vintage

Stampede is over! I’m back now. Hopefully everything will be back on track here before too long - I apologise for my extended absences.

I’ve been meaning to do a post on this for a while: I recently filled out a survey geared towards Canadian music bloggers, and ended up getting picked to try out the Microsoft Zune, which just got launched in Canada about a month ago. I’ve had my Creative Zen MicroPhoto for quite some time (it has since been discontinued to make way for newer and flashier things, I expect) and figured it would take quite a lot to make me want to switch over.

Here’s what I’m thinkin’ so far.

The Good:

The Zune is really friggin’ tiny. Normally I would hate this, but it is a pretty cool, sleek-looking device, and makes my Zen look pretty elephantine in comparison. It is also touch-sensitive, but you can turn that on or off - kind of a nice choice, even though I can’t see myself ever not wanting the touch capability.

Zune also has an incredibly sharp and colour-rich display, which is a big bonus, particularly because it comes with video capabilities. The video thing is also a big plus for me - I didn’t think it would be, since I never really cared one or way or the other if I could watch videos on my personal device, but it’s nice to have it. I tried it out with the only video I could make work, Sloan’s “Flying High Again,” and it looks exceptionally good. The videos actually play on the screen lengthwise, so you turn the player sideways to view them. The volume control flips too - good on them for remembering to work that out.

I haven’t noticed anything wrong with sound quality, and the player itself seems pretty intuitive. The menus look nice and streamlined, and I like that the display stays visible even when you lock the player so you don’t have to keep unlocking to see it (a definite advantage over the Zen).

The Bad:

The paint or finish or whatever it is on the front of the Zune, this grey-black textured stuff, scratches off incredibly easily. My player already looks old and battered, and that’s just from sitting around in my bag for the last week or two. Wear and tear I’m okay with, but there’s an unreasonable amount of it considering I just got it a couple of weeks ago. The screen seems much sturdier, though, and the matte silver finish on the back is strong as well.

Also, the software! What a pain in the rear end. I am starting to get used to it, but I wish it wasn’t so … confusing. The thing I liked quite a lot about the Creative software is it’s all folder-based and you can just select things you want to transfer. Bada bing. Unfortunately, with the Zune software you have to select folders you want to monitor for photos, videos, music or podcasts; then you go back into the main screen and wait for the software to recognize that there are media files in those folders, and then you drag and drop it onto the little Zune icon so that it transfers. Very inefficient and very annoying. I want easy transfers - probably not an unreasonable request, I think. Once you get the hang of it it is a little less irritating, but the Zen has a huge edge here.

Oh boy, and the earphone jack is in the bottom of the player. I am so used to it being in the top that this drives me crazy every time I try to plug them in. Not really a bad feature or anything, but I didn’t realise I was this set in my ways! I am still trying to get used to this!

All in all the Zune is a pretty good music player so far. I really like the video capability, actually - I didn’t think I would, but I really do. I wish it was bigger than 8GB, but that’s mostly because I want to have way more stuff on there than is probably practical anyway. It’s nice and small and sleek looking (watch out for the paint scratches, though), the sound quality is good, the display is great, and it’s pretty easy to figure out. At this point I’d say I am really liking it, although I’m still up in the air about which one I would ultimately choose. The Zen doesn’t have video, but it has a lot of other stuff going for it, and it is a pretty solid player (dropped it, gotten it wet, etc and it still works).

I will update some more about this later! If any of you have a Zune or a Zen and want to comment about it please do - and if you’re part of the Matchstick Zune program, like my buddy Matt over at i (heart) music, definitely drop me a line!

I will be back to tell tales of Yep Roc and Stampede sometime. Hope you all have a marvelous weekend.

Tags: creative labs, matchstick, microsoft, mp3 players, portable audio, zen microphoto, zune