Exclusive: Steve Ballmer demos the Zune HD for Engadget!

That's right kids -- Ballmer himself whipped out the newly minted Zune HD for us during D7 and showed off a few of its finer features... including its ability to play a Pixar movie on its gorgeous OLED screen. Also of note, Steve off-handedly mentioned that the device would be shipping in a month, though we can't confirm that that's accurate. Anyhow, these pictures say far more than a thousand words, so just hit the gallery.

Update: Microsoft just pinged to let us know that the Zune HD is still set for a Fall release, not next month.

A few quick impressions we took away:

• The device was a pre-production model, and Steve had to boot it up -- which can be seen in the shots below.
• Hardware was surprisingly thin.
• There's what appears to be a solitary hard button below the screen.
• Interface was basically the same Zune UI with touch navigation, but very colorful and pretty snappy.
• The OLED screen looked great.
• We'll obviously be badgering Microsoft in the coming months for a longer, closer look at the device, but at least it's not just a render anymore.

Steve Ballmer demos the Zune HD for Engadget

[arsenal27 Posted May 28th 2009 12:45PM]

wooooooooot

[MaX PL Posted May 28th 2009 1:00PM]

shipping in the next month huh Steve? nice...

[garrenteed Posted May 28th 2009 1:01PM]

woooooot yes! i just "accidentally" lost my zubrick

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 1:03PM]

It's either smaller than I thought or Ballmer has HUGE hands!

Looks good, what do you make of the markings around the Zune logo (bottom left), could this be a interface?

[Templarian Posted May 28th 2009 1:05PM]

@Graham Stevens, that is most likely a development stamp or something so they can keep track. Wouldn't want one of those leaking out this early.

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 1:12PM]

Video or it didn't happen!

[Spartan117458 Posted May 28th 2009 1:21PM]

Looks hot.

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 1:21PM]

lots of D's around he's neck......mmmmmmmmmmm..... ponders a while

dufus (doofus)
dimwit
dumb-ass
deranged
dubious
daft
dancer ?!?!

... just thinking

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 1:33PM]

Ding
Dong
Ding
Dong
Ding
Dong

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 1:37PM]

@hangfire: Thanks for letting us know you're a trolling tool. Now go die. kthxbai

[000000 Posted May 28th 2009 1:38PM]

Ballmer lost weight...

[Eric H Posted May 28th 2009 1:46PM]

Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers!

[insky Posted May 28th 2009 1:51PM]

@000000
Yet another feature M$ is stealing from Apple.
Now their CEO is loosing weight too

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 1:55PM]

"This thing sucks! It has no buttons!"

"Dude, this isn't an iPhone or iPod Touch. It's from Microsoft."

"It is??? Oh, well then, I LOVE IT!!!"

- the Microsoft-Slobbering Engadget Commenter Horde

[simbadogg Posted May 28th 2009 2:00PM]

@ Eric
i'm surprised you're not high ranked through the sky already. i guess some people dont remember that, but that was classic balmer. the best was how he seriously chanted that until he ran out of breath, then started back up again.

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 2:06PM]

LOL, Quix, thanks for that. I also remember the Microsoft Fanboys complaining because the iPod doesn't have a removable battery and yet, I didn't hear a peep when the Zune was released and it also didn't have a removable battery.

The ZuneHD probably won't have Flash in it's web browser, according to a source at Microsoft. We'll see how they complain about that.

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 2:21PM]

@Eric

win.

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 2:31PM]

ipod>zunehd

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 2:49PM]

where's his tongue??? he used to stick it out all the time! BLEHHH!!!

so Ballmer's trying to push their Zune HD to be better than Jobs' iPod Touch (me loves the HD now...)

and at the same time,

Ballmer's is trying to be thinner than Jobs?

COMPETITION!!!

[3pxshift Posted May 28th 2009 3:41PM]

looks cool .. me likey.

[Raul7 Posted May 28th 2009 3:42PM]

He is obviously after Jobs. Better touchscreen media player, trying to get skinnier AND playing a Pixar movie!
But if they don't release this world-wide, it won't really have much success.

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 4:53PM]

This is probably a ridiculous question, but I'm going to ask it anyways. Reading through the comments it is amusing seeing how strongly people are on both Apple and MS sides, but are you people serious? Do you really have that strong of product loyalty or is this a joke?

