kind of Lag too, Wifi synching its not how your thinking its goin to work because not only does it Kill your battery quick but it takes more than five minutes to sync 2 songs My conclusion is this, No devide is perfect dont listen to fanboys, the reason i took my back on the 2nd day was because if this thing is 10x bigger than the Ipod Nano, it should have had a better battery and a better screen and it does not, i personally had a lot of hopes for this device but i dont like to throw away my money, Also if you decide to give it a Try consider buying at a Local store so you dont get stuck with it, and are able to return it if your not happy like i was

Zune froze up 2 days after we returned it. Spent 2 hours on the phone with Microsoft trying to troubleshoot and concluded the unit was defective. Amazon was very good with the return and covered the freight back.

So turns out the wireless was defective from the beginning and the clueless customer service keeps blaming the 'incompatible' router. Too bad that by now I was past the 30 day return period and now I have to send the unit in for repair. It will be truly missed until its back.

6: Any tech support recommendations lead to ABSOLUTELY NOTHING To sum it up: Unless you get a Zune for X-Mas or B-days, save yourself the headache. And if you can, return it for a cash refund to spend the money for anything you might actually enjoy.

I've bought two of these--the first one I returned to Amazon because it was defective--the button didn't work at all, downloading took hours, and all in all, it was a nightmare. So then I bought a second one, and it's defective too!! The button works sporadically, but at least it downloaded the installation set-up from the website and installed my music and videos--so I thought it was a good one!

One other major disappointment is there is no support for XP64. I have to upgrade to vista 64 in order to get the player to work on my pc. How rude is that of microsoft not support its own products,even Apple will support XP64.

When I received the Zune, it comes with "premium headphones" with interchangeable ear pieces for comfort. The ear pieces on the headphones were too large, but the interchangeable ear pieces I received did not match, there were no two alike. I called Microsoft to get new ear pieces and was told I would have to return the whole product and get a new one.

I found average battery life to be about 10 hours. Honestly do not waste your money, it is no where near what a $250 media player should be. The software is sub-par, the build quality is terrible and the battery life is worse.

When I turned it on, the music was playing, backlight was on, but the LCD was not showing anything. I contacted Zune customer support and was told that any drops void the warranty and they couldn't even help me find a service center. They told me to try Best Buy and find out who they use.

1) Not supporting non-Microsoft DRM WMA format (And Yes they could've removed the option of wireless transmission of the non-Microsoft DRM WMA to other devises if copyright restriction, rather than bottom line, was the problem) 2) Not supporting audible format ( Audible wants it, Microsoft not even if it doesn't sell audiobooks of its own) I also do not appreciate that Microsoft not integrated the player with WMP 11, removed equalizer, has painfully slow speeds of transmission through WiFi of a song to another device, doesn't allow listening of a song in the same time while it synchs through WiFi or transmits through WiFi, and lacks bookmark feature.

Microsoft may be a huge company, but they have like the worst customer support EVER. The zune website doesn't even offer a number that you can call. It gives an e-mail address but who knows how long before they reply back, if they reply at all.

So be warned, if you buy a Zune, you will be abandoned. The Zune team is a joke, except it's not funny after you spent $250 on their machine. So I recommend do not ever buy a Zune because you'll get really terrible software and no support.

I will be returning it immediately. Windows Vista and the ZUNE drivers and software do not work well together. I went through all of the recommendations and the software still refuses to recognize the device.

This one was even worse. It stopped working after only 1 week. Although completely charged it refuses to power up.

We were unable to download the software necessary to use it, so after 30 days and many frustrating hours of trying to get it working, I returned it and purchased the 80 GB iPod Classic instead. We had music on it within 10 minutes of unpacking it from the box. Apparently our versions of Windows XP and Media Center are too old to download and run the Zune software.

Anyways I called Circuit City and or course the 18 year old kid that answered said they had tons of Zune's & that he unloaded it off the truck himself the night before the release date but at the same time he refused to put one on hold for me. I go out of my way to go to Brooklyn and of course when I got there they didn't have any. Lucky for me while I was at the store a customer was returning his Zune because he hated the user interface and he thought the device was too big so he exchanged it for an iPod Nano classic.

