by Jacob Gilsdorf

Created on: January 04, 2010

The main factor to consider before buying a Zune is how much storage you'll need. This is the single most important factor because it also has the biggest effect on the price you're going to pay. There is a difference of hundreds of dollars between the smaller Zune4 or 8, which are the equivalent of an iPod shuffle, and the larger ZuneHD, which is more or less on par with an iPod Touch. Your first impulse may to just go out and buy as much storage as you can afford, but if you do so you may be effectively throwing money away. For example, when I purchased my Zune, I bought the Zune80 because it was the biggest one they offered at the time. However in retrospect I could have saved approximately $100 by buying a smaller one since I actually only use about a quarter of the space.

Another thing to consider is that to use a Zune you need to install the Zune software. This available as a free download from Zune.net and functions similarly to iTunes. There is a Zune Marketplace for buying and downloading media for your Zune similar to the iTunes store. You can also add all of your already existing songs to your "Collection" through the options page. Once you have songs in your collection adding them to your actual Zune is as simple as dragging and dropping them from the list to the icon representing your device. The nice part of the interface is that you can add songs one at a time or you can add an entire album or even an entire artist depending on which list you drag from.

There are a few downsides to the Zune however. If one of your friends comes over and wants to add some of your music to their Zune there may be problems syncing their device to your software. Another issue is that the device doesn't work while plugged in. This means no charging while listening to music. This could be an issue for longer trips, but in my experience when it's being used solely to listen to music you should get 6+ hours of use off a full battery.

Overall the Zune is an outstanding media player that, despite a few flaws, delivers outstanding performance. It's at least comparable to the more popular iPod. I would love to say that it's better than it's number one competitor, but I can't because my Zune has never given me a reason to try an iPod out for longer than changing songs at a friends house who owns one.

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