[Anthony Joel Posted May 28th 2009 5:31PM]

Woot is right, if it has WMP12 support I am buying one. If not... :(

[fnuky Posted May 28th 2009 6:08PM]

Has anybody noticed what incredibly low ambient light levels it was demonstrated in? You can barely make out Ballmer (not that that's a bad thing!) Well that's because that's the only situation in which an OLED looks better than an LCD.

How come nobody had such a nerdgasm over the previous 200 or so PMPs that have been released with OLEDs?

[fnuky Posted May 28th 2009 6:53PM]

Here's what an OLED screen looks like in real conditions: a normal room with normal ambient daylight. Hmmm, the blacks don't seem quite so black now, and the whites don't stand out anywhere near as much against them. In fact, it looks like an expensive version of a shitty old passive matrix LCD.

http://bit.ly/uCSOj

The brighter the ambient light, the worse it gets compared to a TFT LCD and, in direct sunlight, it will be unreadable.

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 7:05PM]

@Josh

No, for the most part I don't believe these people are joking. They are serious business about their product loyalties

[(Unverified) Posted May 29th 2009 11:35AM]

@eric
Best comment i have seen on Engadget ever.

[(Unverified) Posted May 29th 2009 4:07PM]

The Zune will go down in history and join a famous list for the second time. Titanic, Edsel, Hindenburg, Zune, Space Shuttle Challenger.... Zune HD.

[(Unverified) Posted May 29th 2009 4:09PM]

Eric is actually as highly-ranked as he can possibly be; it's just that the comment system is just as spekal as it ever was. Click the time and date stamp on comments to see their actual ranking (it took me ages to figure that out, for the record).

[E30 Kid Posted May 30th 2009 12:49AM]

@ iphonerulez

Why?

[mailbox01 Posted May 28th 2009 12:46PM]

SWEET!

[Saad Posted May 28th 2009 1:19PM]

Joshua, I will force my gf to sleep with you if you add a video of Zune HD right now... Oh please.

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 1:22PM]

Grapefruit?

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 1:41PM]

Topolsky please post the video... I know its there, but you guys don't wanna post it cuz, it so drool worthy and you don't want people ebaying their ipod touches to get the Ultimate Zune HD...

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 1:49PM]

Saad will throw in a little extra something something if that video happens to include Ballmer in briefs...

[Ike Turner Posted May 28th 2009 12:47PM]

Holy fuck Yeah!
I see that he's playing one of the WMV-HD trailers on it (the plane)!

[Lando Calrissian Posted May 28th 2009 12:46PM]

So. Damn. Beautiful.

[Ryan Trevisol Posted May 28th 2009 12:53PM]

Agreed. Too bad he's already scratched it up.

But that screen . . . gorgeous.

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 12:56PM]

Oh, how those black levels seemlessly integrate into the bezel..... ::drool::

If iPhone 3 doesn't have OLED, I seriously don't think I'm going to get it - I'll play the waiting game, and maybe get an Android offering w/ OLED.

[Iceman Posted May 28th 2009 12:58PM]

That screen looks Effin Amazing!
Everything must now be OLED!

[Ryan Trevisol Posted May 28th 2009 1:01PM]

You know, I might just be with you on that one. You know, if Microsoft can do it . . .

[TT Posted May 28th 2009 1:06PM]

@crawdad

The Samsung I7500 Galaxy has an AMOLED display.

Oh, and Engadget, why didn't you make a video? (If it wasn't allowed, I can understand, but if not... *Insert rant here about how you wasted a world exclusive chance, etc.*)

[Duke Posted May 28th 2009 1:07PM]

Ya know, I think this is gonna go on my shopping list for sure. Even if the new iPhone has better specs, I still am liking the Zune enough to give one a go. Plus, my iPhone's batteries are forever about to go dead so another media device is needed.

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 1:19PM]

Lando, don't buy it, it's a trap!

[smazms Posted May 28th 2009 1:37PM]

id have understood the lack of video more if the account they gave was more detailed. not 3 lines

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 12:46PM]

WOOT!

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 12:46PM]

MONKEY BOY looks skinny

[Puggs Posted May 28th 2009 12:59PM]

I was thinking the same! Maybe him and Steve Jobs are on the same diet!

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 1:18PM]

I was just thinking that. What's with new skinny Balmer?

[monkeytheboy Posted May 28th 2009 2:14PM]

No i don't! :(