I received a black Zune for Christmas, despite it’s lackluster sales and reviews by some.
I resisted getting an iPod for the longest time, because I wouldn’t buy into the hype.
I compared a number of features to decide between a Zune and an 30gb iPod Video.
Screen Size – The Zune has a very large screen compared to the iPod. For video you turn it sideways for a widescreen view, and it makes watching movies very do-able.
Interface – Call me crazy, but I’m not too fond of the iPod interface. When I used the iPod Video at the Apple Store, I was immediately annoyed that it asked me every time if I wanted TV on or TV off when I clicked on a video. The TV wasn’t even connected! For a company so anal about usability, making the users make a redundant and unnecessary choice before showing videos is a no-no. The interface for the Zune is easy to use and the buttons make sense. The iPod isn’t bad, I just don’t care for it very much.
Wireless – I originally thought this was one of the coolest features of the Zune. It uses standard WiFi to transfer data between 2 Zunes, however it doesn’t connect to my wireless network at home, which is a disappointment. I don’t know anybody that has a Zune, so I haven’t yet tried out the Social aspect of it. There are hacks that allow you to transfer a file unlimited times between Zunes wirelessly, but it involves registry hacks on the host computer, and renaming the file as an image. That makes it pretty much useless because I have a usb thumb drive in my pocket that can do the same thing easier.
Podcasts – I’ve become addicted to a number of podcasts, some with video, so I wanted good podcast support. I was disappointed to find that the Zune has almost NO notion of podcasts. Sure I can point the Zune software (which sucks, more on that later) to a folder where I download podcasts, but they don’t live in a separate section on the Zune. I hope Microsoft fixes this in a future firmware update. iPod / iTunes wins on this hands-down. I’m currently using uTorrent for BT feeds, and Doppler for video/audio feeds. These go into my podcasts folder which gets picked up by the Zune software. The video has to be re-encoded to the Zune format, which is annoying. I would think that WMV would be playable out of the box.
Video – I originally dismissed Video as excessive in a portable player, but now it’s my favorite feature. I have a lot of downloaded tv shows, and I plan on putting them on the Zune to watch while I work out. I ride an exercise bike to strengthen my leg and I can easily watch a TV show in that time. The problem I see now, however, is that my shows are in Divx or Xvid format, which I have to re-encode using Any Video Converter to AVI or MPEG, then it has to be encoded again in the Zune format. I’m hoping this process gets easier, or that the Zune will support Divx in the future. One thing that would be nice is if I could encode video before I’m ready to sync. I find it annoying that I have to surrender my Zune for at least 30 minutes if I need to transfer a couple diggnation episodes.
Music – This is a no-brainer for most MP3 players. Both the iPod and Zune have excellent usage in terms of usability. I like the large album art that is displayed during playback on the Zune, though I hear the new iPods do this as well.
Size – The iPod wins in this category. The Zune is about 1/2” thick, which is quite large. The iPod is about 1/4” thick, so it’s twice as thin. I decided that the other features were worth the trade-off in Size.
PC Software – The Zune software sucks. Big time. It reminds me a lot of iTunes, but it doesn’t really deliver. I ignore the Marketplace, so for me it’s just a mechanism to transfer files over. I’d like to use MediaMonkey, but it’s not supported yet. I found a few mistagged files while listening to music on the Zune, so I flagged them. They showed up in my Zune “inbox” the next time I sync’ed. From there it shows me the file, but it doesn’t let me edit the tags! How stupid is that? The only option I have is to delete the file and look at Properties, which is useless to me.
The Zune software also has zero support for subscribing to podcasts, let along distinguishing my podcasts between regular music aside from Genre.
Audiobooks – I haven’t yet tried listening to an Audiobook, however I plan on it. I listed to the Da Vinci code about 8 months ago and I loved it. I’m hoping that it will be easy to listen to Audiobooks.
All in all, you can’t go wrong with an iPod or a Zune. Both are fantastic devices, and I am very happy with my Zune. I hope for a few improvements via firmware soon, but it’s a new device and I think Microsoft will catch on soon.
Now, the question is… do I attempt the 80gb mod?