I purchased the 120 GB about 9 months ago, having upgraded from the 80 GB Zune that I owned prior. Let me start this review by saying that I really wanted to love this thing, but, the passage of time has proven otherwise. I'll try to make this short and sweet:
Pros:
- Form factor of the Zune device
- Build quality
- Great screen
- Very good audio quality
- Reasonable, not great battery life
Cons:
- Proprietary Zune PC software
- Battery life could be better
- Zune software forces you to use the device the way Microsoft 'thinks' you should use it -- no exceptions
- Proprietary USB and power cable
I have a very large music collection, consisting of vinyl LPs, CDs, and digital audio files (MP3, FLAC, APE, etc). The Zune software INSISTS on doing things it's way -- if you have your own album art, if the ID3 tags aren't perfect, GOOD LUCK. The player will not allow you to display your catalog in a hierarchical folder list, which is how I have my music organized. Furthermore, the software will not play the tracks in the correct order if the ID3 tags have errors or are not in the exact format the Zune expects. After months of trying to manually fix my collection to make the Zune happy, I gave up and started creating playlists to force the Zune to play what I want, in the order that I wanted. This also takes a lot of time -- by now, my patience started running a little thin. I bought this thing to be convenient for ME, not Microsoft. The battery indicator displays a full charge until the battery is about 20 minutes from being completely dead. I've had it die unexpectedly on numerous occasions, for this reason. Due to the unit being completely locked down, you cannot use it as a USB host -- ie: you cannot use it as an external drive. The video playback works well enough, and the screen is awesome, but the Zune is very picky as to file formats and resolutions. If you do not convert files to conform to these requirements (time consuming), the player will either a) not recognize the files, or b) recognize but not play the files. Figuring this out will also take lots of your free time -- which we all have a lot of, according to Microsoft. After a while, you will give up completely, as I did.
I have been using my Zune primarily as a portable music machine, mostly in my car for commuting. With all of the problems I've had organizing, syncing, and playing my music, I have reached the point of looking around for another player. The form factor of the unit itself is really nice -- it's the perfect size, it's really well made, the screen is gorgeous, but the software is, quite frankly, typical MS garbage. You would think that the largest software maker in the world would have figured out by now how to make usable software -- go figure. I sent them an email regarding my problems, and received an automated reply, with no follow-up. Seems like the feeling is mutual -- I'm tired of them as much as they're tired of me. As with most relationships, it's important to know when it's time to move on.Get more detail about Zune 120 GB Video MP3 Player (Black).
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