Hands On The Zune

Today, I had an opportunity to listen to a few songs and a radio station on the Zune here at the Microsoft Campus in Seattle.

All Zune colors were present, brown, white (or off-white) and black. The brown design was by far my favorite color of the three.

I had expected the player to be fairly heavy, but after holding the Zune in my hand it was clear that I was wrong. It is not as light as the latest video iPod, but compared to my fourth-generation iPod, the Zune was lighter. The top of the Zune had a clear glass layer while the exterior had a tactile feel to it, nothing like the hard metal and plastic of the iPod devices. The ‘skin’ of the Zune was a ‘rubberized’ material that had a smooth seductive feel to it. I found myself unable to stop stroking the device, so much that the demo assistant asked me to put it down.

User Interface

Laughing off the uncomfortable silence, I focused on the player and the user interface (UI). The interface is amazingly responsive to my actions. The "home" screen had a user-configurable background for all the major sections of the device such as music, video, radio, community and settings. Click on any one of these major sections and the background zooms in a bit, giving you a feeling of probing deeper into the device. Within a section, categories are listed at the top of the device such as artists, songs, play lists and genres.

Clicking on artists causes a list of albums to display on the top of the interface. Clicking on an album will then display a list of songs and the top of the UI will list the band’s albums. Anytime you want to go back, just click on the back button. The album art is large, filling the whole display. The current position of the song is displayed by a white dot with an aura on a white line.

Video Playback

Video on the device was bright and fluid. I watched several music videos with no dropped frames or stutters. The radio interface is large and easy to tune and read. I didn’t look at the photo capabilities, myself, but looked over the shoulder of the guy next to me and the slideshow capability looked fluid.

Music Sharing

Clicking on the "community" button allowed me to see the other two Zunes nearby. I decided to send them my community member a song. Browsed to my music folder, found to a song and, instead of selecting to play it, I chose to send it. Prompted with a list of Zune’s nearby, I chose one and sent it. Watching the other Zune, the user was prompted to download and accepted the request. It took less than 20 seconds to send the whole song which included album art. The other user sent me a folder of pictures with, roughly, a one-second per picture transfer rate.

Upon a successful transfer, the music is wrapped with a digital rights management (DRM) layer which will give the user a three day or three-listen license. I don’t know about many of our readers, but I can listen to a song over and over again. Three plays... please! Beyond that limitation, I asked the demo assistant if there was any means I could get a copy of the songs from my "community" Zunes to help me find new artists to listen to. He said there was no way to do this on a Zune, but you could send whole playlists to other Zunes and check out the artist list that way. I thought that was very nice.

Zune Setup

Upon initial setup, you will give yourself a "ZuneTag," simiar to a Gamertag on the Xbox Live service. This ZuneTag is based on the Microsoft Passport service so, if your Xbox Live Gamertag is associated with Passport, then it will become your ZuneTag. I asked what would happen if someone wanted to be known as my gamertag before I could purchase my Zune. "No Problem, we reserve the ZuneTag for you if your Gamertag is associated with Microsoft Passport."

As a side note, your Microsoft points you use on Xbox Live Marketplace will be available to buy songs from the Zune music service. Talk about convenience.

Zune Software

Microsoft has also created new software to manage your media and access the Zune music service. No fear for those Windows Media Player fans, they can be installed side-by-side. An interesting feature of the new Zune software is the "Journal" tab that kept up with the songs you downloaded from other players as well as the music you played recently. This should be a helpful feature since I only get three plays for the shared songs and that will last me all of 15 minutes (I have a memory of a goldfish.)

Another great feature of this software is it's ability to access the Xbox 360 music interface. You'll be able to play songs you've purchased or may already be on your computer as well as play video so you'll no longer need to have Windows Media Connect on your PC.

Overall

All in all, any reservations I had about the device melted away after I had a few moments with the Zune. Yes, it is a first-generation product but I really like the direction Microsoft is taking with the Zune. Regardless of either the Zune or the iPod, the consumer will be the winner of this new front in the battle for our entertainment lifestyle. Though I really enjoy the few moments today with the Zune, I secretly look forward to Apples response. Hopefully it will be better than dealing "massive damage to the giant enemy crab’s weak point." d’oh!

No we don't work for Microsoft and I'm pretty sure they have no idea who 2old2play is. If they did, Im dont think they would use our site to talk about the Zune, do you?