Zune battery life: 12 hours music, 3.5 hours video
By Ryan Block 
posted September 17th 2006 10:09AM
posted September 17th 2006 10:09AM
Yeah, it's a somewhat minor-seeming detail, but no one seemed to know how much damned battery life the Zune was going to have at launch. They were pretty tight lipped about it, but our new pal and independent analyst for Directions on Microsoft, Matt Rosoff, let us know that according to his contacts, with wireless off we can expect a 12 hours of music playback at 128Kbps, 3.5 hours for video playback, and 4.5 hours when running a slide show. Compare that to the 30GB iPod's 14/4 hours and the 80GB iPod's 20/6 hours, and it's a little difficult to fully envision the payoff for that added thickness and height. Still, remember: bigger screen, wireless, bigger screen, wireless. Ah well, we'll just hope upon hope that'll be something the fix before release in a couple months.[Thanks, Matt]
"The Zune is basically a Gigabeat S with WiFi and 16:9," - Ben
The Zune is not 16:9, it is 4:3, just like the iPod.
I think the thing that people are really missing is the fact that it's so much chunkier than than the iPod. So basically the new iPod has the same video battery life, but if it was the sam thinkness the battery life would be about 8 hours.
Big Bwai - has it ever crossed your mind that the scrollwheel like design of the zune interface could just have been designed that way because it asthetically matches the devices design?
Alright so the battery life aint so hot, the Zune still beat the Ipod to the punch on several features, bigger wide screen, wifi, subscription music for most people 12 hours is still plenty enough to get through the day, do the math 12h of zune + 8 hours of sleep = 4 hours of time to eat etc.
The wifi feature in this device has HUGE potential. I think that given a month or two this will get blown wide open just like PSP, some1 will crack the firmware and release a version that has no DRM attached to shared files. Then in a few weeks zune will explode and the true competitor to ipod will be born, as it stands this is still the most unified effort to provide decent competition to the ipod
p.s Xbox was gen1 and faced off against a super recognized gen 2 PS2 and it gave it a good fight. Look at ps3 weez now while 360 steals the show ;)
In our interview this week with Microsoft's Chris Stephenson, he hedged on battery life details. He pointed out that Wi-Fi is only on when needed, and that mitigates the battery-draining effects considerably.
He also said the Zune battery would be quicker-to-charge than iPod's.
Full interview is on http://www.Zunerama.com
- frabgod
dave95, i dont like you
LOLAZAAAAA
how many times do people have to mention that the zune is not wide screen.. yes is a bit bigger but same resolution and same aspect ratio 4:3, so lets get with the program people.
I'm not entirely convinced by this latest M$ move. Two things:
- Adding Wifi is M$ trying to add a feature which it thinks people want. Sharing music wirelessly, whatever Mr Orlowski may think, conflicts with the very essence of listening to music with a set of headphones: it's a pure personal experience. At best, it's a gimmick, and in that case, the device needs to apportion an appropriate level of its (battery) resources. I'm sorry, but crippling your battery life for the sake of a gimmick is bollocks; and
- people (Mark?) seem to forget that M$'s ability to re-sell music is contingent on its ability to keep the music execs happy. Allow the DRM to be blown open, and your breach your licensing agreement, effectively ending your involvement with the biz. It's all about striking the right balance between coolness (keeping the kids off P2P - v. difficult), usability, DRM protection and flexibility. Apple doesn't always get it right, but it's got the right idea and it showed the way.
My $0.02.
Can we wait until some reviews come in with real world battery life?
I'm glad the iPod stepped up battery life, but it took them 349 iPods to do it.
Give MS some time.
Even the first XBox was ugly as all hell.
And now the XB360 might be the most popular of them all.
A lot will change in the video/mp3 market in the next 6-12 months.
Between the 2nd Gen Zune and 6th gen iPod, everyone wins with good competition.
"That battery life really sucks. No kudos for iPod, either. Why can't these guys learn from Sony? Fast charge, more than double the battery life, etc."
Posted at 10:32AM on Sep 17th 2006 by Jeff [ ! ]
Last time they did that, it required the recall of hundreds of laptop batteries, remember?
""That battery life really sucks. No kudos for iPod, either. Why can't these guys learn from Sony? Fast charge, more than double the battery life, etc."
Posted at 10:32AM on Sep 17th 2006 by Jeff [ ! ]
Last time they did that, it required the recall of hundreds of laptop batteries, remember?
Posted at 5:58PM on Sep 17th 2006 by Tyler Hurst [ ! ]"
Hundreds? There were 1.8 million Mac batteries alone. Nonetheless, I think I'd be willing to take a slight cut if it was from a better supplier.
I'm not sure why you guys are defending the Zune so profusely. They spec'd it so it couldn't compete. It being the first Zune isn't an excuse either; everything inside these things are standard parts, standard batteries. They just got carried away with the interface and WiFi which will end up giving them lacklustre battery lives.
