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Zune to iPod: Welcome to Your Doom

There’s a new challenger in town for the title of top MP3 player: Zune. While the device has been available in the United States for quite some time, it’s only just making its Canadian debut this weekend. The reigning champ, iPod, has never faced a contender as mighty and powerful as Zune, both in terms of device features and the company behind it.

Yes, the Zune is Microsoft’s delayed response to Apple’s mainstay, the go-to gadget of choice for hundreds of thousands of trendy kids the world over. Apple’s product is surviving on brand recognition, a longstanding track record of being the “it” device, and consumer ignorance and unwillingness to try other brands of players. The Zune, in other words, looks to have quite the uphill battle.

While the iPod is indeed riding high on trendiness, arguably more on its flash than substance, the Zune brings with it a wide range of great features over its still sleek design. Whether you’re on the market for your first MP3 player or if you’re looking to upgrade to a newer device, you have a tough choice ahead of you. And I’m not about to make it any easier.

I already own a somewhat large assortment of music players: a fifth-generation 30GB iPod Video, a Crative Zen Vision W (30GB), a Sony Ericsson W810i phone with music player functionality, and a Creative Muvo V100 1GB player. I have also reviewed other MP3 players, including a few Samsung devices.

Simon, from TV’s Frisky Dingo.

This week, I received a care package that included an 8GB Zune, premium headphones, and an AC adapter. Both the headphones and AC adapter are separately-purchasable products (and yes, the Zune comes with its own, less-premium but still decent headphones). I named my Zune “Simon,” after the villain Killface’s son from the cartoon Frisky Dingo (see article header for what Killface looks like - and yes, that typo of “you’re” is supposed to be like that).

At this point it should go without saying, but since I’ve used so many different types of players, I’ve been comparing the Zune to them, either consciously or not. So how does the Zune stack up to the rest? Overall, and surprisingly, very well.

Now as I’ve previously stated, Zune’s got a lot of hurdles to overcome. The music player market’s been open for a long time prior to its Canadian release, and Apple enthusiasts and novices alike are easily attracted to the iPod – just as I was at some point.

Having used the 8GB Zune for just five days, I already prefer it over the iPod. Rather than a click wheel, Zune features a touch pad, which is a rounded square on the front of the unit. The other buttons include a back button, a play/pause button, and a hold/lock switch. At first it took some time to get used to the touch pad, as I’ve been conditioned to want to move my thumb in circular motions to navigate. With the Zune, simple up-down and left-right movements get the job done nicely. Additionally, you can click the touch pad in any direction to move through the menus.

So what are the menus? Zune does the standard portable player fare with selections such as music, video, pictures, and even radio. There’s another menu selection called “social” in addition to ones for podcasts and settings. More on that later.

The primary reason anyone would want a Zune, of course, is as a music player. And luckily for it, it’s the function it does not only the best, but better than other players I’ve used.

One thing I’ve never been able to figure out with most MP3 players is why gapless playback isn’t supported. None of my previous players do this. The Zen Vision W comes close to pulling it off, but even with its half-second gap between tracks, it’s enough to ruin the experience of listening to albums such as Nilsson’s “The Point” and just about every single Beck opus. I immediately noticed that Zune’s playback is indeed gapless, which automatically raises it above all other players I’ve used.

“The Point” plays great with Zune.

The Zune PC software (yeah, sorry Mac users, you’ll have to stick with the iPod – though I’m sure you’re not crying about that) took some time to set up, as I was originally on Service Pack 1 of XP and hadn’t upgraded. Zune forced a tonne of upgrades upon me just to be able to install its software (which is proprietary, so I had no choice). Apart from that rocky start, our relationship has turned out to be an enjoyable one.

The software interface allows users to sort through albums by artist, release date, alpha order, and by date added. Additionally, unlike iTunes, you can specify the software to find files from various locations. So if you’re like me and you have more than one hard drive full of music, that’s not a problem. You just have to add a new library location in the software’s settings tab and the program will do the rest. It automatically searches for new files upon start-up.

The software even looks up album art and other details for all your music. For the most part, this is an awesome feature. I had given up long ago with iTunes trying to source down scanned images online for all 1000+ of my albums. One downside I noticed is that the software seemed to track my listens of 54-40’s single “Northern Soul” as listens for The Verve’s album of the same name. But that wasn’t a big deal, as I just turned that feature off and now I can choose when I want it to look up album info for me.

