The Gadget Show
Apple has indubitably created the most popular music player of this decade, the iPod. Over the years this music player became a full line of devices. When you say iPod you don't think directly of one particular model. You can now choose from several models, shuffle, classic, nano, and touch. The market is overwhelmed with all the publicity Apple invested in the iPod line. You now get so many accessories for the iPods and even car integration. Apple scored big time with the iPod line.
However, other manufacturers couldn't stay aside from this obvious success. Therefore, Microsoft decided to improve as best as they can their music player line, Zune. Probably the most interesting iPod, the touch is, from September 2009, marketed as a game console. However, until then it was marketed as a great player, providing a great music player, excellent video player, and other features.
Microsoft attacked the second version of iPod touch with Zune HD. The second generation of iPod touch is the direct competitor of Zune HD, because Microsoft's player is not a game console. So, Zune HD brings music, videos, pictures, radio, marketplace, social networking and internet. If you are not an Apple fan, you might just call it portable perfection. Zune HD is available in two different internal memory values. You get either 8 GB internal memory or 16 GB internal memory. With the 32 GB memory you can store up to 8000 songs, 48 hours of video and 10 hours of high definition video from Zune Marketplace.
Also the 32 GB internal memory can store up to 25000 pictures. Zune HD comes with an excellent design, sporting a platinum silver finish. On the front cover, you get the beautiful display surrounded by a nice glossy black finish. Under the display you get a platinum cover. On the
Above it you get the platinum silver battery cover. If you look at it from a geometrical sense of view, you will notice a perfect symmetry. With a height of 102.1 mm, wide of 52.7 mm, deep of 8.9 mm, Zune HD weight about 74 grams. The overall design is quite nice. I is not iPod touch, but then again it shouldn't look like it. This is a completely different product, from a completely different manufacturer. The build quality is excellent. Zune HD feels solid, and looks great. The only ports you are going to find on this Microsoft product, is a connector port and the 3.5 mm audio jack.
The feature that will allow Zune HD to be iPod touch's competitor is the intuitive multi touch navigation. Using this navigation you will get instant access to whatever you might want. Microsoft included in Zune HD, a 3.3 inches OLED color display, with a 16 to 9 aspect ratio. The touch screen features a scratch resistant glass with touch input capability. However, you can only use it in portrait mode when listening to music and only in landscape mode when you are watching movies.
The touch screen resolution is 480 x 272 pixels. The multimedia functions are very good, providing more audio support than Apple provides for its iPods. You get VBR and CBR up to 48 kHz MP3, AAC LC - m4b, mp4, m4a, windows media audio standard up to 384 Kb per second, windows media audio standard pro with two channels up to 768 Kb per second, and others. Zune HD can easily play high definition movies (feature that lacks in iPod touch), high definition TV shows.
You get an impressive video file support, such as MPEG4 with a simple profile that could easily support 4 MB per second video bit rate, for a resolution of 720 x 480 pixels the maximum frames per second you get is 30. If you enlarge this resolution the frames will lower its value, making the video less good. Just like iPod touch, Zune HD provides H.264 video support. Beside the 720 x 480 pixels with 30 frames per second and 720 x 576 pixels resolution with 25 frames per second, in H.264 you can get 120 x 720 pixels with 30 frames per second.
A video format that is not present in iPod touch is the windows media video. With this format you can get various resolutions with more advanced profiles than other formats. Also, don't worry about converting and facts, you don't really need to know every single detail. Microsoft delivers Zune with great software that will do all the work for you. Another multimedia function is the photo album.
However, take into consideration that Zune HD only recognizes JPEG pictures. To complete the multimedia experience, Microsoft inserted into Zune HD a high definition radio. All the stations can be heard extremely clear, using digital reception (feature that doesn't involve extra cost). The connectivity in ensured by the Wi-Fi with 802.11 b/g profile. Even more, Zune HD provides a video output, HDMI, which requires an additional dock. The web browser is pretty good, offering instant access to emails and news. The only problem is that you are dependent of Wi-Fi coverage.
Even so, by adding a good web browser to a touch screen device, Microsoft is heading for the kill of iPod touch. You also get an accelerometer sensor; tap to zoom feature and a QWERTY keyboard. If you are worrying about the battery, then you can rest assured Microsoft included a good battery, which provides up to 33 hours of continuous music playback, up to 9 hours of video playback, with only 3 hours to completely charge. Microsoft included in the retail box of Zune HD, beside the device, Zune Sync Cable, Headphones and three pairs of earpieces.
The overall verdict is quite clear, Zune HD is a good device, excellent even, but it's not iPod touch. You also should take in notice that a 32 GB Zune HD costs about $289.99, much more than a 32 GB iPod touch, especially now after the price drops.