By the way, for people thinking 12/3.5 is still 'good enough', don't forget that batteries naturally deplete over time. In a year, the thing wouldn't be able to watch a full movie before dying. I think the Zune should have been more simplistic, but with much bigger numbers.
Also, I still feel the only way the Zune could possibly steal some market share is if they situate themselves significantly lower than the iPod price-wise, and offer the much talked about iTunes song conversion. Otherwise this competition will be over before it's started. Which is a shame, because as someone said earlier, competition means everyone wins.
Well, they would, but I can't see more than a niche handful running out to buy this thing. At best, it'd just cannibalise the already fragmented DAP market, destroying the companies that are supposedly in association with Microsoft. iPod users aren't going to willingly switch for these things, but people with a random DAP and no brand pride wouldn't be as reluctant.
"iPod users aren't going to willingly switch for these things"
What makes everyone think that MS is targeting current ipod users as a priority? To me it looks like they know few people will actually switch, what they're after is the 95% of the population that does NOT yet have an ipod. for example, I don't have an ipod, I've never owned one, nobody in my family has ever owned one. They're job is to try and win ME over. Most ipod owners are already satisfied with their ipods so that's an unlikely focus.
battery life sounds familiar, *cough*gigabeat*cough*
From what we can see, the Zune's marketing strategy is not to target non-DAP users, although I concede that it would be a much better move on their behalf.
If they could make them cheap enough, or offer a rebate with the 360, or even better, Vista, they might pull some very decent market penetration, bypassing the monotony of competing with the iPod and other DAP brands with loyal fans. I think their only salvation would be to suggest that this is the DAP for everybody else.
I still feel that this is an item that will only sell well once a lot of people already have them, so they'll have to work on that first.
The Zune's larger screen dimensions combined with the same number of pixels as an iPod means a less sharp image.
@mini me.
the mighty mouse sucks. The right click hardly ever recognizes cuz its all one button and it thinks its the left click.
I think portable players should be like supercars. High tech, ridicuous, avante garde and should make the ladies look and people without them envious. The Zune looks as boring as it sounds.
Imagine the the monotone of a short sleeve, tie wearing banker with glasses showing his Zune...
'Hi guuuuuyyys, I have a Zuunnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeee. It plays music and Stttttargate..........' (followed by heavy nostil breathing)
Don't you wish MS went a bit more OTT?
I have tried watching video on go - but it seems like not for me at least. After 10 minutes or so my eyes started aching. The same feeling as if I read book on go.
I think there are many people as me, asking what that "video" buzz is all around. With the tiny screen on device held on palm, it forces eyes to refocus after every little movement.
Does anybody really watches videos that way?
"something the* fix" (they)
watching video on the go gives me motion sickness.
I still reckon despite this let down, that the Zune will be quite nifty.
Mark, the Zune hasn't "beaten" Apple to the punch with subscription support - Apple has flatly rejected it for almost 2 years now. Don't think for a second that if the subscription model actually started to sell, Apple couldn't simply flip the switch with a software update and everyone could have their music buffet on iTunes...and yet another monthly bill to keep up with.
You've got a point in regards to battery life though - I think 12/3.5 is just fine. Most people I know use their iPod in a constantly charged state while driving. Even if you're someone that actually lives off of battery, 12 should be plenty. The question is, how do other functions outside of just listening to tunes affect the battery life? Track navigation, DRM decoding...this type of stuff.
Wifi implementation in Zune - absolutely retarded. Sharing your library is cool when you're in a constantly static networked environment, like the office. iTunes users already take advantage of a feature like this with the exception being that you can't share DRMed music. It's so painfully obvious that this idea came up in a board room while J Allard and crew were desperately trying to find some feature that would set them apart from the iPod. What they don't get is that the lure of the iPod doesn't stem from gimmicky (spelling?) features. This "sharing" concept is a bit of a stretch in my opinion. Who other than geeky teens are going to sit around and browse each other's Zunes? Also, not all music on the Zune is shareable...only select tracks so what's the point? A truly useful implementation of WiFi in a DAP would allow us to synch our device with the computer or 360. Better yet, access a music store. Given J Allard's comments in his engadget interview, I'm starting to feel like that team is a bit out of touch on this one. I'd love to see Jobs's reaction when told of J Allard's assertion that the iPod was the "Pong" of music players because the future is "all about sharing and community".
Oh and your prediction that a DRM crack is going to somehow start a Zune goldrush? If anything, it's going to make things even more messy, especially when Microsoft freaks out and starts slinging patches around. By the time we have Zune SP2, the device and service will have been all but abandoned by the biz and Zune will be a distant 4th place behind Creative and Sandisk.
How much would you say about the battery life if MS decided to play phone company? Let's say they come out and offer the device (4gb - gotta make it appealing) for only $29 if you sign up for two years of the Zune Marketplace? Or give it free for two years on contract, with a penalty for early cancellation?
Or you can buy it for $249 with no service...
