Vincent's Weblog

So I’ve finally found some time to write my (very) late review of the Zune HD, a touch screen Portable Media Player from Microsoft. Boasting “Portable Perfection” as its motto, does it live up to the name? I am finding out. Hit the link and read
UPDATE: Whoops! forgot a performance and battery section. Added at the bottom.
UPDATE:This will be more of an advanced description than a review, so I have promptly renamed it “Zune HD ‘Deep Dive’”

Hardware

The Zune HD is a pretty thin device, with a measurement of 10.1 cm tall, 5.1 cm wide, and 8 mm thick. I was visibly surprised when the actual device was much smaller than the videos I had seen on the web. The Zune is not heavy in the pocket, but you can feel it there when carrying it. The back is of brushed aluminum with four tri-wing screws showing for design. The bottom is interrupted by a rubbery spot similar to the original iPhone to increase wireless performance. Designs can also be laser engraved with a variety of free and paid designs (70 at the time of writing. On top, there is a sleep/power button that is flush with the body. The front is adorned with an 8 mm bezel on top and bottom, and 5 mm on the sides. The screen is an Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) screen that draws less power as it operates without a backlight. At its time of release, this was an advanced technology, but was then quickly superseded by AMOLED and Super AMOLED displays which performed better in direct sunlight, one of OLED’s major weaknesses The bottom has a trapezoidal home button accompanied with a soft area, to serve as a thumb rest. The sides of the Zune are more interesting. the design incorporates a plastic like layer sandwiched between the aluminum of the main body that is black if the main color is light and white if the main color is dark.. Although the right side has nothing, the left side has the media button, which brings up volume and music controls. I preferred having a rocker for volume, but can live with it. The bottom of the player has a headphone jack as well as the Zune connector port to sync with a computer.

On internals, the Zune is the first device to use the nVidia Tegra chip, specifically, the APX 2600 model. The Tegra chip has several cores to handle different tasks, such as 2D, rendering, 3D rendering, audio, etc. It also takes advantage of the headphone cable to receive HD radio signals.

Software

The Zune HD runs Windows CE 6.0 overlaid with the Zune UI, which would later become the Metro UI for Windows Phone 7.

The main screen is just a list, with all of the device’s “features” listed. Included options are Music (along with a play button for playing all music randomly), video, pictures, marketplace, social, apps internet, and settings. On the side, in the distance, is another menu accessible by swiping, tapping or pressing the home button again, lists the song that is playing, and provides a spot for users to pin almost anything to it, including but not limited to, albums, songs, pictures, etc. Underneath is a list of past accessed items, and further down, items newly synced to the device.

The music menu is pretty simple. You can view items from Album, Artist, Playlist, Song, and Genre. All list items include a play button to play the selected file(s). The standout of the music menu is the artist screen, where a list of albums and songs by the artist are listed, as well as a few marketplace recommendations. Other options include reading a bio and seeing photos of the artist (if they are in the marketplace database). The music player is fairly simple as well, with the song name and artist title at the top and the album art portrayed in the middle. Swiping left or right in this are changes the track to the adjacent song. Underneath is a shortcut to a list of all items in the now playing for easy jumping. Below are the shuffle, repeat, and favorite/hate button, respectively.

The video screen is mainly the same, though clicking on an item’s name will bring up a short description (if it has one) and a play button to jump in. The video player interface is blank, with controls coming up only if the media button or tapping the image. The controls are standard: play, volume up/down, and forward/reverse. On some videos, a button can be pressed to stretch the picture to fill the screen or return to the original size. The Zune HD supports the playing of HD content, but scales it down to play on its 480 by 272 screen, with 720p output restricted to the optional dock, which costs USD89.99.

Pictures is just a list of thumbnails representing the pictures, while folders have a number indicating the number of files inside. Tapping on a photo “flips the page” Metro Style. Obviously, pinch to zoom works here. Double tapping will zoom you in, while another two double taps will zoom you in more; a final two taps returns the photo to its original size. Tapping will bring up controls to exit, play an automatic slideshow, or apply the current image as the lock screen wallpaper.

The radio screen follows the same minimalist pattern as the whole system, starting at the top, which has a back button, a add/remove from presets options. The current station is displayed as a large number on a “tuning line”. If HD radio signals are found, an HD icon is appended to the station number. If the station has multiple HD substations, they are accessible by swiping under the tuning line. A final button at the bottom of the page shows presets.

The marketplace menu has four choices: music,  apps, search, and cart. Music has options for: (artist) Picks, Top Albums, Top Songs, and new releases. Tapping a song or album, brings up a rather unnecessary screen with options to play it (full length for Zune Pass customers, and 15 second demo for others) or add it to the cart. Tapping on an artist, however will bring up details very similar to the native music browser (pictures, bio, etc.) The apps menu has choices to view new apps, updates, or all of them. As of now, all apps are free. More on apps later. Easy enough, the last two options, search and cart do exactly what their purpose is for.

Note: The social menu does not apply to me, as I don’t use the social. If anyone is feeling friendly, they can send me their thoughts so I can post it

The podcasts menu displays a list of downloaded series, which, when clicked on, provide a list of items.

The web browser was a bit of a miss. IT was nice having one, but it could’ve been much better. The web browser is Internet Explorer (get ready for this…) 6 based. Seriously?! Wasn’t Microsoft wanting to kill IE6 for a long time now? I constantly get nags while browsing to upgrade, some websites don’t work and there is no tabbed browsing. Again, seriously? How hard is tabbed browsing to implement? I hope Microsoft back ports the Windows Phone 7 browser, which is IE7/8 based with tabbed browsing, to the Zune HD.

Apps…apps, this is where most people get all bugged up and slink away from the Zune HD. The Zune HD has 24 apps. 24…official apps. If you count all the 3rd party XNA and OpenZDK apps (see Zuneboards.com for info) created, then the list tops 100. Apps are written in C# using specially provided APIs. If written in OpenZDK, which allow access to private, Microsoft only APIs such as internet, the programs are written in C#. Since I can’t (and don’t want to) go through all 100+ apps, I’ll share my favorites.

PGR: Ferrari Edition; this racing game from MS is right on. The graphics are smooth as silk, and a news site claimed it to have “PSP-level graphics”

Acceleroid: This is an Arkanoid/Space Invaders mashup, with high quality graphics and easily the best non-official app to date.

Labyrinth by Microsoft: This is a maze style game where you guide a ball using tilt to a goal. Very good time-killer.

A Beanstalk Tale: a climbing game where you use leaves to jump and try not to die by dropping off screen or getting mugged by an enemy.

Settings contain standard configurations; a notable setting is the return of an equalizer, which has been absent since the first generation Zune 30.

Battery Life and Performance

I have had the Zune HD for half a year now, so my battery tests may not be accurate. I get a little over a day of juice on moderate activity that includes web surfing, 2D games, and music. Excessive use of Wi-Fi will, as always, shorten battery life. Performance is very snappy, though there are some weak spots. Exiting the browser takes time, and sometime screenlock key presses will not register, or it’s just my device.

Conclusion and Rating

In conclusion, I think this device is a strong player in the PMP market, and is perfect for anyone who wants a premium media device with apps and web browsing thrown in as an extra. Do not get the Zune HD if you are an Apple fanboy, expect tons of apps, or want a smartphone. I rate this device a 4 out of 5 for a strong user experience, but it failed in terms of web browsing.

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