Zune HD hands-on

Sure, it was fun to have Ballmer run us through a little demo of the new Zune HD, but we'd be remiss in our duties if we didn't spend some time manhandling the device ourselves. We managed to track down the beast and toy with it a bit, and we must say... the thing kind of rocks. In your hand the Zune HD has a nice, solid feel, with good heft to it and a surprisingly thin profile. The OLED screen looks absolutely stunning -- even at severe viewing angles, colors were super bright, edges were crisp, and text looked beautiful. The UI is an extension of the existing Zune interface, but way tricked out in this version, with lots of flipping images, scaling text, smooth scrolling, and an extreme emphasis on simple visual navigation. While the OS isn't finished, we didn't notice a single hiccup while jumping through menus or playing back HD video. We'll definitely have more on this in the near future, but for now, you'll have to manage with this handful of images.

Gallery: Zune HD hands-on

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[Michael @ May 28th 2009 5:31PM]

looks good

[GeekPI @ May 28th 2009 6:03PM]

Paul: How many portable, pocket *HD* radios do you know of?

I'd say Microsoft is breaking new ground here - they just happen to wrap it with the best portable music player (and service) on the market.

[Mark @ May 28th 2009 6:09PM]

"Yes, it looks so great, welcome to 2007, Microsoft.

I mean, COME ON, if Microsoft had invented the iPhone and Apple the ZuneHD, that's what you guys would be saying right now. And you would be bashing it for having lower resolution than the iPod touch, and running an internet browser that's eight years old (IE 6) and an OS that's even older (WinCE, 1996). And I mean, RADIO, how old is radio?

This thing fails harder than the Pippin."

Wow, for someone who accused me of hating apple there's a lot of hate in that comment. As a commenter on the last forum noted, it's IE6 mobile that it's based on, not the desktop version. IE6 mobile has many of the features of desktop IE8.

You're really gonna complain about it using WinCE? Hell iphone is based on OSX and that OS is what? like 10 years old itself? This isn't WinCE 1, it's likely based on a tricked out WinCE 6, which was just released in '06.

Radio? This thing has HD radio, which has normal radio stations just like FM and AM, but with cd-quality digital sound, tags for what's playing(FM has a limited version of this now), and multiple channels for each station so that stations can play different songs on each one so if you don't like the song, you just move over to the other channel. It was only announced and accepted by the FCC in 2002.

Basically your whole post is riddled with fail.

[Murc @ May 28th 2009 6:50PM]

Mark - This has HD AM???

I like AM, One of the things I dont like most about my zune (1st gen) is that it doesn't have AM. So if this thing has HD AM...I'm sold. (I'll take that silver one)

[smaa @ May 28th 2009 6:26PM]

the one thing I cant stand about engadget is if you compare a ipod to a zune favorably on a zune post you get voted down. and vice versa

[Mark @ May 28th 2009 6:36PM]

HAHAHAHAHA I wasn't even the one who said that, Paul A. Chapel did and I was quoting him. You Apple fans are getting ridiculous. Getting to the point that lately I've been seeing people completely making up bad things about the zune just so they can try to say it's bad(like that the WinCE that's used in this is the original one from 1996, or that it uses regular radio, or that this is based off the desktop IE6)

[jon @ May 28th 2009 6:37PM]

@ paul

As an apple fan who has commented about 15 times on a thread about a product you have no interest in.

What's your fucking excuse?

[Fnuky @ May 28th 2009 6:39PM]

"IE6 mobile has many of the features of desktop IE8"

Such as? :)

[Mark @ May 28th 2009 6:48PM]

"Keep voting my comments down, Winbot tools. You know as well as I do that if there wasn't such a thing as the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch, we wouldn't be looking at this Zune HD right now. FACT.

Another me-too product from the world's number one me-too company, Microsoft.

The MS slobbering (and blind Apple hate) by the ignorant commenters on this site has become embarrassing."

