Editorial Review:Amazon.com Item Description: 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.
The Zune easily connects you with your music, videos, and pictures wherever and whenever you want. |
Share full-length tracks of your favorite songs, albums, playlists, pictures, and even audio podcasts with other Zune users.
(Black Zune shown here with Dock Pack v2 with remote, sold separately.) |
Store up to 20,000 songs, 25,000 pictures, or 250 hours of video. |
Get all your favorite music at the Zune Marketplace. |
Simple, Innovative Controls The Zune is a breeze to use with new, intuitive touch controls. Don't subject yourself to cumbersome, slow scrolling. The innovative new Zune pad makes browsing your music, video and picture collections fun and effortless. You'll fly through your favorites and get to just what you're looking for in no time flat. This powerhouse device stores up to 20,000 songs, 25,000 pictures, or 250 hours of video. (Please note that music estimates are based on 128 kbps WMA files, with length of 4 minutes each; pictures transferred to Zune will be optimized for Zune screen size; and video estimates are based on 500 kbps WMV files with 128 kbps WMA audio tracks.)
That's a lot of entertainment, and you'll appreciate it even more with the Zune's awesome screen. The big, beautiful, 3.2-inch color screen provides uncompromising portable video viewing. This Zune also comes equipped with premium earphones. Designed to block out external noise, these earphones provide superior sound and bass response, and leave your ears with nothing but your favorite tunes. Your favorite music, videos, and pictures have never looked and sounded better.
FM Radio The Zune also features a built-in FM radio tuner so that you can listen to local FM stations or tune-in programming while you're at the gym. Advanced tuning capabilities allow you to see the name of the song that's currently playing on select frequencies.
Wireless Sync We're all exhausted by the cables and wires that tangle up our lives. Luckily, the Zune is one device that doesn't require another cord. You can easily connect to your home wireless network and sync your Zune with your PC collection of digital goodies. You can also sync using the dock, AC adapter, or speaker dock accessory (not included).
The Zune Community and Marketplace Zune is all about sharing and community. At the Zune Online Community, you'll discover, share, and leave your musical mark. Create a Zune card and Zune profile page to reflect your musical identity. From the Zune Online Community, you can invite friends, share song recommendations, post comments, and browse member pages to unearth new tunes and connect to others who share your musical tastes.
When you're ready to purchase music and load your device with new tunes, turn to Zune Marketplace. With more than 3 million songs, DRM-free MP3s, music videos, audio/video podcasts, and more content added every day, you'll certainly get your fill. The store is always open and just a mouse click away. You also can choose between the download or subscription packages--buy individual songs and albums, or snag a Zune Pass subscription with
all you can eat access to discover and explore the nooks and crannies of artists and genres.
Zune-to-Zune Sharing Once your Zune is loaded with good stuff, you'll be ready to embrace wireless Zune-to-Zune sharing. Share full-length tracks of your favorite songs, albums, playlists, pictures, and even audio podcasts. You can listen to the full track of any song you receive up to three times, and you can even pass along songs that are shared with you to other friends. If you find a song you really love, you can easily add it to your wishlist and buy it later when you sync to your PC. When it comes to syncing and importing your music, the Zune makes it easy. Zune software can automatically import your existing music, pictures, and videos from iTunes and Windows Media Player in a variety of formats, including your existing playlists and song ratings.
Recorded TV or Movies to Go The Zune will also automatically import TV shows or movies recorded using a PC running Windows Media Center in Windows Vista. Record all your favorites, sync to your Zune, and hit the road with your favorite TV shows right in your pocket.
Your Games. Your Music. Your Way. Another awesome feature is the Zune's compatibility with the Xbox 360. Plug your Zune into your Xbox 360 to customize the soundtrack in supported games. You also can stream music, pictures, and videos from the Zune software on your PC to your Xbox 360 console using a wireless connection. Whether you're staying in or going out, travelling or working, the Zune can be right there with you, providing loads of entertainment direct from your pocket.
What's in the Box Zune 80 GB Digital Media Player (red), premium headphones, sync cable, and three sizes of ear sleeves.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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* My Wife Loves It!!! ...
Bought the Zune for my wife for her birthday back in August. She burnned all of her CD's and now keeps them on her Zune. She loves having her music all in one place.
My only complaint is that there should he a setting to turn the headphone jack into a line level out. This would significantly improve the clarity of playback when using the headphone jack to provide input to a hoime stereo system.
Rating: 
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* Needs improvements ...
Things that are great: audio, size, price, ease of use of hardware, picture, good randomized playlist feature, music store online, excellent battery life.
Things that are not so great: Screen cracks easily without provocation, software a pain to use, wireless sync still problematic
Things that are awful: No .avi or divx/xvid playability. This can supposedly be worked around through a registry hack, but I haven't gotten it to work. 80% of my videos are unwatchable on this.
Rating: 
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* Beautiful screen. But the magic ends there. Just AWFUL! ...
I've never owned an ipod so when it came time to buy a cool video/music player I was seduced by the big screen coupled with the large hard drive. (Apple offers one or the other, but not both in a single device). I spent a long, miserable day trying to make this thing work for me. By 10PM I had listed it on Ebay and ordered an ipod. Expensive lesson.
For starters the software and hardware synch is classic Microsoft. Clunky, counterintuitive, never quite does what you want it to. I'm a technical guy and when I found myself frustrated I started imagining how a regular consumer must feel. It's that bad.
The worst part was the online store. The video selections are pathetically few. NO MOVIES!! I even tried downloading something from Amazon Unboxed, but the amazon software wouldn't recognize the zune and I was never able to pull any content onto the device. So...what you have is a beautiful screen on a run-of-the-mill (at best) mp3 player.
My new ipod arrived yesterday. The screen is a little smaller (but the hard drive is actually bigger--120Gb). It was wonderfully simple to set up. The itunes store has an unbelievable array of content. I hated the idea of being a Apple lemming, but they got it right. And Microsoft got it the way Microsoft always does...complicated and disappointing.
Advantage Apple.
Rating: -
* zune is garbage ...
i loved my zune when i first got it. it was great till not even 2 months later it just stopped working. nothing happened to it, didnt fall or anything. i picked it up to listen to it and in was making this weird clicking nosie like the hard drive was messed up then the contact customer support screen came up and thats all it will do now. im switching to ipod. don't buy a zune there garbage.
Rating: -
* Can MS be arrested for false advertising? ...
Gawd, what a POS!
The first one was DOA.Took it back-the volume controls(?) made static noise on the new one-The next one worked for 2 weeks then just died-MS you have billions how can you create such cheap cr*p? Are they assembled by chimps in China?
I was annoyed by my iPods ergonomics, but that is heaven compared to this junk
Also kind of embarrassing when people one after another remark "You have a WHAT?-Whats a Zoon?-Never heard of 'em"
