Zune HD vs. iPod Touch

[SpoDaddy]

My Creative Zen Clit is going on 5 years old and the hard drive is starting to click and stutter, which means it's new mp3 player time. I'd like a player that uses flash memory so I can exercise with it and not worry about hard drive crashes. I'd also like as much storage space as I can get. The only 32gb+ flash mp3 players appear to be the iPod Touch and Zune HD. I was excited about the Zune HD when I read that it could send a 720p signal to an HDTV via HDMI...until I saw that it required a $90 dock. That, combined with the 64gb space on the new iPod Touch, has me considering an iPod for the first time in my life. Have any TNLers had any hands-on experience with the Zune HD or the newer iPods?

[Nash]

The correct answer is Creative's ZEN.

[bbobb]

The touch is awesome if you don't have an iphone.

[SpoDaddy]

The correct answer is Creative's ZEN.

I have much love for Creative mp3 players, but I haven't read anything special about the latest Zen (other than SDHC card support, which is awesome, except it doesn't integrate the music).

The touch is awesome if you don't have an iphone.

Can the touch be hacked like an iPhone?

[bbobb]

Yep

[SpoDaddy]

I guess it just comes down to sound quality then. Anyone seen any stats on the touch vs Zune HD in terms of sound quality (signal-to-noise ratio, etc.)?

[Gymkata]

The Zune HD has a great OLED screen, nice interface, and touch screen (awesome if you dont have an Iphone). It isnt the second coming of Jesus but nothing is. NOTHING.

Messing around with the interface, all the little details that I get to mess with now make me think that this is a great player. It has a minor EQ in the vein of jazz/pop/techno whatever that shelf systems do nowadays. The browser has no flash but nothing does nowadays if you are talking most mobile devices. No apps to speak of but with the whole Apple=opressive overloards thing programmers are complaining about; maybe they will chose the "lesser of two evils" *snicker*.

Overall I got it and I like it. You should too.

[mollipen]

I think the big question is this: could you see any use for having a music player that can also do a lot of other non-included functions?

I never could have understood how much I'd love owning an iPhone before I got one. Now that I do, it's honestly one of the best things I own. Even though you can't do everything the iPhone can on the iPod Touch, the ridiculous amount of apps that you can still make use of means that you aren't just getting a nice audio/video player, but a device that can do a limitless amount of other functions, some that you might not even know that you want/need at this point.

Honestly, the Zune HD seems nice, and in some ways, it's probably (or certainly) better than the iPod Touch. But, really; the app store is a game changer. Unless you're the type of person who would absolutely refuse to do anything with the player buy play audio and video, there's almost no way I could recommend the Zune, or anything else, above the iPod Touch. Unless a few of the Zune HD-specific functions are things that you absolutely want.

[SpoDaddy]

What are some of these functions that apps bring to the Touch?

[Rumpy]

Got the Zune HD on Tuesday and I'm really digging it (replaced a 32GB Creative Zen Vision: M).

Easiest way to describe it: a real competitor to the Touch.

Engadgets review, which I agree with Be sure to read it, they touch on everything.

After 2 days I can say:

The screen is insane, the colors are eye popping. Everyone I've shown pictures and video to do a double take.

The build quality feels really strong despite being such a small and light device.

It's fast as hell. Menu and music selections are immediate, video loads super fast. Apps take longer to load than they should and I've seen ads when loading the weather app (really stupid idea MS).

Sound quality is fantastic, just ditch the stock earbuds.

Battery life seems really good so far. Turning off the wireless helps.

The interface has a slight learning curve, but it's easy to understand and makes sense. It's really responsive and the touch screen feels really good, it stands toe to toe with the iphone/touch. The UI feels less like looking at lists and more like looking at a media collection. I'm a big fan of what they've come up with. Getting pictures, related bands and bios for everything is cool as shit. Marketplace integration is pretty ingenious (I've heard good thngs about the Zune Pass service too).

The apps store is barebones, a handful of apps (weather, calculator) and games (hexic, sodoku, poker, a few more) are available right now. That will change in time and the Tegra processor from Nvidia is supposed to be the shit, so when the 3D jams hit (I've read November for Audiosurf!) it could be really cool.

I miss the DJ function of my Zen! The PC Zune software has Smart DJ, but the Zune itself doesn't. Hopefully they patch something in.

It's picky about what media you can put on it. It has support for like 2 video codecs, MS needs to pull their head out of their ass on this. DIVX you idiots, the video quality on the Zune is nuts, let people use it! The screen itself doesn't do 720p, the resolution isn't that high (it's still looks nuts though).

The internet browser needs the most work, it's barebones too. The I's have the biggest advantage here.

Download the Zune software and give it a whirl. If you don't like it, you're not going to want a Zune. I like it a lot, the update they just did made some great headway. Easy to navigate, it looks good, syncing is smooth and simple, plus the program is fast.

If you hand it to someone and don't tell them, they would never guess Microsoft made it.

So far I have no regrets on picking it up.