Ditto to the blind MS hate by the ignorant commenters. I dont really care who MS got the idea of putting a touchscreen on this thing from, all that matters is how good it is. And from all indications it beats the pants off the ipod touch.

And you're absolutely right that we wouldn't see this zune today if apple hadn't made the ipod touch, just like we wouldn't see OSX, the iphone or any other apple product if MS hadn't bailed out Apple: FACT. And we probably wouldn't see an iphone without all the other touchscreen smartphones that were out before it. It's called competition, and is the main idea behind our entire economy. Go look it up.

[Mark @ May 28th 2009 6:56PM]

"Some of the cool features available with Internet Explorer Mobile 6 are:

Improved fidelity (support for full fidelity desktop rendering)
Layout fixes to accommodate a mobile screen (text wrap)
Enhanced Script and AJAX support (Jscript v5.7 from Internet Explorer 8)
Improved multimedia experience (Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 for Adobe Flash content)
Deeper integration with search
Enhanced cursor navigation model
Touch and gesture support – pan support
Multiple zoom levels
Easy switching between mobile / desktop versions of sites by specifying UA strings. "
-From the Windows Mobile Team Blog.

[Look_Around_You @ May 28th 2009 7:18PM]

What can you say?

Apple fanatics have come unhinged.

When they can depend on their gadgets to make them feel secure, they lash out in every direction.

They are making sane Apple users look like morons.

[bluesky_v2.01 @ May 28th 2009 7:29PM]

What is your problem Paul?
So much anger in your every comment, it's really unbelievable. Were you sexually assaulted by a Microsoft employee as a kid?
Apple and Microsoft are just companies. They make electronics, you buy them . . . and they make profit. That is all. You don't have to defend every piece of crap with an apple logo on it just like you don't have to bash everything that comes out of Microsoft.
If you're wondering why people downrate your comments, it's because you're such a giant douchebag. Make one comment without insulting someone else and see what happens.

[FoxKenji @ May 28th 2009 7:37PM]

@ Paul

"No, in my experience, people get voted down if they say ANYTHING good about Apple. If you say, "I like Steve Jobs' tennis shoes," immediately low rank.

The comments section is populated primarily by MS Fanboys. The readership though is solidly Apple territory, which is why the polls always favor Apple. I guess most Apple fans are too busy making money to stop and comment."


100% agreed. Look at all the comments. Anyone who says anyting in favor of Apple gets immediately ranked down.

[Félix @ May 28th 2009 7:53PM]

@Paul a. chapel
you FAIL to understand the difference between copy and competition...
(dude those guys totally ripped off the iPhone, they made a 3,5inches touchscreen device that can make phone calls !! oh wait it's not a phone ..ok... wait there were smartphones before the iPhone ???? reallly ?)


actually I can make my first sentence shorter : you FAIL.

[Sam @ May 28th 2009 7:54PM]

i also agree.. people are so busy bashing apple fanboys that theyve gone waaaaay to far and now if you say anything minutely anti-microsoft your accused of being an apple fanboy and therefore a troll.

face up to the facts, this is better than the ipod touch. theres no real doubt there, lovely OLED screen, radios a nice feature to have etc etc. but considering I got my iPod Touch in 2007 and its now 2009 is this really 2 years progress? So yeh maybe this is 10% better than everything else at the moment. but the ipod was 20% better when it came out - maybe more.

Ive tried to write this comment as level headed as possible, I dont see myself as an anything fanboy. But go ahead, vote me down and prove my point

[Decoy @ May 28th 2009 8:37PM]

The reason why there are more Microsoft users on the comments is that the Apple users don't know how to use these weird things called buttons.

[Look_Around_You @ May 28th 2009 9:44PM]

@foxkenji

The comments section is populated primarily by MS Fanboys. The readership though is solidly Apple territory, which is why the polls always favor Apple. I guess most Apple fans are too busy making money to stop and comment."


100% agreed. Look at all the comments. Anyone who says anyting in favor of Apple gets immediately ranked down.

