Music Gadget : Microsoft Zune 120 GB, Ipod Killer

The Zune 120, with an exclusive focus on music discovery, is a fierce competitor to the iPod Classic. The Zune's significant storage capacity combined with its Zune Pass music subscription makes it an ideal solution for restless music fans with large desires. Slowly but surely, Microsoft's Zune is answering its claim as a genuine alternative to Apple's iPod line of MP3 players. Last year, Microsoft focused its efforts on overhauling the Zune's hardware and public image. This year, Microsoft has turned its attention to improving the Zune firmware and desktop software, while updating the storage capacity and pricing of new models to stay competitive.

Price : $229 - $262

Sound Quality
Ease of Application
Portability
Value for Money
Design & Look

Design

The design of the Zune 120 is almost entirely unchanged from the Zune 80 which produced last year. The back of the Zune is now black instead of silver and the face of the player is covered with a glossy plastic that, although pretty, is more prone to smudges and scratches than the metal finish on last year's model. We're happy to see that the increase in the Zune's hard-drive capacity doesn't translate into a thicker design. The Zune 120 measures the same 4.3 inches high by 2.4 inches wide by 0.5 inch deep as the Zune 80. Also, no changes have been made to the Zune's navigation controls, headphone jack, hold switch, dock connection, and 3.2-inch glass-covered LCD.
Judging Apple's strategy of altering its iPod design every fall (for better or for worse), it's a little unnerving to see the Zune's hardware design at a standstill. The upshot of the Zune's lack of design tinkering is that it maintains the product's compatibility with the handful of accessories designed for the player.

Features
The bulk of the third-generation Zune's improvements are found by flicking through its main menu. New menu items for Games and Marketplace have been added alongside existing selections for Music, Videos, Pictures, Social, Radio, Podcasts, and Settings. The Zune's primary purpose as a high-quality portable music player hasn't changed. If anything, the enhancements offered by the third-generation firmware have strengthened the unique music-discovery and sharing features that have differentiated the Zune from the very beginning.

One of the more distinguished new features on the Zune is a Marketplace selection in the main menu that allows you to browse, preview, and download music directly from Microsoft's Zune Marketplace online store. Within the Marketplace submenu you can choose between browsing Top Songs, Top Albums, and New Releases, or search for specific music by keying in a few letters. Songs can be previewed for 30 seconds with the option to add them to your virtual cart or purchase and download immediately. By signing up for Microsoft's Zune Pass music-subscription service (a free 14-day trial is available), you can download unlimited music to your Zune for a flat fee of $15 a month. Otherwise, you'll need to purchase songs a la carte by setting up a payment account in the Zune desktop software.

Your Zune needs to be connected to a Wi-Fi hot spot in order to take advantage of the Marketplace feature. Fortunately, Microsoft has improved the Zune's ability to step through public Wi-Fi hot spots, and it's even struck a deal with fast-food giant McDonald's to have the Zune supported by the Wayport Wi-Fi hot spots found in many McDonald's restaurants. If your local Wi-Fi requires you to enter a password, you can enter it manually using the Zunepad. The Zune will remember and associate your Wi-Fi passwords so that you'll only need to enter them once.

The audio, video, and photo features of the Zune are largely unchanged from the previous generation--which isn't a bad thing, really. The Zune's music player supports MP3, WMA, protected-WMA (Zune Marketplace only), WMA Lossless, AAC, and Audible audio file formats. The inclusion of the high-fidelity WMA Lossless music format on a high-capacity player like the 120GB Zune should make more than a few audio purists very pleased, and the continued support for AAC opens the door for iPod converts (although DRM-protected iTunes purchases are still unsupported). Audiobook enthusiasts should be happy to see a new gadget for taking their Audible and OverDrive audiobooks on the go.

The Zune supports WMV, MPEG-4, and H.264 video formats natively at a DVD-quality 30fps frame rate. Windows Media Center users will be happy to know that the Zune also imports DVR-MS recorded-video content. Although the Zune's screen displays at a 320x240 resolution, video files stored on the Zune can be as large as 720x480 and played at full resolution through the composite-video output built into the Zune's headphone jack. An optional Zune AV dock can output video using a higher quality component cable. Unlike the iPod, the Zune's built-in video output mirrors its onscreen display, which means that all of the Zune's features (including menus) can display on your TV.

If you're a fan of audio and video podcasts, the Zune is one of the only alternatives to the iPod that provides integrated, hassle-free management of your podcast feeds. Like the iPod, the Zune's closed software and hardware ecosystem is able to automatically download new podcasts, load them onto your Zune, and clear out the old content. The Zune desktop software allows you to browse, search for, and subscribe to podcasts within the Marketplace directory, or paste in the direct link for the feed. Podcast playback on the Zune supports autoresume, episode information, and the ability to unsubscribe from podcasts directly from the playback screen.

Finally, if you're a Zune Pass music subscriber, Microsoft has added a new feature called Channels that offers a podcast-like automatic rotation of new music playlists for your Zune. Channels are sorted by genre, affiliation (Grand Ole Opry, Fader Magazine), or type (Billboard Top 20), and content is updated weekly. If you don't hold a Zune Pass subscription, you can still subscribe to Channels and hear 30-second song previews of any of the music included on the playlist, with the option to purchase tracks a la carte. If you've been waiting to bite the bullet on a Zune Pass until it seems like a better value, Channels offers an appealing way to inject new music onto your Zune every week without you having to lift a finger.
So the 120GB Microsoft Zune still the best hard drive-based portable media player on the market—the feature-barren iPod classic can't compete with the Zune's top-notch navigation and added wireless abilities. by: angga 133 @ ciao.com

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