Zune Marketplace - Will be updated SOMEDAY to include movies and maybe even some Zune games, but when is that SOMEDAY? After owning 4 iPods, selling 3 of them, returning 1 for being defective on day 2, I have seen the light. For me at least the Zune was the way to go.

So that knocked a huge market share out of the running when we started looking for DAPs a few years ago. I muddled through with 2 different Creative models, but when the second one broke within a year (of course after the warranty expired) and Creative wanted $200 plus shipping to repair it, I threw in the towel on Creative. That was in March 2007.

the podcast subscription system through the zune site has worked well but not spotless. the only reason i did not give this 5 stars is because i am picky and have had some random syncing errors while downloading podcasts. when researching to see if there is an actual problem, myself or the zune site does not come up with anything so i can't help but feel like i am doing a bit of beta testing for ghosts in the machine until MS's next software patch.

it shattered the paper thin glass screen, ruined the screen completely. I then called Microsoft to be told there is no way to fix the screen... it's junk.

I found average battery life to be about 10 hours. Honestly do not waste your money, it is no where near what a $250 media player should be. The software is sub-par, the build quality is terrible and the battery life is worse.

So be warned, if you buy a Zune, you will be abandoned. The Zune team is a joke, except it's not funny after you spent $250 on their machine. So I recommend do not ever buy a Zune because you'll get really terrible software and no support.

I will be returning it immediately. Windows Vista and the ZUNE drivers and software do not work well together. I went through all of the recommendations and the software still refuses to recognize the device.

We were unable to download the software necessary to use it, so after 30 days and many frustrating hours of trying to get it working, I returned it and purchased the 80 GB iPod Classic instead. We had music on it within 10 minutes of unpacking it from the box. Apparently our versions of Windows XP and Media Center are too old to download and run the Zune software.

the podcast subscription system through the zune site has worked well but not spotless. the only reason i did not give this 5 stars is because i am picky and have had some random syncing errors while downloading podcasts. when researching to see if there is an actual problem, myself or the zune site does not come up with anything so i can't help but feel like i am doing a bit of beta testing for ghosts in the machine until MS's next software patch.

The software that you must download, (not included) will do things you don't want it to do, and if you try to use hacks or work around's there always seems to be another unwanted effect that crops up. The unit does not with instructions, except to hook-up the unit to your PC and download the software. With such a huge storage capacity it would be nice to be able to directly record from FM but you cannot do that either.

If you have thousands of files, it is difficult to dig through them an manage them in any way. The search function is terrible, and you can't simply drag things from Windows Explorer into the software, which would have made things far easier. The software is slow and bloated; a lot of time is spent waiting as the computer hesitates because you clicked on something.

But that, along with the terrible software, is just another example of the modern tendency to make things complicated and pretty, just for the sake of having it look pretty and be complicated, at the expense of usability. Because simple, easy-to-use lists aren't good enough; they need to be changed into icons and animations and other garbage to impede practicality.

And third, I often bring my mp3 player to work to play music on my PC (since my work PC has limited HD Space). For some obscure reason the Zune software does not play songs directly off your Zune unless you copy them to your HD collection first (defeating the purpose of doing it in the first place). It really upsets me that Microsoft had a great chance to take a customer away from Apple's Ipod reign and completely screwed it up with horrible software.

The Zune player and its software have been proven to be a major headache, and thus a waste of money and time. Here's why: 1: software support is non-existent (trust me, you'll need it),

kind of Lag too, Wifi synching its not how your thinking its goin to work because not only does it Kill your battery quick but it takes more than five minutes to sync 2 songs My conclusion is this, No devide is perfect dont listen to fanboys, the reason i took my back on the 2nd day was because if this thing is 10x bigger than the ipod Nano, it should have had a better battery and a better screen and it does not, i personally had a lot of hopes for this device but i dont like to throw away my money, Also if you decide to give it a Try consider buying at a Local store so you dont get stuck with it, and are able to return it if your not happy like i was

We were unable to download the software necessary to use it, so after 30 days and many frustrating hours of trying to get it working, I returned it and purchased the 80 GB ipod Classic instead. We had music on it within 10 minutes of unpacking it from the box. Apparently our versions of Windows XP and Media Center are too old to download and run the Zune software.

