Microsoft's Zune HD, an iPod Touch Killer?

Steve, my fellow Blue Tech blogger, has made it quite clear that he is an Apple fan with his reviews of both the iPhone and the iPod Touch. I myself am a Microsoft maniac, which is why my computer is a PC, and my MP3 player is the newest Zune HD Platinum by Microsoft.

It is no secret that Microsoft and Apple compete as number one and two in many categories, and MP3 players are no exception. Apple’s iPod Touch and Microsoft’s Zune are constantly battling for the top spot in MP3 sales, a fight that Apple is currently winning. Now that Steve has reviewed the iPod Touch, allow me to introduce the Zune HD Platinum. While Steve will ultimately side with the iPod Touch and I with the Zune, our goal here is not to convince you to side with either of us, but to help you make an informed purchase. With that in mind, I will evaluate Microsoft’s Zune HD next to Apple’s iPod Touch, but I will emphasize the Zune’s features, as Steve has already reviewed the Touch. Let’s cut to the chase.

The Zune HD and iPod Touch clearly set the bar high for MP3 players, but which one’s better?

The answer is, it depends.

Performance

Let’s face it, guys—performance is what we shell out $200 for when buying our new MP3 players. That said, the Zune HD delivers like never before, representing a major improvement over previous versions with its powerful, 512MB N-VIDIA Tegra processor and vibrant 3.3”/16:9 wide-screen OLED display. For all of you non-techies out there, what this means for you is blazing fast response times, wide viewing angles, exceptional color reproduction, outstanding contrast levels, and a large brightness range. OLED technology is the holy grail of TV technology, lending itself to the extremely thin and lightweight design of the Zune. Whether you are watching regular old podcasts or full length movies on Zune Marketplace, video on the Zune HD is an absolute pleasure. Compared to the iPod Touch’s display, the Zune’s screen is .2” smaller, but the Touch’s LCD technology is primitive next to OLED. In short, OLED makes all the difference here with its enhanced resolution. And while the Touch supports more video formats (e.g. wmv, avi, mpg4) than the Zune, with a display like the Zune’s, you’ll learn to deal with this shortcoming.

The Zune HD's battery life is superior to the iPod Touch’s with its 33 hours of audio playback and 8.5 hours of video compared to the Touch’s 30 hours of audio and 7 hours of video (on a single charge). As a previous owner of the iPod Touch and a current owner of the Zune HD, I can confidently tell you that there is minimal difference in sound quality between the two. The only discernable difference is that the maximum volume on the iPod Touch is a few clicks higher than the Zune’s. Both devices feature EQ presets to adjust sonic qualities such as treble, bass, balance, but the Touch has a wider range of adjustable settings. The average listener never even touches these presets, but a more music-savvy listener may derive tremendous satisfaction from finding the perfect combination of EQ settings.

Overall, this was not much of a contest, as there is currently no compact display technology superior to the Zune’s 720p hi-def OLED. The Zune takes this round hands down.

Zune 1, Touch 0

Physical Design

The Zune HD’s anodized aluminum body is sleek and sexy.

To all of you who were turned off by the original Zune’s hideous, brick-like design, you will no longer be disappointed. The Zune HD has a sexy and slender body as thin as the iPod Touch (0.3”), and it is smaller than the iPod Touch (4”X 2” vs. 4.3” X 2.4”). The best part of the Zune’s new look is its anodized aluminum body, which gives the Zune a futuristic, “Star Trekkish” look. Interestingly, the aluminum construction also allows the Zune to be 1.5 ounces lighter than the iPod Touch, whose chrome steel casing is not only heavier, but attracts major scratches and smudging. Users seeking a device with a solid, durable feel will be happy to know that the Zune has a glass covered screen more impervious to damage than the Touch’s soft screen.

Like the Touch, the Zune is a touch-screen device, so the majority of control lies on the screen. The device has a power/hold button on the top left corner, a home button akin to the Touch’s main button (below the screen), and a side button for quick access to on-screen playback and volume controls. This last button is a mystery to me! Why wouldn’t Microsoft make the button a dedicated volume control like Apple did with the Touch? Talk about making it harder for owners. The lack of a dedicated volume control button on the Zune means that it is virtually impossible to adjust the volume without taking the player out of your pocket. This is a MAJOR inconvenience.

This was definitely a close one, but the Zune gets the nod here because of the host of advantages accompanying its aluminum body, including reduced weight and scratching potential.

 

Zune 2, Touch 0

Media Playback Experience

Since Blue Tech’s focus this week is on the MP3 player, I want to focus on features specifically related to media playback that I feel set the Zune apart from the Touch.

