Zune 80 GB Digital Media Player (Red)

Music and entertainment, your way. That's what the Zune 80 GB Digital Media Player is designed to deliver. The Zune easily connects you with your music, videos, and pictures wherever and whenever you want, and unlike the iPod, it even has a built-in FM tuner so you can keep up with local news and sports. Your Zune gives you the power to wirelessly share full-length tracks, playlists, pictures and podcasts with your other Zune-wielding friends. And when you receive songs that you just can't get out of your head, you can easily tag the songs and buy them the next time you sync up. Whether you're listening to music, radio, or rocking out to the latest music videos on the bright, roomy screen, the Zune allows you to tailor your entertainment, right in the palm of your hand. Watch a demo on Zune.

Product Details...
* Color: Red
* Brand: Zune
* Model: HPA-00010
* Dimensions: 6.00" h x 4.00" w x 8.01" l, 2.80 pounds
* Display size: 3.2

Features...
* 80 GB digital media player stores up to 20,000 songs, 25,000 pictures or 250 hours of video
* Features wireless Zune-to-Zune sharing so you can swap tracks and other media
* Big, bright, 3.2-inch color LCD
* Compatible with Zune Marketplace for media downloads and subscription services
* Automatically imports your existing music, pictures, and videos form iTunes and Windows Media Player in a variety of formats
* Premium Earphones included

Love my Zune...
I bought this for my boyfriend for his birthday! He loves it and uses it everyday!

Zune 80...
A good quality product with lots of storage. A little buggy at first. The desktop software is the worst part.

Dont Fight The Wave - Get an Ipod...
I have owned this product almost two years and the quality of the player is excellent. The accessories, such as ear pods are great. In fact, my wife asked me to buy an extra set of the ear pods for her because they were so much better than anything she had!

So the quality is good - what's wrong with it? Software.

You can only use the Zune proprietary software with the Zune device. That software is inferior to ITunes and Media Player. In fact, I purchased the Zune over Ipod primarily because I assumed that anything Microsoft made should interface with Media Player, the tool I use to manage my 20,000 tunes. Wrong.

If I switched over from Media Player to Zune software (manually - there are no conversion tools)I would lose many of the data fields I rely on to build auto playlists. Even my personal ratings would be lost in part because Zune has a two-grade format ("like it" vs. "don't like it")compared to Media Player's five stars.

One workaround with Media Player is to build your auto playlists there, save them as an .m3u file and import the .m3u files into Zune. You better like that playlist, though, because you will have to repeat the process anytime you want a refresh.

So what you have here is a high quality device with a workable, but remarkably basic, interface. Ipod (I have one of those also) matches quality but provides a greatly enhanced interface through ITunes. Plus, ITunes will import my library from WMP. That said, none are great at handling larger libraries - say, 8,000 tunes and up. However, Media Player is best at it and ITunes comes closer than Zune software.

Bottom line - don't wait for Microsoft to catch up since they haven't yet and likely won't (they have had years to do so and have not). If you are a low volumr user and really want a Zune, you don't need one this big - save a few bucks and go with lower capacity. However If you are a volume user/music nerd like me, go Apple and you will be happier.

One last note - Creative has much better functionality but comes with a whole new set of issues that affect reliability (I have two of those also). Stick with Apple.

Real More Detail about Zune 80 GB Digital Media Player on Amazon.com...