Zune HD: “hello from seattle”
Posted in This Just In... on September 15th, 2009 by gkrakow
To explain this post’s title, Zune HD is the newly improved portable music player from Microsoft. hello from seattle is engraved on the device’s left side. I’m not sure what that means. Microsoft is located in Redmond, Washington but their PR firm (Edelman) is located in Seattle. Confusing.
I do care about the new Zune HD. It’s a quantum leap forward. Compared to previous versions, the Zune HD is a much more useful device. It’s not perfect – but it is a whole lot better.
It’s named Zune HD for a good reason. Actually, at least two good reasons. First of all, the Zune HD can output high definition video. (Of course you need an optional HD video dock and an HDMI cable to watch 720p on an HDTV.)
The device also receives local FM HD radio stations (more, better sounding music streaming choices in many cities).
Back to the beautiful OLED touch screen. The 3.3-inch (diagonal) display produces a mere 480 by 272 pixels. It looks fantastic but it ain’t HD. It does rotate between horizontal and vertical views. That comes in handy when you’re surfing the Web.
The Zune HD also has built-in Wi-fi. That means you can do searches (via Bing, of course) and look at Websites. I was impressed with the look of this site on the Zune HD. Viewing it horizontally – and zooming in with the now infamous “two-finger-spreading-apart” move – BuyMeGetMe.com was very readable (for short periods of time).
There’s also brand new Zune desktop software. Version 4.0 adds a bunch of new features – including an updated Zune Marketplace for music, video and software downloads. The new software didn’t recognize my new Zune HD until I restarted my computer twice. After that, the desktop software updated the Zune HD’s software from Version 4.0 to 4.1.
There are all sorts of software improvements on the Zune too. The most important is something called the Quickplay menu which gives you a simple view of the last audio/video you played – what you’re currently playing any recent updates.
Microsoft is also touting improved music algorithms for better sounding music. That’s nice, I guess. But, I wish Microsoft would let you rip your music in the uncompressed, WAV file format. Lossless files are OK. WAV sound much better. I won’t even suggest they consider allowing Zune storage and playback high-resolution 24/192 files which sound even better still. For the record, Apple/iPods/iTunes support uncompressed WAV and 24/192 files.
My test Zune HD came with 16 GB of solid-state storage. I’ve found that many of these solid-state devices need an extended break-in period to sound their best. This new Zune is no exception. It needs at least another week or two before being able to fairly judge its quality. One interesting note, downloaded music files sound somewhat shrill so far – especially compared to the sound of all of the HD radio stations I tried. Same device. Same headphones. We’ll see what a few hundred hours does.
The new Zune HD comes in two sizes: the aforementioned 16 GB model ($220/black) and the 32 GB version ($290/platinum). Axs for the competition, Apple iPod touch models sell for $199 (8 GB), $299 (32 GB) and $399 (64 GB).