There are only two other real gripes I have about the Zune. The first is that the FM transmitter that comes with the Car Kit V2 is absolute garbage. I cannot stress that enough: completely and totally useless. Whereas my XM’s internal FM transmitter was strong enough to be picked up by other cars in the immediate vicinity, the FM transmitter for the Zune is so pathetic that once plugged in, I am lucky to enjoy more than a few static-free minutes of music at a time, even in the remotest of areas. As I am determined to keep my stock head unit (which does not have a line-in or tape player), this has been quite disappointing. Never, ever purchase this accessory.

The other issue is dust under the screen. My Zune has managed to accumulate dust along two of the corner edges underneath the glass, to the point where it is difficult for me to watch episodes of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer in direct sunlight. I have had some success at blowing this dust out through the headphone and digital connection jack with compressed air but come on, Microsoft. I paid $250 USD for this thing, and you can’t keep the dust out? An online search revealed that I am far from the only person with this problem, which appeared within the first month of use.

Overall, my Zune experience has been fairly positive. It’s a great music player, the battery life has been excellent, and I appreciate the ease of use when it comes to playing videos. The fact that I didn’t return it within 30 days really says a lot, as I have a habit of being somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to gadgets. I haven’t really explored the games installed on it yet, and I haven’t been able to get its wireless sync features working with my proprietary Verizon router, but these are features I don’t really have any use for and they aren’t missed. I recommend the Zune 120 to anyone interested in a high capacity mp3 player that doesn’t bear the Apple logo.

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