Anyways I called Circuit City and or course the 18 year old kid that answered said they had tons of Zune's & that he unloaded it off the truck himself the night before the release date but at the same time he refused to put one on hold for me. I go out of my way to go to Brooklyn and of course when I got there they didn't have any. Lucky for me while I was at the store a customer was returning his Zune because he hated the user interface and he thought the device was too big so he exchanged it for an ipod Nano classic.

The Zune is not a bad music player, but for what you're paying, you're better off getting an ipod. I don't want to get into the depth other reviewers have, so I'll keep it short: Zune Marketplace is awkward and annoying to use, there's a huge lack of third-party support (accessories, etc.), wifi is too draining on the battery to be practical, navigation pad is far inferior to the click wheel, radio is far inferior to portable radio quality.

And third, I often bring my mp3 player to work to play music on my PC (since my work PC has limited HD Space). For some obscure reason the Zune software does not play songs directly off your Zune unless you copy them to your HD collection first (defeating the purpose of doing it in the first place). It really upsets me that Microsoft had a great chance to take a customer away from Apple's ipod reign and completely screwed it up with horrible software.

I returned the ipod that I purchased a week ago and I was a lucky one to find the Zune for exchange. First, Why did I return the ipod?

The whole Zune DRM concept is junk. The marketplace is awful...the stupid device will not even cooperate with Amazon.com which adheres to the Microsoft idea of 'Sure Play.' Give me a break...they decided to milk the Zune like Apple does the ipod. What GARBAGE.

It was returned 12 hours later. 3 PCs couldn't consistently detect the ipod, and when it did music would inexplicably fail to import. Some video podcasts wouldn't sync, and others would.

the first gen zune was a trashball, but this is cleaned up big time, no scroll wheel, but uses an intuitive touch pad = much much better then going round in a circle - actually very similiar to the ipod touch in terms of seeking material screen big, albeit somewhat grainy - if you have high quality material def not a problem battery a bit sucky, but you can easily buy a 10$ battery online and install it with ease to get about another hour of playtime - takes 10 minutes to do and no you cant break the zune unless you are dumb

This was a big mistake, I read some of the other reviews on this website about errors in the software but I didn't believe that it could happen to me. Needless to say, after about (literally) five hours of trying to deal with various error codes (I have a decently new computer that runs on windows xp) I returned this back to best buy for the 80G ipod which runs perfectly without hassle. Also as a parting gift, my xbox no longer recognizes my computer even after I restored my computer to two days prior.

I've bought two of these--the first one I returned to Amazon because it was defective--the button didn't work at all, downloading took hours, and all in all, it was a nightmare. So then I bought a second one, and it's defective too!! The button works sporadically, but at least it downloaded the installation set-up from the website and installed my music and videos--so I thought it was a good one!

When I turned it on, the music was playing, backlight was on, but the LCD was not showing anything. I contacted Zune customer support and was told that any drops void the warranty and they couldn't even help me find a service center. They told me to try Best Buy and find out who they use.

We were unable to download the software necessary to use it, so after 30 days and many frustrating hours of trying to get it working, I returned it and purchased the 80 GB iPod Classic instead. We had music on it within 10 minutes of unpacking it from the box. Apparently our versions of Windows XP and Media Center are too old to download and run the Zune software.

Next to that, the music on there is not compatible with any media player unless it's Windows Media Player (which is an archaic program). The music you buy is also only playable on the Zune and you can't even transfer it to another computer or home theater system nor burn it to a cd. The headphones and audio output in general is awful, bass is too weak and when plugged into the stereo system gives an awful tone.

