Zune 30 GB Digital Media Player Brown
| Brand: | Zune | ||
| Average Rating |
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The Digital Media Player reinvented With the new Microsoft Zune you can wirelessly share selected full-length sample tracks playlists pictures or your home-grown tracks directly from Zune to Zune Listen to those received full-length songs up to three times in three days with the option to flag the ones you like to easily purchase them the next time you sync up Browse the Zune Marketplace for access to millions of songs old and new Use the bright LCD screen to watch your favorite videos or browse pictures of your family and friends GB of storage means plenty of space for your music photos and videos Never grow tired of your music with a built-in FM tuner for access to local FM radio broadcasts Reinvent your more info
Tagged with: Brown • Digital • JS8-00003 • Media • Player • Zune
Very Satisfied
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
We have 4 Creative MP3 players in our family. I was using my daughter’s first zen 1gb because the smaller one I bought for myself I couldn’t download any more music on- it was full. Then her hand-me-down wasn’t big enough. She has a Zen Vision M now and we are fairly satisfied with it. I decided that it was time for me to get a media/mp3 player- I travel a lot, want to watch movies and have a large music library, and be able to down-load teachings and seminars to listen to. I searched and searched. I wanted my own Zen Vision M or Zen Vision W but couldn’t get past the price for a 30G. Then I decided to check out Zune. I know a few teens who have them and love them. I discovered that this particular model was being upgraded to a sleeker design, so the original (the one I am writing about) had a close-out price. It was less than half of what a Vision W would have cost me.
Pros-
1. Downloads are soooooo easy!!!! Easier than the Creative products (which I still think are good).
2. Movie quality is superb and the software (have to buy it) was not outrageously expensive.
3. Movie downloads don’t take nearly as long as the Zen Vision M.
4. It is easy to navigate through the menus, which is good since the product manuals are not very helpful.
5. Battery time is substantial.
6. The software I purchased to download the movies has a built-in decrypter to take off the anti-piracy protection codes so that I can download the movies that I have purchased and own. Creative may have that now, but hasn’t in the past, so I couldn’t download my favorite movies that I personally own!
Cons-
1. has to be charged through your computer, THERE IS NO A/C CHARGER INCLUDED
2. It is a little heavy and thick, which may bother some but doesn’t bother me at all
3. Found it at Target on clearance for $132.99 (not online) and I paid $159.99 plus s/h – could’ve saved over $30.00 buying it at my local store
All around, I have had this thing for about a month and I am so very glad I bought it. It was a wise purchase. Now I can listen to my tunes in the car or anywhere as well as watch movies and listen to teachings.
Kinda pricey, scary bad software, not an iPod.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Okay, the review title doesn’t do the Zune any justice, but after 1.5 years of ownership I must say that the Zune turned out to be a much better player than I had originally thought it would. My first impression when I opened the box was “Eh”. The player was roughly the size of a pack of Camels, only a tad thinner. The buttons were clunky and after owning a PSP the display was remarkably…underwhelming. I won’t even mention the crappy headphones that were supposed to be a “bonus” accessory… My ears hurt just looking at them. Then there is the original version of the Zune software. Wow, what a mess. Not intuitive by any means and the automatic settings grabbed every picture/video/sound file from my computer and commenced to cram all of it onto the player. The little hard drive was just churning away like a cellphone on vibrate. After hunting around the software settings however I managed to organize my computer files in a Zune friendly fashion.
So what have we so far? Unimpressive unit. No bonus goodies worth mentioning. Software that is both unsightly looking and difficult to setup… What the heck could there possibly be about the Zune to warrant four stars? Well, after a while, the Zune was something that was quickly forgotten about. Not forgotten as in “stuffed in a drawer never to be seen in the light again” but something better. Something that has become such a part of my everyday life that I don’t even think about it any more. It’s something that you keep with you like your wallet, keys or cellphone. You don’t THINK about your wallet, it’s just there, doing what wallets do. Keeping your credit cards, receipts and loose cash in one handy pouch. And that is exactly what the Zune has become in my everyday life: a music wallet. It is in my hand with my Cellphone. It goes with me in the car. It’s at the gym on the tread mill. It’s in my garage jacked into my little bookshelf stereo. It’s on my chest when I am laying out in my hammock. It’s plugged into my home stereo… It’s an everyday part of my life. And if you are only playing music (videos are another story), it keeps playing and playing and playing. I have had the Zune out in the garage in 100+ degree heat playing non-stop for 12-13 hours. It plays continuously for the 10 hour drive to my parents house in Florida. It is the energizer bunny of music players. The buttons are dirty and worn but they still work. And for those reasons I give the Zune four stars.
To be fair, two firmware and software updates (and a set of proper headphones) have corrected a lot of the issues of the initial release package giving the unit a nice breath of fresh air and a little more longevity.
So for those of you looking for a respectable alternative to “iPod madness”, I can honestly recommend the Microsoft Zune without reservation.
Great start
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Despite the knocks Microsoft sometimes takes, this is actually an excellent first generation product. And the beauty of it is that you get most of the benefits of their next generation product via software upgrades. I’ve had mine for close to 2 years now and its been nice to have the features continue to grow even as the product aged.
Although this older model isn’t as small or pocketable as the newer generations (or competing iPods) it’s still an ideal solution if you mostly plan on using it in the car, on an airplane, etc where pocketability is not as big a concern. The screen is large and great for watching movies for on long flights, etc. And the overall user interface (the visuals, navigating menus via the ‘twist’ navigation, etc) is far more polished and robust than even the tried-and-true iPod classic interface.
At this point, it makes as much sense to get the newer generation of this product. But this has definitely been a pleasant surprise as I had a lot of trepidation when first purchasing this product. It wasn’t seen as cool or as hip as an iPod. But day-to-day functionality is what mattered most to me and in that regard this thing excels.
Horrible
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I bought this for my daughter 4 years ago and she like it the first time but now she hates it now because of the battery. The battery rans out very fast. It gets down one for 30 seconds and when I delete her pictures, it deletes it by iself. Even we go somewhere far away it rans out. This is a horrible product!
Continual updates make this thing awesome!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
A ridiculous amount of props to Microsoft for continually updating these first generation Zunes. New firmware and software updates make this device better and better as time goes on. New features are being added constantly. New Zune 3.0 software is infinitely better than iTunes. I couldn’t be happier with my decision to get a Zune over an iPod.