Zune HD lands September 15th, up for pre-order today
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted August 13th 2009 3:01AM
posted August 13th 2009 3:01AM
Do you want a Zune HD real bad? Well you're in luck, because the wait is nearly over. Microsoft announced today that the heavily hyped media player will be making its way into retail channels come September 15th, and will be up for pre-order at select spots (Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart, and the Microsoft Store) today. That's right... today. The Tegra-packing, HD Radio-playing, 720p-outputting device will come in a black, 16GB flavor for $219.99, or a beefier, "platinum" finish 32GB version clocking in at $289.99 (apparently the player will come in five additional colors, but no word on which ones, exactly). If you're super impatient and in select markets (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis / St. Paul, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.) you can head into a Best Buy on August 22nd and 23rd to play with a device and drop $25 on a pre-order. Otherwise, you'll just have to sit tight till the ZHD makes its way into the wide world... which is actually pretty soon. Check out more info about the player at our Zune HD hub, and after the break you can enjoy a recent video we shot of the device in action and the official PR.
See more video at our hub!
ZUNE HD AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER TODAY
MICROSOFT'S NEW PORTABLE DIGITAL MEDIA PLAYER AVAILABLE FOR ONLINE PRE-ORDER AT AMAZON, BEST BUY, WALMART and MICROSOFT STORE
REDMOND, Wash. – Aug. 13, 2009 – Zune HD, the next generation of Microsoft Corp.'s portable digital media player, is available now for pre-order and is set to hit store shelves on Sept. 15. The player, available in 16GB and 32GB capacities, is the first touch-screen Zune and includes powerful playback technology to give you a different way to experience media on the go. Combined with unparalleled PC software and online services such as Zune Pass, Zune provides a rich and meaningful connection to music, videos, podcasts and more.
Pre-order Zune HD in 16GB Black and 32GB Platinum through http://www.zune.net/zunehd from Amazon.com, Best Buy,Walmart and Microsoft. Beginning September 15, at http://www.ZuneOriginals.net, both 16GB and 32GB capacities of Zune HD will be available in five different colors with the option to customize your player with one of 10 new engravings.
WHAT: With a sleek and stylish design, Zune HD is the first to combine these features:
• Built-in HD Radio™ receiver. Allows you to listen to higher-quality sound than is available from traditional radio channels, as well as access additional programming through HD2 and HD3 multicast channels from many of your favorite local FM radio stations at no extra cost.
• HD video output capabilities. Supports HD video playback from the device through a premium HDMI A/V docking station (sold separately) directly to an HD TV in 720p, making it easy to enjoy better-than-DVD-quality video on your own big screen at home.
• OLED touch screen. Allows you to easily flip through music, movies and other content. The 3.3-inch glass screen and 16:9 widescreen format display (480x272 resolution) offer a premium viewing experience.
• Built-in Wi-Fi. Allows for browsing, streaming or downloading new music from Zune Marketplace.
• Internet browser. Full-screen Web browsing, optimized for the multi-touch screen with zoom-in and zoom-out gestures.
• Accessories, at home and on the road. Zune HD and AV Dock charges and syncs players while playing supported 720p HD videos on HDTVs. Play HD Radio, music and podcasts from your Zune HD device through your car stereo using the Zune Premium Car Pack.
WHY: Pre-order now to be one of the first to experience the new Zune HD's advanced design,innovative technology and rich multimedia capabilities powered by the NVIDIA Tegra™ chip ultra low-power HD processor.
PRICING: Zune HD 16GB: $219.99 (estimated retail price); Zune HD 32GB: $289.99 (estimated retail price)
WHEN: Pre-order starting Thursday, Aug. 13. Purchase in stores on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
WHERE ONLINE: http://www.zune.net/zunehd
WHERE IN STORE: Place a pre-order in person at Best Buy beginning August 16. If you want to sneak a peek, visit select stores in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C., areas on August 22 and 23.
MICROSOFT'S NEW PORTABLE DIGITAL MEDIA PLAYER AVAILABLE FOR ONLINE PRE-ORDER AT AMAZON, BEST BUY, WALMART and MICROSOFT STORE
REDMOND, Wash. – Aug. 13, 2009 – Zune HD, the next generation of Microsoft Corp.'s portable digital media player, is available now for pre-order and is set to hit store shelves on Sept. 15. The player, available in 16GB and 32GB capacities, is the first touch-screen Zune and includes powerful playback technology to give you a different way to experience media on the go. Combined with unparalleled PC software and online services such as Zune Pass, Zune provides a rich and meaningful connection to music, videos, podcasts and more.
