Anything But iPod Reviews the Zune 80

Posted by Chris Leckness on 12/2/07

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Anyhow, Anything but iPod thows down their Zune 80 review....

The bottom line is the Zune is a fantastic device but may not appease the hardcore crowd. The DAP enthusiast will miss the countless features that other brands offer and may feel a bit trapped by a single piece of software and single choice for music services.
I would without a doubt fall into that hardcore DAP enthusiast category but I do really appreciated the Zune for its simplicity and clutterless features set. The first Zune round I was not impressed with, it was a nice player, but not to unlike everything else on the market. With the introduction of the new firmware and the Zune 80, I am definitely enjoying it. The form factor is compact and the design is solid and scratch resistant. The interface is a very easy pick up and use interface much like the old one, just dressed up a little more. The wireless has finally been put to use with wireless sync. The social aspect they started touting in the first generation is just now starting to show its head with the ability to show off your listening preferences at Zune.net.
The Zune could without a doubt use more codec support, there is no reason not to include free license codecs like OGG and FLAC. DivX/XviD native support would also be a great edition or at the very least let ups easily convert these file types with the Zune software. There are a few bug fixes and tweaks that the Zune needs so it is by no means perfect. But I still see the Zune as a work in progress much like the XBox 360 where updates will add more functionality and this could be drastic like Zune 30 owners saw with the firmware update.

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10 Responses for "Anything But iPod Reviews the Zune 80"

rock4christ December 2nd, 2007 at 12:53 am 1
objective and fairly honest. i like it. although the Zune cant be "turned on with any button" unless its in sleep mode instead of full off. someone tell this guy about back+down.
kaseyart December 2nd, 2007 at 1:30 am 2
Good read, these are the reviews I like.
rikostan December 2nd, 2007 at 7:37 am 3
You know… I keep hearing about how the Zune is missing a lot of features other players have, but nobody ever really says what those features are. I have never owned an Ipod, so I don’t know what I am missing other than OGG and FLAC support.
Austin December 2nd, 2007 at 9:09 am 4
microsoft was a bit shaky when they released the original zune but now they have almost perfected it and apple tried to beat them and released the horrible ipod classic
kaseyart December 2nd, 2007 at 12:54 pm 5
@ rikostan: I know what you mean. I have never owned an iPod. Only MP3 player I have ever used was a friends Phillips 512mb MP3 player. I would love to see a side-by-side of what the iPod and Zune each offer and tell what the features do.
typoink December 2nd, 2007 at 4:07 pm 6
@ kaseyart and rikostan:
There’s a handful of features the Zunes dont have. Notably, they can’t currently do gapless playback (where one track merges seamlessly with the next) and the new Zunes have no equalizer settings. The current software also doesn’t allow any automatic playlists.

There’s also a handful of little features that other players have, like a clock/stopwatch, the ability to edit playlists or queues on the device, and the ability to play games, but these are a little more esoteric.

That said, I’m still planning on replacing my Zune 30 with an 80 one of these days. While it may not be as feature-rich as some, the core music experience on the Zune is excellent. The interface is, IMO, the best on the market, and I love the way it puts your album art front and center.
sinizter December 2nd, 2007 at 6:35 pm 7
This is probably the best review I’ve read so far. Fair, honest, and I couldn’t agree more with the last paragraph. Having to convert videos to a certain format for playback just blows.

That aside, I still really, REALLY want a Zune.

;P
Heatwave316 December 3rd, 2007 at 8:46 am 8
Excellent, and well balanced review. I especially liked the 2 sided argument about the EQ or lack there of. To me, its not a huge deal that the Zune doesn’t have it. I do enjoy doing alittle tweaking, but most of the time I just use the default settings.
Ricardo Dawkins December 3rd, 2007 at 1:22 pm 9
Nice review from ABI
Ray J Gentry IV December 3rd, 2007 at 2:15 pm 10
I think that the crux of the issues for the Zune is that any of the features people or reviewers have complained about can be fixed through new firmware updates. And compared to Ipods, we’ve seen that firmware can do a lot. I enjoy the new firmware immensely. But DivX (or other codec support), software eq, etc, can all be added.

While other MP3 players give options for software/download support, the Zune doesn’t do anything in terms of restriction that Apple does with the Ipod. While people were concerned about the ipod/itunes "monopoly" at first, there are relatively few complaining about it now.

Regardless, I think Microsoft has hit a triple with the new Zunes (a homer being an Ipod killer) and is possibly a few firmware updates from a real homerun.