Zune Patrol Zune Review Part 3: Quality is the real difference - zune reviews - Zune News, Live, Player, MP3, Microsoft Zune, Communities, MP3 Player, iPod, iPod Killer, Zune

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- - Zune Patrol Zune Review Part 3: Quality is the real difference
  - Original contribution by: jsexton
  - 11/28/2006 2:21:30 PM
  - Trendy contrarianism is always at its most fashionable when the target is perceived as a giant. And I've seen review after review after review panning Zune apparently for one reason only: it's from the software giant Microsoft, whom wisely don't put their logo or company name anywhere in sight. (Instead the back of Zune reads "Hello from Seattle" in very small print). I pity anybody whose identity of self is so fragile that they feel they have to differentiate themselves by routinely dismissing the giants.
    
    Anyway, enough of that. After spending two weeks with Zune it's clear the bad press has been just plain hogwash. The interface is very friendly, the large screen is bright and beautiful, and the software is vastly superior to iTunes.
    
    The original syncing took longer than expected (about 48 hours to load about 6000 songs, a few hundred digital photos, and a few videos; albeit using an ancient laptop and a PCMCIA USB2 card). However the end result was that my entire collection, which took many weeks to rip from CD, was easily loaded from iTunes into Zune. It also snatched my photo albums and videos. The only exceptions were MP3 format videos (Zune seems to prefer WMV) and songs I purchased directly through iTunes. Fortunately I haven't purchased many songs from iTunes Store.
    
    The software is a big plus. It has the intuitive layout one has come to expect from all software, with the ability to easily tab between different sections of the window and use keyboard shortcuts for every feature.
    
    The features of the software appear to run asynchronously so you will find that the application does not freeze for seconds here and there while you're using it. This alone makes the Zune software dramatically more user-friendly than many applications which have to sync with a USB device. For instance, while Zune is synching you can clearly and graphically see its progress. In contrast iTunes freezes up while it scans the iPod. Also, when you type characters in the search box, the results appear without interrupting your typing. That was one of my most frustrating "features" of iTunes...with 6000 songs I couldn't type more than about one character a second while it gathered the results.
    
    The bad news about song playback is that there are still very small gaps between songs when listening to contiguous tracks. The gaps are much smaller and less noticeable than on iTunes or the iPod, but there are still small gaps. I'm not sure why a small digital buffer can't be incorporated into playback to eliminate the gaps, similar to how portable CD players implemented skip protection using a buffer.
    
    Zune itself is sturdy and easy to get used to. The menu system is quick and nicely animated. I really like having a custom photo in the background. We chose the back of our dog's head; a nice background indeed. The earphones have some nice details, like magnetized earbuds and a little restrainer that helps prevent tangling.
    
    I was originally disappointed that the round control was a d-pad instead of a touch wheel like the iPod. I assumed that would be a common disappointment until I had two separate youngsters independently remark that they were happy it was a d-pad because they outright disliked the iPod touch wheel. That really surprised me at first, but after a few days of using both my iPod and Zune, I find myself becoming frustrated with the touch wheel. For instance, when I'm moving one by one between podcasts to find one I haven't listened to yet (often on the road). It is much easier to press up or down rather than make a small touch wheel arc to select the adjacent track. When you hold the up and down buttons on the Zune, the tracks zip by with increasing speed and a large first letter display. It was very easy to get used to that.
    
    My wife and I shared photos with friends and family just last night, and it was easy to pass around Zune. The display is large, bright and clear even at angles, so the group could all view at the same time even without passing it around. I used Zune in the sun on a bright day and the visibility was more than reasonable compared to my tablet display in the same conditions. We've watched Weird Al's "White and Nerdy" probably a hundred times, and my wife even loaded an episode of "Scrubs" last night. The large screen really makes a big difference.
    
    Many of the negative reviews refer to the Zune to Zune wireless community capabilities. It's kind of odd that anyone would expect such a feature to be instantly useful when it clearly depends on other people also having Zune, and it's only been available for two weeks. You can share songs with other Zune users, and they have 3 plays or 3 days to listen to the shared songs. Microsoft has already caught legal trouble from Universal for including the sharing feature. Currently every other MP3 player has 0 plays and 0 days for wirelessly sharing songs, so there is no comparison to make. Personally I'm looking forward to the wireless community. I perform with a local band and have our demo tracks ready to share with audience members at shows. It's a great feature, and it will really be interesting to see how it evolves.
    
    Overall, I recommend Zune over iPod without question. While the new feature set of Zune is not earth-shattering, the quality and attention to detail puts it well ahead of the iPod.
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