Pre-order Zune HD in 16GB Black and 32GB Platinum through http://www.zune.net/zunehd from Amazon.com, Best Buy,Walmart and Microsoft. Beginning September 15, at http://www.ZuneOriginals.net, both 16GB and 32GB capacities of Zune HD will be available in five different colors with the option to customize your player with one of 10 new engravings.
WHAT: With a sleek and stylish design, Zune HD is the first to combine these features:
• Built-in HD Radio™ receiver. Allows you to listen to higher-quality sound than is available from traditional radio channels, as well as access additional programming through HD2 and HD3 multicast channels from many of your favorite local FM radio stations at no extra cost.
• HD video output capabilities. Supports HD video playback from the device through a premium HDMI A/V docking station (sold separately) directly to an HD TV in 720p, making it easy to enjoy better-than-DVD-quality video on your own big screen at home.
• OLED touch screen. Allows you to easily flip through music, movies and other content. The 3.3-inch glass screen and 16:9 widescreen format display (480x272 resolution) offer a premium viewing experience.
• Built-in Wi-Fi. Allows for browsing, streaming or downloading new music from Zune Marketplace.
• Internet browser. Full-screen Web browsing, optimized for the multi-touch screen with zoom-in and zoom-out gestures.
• Accessories, at home and on the road. Zune HD and AV Dock charges and syncs players while playing supported 720p HD videos on HDTVs. Play HD Radio, music and podcasts from your Zune HD device through your car stereo using the Zune Premium Car Pack.
WHY: Pre-order now to be one of the first to experience the new Zune HD's advanced design,innovative technology and rich multimedia capabilities powered by the NVIDIA Tegra™ chip ultra low-power HD processor.
PRICING: Zune HD 16GB: $219.99 (estimated retail price); Zune HD 32GB: $289.99 (estimated retail price)
WHEN: Pre-order starting Thursday, Aug. 13. Purchase in stores on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
WHERE ONLINE: http://www.zune.net/zunehd
WHERE IN STORE: Place a pre-order in person at Best Buy beginning August 16. If you want to sneak a peek, visit select stores in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C., areas on August 22 and 23.
ZHD will rule the world....
Not if it only goes for sale in one country...
@Steve - that depends who you ask... for some people, a map of the world has Alaska in one corner and Florida in the other.
@CreepinJesus:
What are you saying? That there exists some other map that goes beyond Alaska and Florida? Surely you jest.
What a sweet looking gizmo this is! If only it had GSM features :(
A device with ancient web browser and no 3rd party apps? Zune will likely rule the street of homeless people. :) There are plenty in this economy I might add! :)
@CreepinJesus
I'm not going to lie: When I was like five years old, I thought for a brief time that the United States was the world. I saw a map of the US in my classroom and simply assumed that it was a world map.
Ironically, my parents are from India. It should've clicked that they're not from the US but from the other side of the globe. Luckily they soon got me a globe and I was no longer ignorant.
Ancient browser? IEM 6 != IE 6
@kaz
Don't bother. You can't teach people who want to be stupid.
@Jasmine,
That is pretty funny actually.
not until ms makes zune docks for everything, from cars to toilet roll dispensers!
i really want this zune hd but its useless without connectivity to my car :(
Seems like a nice media player, it appears to be very responsive. It just won't rule the world because the iPod already does. As long as the Zune HD can easily get content on it, it has a chance of selling in respectable numbers. The hardware is good and it has potential. The price isn't going to be a clincher once the price for the iPod Touch takes place. Ten bucks isn't enough to pull lots of people to the Zune HD platform. I doubt if it will make any Apple Touch users switch, but Microsoft may get a lot of former Zune users to buy this new model. No early judgments. We'll see how it does over a year's time.
Microsoft probably won't even offer any software for OSX if Mac users wanted to use the Zune HD.
