Editorial Product Review:

Amazon.com Product Description--Posted September 9, 2008:
This slim 8 GB Zune device is good to go with plenty of room for your favorite music, pictures, and video. It comes complete with a built-in FM tuner and buy-from-FM capabilities, wireless sync, Zune-to-Zune wireless sharing, video playback, and more--so you get all that Zune power in one tight little package. It holds up to 2,000 songs, 25,000 pictures, or 25 hours of video. Watch a demo on Zune.

Every Zune device lets you listen to your favorite FM radio stations and tag songs for later purchase.

Download millions of tracks, whole albums, or playlists with the Zune Pass subscriptions service.

Remotely sync your Zune device with your PC collection.

The Zune Marketplace offers millions of songs, albums, TV shows, audio/video podcasts, and more.

A full family of accessories is compatible with all Zune devices.

Buy from FM
Click to buy from the built-in FM radio. Every Zune device lets you listen to your favorite FM radio stations and click to tag the songs you like for later purchase when you sync your device with your PC.¹

Zune Pass
With the Zune Pass subscription service, you'll get millions of tracks for the price of one CD. Download tracks, whole albums, or playlists. Explore new music or rediscover old favorites--then sync them to your Zune. Extend your subscription online or by purchasing a Zune Pass card. Or, if you like, purchase songs or albums individually.²

Wireless Sync
Remotely sync with your PC. Connect to your home wireless network and remotely sync your Zune device with your PC collection from your dock, AC adapter, or speaker dock accessory.³

Device to Cloud
Your Zune player can access thousands of wireless hotspots around the country. Automatically update your collection, browse Zune Marketplace, refresh your Channels, exchange favorites with friends, or buy songs you've tagged from your FM radio. Take advantage of a Zune Pass and access the music you love where you want, at no extra cost.

Wireless Sharing
Music is in the air with Zune wireless sharing. Send your favorite songs, albums, playlists, pictures, and even audio podcasts freely between any Zune devices. Listen to the full track of any song you receive up to three times and pass them along to other friends. If you want to buy a song, click to tag it and have your Zune find it later when you sync with your PC.⁴

Channels
Like your very own radio stations, Zune Channels are custom programming stations that deliver personalized playlists to your Zune from a variety of sources you select, such as music experts, celebrities, or top radio stations. Channels you subscribe to automatically update whenever you're connected--to your PC, home network, or even selected wireless hotspots. When you subscribe to Zune Pass, you get an unlimited Zune Channels experience.

Games
Zune players now come with a selection of fun free games. Choose music from your collection to create your own personal game soundtrack. Connect and compete wirelessly with other nearby Zune users.

Video/TV Shows
Choose from a growing selection of TV shows now available on the Zune Marketplace video store, and take your favorite episodes or whole seasons with you wherever you go. Use your Zune device to watch popular shows like The Office, South Park, Heroes, and 30 Rock from NBC; shows from Comedy Central; Adult Swim from the Cartoon Network; and countless other shows from other major networks.⁶ Also, if you're recording TV shows or movies with Windows Media Center in Windows Vista, you can import and sync them to your device. Load up your favorite videos, and hit the road.⁵

Zune Social
Discover, share, and connect with the Zune Social, a free online community that lets you share your musical tastes with friends and millions others. Customize your Zune Card and Zune profile page with your favorite music and pictures. Then connect and share Zune Cards, music, and messages with friends and other members of the community.

Zune Marketplace
Fulfill your entertainment desires at Zune Marketplace. Millions of songs, albums, TV shows, audio/video podcasts, and more are available--plus, your online store is always open and only a mouse click away. Download or subscription? It's up to you. Buy individual songs and albums, or an unlimited Zune Pass music subscription².

Audiobooks
Let your Zune read to you while you can't. Listen to everything from your favorite novels to the latest bestseller. Now you can transfer your existing audiobook files from sites like Audible.com to your Zune device and enjoy them whenever you want.

Xbox 360 Compatibility
Ever wish you could play games to the sound of your favorite tunes? Now you can. Connect your Zune device to your Xbox 360 console and play your favorite songs while you game on Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE. You can share content from your Zune collection to an Xbox 360 console on a home network and play your media through the Xbox Dashboard.

Accessories
Traveling, working late, or working out? Whatever you're up to, your Zune will be right there with you. Make sure you have the best accessories to keep up with your lifestyle.

