Digital Trends

Microsoft Zune 80GB May 23rd, 2008 | by Mike Kobrin

Wireless

Wireless sync is arguably one of the Zune's hottest features, but getting the Zune to connect to our PC was a challenge. We'll spare you the gory details about trolling through the list of Windows services and manually enabling anything to do with Zune or sharing. Luckily, enough other users had similar problems, so we were able to find troubleshooting info online fairly quickly.

We naively tried to connect the device wirelessly to our MacBook Pro running Windows XP in VMWare's Fusion, but it was a total no-go, despite trying the same troubleshooting methods we used with our dedicated Windows box.

Setup issues aside, wireless sync is a great feature, though files transfer at a max of 54Mbps (802.11g speed), meaning you'll want to leave it running overnight if you're transferring a lot of content. We'd like to see 802.11n support in the next generation.

Wireless song sharing is another attractive feature. But if Microsoft claims to have sold over 2 million Zunes in 2 years according to many reports, we're wondering where they all are. In 2 weeks of testing in New York City, we found only two other Zunes in the roughly 30-foot range, and scanning for nearby devices tanked our battery life.

When you send songs to other Zunes, they play up to 3 times before expiring; Microsoft thankfully got rid of the 3-day time limit on song sharing. Unfortunately, you can only share songs bought at the Zune Marketplace or acquired via your ZunePass subscription ($14.99 a month), and not all tracks at the Marketplace are shareable. There are workarounds, but those are tedious and most likely illegal.

You can also connect with "Friends" via the Internet in the Zune software for song recommendations, which you can tag for purchase. Then when you sync the device the next time, you can pay for and download the songs from the Marketplace. We'd rather see this work wirelessly via hotspots.

Battery Life

The Zune's battery life is rated at 30 hours of audio and 4 hours of video with wireless off, which isn't quite up to its Apple competitors' but should be sufficient. Our testing showed that these numbers are close enough to accurate. The WiFi only appears to drain the battery significantly when it's actually scanning and syncing, but not when it's idle.

Conclusion

The Zune really is a sexy gadget, but its lack of widespread adoption and limited wireless features (compared with the iPod Touch) holds it back in a big way. Unlike many out there, we don't think Microsoft is trying to copy Apple's ideas -- the Zune definitely has its own thing going on -- but some of its differentiating features need to be better implemented. And Microsoft would have been much smarter to wait until after widespread adoption to roll out the Social.

We're looking forward to future generations of the Zune, and we hope the product line will survive relatively dismal sales figures to blossom into a platform instead of just a gadget. It's already partway there given the growing number of accessories for the dock connector, but the flexibility of the iPod Touch's software must be making the Zune jealous.

Pros:

• Simple controls and navigation
• Wireless sync and song sharing
• Comes with in-ear headphones
• Built-in FM radio and podcast support

Cons:

• Mediocre sound and no EQ
• Lack of robust sources of legal (and popular) video content
• Wireless sync can be tricky to set up
• Song sharing suffers because of lack of widespread adoption