The Zune is not a bad music player, but for what you're paying, you're better off getting an iPod. I don't want to get into the depth other reviewers have, so I'll keep it short: Zune Marketplace is awkward and annoying to use, there's a huge lack of third-party support (accessories, etc.), wifi is too draining on the battery to be practical, navigation pad is far inferior to the click wheel, radio is far inferior to portable radio quality.

And third, I often bring my mp3 player to work to play music on my PC (since my work PC has limited HD Space). For some obscure reason the Zune software does not play songs directly off your Zune unless you copy them to your HD collection first (defeating the purpose of doing it in the first place). It really upsets me that Microsoft had a great chance to take a customer away from Apple's Ipod reign and completely screwed it up with horrible software.

It was returned 12 hours later. 3 PCs couldn't consistently detect the iPod, and when it did music would inexplicably fail to import. Some video podcasts wouldn't sync, and others would.

The player itself is really good. But to bad its linked to the worse music software i've ever used. I returned mine after 1 day.

For music the Zen Vision M was an excellent player, but it has been discontinued with apparently nothing to replace it. As far as Apple goes, their players have been plagued by poor sound quality (and are for people that don't know the difference) and mechanical failures. I get the impression that Microsoft rushed this to market for the holidays.

I tried everything listed in the error log, and things only got worse. Customer support is what we've come to expect from Microsoft--which is to say--none at all. After messing around with it for 2 hours trying to get some music on it, I give up.

Zune froze up 2 days after we returned it. Spent 2 hours on the phone with microsoft trying to troubleshoot and concluded the unit was defective. Amazon was very good with the return and covered the freight back.

One other major disappointment is there is no support for XP64. I have to upgrade to vista 64 in order to get the player to work on my pc. How rude is that of microsoft not support its own products,even Apple will support XP64.

When I received the Zune, it comes with "premium headphones" with interchangeable ear pieces for comfort. The ear pieces on the headphones were too large, but the interchangeable ear pieces I received did not match, there were no two alike. I called microsoft to get new ear pieces and was told I would have to return the whole product and get a new one.

1) Not supporting non-microsoft DRM WMA format (And Yes they could've removed the option of wireless transmission of the non-microsoft DRM WMA to other devises if copyright restriction, rather than bottom line, was the problem) 2) Not supporting audible format ( Audible wants it, microsoft not even if it doesn't sell audiobooks of its own) I also do not appreciate that microsoft not integrated the player with WMP 11, removed equalizer, has painfully slow speeds of transmission through WiFi of a song to another device, doesn't allow listening of a song in the same time while it synchs through WiFi or transmits through WiFi, and lacks bookmark feature.

microsoft may be a huge company, but they have like the worst customer support EVER. The zune website doesn't even offer a number that you can call. It gives an e-mail address but who knows how long before they reply back, if they reply at all.

it shattered the paper thin glass screen, ruined the screen completely. I then called microsoft to be told there is no way to fix the screen... it's junk.

And third, I often bring my mp3 player to work to play music on my PC (since my work PC has limited HD Space). For some obscure reason the Zune software does not play songs directly off your Zune unless you copy them to your HD collection first (defeating the purpose of doing it in the first place). It really upsets me that microsoft had a great chance to take a customer away from Apple's Ipod reign and completely screwed it up with horrible software.

the headphones are also way better than anything apple distributes and this player suports many file formats also i hate apple because they are overpriced, an image, and really hate customers, plus their language support is terrible.... microsoft own the computer world and if they keep up the same kind of imporvments they did on the zune they will soon own the mp3 world

The whole Zune DRM concept is junk. The marketplace is awful...the stupid device will not even cooperate with Amazon.com which adheres to the microsoft idea of 'Sure Play.' Give me a break...they decided to milk the Zune like Apple does the Ipod. What GARBAGE.

