I've been thinking about getting an MP3 player and I was looking at the Zune. Does anyone know much about it? How user-friendly are they? Does Microsoft plan to make an 80 Gig version? Anyone have any other advice?
Posted by jlt (Member # 10088) on :
I don't know much about it, but my friend has one and likes it.
Posted by Euripides (Member # 9315) on :
Not sure why you'd want a Zune, personally. The only thing going for it is the built-in radio. The WiFi share 'feature' is so bogged down with restrictions that it's effectively meaningless. There is also a slew of other DRM restrictions which apply to the device, and it doesn't support certain common file types, even some of Microsoft's own.
The 30GB iPod is basically the same price.
Posted by BelladonnaOrchid (Member # 188) on :
I don't know about the Zune, but my DH bought me the Creative Labs Vision: M, and I am just pleased as peach with it.
Posted by ladyday (Member # 1069) on :
OMG MEC welcome back! It's great to see you!
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
I've heard a lot of snarking about the interface not being as friendly as, say, IPod's. If I were in the market for a large-capacity MP3 player, I'd echo (based on reviews, not experience) the suggestion of one of Creative's products. The Zen line has gotten some good buzz.
I'm not sure if I'd be interrested in the Zune after the reviews. I was looking towards something that I don't have to use some program on a computer regulating what's on the MP3 player. also I was looking for something I could take to friend's comps and grab stuff from them as well. I did like the look and screen size of the Zune though, although I would like 80 Gigs instead of just 30. Does anyone have any Reviews of the Zen, or any other products they suggest?
ladyday - I'm not back quite yet, I have a few more months left.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
One of Zune's biggest ballyhooed features is the WiFi capability, that you can send songs from Zune to Zune when there are other units within range of you, is overrated.
You can only listen to the song three times, and at that, many of those songs are protected and you can't listen to them anyway. You also can't listen to a lot of protected music, protected by software that Microsoft themselves created.
In general I don't buy the first generation of a new product line. Let everyone else pay the high price and figure out the bugs, then buy it after they fix the problems.
Posted by MrSquicky (Member # 1802) on :
I've loved both of the Creative mp3 players (Muvo TX FM and a Zen V Plus) I've bought. I also got three others (Zen, V100, and Zen V) for crazy cheap around Christmas and the people I gave them to are very happy with them.
In my experience, Creatives are at least as good as iPods but for significantly less.
I'll never buy a Microsoft mp3 product unless they drastically rethink their DRM hassling.
Posted by FlyingCow (Member # 2150) on :
My roommate, nephew and niece all have SanDisk Sansa mp3 players, and seem to enjoy them quite a bit.
Posted by Altáriël of Dorthonion (Member # 6473) on :
I was in this bandwagon a little while ago. I wound up buying a Phillips 8gig GoGear for less than $150 and with service plan. It displays pictures, records high quality audio(in fact, this is what I'm using to see if I can catch ESP at the Whaley House a week and a half from now) and doesn't require any specific software other than Windows to function. I knew of and considered the video feature on others but realized that if I want video on the go, I take out my 15 inch wide-screen laptop with an Nvidia graphics card. I just don't think that I'd be able to stand watching a movie, or any video for that matter, in a screen any smaller than 10 inches. I only wanted an mp3 player that would do just that: play mp3 music. As I mentioned, I got one with 8 gigs of capacity and personally, that's more than enough music for me.