Microsoft Zune 120 is a better choice then Apple iPod

I bought a Zune 120 after doing some serious investigation into what the actual differences where and I am so happy I did so. The Zune 120 is leaps and bounds better than my old iPod and I'm not the only one to say so. The Zune 120 just won a shootout versus the iPod Classic at popular gadget review site CNET.com. View that here  http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-10112424-49.html.

There are several reasons why I decided to go with a Zune over the iPod but the biggest reason for me was the larger screen size which makes watching movies so much nicer. I don't think I would ever bother watching a feature length movie on the iPod but I have in fact done so on my Zune and it was great. I must say that watching a full movie pretty much kills the battery at that point but it was worth doing and I will do it again. The Zune flips so you can watch the movie in landscape or widescreen mode and you can pause stop and fast forward/rewind with the thumb controls which flip directions to match the screen.

With 120 GB of hard-drive space I can carry my entire music collection plus a few thousand photos and still have room for quite a few movies depending on how I rip and encode them. The Zune also has a faster and more responsive processor and video capabilities which make movie watching nicer and also make the user interface flow smoothly. The Zune firmware (device software) is much nicer than the old and outdated iPod interface and once again the larger screen helps it look good but its very quick to navigate and laid out so you can  get around in a few clicks. I did notice backing out of a menu takes a click or two more than it should but things like the highlighted alphabet make it easy to scan large playlists or music collections by artist, album or song title.

As far as hardware is concerned the Zune is tops with the wireless capabilities that allow me to sync my Zune without hooking up to my PC. It does a lot more than that but I don't have many Zune users around me and no one to share songs with. Music sharing is one of the big features I don't really use but it's there. The rest of the Zune hardware is top notch equipment and on par or better with any competitor. The sound is said to better on a Zune especially with the Premium Earphones but I don't see a huge difference. It sounds great but i cannot say it sounds much better than my iPod did. I think my Zune is louder but they say that may be because of better fitting earbuds.

The Zune has a built in FM receiver which gives me access to most FM radio stations in my area. I say most because some do not seem to show up at all and some show up better when the weather is clear. I don't use the radio very often buts its cool to have. We used the radio on the Zune during a hurricane and got weather updates with it.

The Zune PC software is also much improved over the Apple iTunes offering. I must admit here I was never much of an Apple fan and I rarely used the iTunes music store. A lot of the music I had I got from friends or some other free online source like LimeWire or Kazaa. The Zune software is tied to the Zune Marketplace which I think is far superior to iTunes. It does not have as large a selection but there are millions of songs and plenty enough for me. I guess I really like the site design and layout over the itune store and I find it easier to manage my music with the Zune Software.

The Marketplace offers a music subscription service called the Zune Pass which gives me unlimited downloads of this huge music library for only $15 per month. That's the price of one cd per month and I can download as much as my 120 GB player will hold for the same price but only as long as I keep paying the monthly bill. If you drop the subscription the music files become unusable. The Zune Pass just changed to allow me to download and permanently keep 10 songs each month which would be the same as buying 10 songs from any other service so for $5 per month I can listen to all sorts of new music. I guess that's what my Zune has become to me is a new music discovery tool because I have listened to so many new artists using things like Guest Artist and Top Playlists to broaden my music tastes.

I actually have two Zune players. I bought a Zune 30 when they were first released and it now has the same firmware and new features added via automatic updates when you sync your Zune to the PC software. My wife now has the Zune 30 and she filled it up with all her favorite music using the Zune Pass which covers 2 players a PC and an Xbox on the same subscription. This may be the best feature a Zune offers. These firmware updates make major improvements to the Zune with the last update adding games capabilities including 3 pretty cool games to play when I'm not listening to music or watching videos. Apple wants me to buy a new player in order to get the new features but the Zune keeps getting better and with the advanced hardware it has there are many more features they can still offer with it. I can't wait for it to have a web browser and QWERTY keyboard attachment.

When I compared the Zune 120 with the iPod Classic it was obvious  to me that the Zune may not have the name but the actual player and software where much better and thats the key for me. I wanted a useful player that did the job and my Zune 30 has been at it for over two years and the Zune 120 is just as nice if not better.

CNET review link:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-10112424-49.html

Zune users community:
http://www.zunemax.com/forum/