Once on the site it becomes clear that this was done in an attempt by microsoft to have the customer give basic personal information, join up with the social network and sign up for various services. Once I downloaded the software I had to make a phone call to tech support because the program did not display correctly. They explained that my computer, and most others that are not brand new, are not compatible.

kind of Lag too, Wifi synching its not how your thinking its goin to work because not only does it Kill your battery quick but it takes more than five minutes to sync 2 songs My conclusion is this, No devide is perfect dont listen to fanboys, the reason i took my back on the 2nd day was because if this thing is 10x bigger than the Ipod Nano, it should have had a better battery and a better screen and it does not, i personally had a lot of hopes for this device but i dont like to throw away my money, Also if you decide to give it a Try consider buying at a Local store so you dont get stuck with it, and are able to return it if your not happy like i was

And third, I often bring my mp3 player to work to play music on my PC (since my work PC has limited HD Space). For some obscure reason the Zune software does not play songs directly off your Zune unless you copy them to your HD collection first (defeating the purpose of doing it in the first place). It really upsets me that Microsoft had a great chance to take a customer away from Apple's Ipod reign and completely screwed it up with horrible software.

the search function is horrible and non-interactive. It's not even close to as smooth as the itunes search and from the search page you cannot sync songs directly from there. Either way it makes organizing any collection a complete pain.

The player syncs a particular group of songs over and over again each time you plug it in even though these songs are already in there. Interestingly, the player and the software lists these songs only once when you search for it, but if you plugged the zune device 10 times, the same group is synced 10 times! And, it eats up storage on the player.

It's fine for standard definition or any movies viewed on the Zune screen, but it's not HD quality when sending it to a 50" plasma. We have 83 movies and a ton of songs on the Zune, and still have 32GB available. I was concerned the wireless features wouldn't be secure enough since our home network is locked down pretty well; however, the Zune supports multiple encryption options (including WPA) & showed the MAC address so I was able to setup MAC filtering too.

When I saw the new zune 80 I thought it would be even better then my zen vision m, so i bought it. At first I was irritated with the software it has a tendacy to sync multiple songs, lose album art and is very limited in the ability to control your music collection, but I struggled through it and found it to be usable, not ideal but usable. Sound quality is pretty good, however the build quality is pathetic.

You are out of luck if you want to do the same with the Zune. * Also, with the Zune software, editing a song information - particularly adding an album cover - is an awkward process and editing multiple songs is simply impossible. The easiest way I've found to edit songs is to get into windows explorer and work from there.

4. If you were waiting for drag-and-drop feature where you would just drag the songs from a particular location on your computer straight to your device, you will be disappointed again. Apparently, Microsoft team does not want to give you that convenience.

For example, if you accidentally delete a playlist, you will not be able to recreate the same playlist because the software will say that it does exist even though you just deleted it and it does not show up on your screen. Also, if you select marketplace to browse songs, the page does not load (at least mine did not load) and the pictures are not shown at all. For the playlist, marketplace, and the problem # 5 above, I have talked to the Zune support team and the expected happened.

I made a mistake and put 550 songs on the wrong playlist - it was a matter of select, drag and drop to the correct playlist to fix that. On WMP or the Creative software I'd have to delete them all, then go back and manually add them to the new playlist.

6: Any tech support recommendations lead to ABSOLUTELY NOTHING To sum it up: Unless you get a Zune for X-Mas or B-days, save yourself the headache. And if you can, return it for a cash refund to spend the money for anything you might actually enjoy.

One other major disappointment is there is no support for XP64. I have to upgrade to vista 64 in order to get the player to work on my pc. How rude is that of microsoft not support its own products,even Apple will support XP64.

When I turned it on, the music was playing, backlight was on, but the LCD was not showing anything. I contacted Zune customer support and was told that any drops void the warranty and they couldn't even help me find a service center. They told me to try Best Buy and find out who they use.

Microsoft may be a huge company, but they have like the worst customer support EVER. The zune website doesn't even offer a number that you can call. It gives an e-mail address but who knows how long before they reply back, if they reply at all.

So be warned, if you buy a Zune, you will be abandoned. The Zune team is a joke, except it's not funny after you spent $250 on their machine. So I recommend do not ever buy a Zune because you'll get really terrible software and no support.

The Zune is not a bad music player, but for what you're paying, you're better off getting an iPod. I don't want to get into the depth other reviewers have, so I'll keep it short: Zune Marketplace is awkward and annoying to use, there's a huge lack of third-party support (accessories, etc.), wifi is too draining on the battery to be practical, navigation pad is far inferior to the click wheel, radio is far inferior to portable radio quality.

