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Zune HD Review

Microsoft’s new Zune HD is slowly becoming a solid competitor to the widely popular iPod Touch and while already in it’s 2nd generation, the Zune HD is still playing catch-up.

zune hd

Yugatech 728x90 Reno7 Series

The weight and dimension of the Zune HD is just right. Out of the box, the Zune HD is pretty slim and light (40% lighter than the iPod Touch) with a glass front panel coupled with a single slender button at the bottom.

At the back is an aluminum plate, in brushed-metal finish, tucked with exposed screws. The construction is pretty solid and the design is more skewed to edge corners rather than curvy ones.

zune

The navigation is really neat and fluid but needs some time to get used to. Instead of icons, the menu is composed of enlarged texts and some visualization. Playback controls appear with a single tap but you can play forward and back with a (horizontal) flick of a finger. Instead of a timeline, fast-forward control is activated with a sustained tap. Likewise, the volume can be controlled by tapping or flicking the screen up or down.

zune

It’s got something going on with a number of pretty nice features the iPod Touch doesn’t have:

OLED Screen + HD Video-Out: Being able to output 720p resolution to your HDTV is a neat advantage. And OLEDs have better color range and viewing angle. True enough, the display doesn’t bend to a bluish haze when viewed at an angle (near the 180-degree angle).

HD Radio: Despite the very few HD radio stations here in the Philippines, the Zune’s HD Radio can pick up a wide range of FM stations at SD. Apple says they don’t want to put an FM radio tuner on the iPod Touch because they’re positioning it as a gaming device.

Wireless Sync: USB cable missing? The Zune can transfer and sync media files from your laptop or PC over WiFi. (If only it can also charge the battery wirelessly.)

zune hd

Did I say the capacitive screen is multi-touch too — so the pinch, flick and other multi-gesture functions are there. Very handy when navigating the built-in web browser. The touchscreen is very responsive and snappy that it’s indistinguishable with the iPod Touch.

For those curious how the Zune HD fares against the iPod Touch in terms of specs, see comparative chart below:

zune ipod

As for sound quality, the Zune HD has a nice volume range while the bass is more solid and sounded fuller. The earphones that came with it is decent and though it’s not impressive, I thought it was better than iPod earphones. When used with an in-ear earphones (SoundMagic PL11), the audio quality (especially the bass) is even more prominent. What I appreciated with the basic Zune earphones is the length of the cord (about 1.5 meters).

Video playback is smooth and crisp. Jumping from video to video or forwarding clips is snappy with no noticeable lags. The display brightness needs to be put in the “high” setting in order to appreciate the video experience. I didn’t have the AV dock so I wasn’t able to test how the 720p output fares when hooked up to an HDTV.

The Zune HD is not without its shortcomings. There are a number of things I thought that needed improvements:

External Speakers: As a PMP, I thought the Zune HD needs to have some external speakers. It’s not a big deal though but I expect Microsoft to add this feature in the upcoming models.

Improved Browser Functions: While the multi-touch gesture really made the browsing experience with the Zune HD very comfortable, the lack of basic features gave the impression that the browser is crippled. No bookmark management, no tabbed browsing, not even browser options. The browser cannot even render videos from YouTube.com (no Flash plugin).

App Marketplace: There were less than 10 apps that I was able to download from the Zune Marketplace — this is the biggest disappointment so far. I was expecting a bit more — not even apps for Twitter or Facebook.

What’s most interesting with the Zune HD is that it was priced by Microsoft very competitively. At about Php10,500 (see here) for the 16GB model, it’s very near the price of a 16GB iPod Nano and cheaper than the 8GB iPod Touch. Now there’s your value for money.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

39 Responses

  1. Avatar for jessica jessica says:

    hi, where can we buy this? thanks

  2. Avatar for Rob Rob says:

    Microsoft just needs to ‘open’ up their Apps marketplace.
    People are writing apps for Zune HD (check sites like http://www.zhdapps.com/) but Microsoft has to get on-board with these home-grown developers to get their apps into the marketplace.
    There are people out there installing these unofficial apps but it is a bit of a challenge right now to install them:
    1. Install XNA 3.1 game studio.
    2. Install MS C# (free version)
    3. Install Zune HD extensions.
    Then it is relatively smooth, you just associate your Zune HD in the XNA software, and deploy these apps to it.
    Last issue is, for all games NOT obtained through the official marketplace, your Zune HD restarts upon exiting any of these games or apps.
    Come on MS, it’s time.
    We want youtube access and more apps and games.
    Otherwise, my Zune HD is the best device i’ve ever owned. Love it.