From Left: Home Screen, Pins and History, Now Playing, HD Radio

1.    With the iPod Touch, navigating to a certain album, artist, or song requires multiple swipes and taps of the screen. However, on the Zune, you can pin favorites on the home screen, be they specific albums, playlists, podcasts, or videos. This allows a user to avert multiples menus and submenus to reach a specific destination on the device. In a world where speed and convenience are everything, this is an excellent feature. One of the most frustrating things about the iPod Touch is that it requires several taps to get to a specific destination, and once you exit that destination for the home screen, you have to tap away again to return to where you were. With the Zune, you simply pin the desired destination to the home screen, and with a single tap, you’re there. On a related note, on the Zune’s home screen, there is a History tab that displays what you’ve been doing most on the device (analogous to a “Recent Calls” tab on a cell phone), so you can quickly get back to where you go most.

2.    These days, most MP3 players allow you to sort music by artist, album, song, genre, and playlist, and the Zune is no exception. However, in the past year, Microsoft has been investing heavily in digital enhancement of the Zune’s listening experience by designing software preloaded with biographical information, discography, artist images, and more. This new software sets the Zune apart from the Touch and other MP3 players by redefining the user experience with a given artist, album, or song. When playing a given song, the Zune displays in the background a hi-definition slideshow of the song’s artist. Taking a step back, even before you choose to play a specific song, when you select an artist, a list of their albums set against a background photo of the artist, along with tabs offering biographical information, additional photos, and a list of related artists appears. What is so special about all of this? ALL OF THESE ELEMENTS ARE PULLED OFFLINE DIRECTLY FROM SOFTWARE PRELOADED ON THE ZUNE. If the Zune HD is connected to the internet, the Zune will allow you to view an artist's entire album collection and download it all instantly via Microsoft's Zune Pass (for a flat rate of $14.99 for unlimited downloads.) In stark contrast to the Zune, the iPod Touch can only display album covers or artist images if the user physically loads them onto the device. To make a long story short, the listening experience is dynamic on the Zune, while it is rather bland on the Touch.

3.    Microsoft has always been the industry leader when it comes to offering radio in its MP3 players, and it still is. Microsoft has added HD radio broadcasts to the Zune’s existing FM radio tuner, which deliver premium sound quality and allow Zune HD users to instantly view information on the song currently playing and tag it for download. The Touch does not come with a FM tuner, although you can download third-party online radio applications. However, these applications require an internet connection, which is often unavailable.

These three features put the Zune in a league apart from the Touch and other MP3 players in the realm of media playback. This should come as no surprise, however, given that the iPod Touch’s mass appeal is largely attributable to its third-party applications and web browsing rather than its media playback functionality.

Zune 3, Touch 0

Room for Improvement

Currently, two main features keep Apple’s iPod Touch ahead of the Zune in the market for MP3 players. These are the Touch’s web browser and third-party applications.

While the Zune HD's web browser is similar to the Touch’s Safari browser with its tilt sensor to orient pages in portrait or landscape views and its finger-pinching zoom feature, the Zune’s browser does not support Flash content. This seriously cripples the web browsing experience by denying users access to popular videos sites such as YouTube or Hulu. The Zune’s browser also lacks the auto-fill, copy-and-paste, and multiple window browsing capabilities that made the Touch’s Safari web browser revolutionary.

Zune 3 Touch 1

Then there are the third-party applications on the iPod Touch. Arguably, the tens of thousands of “apps” downloadable directly to the iPod Touch from Apple’s App Store singlehandedly make the device the most highly functional MP3 player on the market. The Zune HD has a few built-in applications, including calculator, weather, and games, but it does not even have social networking apps like Twitter and Facebook, let alone any of the thousands of other apps offered on the Touch. The now common aphorism that goes something like, “The Touch has an app for everything” is not unfounded. The Touch literally does have an app for almost everything, including a radar detector that detects police surveillance devices when driving and a mood monitor that measures key determinants of the user’s mood via visual and audible expressions. These are just a few of the fascinating apps offered on the Touch. Others include Stanza, a book reader that grabs free titles from public domains, and Shazam, an app that identifies song titles when the user holds the Touch up to a speaker playing the unknown tune. How do you beat these applications? Microsoft has to be asking itself the same question. Apple’s third-party apps are all that stand in Microsoft’s way to the top of the MP3 player market. Unfortunately for Microsoft, these apps may be the only feature it cannot replicate.

Zune 3 Touch 2

Putting it all Together

At the end of the day, the Zune HD is a powerful media player more than anything else, redefining the media playback experience with its built-in music information database and high definition OLED display. It is not an iPod Touch, which is less an MP3 player and more like a laptop notebook with its focus on web browsing and applications. Microsoft and Apple clearly have different visions with their MP3 players, and they attract different types of customers.