Do yourself a little favor and go read the comments of people like Paul, Guru, P.A.C Man, Quix,, iphonerulz, iKirk, and others and then you tell us why this keeps happening to them.

Their comments are not just some innocent complement of Apple products, they are 99.9% of the time just mindless flames on ANYTHING that doesn't have an Apple logo on it, but competes in some way with an Apple product.

These idiots do nothing but infest thread after thread with these insane behavior. And then they have the nerve to actually call people "Apple haters".

And you know what? At some point they pissed people off so much that they now downrank anything they post. Poor them!

If they acted like adults, people would give them a fair hearing. Plenty of Apple fans praise Apple without resorting to the bullshit that these guys have to stoop to. And they dont get downranked.

[ice~ @ May 28th 2009 11:15PM]

Look, Microsoft didn't COPY the iPod touch. Before the iPod touch, there were touch screen devices. Apple saw this and realized they could CAPITALIZE on the idea. Microsoft sees the success and user friendliness of touch screen, and realizes it's really popular at the moment and CAPITALIZE on the idea! The Zune did not COPY the iPod. There were OTHER MP3 PLAYERS BEFORE THE iPOD! No one understands this, why don't you bash every MP3 player that comes out and claim it copied apple? This needs to stop. This is how our economy works, a company makes a good idea, creates a new market for a popular product, and another company needs to compete and get into said market, which is what microsoft is doing which is what CAPITALISM is. And in all honesty, I like the Zune more than the iPod. At first, I owned a bunch of iPods...and I didn't like a lot of things about them but they played my music and thats all I cared about

I purchased an iPod touch, and I felt it was a pain in the ass to take it out of my pocket and unlock it to change the song, because there were no buttons, so, I decided to buy a Zune. I then fell in love with it for many reasons, the main reason, which is a pretty random one, is the material on the back of the 8gig zune, it's not that shiny mirror material on the iPod, its kind of like stainless steel, and it got much less scratched. I've gotten a lot of use out of the zune. BUT: I don't go on every dam apple post bashing it into oblivion, it's just a company out there to make money as is microsoft, if you don't like a company then don't buy there product, stop going onto websites trolling because you think you're somehow justifying you're $300 purchase on an iPod touch or whatever it is you're doing.

Truth is, the Zune is an excellent MP3 player, as is the iPod, and it deserves a chance, we don't need "fanboys" jumping down Microsofts throat claiming they're doing a "Me-Too" thing, every company has done it. Look at soda companies for christ's sake. I'm done...last words: I will be buying this, and here's hoping it can actually play XBLA games and connect to XBL on our gamertags because that would make that Zune the ULTIMATE MP3 player for gamers, well xbox gamers. Ty and goodbye :P

[Freedom Town @ May 29th 2009 11:03AM]

Wait, it doesn't have a camera!!!! It doesn't have the best web-browser!!!!! I can't BBQ a steak on it!!!!! Epic Fails

Oh, thats right, this isn't a digital camera, and it isn't a netbook, and it isn't a portable grill. It is a portable device that plays Music and Videos. It isn't a phone, because that is what a phone is for, and it isn't a computer because that is what a computer is for.

Yes, I agree, in a mythical land, there would be one device that can do every single thing you want it to do, with a battery that runs on happiness and never has to charge.

But back in reality....I want my music player to play music. If I want to listen to music, I carry around a music player. If I want to talk on the phone, I bring a cell phone and if I want to take pictures, I bring a camera.

Why? Because each one of those things will do the job it is supposed to do, 100x better then a "jack of all trades" device like the I-Phone.

[Frankie @ May 29th 2009 6:52PM]

Competition leads to innovation, innovation leads to new products.. who gives a rats ass who copies who, its just a childish argument.

[loosely_coupled @ May 29th 2009 7:59PM]

Enough with all the geek kiddies.. People who actually work in the web industry know all to well the horrors of IE 6.0's rendering engine, and that is exactly what the new IE mobile browser is based on.

