it has decent sound and you’ll find it rather simple searching for the right song you want. Just keep an eye on the battery life and have some patience with the supplied software.

Also, check out my other guide on 30 Zune or Creative Player.