The final score is Zune-3, Touch-2. Keep in mind, however, that this score emphasizes media playback as the primary benefit of MP3 players and does not reflect an exhaustive list of criteria. I chose to use a scoring system in this review because of feedback I received from readers requesting one. When deciding which one is for you, ask yourself the following question: Will I use my MP3 player primarily for listening to music and watching videos? If your answer is “yes,” get the Zune. If not, the Touch may be the better option for you, as it can do everything else better than the Zune.

Information Before you Buy

I wanted to focus on the user experience in this review, so I deliberately did not list all of the Zune HD’s specs or post a slideshow of images. All of this information, including available colors and memory quantities, are available on the Zune HD's Official Website. For similar information on Apple’s iPod Touch, also check out its official website here. If you’re hard-pressed for time and want to see a simple comparison chart between the Zune HD and the iPod Touch, check out the Zune vs. iPod Comparison Chart, courtesy of ZuneScene.com.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Please leave comments! I love hearing from you guys.

Your Blue Tech blogger,

Nabeel

Posted by Nabeel Q at 10:43 PM

iPhone Part Deux

Howdy friends, family, gentlemen, and especially the ladies. I hope you enjoyed last week's review of the Apple iPhone, because it isn’t over yet. Phone Week may be over, but now it's MP3 Madness! Today I’ll be specifically reviewing the MP3 capability of the iPhone, which is presumably comparable to the iPod Touch, the latest and greatest iPod featured by Apple. I’d review the touch, but it seems Apple doesn’t believe my opinion is worth the cost of providing me a free model to review, how unsporting! For those of you that still love Apple, I've thrown up their iPhone as an iPod commercial. It is located after the review for your viewing pleasure.

Just a reminder, I’m pretty lazy and since I’m still technically reviewing the same product as last week... the next two paragraphs are more or less cut and pasted from the previous review; feel free to skip them if you want to get straight to the new stuff.

Construction and Battery

The iPhone is sleek and fits comfortably in the palm of your hand. Unlike most MP3 Players, the new iPhone features two colors. Users have the choice of either a black or white body color (though many protective cases can be purchased in varying colors). Due to my somewhat clumsy nature, I have firsthand experience with the resiliency of the phone. After several weeks of use the outer case is somewhat scuffed, but the screen has yet to suffer any cracks or scratches. I'm thoroughly impressed with how solid the phone has proven to be, 10/10.

The battery on the other hand has been a bit of a disappointment. It seems that with each update Apple accidentally damages the total battery life. Updates are not meant to be detrimental to a product, quite the opposite in fact. That being said, the iPhone can operate as an iPod for something on the order of 16 hours before I start to get worried about the battery (Yes, I left it on and playing music for that long before I decided I needed to use my phone and should charge it). Having not used another MP3 Player recently I’ll stick with my 5/10 from before.

Interface

The second interaction you’ll have with the iPhone is with its touch sensitive interface. Not surprisingly, it performs quite well and as I noted before, it seems that Apple put more effort into the multifunction capability than into the actual phone. The accelerometer changes the interface based upon the orientation of the phone. When in landscape mode, the MP3 displays the cover art for individual CDs that is easily navigable with the flick of a finger. Unfortunately, if you didn’t legally import your CDs into iTunes, you’ll have to download and copy the cover art individually. Way to make things complicated for 95% of the world Apple. When oriented vertically the iPhone exhibits your standard fare interface. It has all the expected sorting options and remains easy to use thanks to the touch screen. Give yourself 10 minutes with the device and you’ll have it figured out without a problem, my vote is 7/10 for usability, cover art issues are annoying and the lack of buttons means you cant adjust settings while wearing gloves or with the player in a pocket.

Sound Quality and iTunes

It has been my experience with the iPhone that the sound quality is effected not just by the level of compression of the MP3, but also by the quality of headphones and even your ear for music. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have the best hearing, but I was able to mess around with different speakers and headphones as well as different compression versions of the same song. The stock Apple headphones are pretty cheap, I’d suggest you swap them out quickly. My pair is getting a little old and tends to shock me in one ear so I don’t usually wear them. When paired with a headset designed for competitive video games (built in surround sound and small subwoofers) the iPhone outputs a surprising level of sound. The clarity decreased somewhat significantly as I increased the volume, with distortion highly obvious at about 87% of full volume. For the stock package delivered by the iPhone, I’ll concede a 6/10, the cheap headphones and tendency to distort at high volume is a big turn off.

iTunes is a big question mark for a lot of people. DRM music is only usable on computers linked to your account or pieces of hardware that you own. At any time, Apple could technically kill or remove your property, even though you paid for it. On one hand, the ability to download music, movies, applications, games, and all manner of entertainment on demand is great. On the other, the level of control that Apple leverages over your personal property is almost big brotherish. Unfortunately, you can’t use one without the other so looks like you’re stuck. On the upside, iTunes works significantly better than the Windows equivalent. 8/10 for the software, docked 2 points for the invasion or property.