[Webber @ May 29th 2009 10:43PM]

I like Apple, and I have always done so (since the Intel transition). I have an iPod touch, a nano, an iMac, and a MacBook Air. I have always ben proud about liking Apple, but I have never hated any other company about it. I don't troll, in fact, I think the Zune HD and Windows 7 look pretty cool, and provide support to people with Windows (a little hobby of mine) without a single complaint, and know the OS quite well. Well, to the point, Apple fanboys make people who buy Apple products looks bad. They insert Apple into every single possible discussion (even if it has nothing to do with Apple), and just to annoy people. How can you (Paul) make an honest opinion when you don't even own an iPod, Zune, or any other player? And if people tell you to die, it's not only because of a single post, you've been trolling for a long time, and people are annoyed constantly not only by you, but by many other trolls and fanboys. So, in other words, go away!

[trainwrecka @ Jun 1st 2009 3:27PM]

low-ranking comments doesn't make them false. it's the equivalent of sticking your head in the sand.

[Rivengle @ Aug 10th 2009 1:58PM]

@decoy: No, they only know two buttons, the little circle with a square in it and a tiny slit at the top of a device.

Plus, why are some people comparing this to a phone? It's a PMP, not a g-dam phone. Well, unless it is that good to be compared to a phone.

[rush0 @ May 28th 2009 5:31PM]

beautiful =D~~~~~~

[AVG @ May 28th 2009 5:40PM]

Why does that penis have no balls? Also, my dad ran over my Zune with his car when I was visiting last weekend. What timing. If only he had waited a few more months...

[Eddy Munn @ May 28th 2009 5:40PM]

Hand on heart, In my opinion it only looks good from the rear-end.
The front looks cheap and plastic, not something I'd be willing to spend on a fortune on.

I guess it does make up for itself though with some features are brands don't supply.

[AVG @ May 28th 2009 5:41PM]

"The front looks cheap and plastic, not something I'd be willing to spend on a fortune on."

Wha? Go handle a Zune, they're some of the finest built MP3 players I have ever used.

[nicky @ May 28th 2009 5:43PM]

beautiful except for the e in marketplace

[coffee @ May 28th 2009 5:49PM]

the partially-offscreen 'e' in Marketplace is a recurring theme in the ZuneHD UI. Text and graphics are not meant to be perfectly centered and completely visible. Check the screenshots.

It's not a mistake or problem with resolution.

now, whether you like it or not is a whole different matter.

[nicky @ May 28th 2009 6:10PM]

makes more sense if thats a systemwide style but i still think it looks untidy, like an unfinished software.
little things like that are enough to make me dislike an otherwise great looking device

[JS @ May 28th 2009 6:12PM]

Microsoft is being disingenuous in calling this thing HD. It's barely above QVGA .. it's got less resolution that the iPhone.

[Darthweder @ May 28th 2009 6:33PM]

@Nicky
Wow, you're really picky. If you'd let something like that ruin a perfectly good PMP, I think there's something wrong with you.

[Michael Holmes @ May 28th 2009 6:27PM]

@JS: Yeah, it's not like it can play 720p video over HDMI or anything. Or play HD radio.

[darkstar @ May 28th 2009 6:41PM]

daymmmm
this version is hot!!! i might just get one too!

[Calvin @ May 28th 2009 6:48PM]

@nicky

"While the OS isn't finished,"

Yeah, it is unfinished software, so you should expect that

[comment_system=Fail @ May 28th 2009 7:04PM]

Oh, the "e" thing is intentional, thanks for clearing that up. I don't like it.

Because in that case it's an attention-grabber or a brand building exercise, neither of which has a place in a user interface that I use every day. I like simple.

[Me4u2 @ May 28th 2009 8:12PM]

Here's the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNgAVbDWkZk

Reaallly really tight...

[maveric101 @ May 28th 2009 8:13PM]

while it can play HD video and has HD radio, i still think the screen res is a let-down. browsing the web on a res that low would not be fun.

