gdgt

Using this device in the gym I needed to find a case to prevent it getting smashed in my pocket, that turned out to be difficult. The lack of case choices is a downside to the device. Amazon did have small padded leather case that worked for my purposes.

The controls are fairly simple to use, although, the touch sensitive dial makes it easy to bump forward or backwards when attempting to change volume. Annoying when listening to long audio books. Eventually got used to it so it isn't a problem. The small size but still able to read the display is better than some of the other small MP3 players on the market.

Battery life could be better. I had gotten used to the Motorola player that used a AAA battery and could just change when needed, but the Zune fell well short of the play time I was used to. About 12 hours of audio is what I was getting. I must mention that my unit was a referb so that does make the batter a little suspect. I adjusted to charging every night.

The Zune PC software is a very strong point. Subscribing to the many Free podcasts, those in the lists and adding my own, RSS URL's, made keeping the device synced very clean and simple. One point I was very surprised was when you had multiple Zune devices, I would often switch between my Zune HD when not at the gym and the Zune 8 when I go at night. I found that my podcast and audio book pause locations would automatically sync between the two devices and the PC. This allows you to play you audio book on the PC, pause it, then disconnect the Zune and walk away and it will continue where you left off. When you dock the player to the PC again, the last stop point is again sync'd back to all connected devices. A+ for that feature.

Since these have been discontinued, if you find one cheap it is worth having as a backup player.