I know I'm going to come off as a MS fanboy when I say this, but give them a break. The Ipod wasn't exactly stellar either when it first came out. I doubt many of you know that J Allard is now working on the Zune. Plus, when has Microsoft made their own hardware? I thought they always let someone else make it for them. If that's true, it should come to no suprise that Toshiba is making it and letting them sell it themselves. Like someone said before, MS wants to win. They have the resouces to do it. I don't want anyone dominating one market, and who would be better than ms,comsidering their track record with the Xbox?
We'll See... :)
"That battery life really sucks. No kudos for iPod, either. Why can't these guys learn from Sony?"
You're absolutely right, but perhaps they can choose not to learn the trick about exploding the batteries, it just seems detrimental to the purpose, thats all.
I may be absolutely crazy, but has anyone ever sat for 14 hours straight listening to music on their iPod? Yeah, I thought not. Battery life seems to be this huge spec, but I listen to my Sansa e260 for about 6 hours per day at work, go home, recharge it--and I go back the next day with about 18 hours of playback, but still listen to it for a third of that.
Battery life isn't as important as most people seem to think.
@Miguel
I have, in-fact, sat with my iPod playing straight for over 14 hours. I have listened to my IPod for the duration of an 8 hour flight to Heathrow from Toronto, continued to listen to my iPod while stopped over at Heathrow for five hours and finally polished off my trip listening to music and watching videos for a three hour flight from Heathrow to Barajas in Madrid. When I finally arrived in Madrid my iPod was still alive an kicking with no visible signs of giving up soon. Long battery life is invaluable on long flights, and since I have spent a considerable amount of time over the past few years travelling around Europe and flying to North America I am very happy with the battery life on my iPods. It is a blessing to have 20 hours of music playback when my old 3G iPod would only carry me through 8 hours straight.
MS fanboys are just as bad as Apple ones. The MS crowd will bash an iPod for a particular weakness and then praise the Zune for the same thing. As far as I am concerned buy which ever product you prefer. It doesn't bother me if some guy prefers the Zune over the iPod, or the reverse. Some people here seem to take this whole issue a bit too seriously. If it is the best product in your opinion it is the best product for you. End of story. Frankly I'd like to see less iPods out there. Every Tom Dick and Harry has one these days. I preferred it when it was more of a niche product with a smaller following. At least then there weren't a bunch of noobs running around with an iPod, a pair of keys and some change sloshing around in a pocket, screaming bloody murder that Apple can't design the housing of a device properly. But that is old news and I will shut up now!
Amazing. Nearly every DAP review made in the past couple of years by CNET (and others in love with MS) touts superior features available in players which are not iPods. CNET has on more than a dozen occasions written articles on "why to dump the iPod", because of paltry battery life and overpricing compared to the likes of Creative, etc. Here we have MS about to release a player with only 12 hours of music playback time and priced uncompetitively with the iPod in regards to storage, and all the iPod-haters run to their defense. "DRM kills battery life". Guess what? The iPod also has DRM. "Battery life is not really that important anymore". Where was this comment during the past 5 years of iPod-bashing?
Truly amazing.
quote["Still, remember: bigger screen, wireless, bigger screen, wireless."] ... LOL!
Its very funny!.. I guess when we go to buy ZUNE, this is wat we should be saying to ourselves. Its no match when compared to iPod!.. But its worth a try ;-)
Amazon is adve3rtising a battery backup for the Zune. Seems you can carry spare power with you. Let's see Apple pull that one.
http://www.zunemax.com/the-zune/zune-for-sale-at-amazoncom
Amazon is advertising a battery backup for the Zune. Seems you can carry spare power with you. Let's see Apple pull that one.
http://www.zunemax.com/the-zune/zune-for-sale-at-amazoncom
I have ever bought a zunne battery from http://www.brilliantstore.com/ and its endurance is 12 hours music, 3.5 hours video, but now I need longer video time.
I just got my zune two days ago, the software is set up and my zune is plugged in. However when I plugged my zune in I got the battery charging pic and it hasn't gone off or won't turn on yet. Does it take more than two days to charge a zune? Or is this a problem only i am having? My USB ports work just fine with other devices but I cant seem to get my zune charged. I've tried everything in the book and have had no luck. Even when I unplug the zune from my computer the charging pic is still there and won't go away or restart. Someone help, although I may just take it back and get an IPod. Microsoft sucks!
I had that problem with my iPod. After Googling a bit I found that I had to "Eject" the iPod from iTunes. I guess there might be an "Eject" menu some where.
FYI: 30gb ipods get 8 hours battery life or so, and a class action lawsuit was filed, the owners of ipods received 50 dollars in store credit or a new battery. The zune however gets 14 hours with no wi-fi, or dare I say it, 13 hours with Wi fi. I really don't see a problem charging my electronics every 3 days or so but w/e. Zune rocks ( Coming from a nano 2nd generation owner ).