  3. Avatar for Vance Vance says:

    @abe thanks.. sayang.

    One thing that iPod touch has an advantage right now is the Bluetooth tech.. for some odd reason, having one makes the iPod a multiplayer gaming device.

    If Zune release some games and use wifi tech to do a peer to peer gaming that would definitely put them close to iPod touch and iPhone as a gaming device.

  4. Avatar for Abe Olandres Abe Olandres says:

    @vance – could not make a definitive comparison since my iPod touch is an old one.

    @calvin – the synching only works with the Zune software and not File Manager

    @teknisyan – no prob!

  5. Avatar for Calvin Calvin says:

    nice review abe. yung wireless syncing and sharing, does it mean pwede sya maging storage device din? no need for desktop apps just to transfer files to and from your PC?

    without the apps yet it’s just a PMP with browsing capabilities which is a bit pricey compared to other PMP’s.

    still it’s a good alternative for those who are anti-Apple.

  6. Avatar for francis francis says:

    The trend nowadays for a gadget like this is a support for downloadable apps. That is a great advantage even if it has the best hardware. I feel like i bought a “new hardware” just by adding a new software on my iPhone and iPod. There are tons of free apps (from entertainment to education) in the iTunes store. I’m pretty sure the others are trying to catch up.

    peace! :-)

  7. Avatar for Rom Rom says:

    someone is selling the Zune HD 16GB for PHP12,500 here: http://www.zunephilippines.com/2009/09/zune-hd-seller-in-philippines.html

    Someone might be interested. The seller also sells Zune Originals (custom engraving and multiple color options)

  8. Avatar for The Teknisyan The Teknisyan says:

    I hope you don’t mind, I borrowed your comparison chart for my post.. thanks..

    http://teknisyan.blogspot.com/2009/10/zune-hd-vs-ipod-touch.html

  9. Avatar for sylv3rblade sylv3rblade says:

    @kuya jhay
    actually, MS just needs to open up the platform and give the devs the proper tools. :D That and support for all other countries (points to Zune pass)

  10. Avatar for Jhay Jhay says:

    By this it seems that the Zune just needs some kick-ass marketing to really come toe-to-toe with the iPod and challenge its dominance.

  11. Avatar for Vance Vance says:

    @abe: real battery life comparison? which one beats which.. especially with wifi and app usage..

  12. Avatar for john john says:

    Hi Yuga. You said it can play .avi — does this mean it can play divx files? Just want to clarify.

    Thanks!

  13. Avatar for Pedro Pedro says:

    thanks sir…

  14. Avatar for Abe Olandres Abe Olandres says:

    @Pedro -there’s one selling in TPC for Php13.5k.

  15. Avatar for Reel Advice Reel Advice says:

    I say this is a pretty decent release from Microsoft and would really give Apple a run for its money given the price and capacity.

    And it indeed looks very slim and sleek!

  16. Avatar for Pedro Pedro says:

    thanks for the info sir…

    where can I buy it here in the Phil?..
    is it here yet?

  17. Avatar for Abe Olandres Abe Olandres says:

    @cris – yup and thanks!

  18. Avatar for cris cris says:

    Nice review yuga!

    Does it support .avi movie format?

    Thanks

  19. Avatar for BrianB BrianB says:

    Ha ha, Chris Brown, my favorite tune of the week as per my viewing of the latest The Office episode.

    Zune Hd really looks thin.

  20. Avatar for SmartGilas.com SmartGilas.com says:

    thanks abe!

    Zune HD vs. iPod Touch 3G (CNET Review)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW-1H0nrjOY

    =)

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