• Zune AC Adapter: Fast recharge wherever there's an outlet
• Zune Car Pack: Ride with Zune as it charges while playing in your car
• Zune Home AV Pack: Hook up your Zune to any home stereo and control it via remote
• Zune Premium Earphones: noise-isolating design that delivers superior sound quality and comfort
• Zune Cable Pack: Provides every cable you need to stay connected
• Zune Dock Pack: Nonstop your tunes while you charge your Zune
• Zune Leather Case: Protects your Zune with style

Legal Disclaimers:
1. Buy from FM feature available with stations broadcasting RDS and RT Plus data
2. Zune Pass is a monthly music subscription service; some songs are not available via Zune Pass. Available Zune Pass content may vary over time.
3. Wireless sync feature requires access to a home wireless network
4. Zune to Zune wireless sharing may not be available for all songs in your music collection and works only between Zune devices within wireless range of each other. Recipients may play full-length sample tracks up to three times.
5. Requires a PC running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate and an integrated or external TV tuner.
6. Available content may vary over time.


What's in the Box?
Zune 8 GB Digital Media Player (Pink), earphones with three earpiece covers, Sync cable



Accessories available:
     click for more

Accessories available:

• Incipio Leather Wallet Case for Zune 80/120 GB (Black)
• Incipio Leather Flip Case for Zune 80/120 GB (Black)
• DLOHipCase Sleeve for Zune 4/8/16 GB (Black)
• Belkin Leather Sleeve for Zune 80/120 GB (Black)
• Belkin Leather Sleeve for Zune 4/8/16 GB (Black)

Product Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

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More related to this product:
     click for more

More related to this product:

• Microsoft Zune 30gb Travel Combo Set - Ac Wall Charger + Auto Car Charger + USB Data Cable (3 Pcs)
• Belkin Neoprene Armband for Zune 4/8/16 GB (Black/Gray)
• Zune Leather Case for Zune 4/8/16 GB (Brown)
• Zune Premium Headphones v2
• PCMICROSTORE Brand (2nd Generation) Microsoft Zune 4GB 8GB Premium Silicone Skin Case with 14" Adjustable Sports Armband and LCD Screen Protector Shield - 6 Color Choices
• click for more

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Customer Rating: - Not ready for prime time
Ok, first the good. I really, really like the way it looks and the way the navigation circle work. Much better than my Sandisk Sansa (8GB also). I would give it five stars on those two things if it weren't for what I didn't like about it.

The bad: I just like to play songs continuously so I choose that option in the play menu. But everytime I turn it off when I leave my car, when I turn it back on again, it begins playing again at the last song SELECTED, not where it left off in the list. So it could start playing 15 or 20 songs back from where I want it too. I'm always losing my place in the list. That's just plain stupid, stupid, stupid. My Sansa is awesome. When I turn it back on again, it's playing the same place in the same song as when i turned it off!

Second, if I find a song in my list that I discover I don't like, i don't think there's anyway to directly delete it from the player without hooking it up to your computer and using the Zune software. How bad is that! I could be wrong on this one but I haven't found a way yet. Nothing obvious. My Sansa once again shines. Don't like a song. Bam... Deleted!

Third, really bad battery life. I went through all but about 20 songs on my 8 GB Sansa on ONE CHARGE. I've charged my Zune twice so far and I'm only half way through the 8GB Zune.

Fourth, the random song selector is a joke - worse than an FM dj playing the same songs over and over on a playlist every hour, ignoring my favorites that will never be played.

So to sum up, this is the most beautiful of these types of devices I've seen and it's physical interface with us the users is awesome. But because of the really unusability of this device (at least for my purposes - maybe you'll like hearing the same songs over and over), I'm giving it a One star. It deserves a negative star until they correct it's deficiencies.

Too bad, because physically I like it so much better than my Sansa but the Sansa just works better and has WAY better battery life.

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Customer Rating: - The ZUNE ROCKS !
I won the Zune 8GB thru the Pepsi Points sweepstakes, I own a Creative Zen Sleek Photo 20GB which holds my entire music collection, so the Zune is my work/exercise/take everywhere MP3 player.

The Zune is an excellent MP3 player, the unit itself is well built, it's controls are common sense, the FM tuner works well, the volumune range is good and the overall high end is higher than most MP3's. The sound quality is good, unlike the Creative player I own, the Zune doesn't have a EQ, but the sound is good. The software is very good and easy too use. This MP3 player comes with WiFi built in, although I have yet too use it. Charging the zune is done thru the sync cord via the USB on your computer, and fully charges in about three hours, and battery life is great, I work 9-10 hour days and use both FM tuner and music library all days long and the battery has never dipped below half way. The only downside I can think of is this......with my Creative player which is hard drive based, the music downloads are quick, 4 CD's in under a minute, with the Zune which is Flash (memory based) the downloads are much slower. The upside to the Flash based player is that battery life is much greater.