What it all Means

The iPhone is a solid MP3 Player. It does everything in an efficient and pretty manner, though outside of the touch screen it fails to innovate in any standout way. Applications have been available for years and while access to the iTunes App store means access to limitless potential, it is also the potential to spend a lot of money on things you’ll just lose anyway. My score leaves the phone sitting not so pretty at a 74, just above average. If you plan to use a MP3 player for everything under the sun and never intend to be away from it, then the iPhone/iPod Touch is for you. But, if you want a dedicated player I’d suggest looking elsewhere.

Posted by Steve at 10:31 PM

Toshiba Gigabeat T-Series MP3 Player

Many consumers do not know that there are other mp3 players in existence besides Apple's iPod (Read Steve's Review of the iPod).  In fact, there are many different companies which make these portable music players -- some of which create a superior product for the same or less price.

One of these superior products comes from the Japanese company, Toshiba.  The Gigabeat T-Series doesn't look like anything too special.  It is black, and comes with a choice of four colors for the control pad and back of the mp3 player.  It features a 2.4 inch, full color screen.  The Gigabeat is small -- it's only about 3.5" x 2", or about the size of a credit card.  What is better is that it's not much thicker than one either, at around half of an inch.  The buttons are big enough to press, and are easy to feel while the device is in a pocket.  And yes, it uses buttons.  There is not a touch screen on this device, and although it might not seem as "cool" or technologically up-to-date, these buttons have their advantages, such as being able to operate the mp3 player with gloves on (crucial in an environment which often requires it), or completely by touch when its not in sight (such as when in a pocket). 

Upon turning it on, the Gigabeat displays its menu, which is easy to navigate, selecting through music, pictures, videos, recorded TV shows, and settings.  Songs can be organized by title, artist, genre, or playlist.  Specific songs are easy to find due to the first letter of the song appearing as you scroll, so that one can stop at the letter the target song begins with.  Movie quality is good, as the screen has a resolution of 240x320 pixels, which is good considering its small size.  However, the Gigabeat has only 4 GB of storage space, which means that you may have to pick and choose the movies or music that you put on to it.

Unlike Apple's iPod which must use iTunes to sync to a computer, the Gigabeat can use a number of free programs.  Windows Media Player is the recommended program to sync the Gigabeat to your PC, but WMP is a frustrating program in general, and thus syncing the Gigabeat can be difficult.  However, other programs, such as WinAmp, a free media player from Nullsoft Inc, can manage the files on the Gigabeat with no problems.  Furthermore, one can always manually drag files from their computer drive into the Gigabeat directly if neither of these programs are available.  Still, with limited space, managing the songs on the Gigabeat can get a bit tedious through any program.

The feature that sets this mp3 player above the rest is its sound quality.  Toshiba did not skimp in the electronics, and thus the Gigabeat is able to deliver a full, rich, and accurate sound.  In fact, there is a setting called Harmonics, in which the user can select from either none, professional, or dynamic.  With either professional or dynamic enabled, the mp3 player is able to bring better sound quality from an mp3 song, which is a format often known for its terrible, terrible quality.  Mp3s are highly compressed, which means that lots of the information that was present in the original recording has been omitted so that the file size is smaller.  However, the harmonics of the Gigabeat compensates for frequencies that were neglected during compression.  It's not a large change at all -- in fact, most users may not notice a difference, but the change is there, and it helps squeeze a bit more sound quality out which otherwise would have been lost.  The Gigabeat designers seem to have had sound quality as one of their top priorities, because they did not allow the device to become loud enough to distort.  An iPod, for example, will distort above 90% of its volume.  Even though this will cause it to become "louder," the last 10% sacrifices sound quality -- something which the iPod isn't really known for anyway.  Anyway, the Gigabeat doesn't do this, but it also will not become as loud.  While normally not a problem (especially with today's overly compressed music), there are times in which I would have liked a little bit more volume.

Battery life is excellent.  Toshiba claims 16 hours of music play time, although I found it to be more around 12-13 hours, depending on listening volume, screen brightness, etc.

The Gigabeat might not be for everyone.  Sound quality seems to be of little concern to many people of my generation, and thus probably isn't high on priority lists when considering a new mp3 player.  Its incompatibility with Macs and iTunes DRM music will make it a hassle for many to use.  However, if you want a solid, reliable product with decent sound quality, then look no further than the Gigabeat.  It's relatively cheap at about 100 dollars, and is a great alternative to the iPod.  Unfortunately, the Gigabeat is no longer in production, but the specs and features can be seen at the Toshiba Gigabeat Website.

Thank you gadget-paradise.com for the image.

Posted by Sean at 9:18 PM