Zune welcomes you to the social.

As I had owned an iPod nano 8gb model before this, I can't really be called a total Microsoft fanboy, but I'll readily admit to having a dislike for Apple. It's not so much anything they've done, but I just don't like them. Me buying anything Apple is like a Cleveland steel worker buying a Toyota.

So, when I decided I needed more room to stretch my musical legs and watch some movies, I did a little shopping around, even buying a Zen Vision:M, but I finally settled on the Zune. I paid $230 at Best Buy, and off I was.

Out of the box, onto the desk.

The box itself is very well designed and neat looking, with compartments for the CD/documentation, USB cable, and earbuds (which don't actually suck). In the middle is the Zune, with the phrase "Welcome to the Social" written across the top. The allusion to the WiFi feature led me into the installation process.

Software installation.

Installation went smoothly; if you're familiar with Windows Media Player, you're already familiar with the Zune software interface. Although this prompted me to wonder why Microsoft decided to re-invent the wheel by including a whole separate program to do essentially the same thing, I'll leave that question to the philosophers. All I know is, had Microsoft made the Zune compatible with PlaysForSure, it would've been easier to get started. But oh well, it wasn't a big deal.

Transferring files.

Transferring my music and other media files to the Zune was surprisingly painless. Within a few minutes, my entire music collection (around 8 gigs) was transferred and ready to go. I didn't do videos; pictures look amazing on the screen, though, and the included demo videos were incredibly impressive. The screen is one of the main reasons I bought this Zune over the iPod and Zen Vision -- watching The Matrix on a tiny screen wasn't really as fun as I thought it would be.

If it doesn't sound good, it isn't worth it.

So I guess this means the Zune is worth its weight in gold. Simply put, the Zune sounds amazing, and the equalizer really makes a big difference. All my music sounded incredible with no distortion.

The included earbuds aren't bad at all; they blow Apple's out of the water. I'd say they're on par with Creative's, but maybe better. Connect a nice set of headphones to this baby and watch it fly.

I also love the bass response on this player -- iPod's is good too, but I always felt something was lacking with it. As the quintessential suburban rapper, I don't really care if I can't hear every French horn in some Bach concert, I want a ghetto blaster that can generate noise complaints from the homes association three subdivisions over. And, the Zune can fulfill this desire if I so choose, much to the dismay of some of the cars next to me.

The screen.

Zune's most notable difference from iPod and Zen Vision is its huge, vibrant screen. It's also a main reason I ended up with it -- as I mentioned, watching The Matrix on a tiny screen just isn't a fulfilling experience.

My Zune had a dead pixel right out of the box (BURN!), but I was able to massage it out of the screen and it hasn't reappeared. The display is great for photo and video viewing, and it rotates to landscape mode automatically for video playback. It's actually nice to have a big display of album art too. Making the controls small (but not unreasonably so) while making the display larger makes a lot of sense. I always wondered why Creative and Apple waste so much space on controls that don't really need to be that big, while making a tiny screen. Oh well.

The user interface.

I love the UI on this device. The zooming effect when going into menus (and its inverse of zooming out when you back up) is a very nice touch, and album art just looks really cool on the screen. Videos look awesome too.

The best part of the UI is the speedy interaction and response times; Creative Zen Vision's interface frequently couldn't keep up with me and ended up locking up many times just because it got overloaded. But, this is not so with the Zune. Seeking and such are very fast, and I noticed almost no lag -- impressive for a hard-drive based media player.

The Zune's UI is very simple to operate, and it just makes sense. Navigating between music, video, pictures, and FM radio is really easy and pleasent. While Apple's click wheel is very hard to beat (and an incredible, slick design), I like Microsoft's tactile design as well. I generally dislike touch-sensitive controls, so this works out well for me. Click Wheel vs. Zune Circle vs. Zen Vertical Touchpad? You decide; it's a matter of personal preference. I think they're all great.

Fit and finish.

Zune feels very sturdy overall; the navigation circle is pretty solid, and the matte finish on the device itself is very scratch-resistant and feels good to the touch. It feels like a $250 piece of equipment, and I like the design and manufacture very well.

Welcome to the Social.

