Hands-on Review: The New Zune

Ah, the Zune...a favorite whipping boy in the MP3-player arena. The original Zune was one of the first MP3 players with built-in Wi-Fi—or at least, it was the highest-profile example back at launch last year—yet its Wi-Fi abilities were confounding limited, and its boxy, brown (brown??) shell inspired cackles rather than awe. Now comes the revamped Zune, in two flavors: an 80GB hard drive-based model and a slim flash version (8GB and 4GB). And both come with a cool new feature: wireless music and video syncing over Wi-Fi, something even the Wi-Fi-enabled iPhone and the iPod Touch can't do. Will it be enough to give the Zune—on sale Tuesday, November 13—some much-needed respect?

Both of the new Zunes are as boxy as the original, but while the smaller, flash-based Zune ($150 for the 4GB version, $200 for 8GB) is pleasingly light and thin (1.7 ounces), the 4.5-ounce 80GB player ($250) is just a bit boxy—not exactly the sexiest of form factors. The big design innovation this time around is the touch-sensitive Zune pad, which lets you scroll through (or across) menus and long lists by swiping a finger. Flicking the pad up and down worked well enough—you get the same roulette-wheel feel that you do on the iPhone and the iPod Touch—but swiping across was a little tougher. Of course, you're still free to navigate by clicking the pad in any of four directions, and you can always turn off the pad's touch-sensitive features altogether.

The Zune's slick menu system itself is more or less the same as on the original, give or take some functional and aesthetic tweaks: the main menu items are huge, with Social replacing Community, as well as the addition of a Podcasts option. The screens on both Zunes are vibrant and colorful, although the 3.2-inch screen on the larger Zune is disappointingly low-res—just 320 by 240 pixels, the same as on the flash Zune's 1.6-inch screen, which makes for an obvious screen-door effect while watching videos.

Podcasts are in, equalizer is out

Both Zunes still have essentially the same basic playback features, complete with shuffle and repeat modes, along with prominently displayed album art. Also on board is the built-in FM radio, plus (new) native podcast support. Unfortunately, extras are scarce: there's no Web browsing to compete with the iPod Touch, no calendars or contacts, and not even a game or two. I'm also annoyed that Microsoft has seen fit to drop the Zune equalizer (even the older, 30GB Zune will lose its EQ features once it's updated with the new firmware, available Tuesday). A Microsoft spokesman explained that the Zune "has good ohms" already, and that a truly "high-quality" equalizer would decrease battery life by 10 to 20 percent. Well, that may be true, and yes, audiophiles usually prefer "pure," EQ-less sound. But why not give listeners the choice? It's a baffling move.

That said, music on the Zune sounded pretty solid to me, although (not being an audio purist myself) I would have preferred more kick on the low end. Microsoft promises 30 hours of music playback and 4 hours of video from the big Zune's battery, and 24 hours of music and 4 hours of video from the flash Zune; I'll post my real-world results once my battery-drain tests are finished.

The Zune software has been redesigned from top to bottom, and it looks great. Along the top of the crisp, clean interface are links to your PC-based music collection, your Zune device, the Zune Marketplace, and the soon-to-launch Zune Social network; once you click a choice, another row of links leads you to your music, videos, podcasts, pictures, and playlists. Icons in the bottom-left corner of the screen represent your Zune, a disc (for burning CDs or DVDs), and a playlist; dragging songs, albums, or artists onto an a icon adds those items in a flash. Search results give you a two-paned list: one pane for songs in your collection, and another for tunes on the Marketplace. Overall, it’s a quantum leap over the clunky Windows Media Player; however, I was disappointed that the Zune software doesn't give you instant, as-you-type search results (as you can get on the iTunes software).

Wireless syncing

Now let's get to the most innovative new feature on the Zune: wireless syncing. Setup was a piece of cake: you just connect the Zune to your PC via USB, fire up the Zune software, and enable wireless syncing under the Settings menu. If your system is already connected to a wireless network, those settings are transferred to the Zune automatically—no need to key in the access point name or password. You can then set up your Zune to sync automatically with your PC, or your can sync manually under the Settings menu; however, automatic syncing only works when the Zune is plugged into its charging dock. Overall, I thought wireless syncing worked pretty seamlessly, and I loved being able to sync new songs and playlists over the air (why can't the iPhone or the iPod Touch do this?), but transferring tunes over Wi-Fi is considerably slower than over the USB 2.0 cable—or at least it was for me, using my 802.11g home Wi-Fi network. If you're planning on syncing tons of songs or large video files, you'd better keep the USB cable handy.

I didn't have a chance to test the new Zune Social service, which doesn't go live until later this week, but the presentation I saw looked promising. Sign up and you'll get a Zune Card (similar to a Gamercard on the Xbox 360) that'll display the latest music you've been playing; you'll be able to add friends, share 30-second music clips (of tunes in the Zune Marketplace only, unfortunately), and send recommendations. Adding your Zune Card to, say, your Facebook profile is a feature that's in the works, I'm told. Meanwhile, wireless song sharing is still limited to just three plays, but the expiration date on shared songs is gone, and tunes can now be passed along from one buddy to another.

Plenty of music, but no movies or TV shows

The Zune's new social abilities are pretty cool, but the Zune Marketplace is still disappointingly limited. Yes, plenty of songs are available for purchase, and podcasts, music videos, and DRM-free songs from EMI and Universal Music are now available; however, still no sign of movies or TV shows, and there's no clear word on when (or if) they'll be for sale. Even worse, the Zune isn't compatible with such online video stores as Amazon Unbox or CinemaNow. At least you can sync recorded TV shows from Windows Media Center to the Zune; still, the lack of for-sale TV shows and movies is pretty disappointing, especially given the 80GB Zune's 3.2-inch display. Finally, you still can't buy music via Wi-Fi, as you can with the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

Overall, the new Zune is impressive and yet ultimately disappointing (again). Wireless syncing is the coolest innovation this time around—it's a feature the new iPod Touch and the iPhone need to get, pronto—and the Zune Social looks like it'll be a fun service once it's launched. But while over-the-air music sharing has improved, I'm bummed by the continuing lack of a Wi-Fi music store; also, the Zune needs to get some type of official access to TV shows and movies through the Marketplace, or Amazon Unbox, or somewhere.

In short, what the Zune does, it does well—it just needs to do more.

Update: Click here for even more details about the new Zune.