All things considered, I highly reccomend the Zune.

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Customer Rating: - Microsoft's half-hearted attempt
I bought the 8 gig Blue Video Zune in a transition over from iPod. iTunes has been having compatibility issues with my PC, and I was interested in trying a different brand of MP3 player. Unfortunately, I should've done more research before making what now feels like a bit of an impulse buy.

The Zune's greatest strength is probably its FM Tuner. You can turn the search on - meaning it'll skip through and find the next station - or off, if you want to go through stations traditionally, every couple of steps up the dial. You can use the click wheel to add any particular stations to pre-set, and if the station is broadcasting it, the Zune will tell you what kind of music the station plays, as well as the name and artist of the song currently playing. And it gives you the option to add a song to your shopping cart, so you can buy it when you get online via the Zune's PC player. Unfortunately, I found the signal strength rather pitiful - as I often shove it in my pocket, then it would kind of fade in and out. And my work place is a half-level underground, and the signal was coming in zero.

Aesthetically, it's very nice. The blue is a very pretty color; it's thinner than my last iPod was (though the same size lengthwise) and the click wheel serves with the same functionality as that on the iPod. And the battery life is about the same length as the iPod nano - around 25 hours (when listening to music).

My greatest criticism of it is in its music interface. It gives you a series of subcategories (genre, artist, album, etc), with a drop-down of all the music below in that order. But it's meaningless. I suppose they thought it would make it easier when searching out one specific album, etc. but it's just as easy to leave it all in one category and find it that way.

What I really hate is the shuffle function. With each of the subcategories, at the top is the option to shuffle through your music, and then it will go through your entire library at random. If you want to listen your entire library with the tracks in order for each given album, you have to make a playlist. And shuffling through that does the exact same thing - shuffling by song, without even the option of shuffling by album. This probably isn't a big deal to most, but I listen to a lot of soundtracks, and shuffle by album is the only way I want to listen to my library.

In the Settings menu, you can also then turn a separate shuffle feature on - which, in turn, will, for example, take an individual album, and play it in a random order over and over. Which makes absolutely no sense. Who wants to listen to one album, out of order, over and over?

These can be seen as minor nitpicks, but they're the kind of details that make me feel like a) Microsoft, knowing that Apple will continue to dominate the market, isn't trying very hard; and b) It continues the Microsoft trend of "I know better than you." In using it, I always felt like access to my own library was restricted, and I could only listen to my music under specific terms.

Add to this the fact that the Zune player you have to install on your PC (separate from Windows Media Player) is a technological disaster. They made it specifically to mirror the interface of that on the Zune, but it's a pain to use. It's a pain to find or alter anything; it's a pain to make playlists on it. And the only Settings functions you can adjust are options primarily related to the online social network. I was so appalled by it that I immediately switched back to using iTunes when listening to music on my computer.

I also didn't like the fact that when it turned off - ever after I left it on pause for a minute - in turning it back on, it would reset itself back to the main menu where you switch between music, videos, radio, etc. Which meant having to go back in and search through to pick up where I left off. Even if I'm listening to a playlist and it transfers it over to the Now Playing subcategory, you still have to scroll down to find that song again. Which makes the Now Playing just as worthless as the rest of the subcategories. And it's just one more detail that makes it feel like the makers of this device weren't thinking out it very practically.

These complaints might not seem like much, but they were enough to make me go back on the Zune and buy an iPod Nano to replace it.

Sure, the Zune isn't the worst MP3 player you could buy. If it's your first, or if you really want something more for a radio, then you might be very happy with it. But if you're transitioning over from another - especially iPod - then, like me, you may find that the Zune leaves much to be desired.

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Customer Rating: - Best MP3 I've had yet
I've had a lot of players over the years and this is by far the best I've ever had. It's not just the player but the Zune software and website combined with the player that make it so nice. If you need a fair amount of space but don't need 80 or 120 GB, then this is for you. I filled it three quarters of the way with ever song I have and I'll still get about 1,000 more songs on from the Zune website. It operates smooth and easy. It doesn't take a dozen moves to get your music playing and your options are great. Well worth the price.