Syncing songs, videos, and photos to the Zune is a snap. As I mentioned before, you can specify different folder and drive locations for your library. But you can also specify different locations for different file types. I have my photos set up on my K:\ drive, so the software automatically pulls that up for browsing. In fact, I now prefer using it for browsing for images over the standard Windows Explorer.

But getting back to syncing, all you have to do is right-click a folder, album, or file and select to send it to the Zune. When you connect the Zune, the files will automatically be synced. Actually, you don’t even have to connect the Zune. If you have a wireless network set up, you can set up wireless syncing, which is pretty cool usually. The downside to it is that I’ve found file transfer to be much slower wirelessly than with the USB connection.

When syncing videos, the software automatically converts them first to a type the device can play. Depending on file size, this could take several minutes. I’ve watched a few episodes of Sealab 2021 and Space Ghost Coast to Coast on the Zune and the framerate and image quality are both exceptional. The only downside, of course, is the tiny screen. While it is sharp, I was really spoiled by the Creative Zen Vision W’s relatively huge screen. It’s not a big loss, because on the other hand I’ve got no problem playing RPGs on my Game Boy Micro.

Viewing pictures on the Zune is much like viewing them on my Sony Ericsson. Images and folders are organized via thumbnails and scrolling through is effortless. The Zune comes preloaded with a variety of highly-detailed photos and illustrations that really show off how sharp its tiny screen is. As a bonus, you can set any image as the background wallpaper of the screen.

The Zune has also been designed with a heavy emphasis on social listening. If I have a song on my Zune that I think you absolutely need to hear, I can wirelessly send a copy of it to your Zune. The only caveat is that you can only listen to it three times. Sadly, I haven’t had the chance to test this functionality out yet as no one else I know has one yet.

But that’s not the limits of Zune’s social aspect. Much like the Xbox 360’s LIVE, Zune’s Social is a way to keep in contact with friends and see what they’ve been listening to. You can do this through the profile interface of the software or through a web interface. Checking up on friends and what they’re listening to is a lot like logging into LIVE to see what your friends are playing, only in this case, depending on song availability, you can hear snippets of your friends’ fave tracks. You can even send and receive messages through this interface.

Social also keeps track of your own listening habits and displays them for the world to see. So if you’re really embarrassed about anything you listen to, the Zune is probably not for you (this has just reminded me that I need to sync the 1986 Transformers movie soundtrack). It even ranks you depending on how many times you listen to certain artists. As friends of mine can attest, I’m absolutely crazy for Electric Six. My Zune profile shows this by listing me as a bronze listener of the band.

Zune logins are tied to Microsoft Passports. When I was signing up for Social, I tried to get the username “Megashaun” and was surprised and upset that it was already taken. Then I realized that I was the one that took that name – for my LIVE account. Once I logged it, I was greeted by a welcome message as well as a list of all my LIVE friends, which was pretty cool.

My Zune profile, as of the time of this writing.

The only downside to the Zune interactive experience for me so far has been that the Marketplace portion of it is not accessible in Canada, which is a huge bummer. Just by going through my own album collection and checking out the various album info listings, I found that Microsoft has a tonne of singles and other rarities up for sale - just not to me. I’m sure the Marketplace will make its way to Canada soon, so I’m not too worried about its absence being long-term.

Regarding the actual build quality of the device, it’s surprisingly sturdy. It’s slim and can easily fit into the front pocket of all my pants. The shell has a matte finish and is therefore resistant to scratches, fingerprints, and smears (unlike my iPod, which has managed to get completely scratched up despite the use of expensive protective wear for it). The screen is set back behind a hard plastic covering, which also seems resistant to scratches. I’ve been using the Premium headphones while in transit, as they’ve got a great in-ear design that blocks out chatter from other commuters and allows me to listen at low volumes. In truth, using these headphones, I never have to turn the device up past three (it goes to 20). The headphone wire is also encased in a braided rope-like fabric, which makes them somewhat difficult to get them tangled up.

Overall, I’m very impressed with everything I’ve discovered about the Zune this past week. I was originally going to use it for a bit and then possibly revert back to using my iPod, but now I’m only going to bring out that old beast for long car trips (as I don’t have a way to play Zune tunes on my car stereo yet). Simon, you’ve earned a place not only in my pocket, but also my heart.

The things I’m looking forward to the most about the Zune are exploring the Social a little more, the opening of the Marketplace to Canada, and the upcoming Games that we’ve been teased with over the past few months. The touch pad is a great input device and it’ll be interesting to see how game developers integrate it into their titles.

Posted in Features, Music, Reviews |