[AndrewNoNumbers @ May 28th 2009 8:42PM]

Actually 480 pixels wide is pretty good for web browsing.

ROFL@AVG

[Mike @ May 28th 2009 9:44PM]

agree that it looks nice as well. but who said the "e" being cut off is intentional? and why? - some detail like that looks more like a tiny hiccup with GUI integration. wouldn't be fond by designers, unless a designer made it intentional for some reason.
any videos on GUI demo?

[Mike @ May 29th 2009 12:45AM]

just saw that youtube video. GUI looks pretty sweet. i think that what windows mobile will be like, with all text front screen. microsoft is going for that 'typography' style, nice.

[boolean22 @ May 29th 2009 11:04AM]

WELCOME TO THE 'SERIOUS' SH17, guys!

And about time already.

I mean, the hardware stuff at MS is gorgeous and efficient to the extreme, why wouldn't this brand benefit from some beef from the start? I dunno. What I DO know is that I've been using my excellent HTC Touch Diamond for almost a year now and, knowing what WinMo (or the future Windows Phone Software) can do, and how easily it syncs with everything (Macs using SyncMate even with Wifi Sync, PCs using Windows Mobile Center...) I just can't think about anything I wouldn't like of a phone made out of this new WinCE core.

[Ryan @ May 29th 2009 2:26PM]

Beautiful indeed.

[Abhishek @ May 28th 2009 5:32PM]

I'd rather rock THIS and the BB Bold, than being stuck with the iPhone 3G which sort of incorporates gaming, music and phone capabilities.

[TeraFlopper @ May 28th 2009 5:39PM]

Isn't that the beauty of the iPhone? Only need one device. Not a handful, or in this case a couple bulging pocketfuls. It does EVERYTHING this does, and more, and soon to be even more.

[Gnormie @ May 28th 2009 5:47PM]

But it does none of them exceptionally well, it's browsing/gaming capabilities will continue to be outshone by the Nokia N810/PSP/Nintendo DSi. It's business acumen is far outclassed by WinMo/Blackberry and it's music/video playback abilities... well go and use a Cowon S9 or a Samsung P3 and come back and tell me the iPhone is good with a straight look on your face and you'll be an absolutely fantastic liar.

I don't deny the iPhone is a great device, it kicked the mobile industry into gear now all we need is someone else to kicks the telcos up the arse and tell them to accept becoming dumbpipes. But apart from that it is the epitome of 'does it all, not so great at anything' in product design. Those who want it all but aren't particularly bothered with features will go for the iPhone, we who want the bar to be raised further before we merge our devices currently have to keep on waiting as it seems that so far every phone that claims to 'do it all' can't do it all particularly well.

[darkstar @ May 28th 2009 6:03PM]

so true G!
i almost puked the first time i heard the sound quality on an ipod.
those iDiots have no clue what quality is about when all they claim is : apple = quality. sad.

[chriz @ May 28th 2009 6:23PM]

@TeraFlopper:
you made a valid point there but i still feel more comfortable with separate devices.

the phone is simply for getting things done and being productive supporting perfect exchange sync, custom apps, administraton by our it-guys, qwerty keboard for texting and email, etc. while the zuneHD would be all play with music, hd video, games, movies2go, etc. AND you can still manage to get great battery life for both devices.

with an iphone i could maybe do some decent gaming and music, but still no homescreen, no widget-system, an email and text notification system whick sucks, still blurry exchange sync, bad typing expierence, bad bad battery life, etc. don't get me wrong - i really think the iphone is some neat piece of technology but with 2 separate devices you just can't do anything wrong.

[rBz @ May 28th 2009 6:28PM]

agreed! id rather have a multitude of devices i can do different things with rather than having only 1 device handling it all. if the battery dies on that 1 device, everything else goes with it too.

dont get me wrong, i like multi-use devices, the more of them that i have the better. id just rather not depend on only 1 device to handle it all.