The Zune player and its software have been proven to be a major headache, and thus a waste of money and time. Here's why: 1: Software support is non-existent (trust me, you'll need it),

the headphones are also way better than anything apple distributes and this player suports many file formats also i hate apple because they are overpriced, an image, and really hate customers, plus their language support is terrible.... microsoft own the computer world and if they keep up the same kind of imporvments they did on the zune they will soon own the mp3 world

Once on the site it becomes clear that this was done in an attempt by Microsoft to have the customer give basic personal information, join up with the social network and sign up for various services. Once I downloaded the software I had to make a phone call to tech support because the program did not display correctly. They explained that my computer, and most others that are not brand new, are not compatible.

I have called support - no help there either. It seems to be that the screen gets scratched extremely easily and I have only carried it in my small pocket and nothing is in there to scratch it. It looks like I can't even send it back Microsoft to get it fixed (since I didn't buy Zune - it was a present).

Next to that, the music on there is not compatible with any media player unless it's Windows Media Player (which is an archaic program). The music you buy is also only playable on the Zune and you can't even transfer it to another computer or home theater system nor burn it to a cd. The headphones and audio output in general is awful, bass is too weak and when plugged into the stereo system gives an awful tone.

This item is junk. It's too small and blurry screen and the thing doesn't work as a normal storage area. That means that you can't use it on any computer unless you install the drivers and if you own a Mac or a Linux machine you can't use it at all.

If you have thousands of files, it is difficult to dig through them an manage them in any way. The search function is terrible, and you can't simply drag things from Windows Explorer into the software, which would have made things far easier. The software is slow and bloated; a lot of time is spent waiting as the computer hesitates because you clicked on something.

the headphones are also way better than anything apple distributes and this player suports many file formats also i hate apple because they are overpriced, an image, and really hate customers, plus their language support is terrible.... microsoft own the computer world and if they keep up the same kind of imporvments they did on the zune they will soon own the mp3 world

Then all of a sudden it would not turn on. Even with a full charge, I tried resetting, connecting it to the USB on the computer and still nothing. Finally, decided to return it.

Once on the site it becomes clear that this was done in an attempt by Microsoft to have the customer give basic personal information, join up with the social network and sign up for various services. Once I downloaded the software I had to make a phone call to tech support because the program did not display correctly. They explained that my computer, and most others that are not brand new, are not compatible.

The zune is a great product, but the only issue I had with it was that it wouldn't show up on my computer with the zune software. I tried updating my computer and all kinds of stuff, but no luck so I sold it to a friend. Other than that it seemed like a great product

This was a big mistake, I read some of the other reviews on this website about errors in the software but I didn't believe that it could happen to me. Needless to say, after about (literally) five hours of trying to deal with various error codes (I have a decently new computer that runs on windows xp) I returned this back to best buy for the 80G ipod which runs perfectly without hassle. Also as a parting gift, my xbox no longer recognizes my computer even after I restored my computer to two days prior.

WHY? Of course I thought, there must be a fix for this insanity, so I went online and tried to look for all kinds of patch/hacks for it. Indeed there ARE hacks for this HUGE flaw, but the hack seems to stop at the previous firmware, not the current one of 2.3 (which is what I have) I've been slaving in front of the computer for 12 hours now and I still can't get the device to read asian characters.

You cannot store files on it if they are not one of the accepted formats. Plus, I cannot just plug my Zune into any computer and expect to get music/vids/pics off of it. The software must be installed on the PC, AND I'm limited on how many PCs the software can recognize my device.

kind of Lag too, Wifi synching its not how your thinking its goin to work because not only does it Kill your battery quick but it takes more than five minutes to sync 2 songs My conclusion is this, No devide is perfect dont listen to fanboys, the reason i took my back on the 2nd day was because if this thing is 10x bigger than the Ipod Nano, it should have had a better battery and a better screen and it does not, i personally had a lot of hopes for this device but i dont like to throw away my money, Also if you decide to give it a Try consider buying at a Local store so you dont get stuck with it, and are able to return it if your not happy like i was

it shattered the paper thin glass screen, ruined the screen completely. I then called Microsoft to be told there is no way to fix the screen... it's junk.