Too bad I'm the only one here, this party sucks. Well, I guess it's hell being an early adopter. I haven't really tried out the wireless feature, as I've only seen a couple Zunes against the countless iPods. While WiFi might not be useful YET, I can definitely see how it could be. Imagine swapping songs with the other patrons in Starbucks, the other hapless passengers at the airport, or anyone else in your general region. And I think this segues nicely into...

The coolness factor.

As a fairly young college student, I'm one of the customers Microsoft's chasing. On our commuter campus, I've seen maybe 3 or 4 Zunes since school started, compared to hundreds of iPods. I think I saw a guy with a Zune shirt once. I guess he's at the social too. Who knew. Par-tay at the community college library.

All joking aside, I frequently find myself posting funny videos, music, or pictures on Facebook. My friends and I always send each other links to content online. Part of the beauty of the internet is its collaboration; viral videos range from the fairly mainstream (The Landlord) to the bizzare (Dramatic Chipmunk) to the niche markets (Steve Ballmer's monkey boy dance). Applying this concept to content on a media player is a very novel idea that, if given time and a big enough user base, could really take off.

About the 3 days/3 plays restriction on DRM tracks, seriously people, GET OVER IT. Letting users beam files to each other on an unlimited basis would create, as I heard it described once, a "piracy machine". What record label would allow their tracks to be sold in the Zune marketplace if they knew this were the case? Then, we'd hear whining about a lack of content for the Zune.

3 days or 3 plays is more than enough time to decide if you like a song and want to buy it. If you're too cheap for that, download it. But the feature is still cool, even if it doesn't work the way we'd all like it too.

I don't get the rage against the WiFi machine. It's a potentially useful feature that few (if any) other media players offer. C'mon, give 'em a break.

Battery life...

After many years of buying electronics, I've come to a fairly consistent holy grail of battery life. Take the advertised battery life, split it in half, and that's a reasonable estimate of what you can expect during real-life usage.

As such, the Zune should pull around 6 hours of battery life in everyday, normal use. This seems skimpy to me, but considering the huge screen and such, it's not all that unreasonable. 6 hours is about what I've been getting. I did turn off the equalizer, turn the volume to 50%, and let the device shuffle after a full charge. No skipping, no seeking, no backlight, nothing. The device was still indicating it was half full when I disconnected it to recharge it for the next day after seven hours, so that's not half bad. The seeking, scanning, backlight, and equalizer do take a heavy toll on the battery.

Videos.

One irritating problem is the Zune's lack of playable media formats. Only .wmv and .mp4; everything else has to be converted. Converting full-length movies for use on the Zune is very time-consuming and annoying, and it seems to me Microsoft could have included more formats. Last I checked, the Zune Marketplace doesn't offer movies for sale, which is also a little irritating, but I expect this to be solved at some point in the future.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

I like the ability to store pictures on my Zune. The huge screen is, as I mentioned, very vivid and vibrant. It shows pictures in a beautiful light, and the resolution looks perfect to me. And, the unlimited Zune to Zune photo sharing is pretty cool.

One feature I really like is the customization of your Zune's "desktop" wallpaper. It looks great, and has enough options to make the menus still visible on top of any photo.

Accessorize!

Since iPod is the 500 pound gorilla of the mp3/media player market, few other media players will have the same range of accessories that you get with iPod. But, Zune has some pretty decent ones available. I use a cheap FM transmitter I bought on eBay for $10 that works with any standard headphone jack, so I'm set for the car (although there's Zune-specific ones available, I think). You can also get car kits, extra chargers (which could definitely come in handy), and cases. Best Buy had a decent leather one for around $30 that I bought; it has a clear plastic window that protects the player's screen but itself looks like crap. But hey, I can live with that for a beautiful leather case and it's not that noticeable when the player's on.

The bottom line.

Media players are, to me, very personal items. Depending on your style or use, maybe a different one would be best for you. As for me, I need something that makes a 20-25 minute commute to school go a little faster, gives me something to listen to between classes, and can tote an entire music collection in my pocket. The Zune does all of this, and it does it well. The added bonus of the nice screen and FM receiver make it a great little device, and I love mine. A lot. Thus, I recommend the Zune; while the battery life and limited video formats are nagging and annoying problems, I don't think it's anything serious enough to distract from the otherwise great experience of owning this player. Thumbs up from me.