Review: Zune Car Pack
September 17th, 2007 | by Mike Corey |
If you’re looking for a way to make long car rides more frustrating than they already are try the Zune car kit. This kit retails at just under $80.00 and is not in the slightest bit worth recommending or far worse, purchasing.
However, I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Erie, PA at 1:30 AM is not the best place to find electronics. Fortunately, good ol’ Walmart was open. With a choice between that and some belkin FM transmitter i fatefully reached for the Zune car pack. Regretfully swiping my Mastercard and drawing some stars to suffice as my name I left the store excited to finally be listening to Lewis Black on my Zune. Jumping into the car I ripped open the package and jammed it into my Zune with Speck case. Quickly I realized that wasn’t going to work. But fine. the FM transmitter couldn’t be designed with every case in mind so a pried off the rubber speck case and attached the FM transmitter into the bottom. The FM transmitter auto searched to 88.7. Turn the dial to 88.7 and… instead of a comedian suffering from a bout of high-blood pressure and tourettes I’m greeted with the opposite. Classical music. Assuming maybe it just had a tough time finding a station, I find some static on the FM dial and tune the zune to that. Finally I’m greeted with what sounds like an AM station coming in from Boston on a cloudy night. I adjust the volume and still nothing. Just a slight bit of barely recognizable Lewis Black. I take my hand off the transmitter and back to static. I try two more stations and same results.
Now I know the car has good FM reception as I’ve used my iPod with accompanying iTrip so I’m left to believe this is just absolute junk. I called my roommate who confirmed it the next day. He never left the parking lot with his. I’m absolutely amazed that Microsoft would slap the Zune name on this piece of junk. This is absolutely bar-none the WORST FM transmitter I have ever used. I’ve constructed better transmitters with those little radioshack basic electronics kits. Seriously stay away from this or you’ll be sorry.
