Zune Hands On - It's a Really Good Music Player

Michael Gartenberg | November 14, 2006, 11:20 AM

I've written a lot about the Zune experience over the last few months and for the most part, the end user experience is true to what I saw months ago. While there's a lot being written about Zune vs. iPod that's not really a meaningful discussion. The real question is how good is Zune as a music player in and of itself. Unlike Ryan, I had no trouble installing the Zune client and getting my device synced quickly. Zune also imported all my iTunes playlists and plays back all non-DRM content, both audio and video that was in my iTunes library. Album art was mixed, most stuff imported fine but a lot of stuff that displays correctly in iTunes just shows up as a black screen in Zune.

The Zune client is clearly built on WMP11 and feels very familiar. Moving between music, pictures and videos was seamless. The device itself in final build feels solid and has a great hand feel. It is a larger device than I'm used to carrying but I don't think size is a huge issue. Battery life is fine and unless you're flying from NY to Tokyo on a regular basis and need to listen to music straight through, I doubt you'll have an issue. The PMC derived UI works extremely well and unlike the Toshiba Gigabeat, needs fewer buttons to navigate the UI. People who have seen it have all liked it (although most preferred the black one to the brown, although I confess, brown is growing on me a bit). File sharing between devices worked just fine and as advertised. It's way too limiting in terms of execution but it did work flawlessly.

Music sounds great and when plugged into my car sounded fine through the car speakers. Pictures are bright and clear and video played back just fine. In short, it was an excellent out of box experience that is head and shoulders above every other non-Apple device on the market.

Bottom line? The Zune team delivered. Zune is an excellent music player and handles pictures as well as video content as well. What's missing? Well, there's no podcast support in the Zune client, which needs to be addressed and of course, no video content in Zune marketplace just yet. Both could easily be fixed by Microsoft. In terms of accessories, while there isn't the legion of stuff available for iPod, there's enough stuff out there to keep most users happy for the time being. As for the iPod? If you've got an investment in iPod stuff (like speaker docks, car kits, cases and the like) you're not likely going to be swayed by Zune for now. If you're in the market to buy something new, the 30gb iPod is still going to be the better bet (with podcast support, TV shows, Movies, Games, better form factor and accessory choices and all the cachet that comes with the iPod) But, if for some reason the iPod isn't the device for you, then picking up a Zune should be a no-brainer. Over the next two years, I expect to see the Zune story mature, with more device choices and support for more content types. There's no doubt that Zune is going to be a "player" in this space.