This item is junk. It's too small and blurry screen and the thing doesn't work as a normal storage area. That means that you can't use it on any computer unless you install the drivers and if you own a Mac or a Linux machine you can't use it at all.

Videos, regardless of their bitrate, look grainy and pixelated. After loading a few trailers onto the Zune from my pc, i was convinced that the Zune 80, in spite of it's otherwise flawless aspects, was not for me. If you place a premium on screen sharpness, then you will be disappointed by the player.

After purchasing the 160GB I realized how disappointed I was. I hated the new cheap plastic cover they used; the screen didn't get any bigger, the user interface was spotty and slow (because it takes time to load album art), the scroll wheel was AWFUL and very unresponsive. In short, I was disappointed.

I have called support - no help there either. It seems to be that the screen gets scratched extremely easily and I have only carried it in my small pocket and nothing is in there to scratch it. It looks like I can't even send it back Microsoft to get it fixed (since I didn't buy Zune - it was a present).

the first gen zune was a trashball, but this is cleaned up big time, no scroll wheel, but uses an intuitive touch pad = much much better then going round in a circle - actually very similiar to the ipod touch in terms of seeking material screen big, albeit somewhat grainy - if you have high quality material def not a problem battery a bit sucky, but you can easily buy a 10$ battery online and install it with ease to get about another hour of playtime - takes 10 minutes to do and no you cant break the zune unless you are dumb

Cons: Horrendous software, Click Wheel is still a better interface After using my 5th Generation iPod's screen stopped working just a little above 1 year (conveniently out of warranty) I decided that I didn't want to buy another apple product for my next mp3 player.

It's fine for standard definition or any movies viewed on the Zune screen, but it's not HD quality when sending it to a 50" plasma. We have 83 movies and a ton of songs on the Zune, and still have 32GB available. I was concerned the wireless features wouldn't be secure enough since our home network is locked down pretty well; however, the Zune supports multiple encryption options (including WPA) & showed the MAC address so I was able to setup MAC filtering too.

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but there is no explanation as to why. The extra wide screen is nice for watching podcasts it's just to bad there are so many bad podcasts out there. I try to stick with the ones that are professionally done.

If you have thousands of files, it is difficult to dig through them an manage them in any way. The search function is terrible, and you can't simply drag things from Windows Explorer into the software, which would have made things far easier. The software is slow and bloated; a lot of time is spent waiting as the computer hesitates because you clicked on something.

Yes, there are two other formats it supports, but it's two formats the average consumer won't use - it's not .avi. The zune will not convert the files for you. This means you will have to hit up google and possibly pay for a file converter.

CONS: MUST go through Zune software to put files on device, no drag-drop from Windows Explorer :(. Why they would not allow this device to be used as an external drive is beyond me, I bought assuming this was a standard feature. If I cannot find an easy hack I will be returning the device.

You cannot store files on it if they are not one of the accepted formats. Plus, I cannot just plug my Zune into any computer and expect to get music/vids/pics off of it. The software must be installed on the PC, AND I'm limited on how many PCs the software can recognize my device.

I'm not good at making reviews but this product is not crap, it's pretty damn good. The software is ok, it's better than using iTunes. One thing I wish they would put in the software is the option to edit your files in it.

It would have been nice to be able to save playlists on the machine or have a few more options on the Music options, but I do not feel I am missing anything. Syncing: I have not had any issue with syncing. I noticed that a couple of times, the name of an artist changed after I loaded it, and so naturally, those files were resynced.

Right now, apple is on top with the video support. Many places have video downloads, but Ipods and Zunes cannot play these files. With Itunes, you can download a lot of videos that microsoft doesn't have the licence to yet.

My only recommendation is that there is future support for avi files and possibly a volume control on the earphone string, instead of having to reach inside my pocket and take out the zune to adjust volume.

