TrustedReviews Christmas List 2008

"For a start, it looks stunning, as our recent Awards attested (though many of you disagree). Indeed, I will take this opportunity to challenge anyone to name a better looking notebook."

I see your Apple Macbook and raise you a Vaio SR, or TT, or TZ, or Z. They all pretty much look amazing.

I do agree that the Macbook is another triumph of design for Apple. They've got a knack for it.

I'm now considering one over the M1330 . Although I must run Windows for school. But I am interested in Leopard so I'll Parallels it!

The Celica looks like a nice car. I'm kind of conservative, so I don't care much for flashy cars.

A big monitor to go with the Macbook, the new Cinema Display looks amazing! I could never afford it in the near future. So Santa bring it to me to go along with everything else.

And Arjduna, I thought about your punishment. You have to watch this without looking away or covering your ears http://tinyurl.com/6g6hzo

You'll be driven mad afterwards! I may seem cruel, but in reality it's just tough love.

Whoa name change, but I'm back!

I wanted to do an update since I got two things on my list. :D

First off the Zune 120. Amazing piece of kit (OMG, is that a British term?) First impressions were very good, not as nice looking as an iPod, but still good nonetheless.

Build quality is excellent and it feels really nice in the hand. Solid, the glass and aluminum are really nice. Only problem is the glossy black!!!!

The Zune pad is much better to use than the click wheel. It's super intuitive and very responsive. Navgation through the device though is a bit of a pain as it takes too many steps just to play a song. When you start the player you have to select music, than the song and then for some reason you have to press play??? I have no idea why you have to press play after selecting a track, one would think it would just start playing automatically. Kind of annoying. At least the menus are big and bold, really easy to see, and the screen lock feature is a nice addon.

The Wi-Fi is a complete GIMMICK. I have never used it and find it of no interest, Microsoft should have put in stereo bluetooth instead, and noise cancelling.

The screen is big, bright, and beautiful. A joy to use for browsing my music and watching videos; although the only videos I watch are podcasts, don't care much for having my DVDs on there. I'm a little disappointed that the resolution isn't higher. I guess I shouldn't have looked at that iPod Touch before I bought eh!? I was actually contemplating the Touch. but I only had about $300 to spend, so it was a 120GB player versus a 16GB player, hmm....

Don't regret my choice though, although there is one downside to the Zune and that is the sound quality. Now I am not an audiophile my any means and I don't pretend to be, but I can definitly tell the difference between my old Walkman (see: http://tinyurl.com/582p7f) and the Zune. The sound is a bit flat compared to the Walkman. But it will suffice. I'll trade some sound for the massive screen, storage capacity and some other features my old player didn't have.

But one thing about file format suport, turns out the Zune doesn't support Microsofts' own WMA Lossless! Amazing, all my music was ripped to that and then upon syncing, it converted to WMA. Well done Microsoft, well done, *rolls eyes*.

The FM tuner, I'm glad to have you back! Sometimes I just want to listen to the radio for varieties' sake.

Podcast integration is really great as it seperates between video and audio; although I wish I could see them all at a glance.

Now to the software, it's slow at times and buggy at times (maybe time to but a new PC?) But I find it excellent. It's simple to use and keeps everything nice and organized. I haven't checked out the social much because the Marketplace is not here in Canada still!!!!! Wtf Microsoft? Release the player but not the store for it? But it's coming soon, they promise, *rolls eyes again*.

All in all a great player, if not this, almost certainly this http://tinyurl.com/8zy2el. I miss the exceptional sound quality, I really do, but the features make up for it. A good buy for $250.

I hope you guys get it soon over there, it really is nice and a great competitor to the iPod. I am hoping for a TR review sometime next year okay?

P.S. Ardjuna, I'm sure you've seen worse, I've seen Tony Blair in action! ;)

P.S.S. Got faster Internet too!!! Dad finally realised it was cheaper to pay for a faster speed with a 60GB cap than a 2MB plan with a 20GB cap, go figure! Damn caps!