1 - The pictures are all viewed in landscape mode which means that portraits look tiny because they are not auto-rotated. 2 - The video quality isn't as good as the iPhone. When I view the same files on both, the videos on the Zune get vertical lines through the screen as the camera pans.

-If you don't have the same music on your computer and your zune you will not be able to play files off of your zune when it is connected to your PC.

kind of Lag too, Wifi synching its not how your thinking its goin to work because not only does it Kill your battery quick but it takes more than five minutes to sync 2 songs My conclusion is this, No devide is perfect dont listen to fanboys, the reason i took my back on the 2nd day was because if this thing is 10x bigger than the Ipod Nano, it should have had a better battery and a better screen and it does not, i personally had a lot of hopes for this device but i dont like to throw away my money, Also if you decide to give it a Try consider buying at a Local store so you dont get stuck with it, and are able to return it if your not happy like i was

I found average battery life to be about 10 hours. Honestly do not waste your money, it is no where near what a $250 media player should be. The software is sub-par, the build quality is terrible and the battery life is worse.

The Zune is not a bad music player, but for what you're paying, you're better off getting an iPod. I don't want to get into the depth other reviewers have, so I'll keep it short: Zune Marketplace is awkward and annoying to use, there's a huge lack of third-party support (accessories, etc.), wifi is too draining on the battery to be practical, navigation pad is far inferior to the click wheel, radio is far inferior to portable radio quality.

I wanted to let some of you know (I've read a lot of complaints about it not completely shutting down) that if you hold the center touch pad toward the down position while holding down the "back" button, it will shut off the Zune so it doesn't drain your battery. It's useful if you have a video that freezes the processor for some reason. I know someone will think that was useful information.

I kept eying the Zune, and went back and forth about 5 times before buying it. The things about it that appealed to me were: the form factor, the capacity, the interface, the build quality, the battery life. The things about it that prevented me from buying it right away were: the fact that it's made by Microsoft, the fact that it's completely non-customizable, the poor reviews of the Zune v1.0 software, the fact that it can't act as a USB host, and mostly because you can't access the Zune device without using the Zune software -- and it's locked down pretty tight.

the first gen zune was a trashball, but this is cleaned up big time, no scroll wheel, but uses an intuitive touch pad = much much better then going round in a circle - actually very similiar to the ipod touch in terms of seeking material screen big, albeit somewhat grainy - if you have high quality material def not a problem battery a bit sucky, but you can easily buy a 10$ battery online and install it with ease to get about another hour of playtime - takes 10 minutes to do and no you cant break the zune unless you are dumb

the battery life does not seem to bad, but could be better. I charged it for about an hour, it was already half way charged when i got it and when i took it off the charger it was almost full. I played with if off and on for about 7 hours at work (proably had it on about 3-4 hours total and i kept turning it on and off) with both video and audio and the battery was almost drained.

Other features I love: screen brightness can be dimmed to save battery; touch pad is way cool, though if cool is your primary objective, I guess you need to get the Iphone; photos are automatically organized by folder with the original folder names from my computer...makes it easy to show my family and friends pictures of my daughter last year, last month, Christmas '05...; music and podcasts display cool album art when you play the songs or scroll through; the Quicklist feature where you can add songs to a playlist (but there is only one quicklist, not a fully customizable feature). Some things other people might NOT like: battery is good, but I don't think it lasts as long as they say; size: it is a bit bulky, but that's what you get for 80gigs...it's not any more bulky than other 80gig devices; wireless is NOT wireless internet...just syncing to your computer; doesn't load or play WAV format, although mine synced and played all my WMA songs automatically (some reviews I read indicated that it would not play this format, and I can't figure out why they said that...); no random playback feature; no clock.

The zune has some nice features but its lacking in the core components. The screen is nice that it's larger than the ipod but the battery life is poor.

When you pull it off the charger and turn it "off" using the method the limited instructions recommends it will still continue to drain the battery. If you turn it off using the other method, it won't drain the battery however it will have to boot back up which takes a few seconds and hitting play will not pick up where you left off.