I wish the 32gig was in Black, too. Oh well, it doesn't look that bad :)
Apparently Zune Originals will sport 5 different colors which you can customize at will http://www.zunerama.com/2009/08/zune-hd-available-for-pre-order-now/ (near the bottom)
@Jander
SA-WEEEEEEEEEEET!
wish it WERE in black
The new zune looks and probably is great to use, but i cant pay 220 or 290 to downgrade on storage capacity. My 80GB zune is near capacity and i wouldn't want to give up my collection for fancy graphics.
I'm with you on that. It's gorgeous and I'd love to have one...but I'm waiting until we see higher storage capacity. I've got about 5GB left on my Zune 80GB right now and at least 90% of that is music, not videos.
I used to be that way on my old iPod, but then I won a free 8gb Zune at a Microsoft event and I learned how little of that bulk I actually needed.
I openly admit that I wish I had more than 8gb of space, but I think I'll be able to get by with 32gb just fine.
Buy a hard drive lolz. 250 gig drive and extranel exclosure for cheap. I only have teh 8 GB flash model and I have 224 gigs of music lol. Listen to the music on the Zune, then swap that out for some more when you get tired of it. I have no idea why some people never like this idea, if you had space to download the music on your pc then no excuse. Until they make a 320 GB model what am i to do? Cry? haha, come on guys.
There is no way you actually enjoy 100% of 70 gigs of music. Seriously, the only ones who should be bitching about storage capacity are those who want to carry 4 HD movies, and really that's unnecessary.
Order the... Zune HD before you see the new iPods?
Wow. MS must really think its customers are stupid.
Well, considering that the next iPod Touch will merely be a iPhone 3GS without the phone part, what's the big deal?
It's worth switching to a Zune for the desktop software alone. I seriously doubt that a spec bump and a crappy camera are going to make the iPod all of a sudden worth owning again.
Not everyone in the world likes iPods.
I'm going to wait and see what the new iPod Touch has to offer, then see which one is more convenient for me. This does looks REALLY nice tho.
THOUGH
@information central
im gonna mispel n use poor grammer just to piss u off. makes me laugh.
hey, being logical isn't allowed on this website! you have to be a fanboy of one or the other!
/s, if it wasn't obvious.
Will this show up as an iPod in iTunes?
No.
@ispartan89
Unlike Palm, Microsoft probably isn't dumb enough to try something like that. However, I suspect the chances of it interacting with your iTunes Library at any level above simply moving it into the Zune's own software is zero. Microsoft wants Apple's market, not to simply play nicely with it.
There are many third party methods for non apple devices, but until we see a zune hd we won't know.
My personal favourite: http://www.binaryfortress.com/itunes-sync/
Since I really want one of these i've just given the zune software a try- it's really good! a lot more intuitive than itunes, and actually works without crashing!!
goodbye ipod, hello zune HD
Very competitive pricing, but having to use the Zune software (and the fact that I'm on a mac making that quite a pain) is a complete dealbreaker for me.
Could the engineers at Microsoft get in touch with Palm and ask how they engineered the iTunes sync please? I'd take a Zune HD in a heartbeat if it synced with iTunes
You don't think that Microsoft should talk to Apple about integrating the Zune with iTunes? That's the only way that this all works out, not with trying to fake an iPod to the software. Official support in iTunes for the Zune, or anything else, is what is required and not some silly hack that inevitably starts a game of "cat and mouse" where only the customer suffers.
The Pre basically lies to iTunes.
iTunes is a piece of shit. You shouldn't NEED any music-management app for a music player; you should simply drag and drop your music files onto it.
why do you need to sync with itunes?
if you've purchased songs through itunes, they will be tagged correctly, and will sync with the zune software if you point it at your itunes music folder.
the zune software is much nicer to use - albeit, that's a matter of opinion. :-)
@informationcentral.
You don't NEED databases for managing large amounts of information, you can simply use index cards.
Sorry, but drag-and-drop is simply unmanageable unless you have less than 200 tracks in your whole collection of music. Smart playlists FTW.
@Information Central
Oh really? What makes you think that I want to manually manage my music library, not to mention the rest of the data that goes on a modern PMP? I have no wish to take a trip back to the Stone Age, thanks.
is it coming to New Zealand?
I don't think it's a good idea pre-ordering, at those prices. Who knows what pricing Apple would put the 3G Touch on. I bet that will affect ZuneHD's pricing too. And then there's Creative's Zii.
I wouldn't be surprised if MS cut pricing for the ZuneHD fairly quick to $199 for the 16GB model. $219 is really an odd pricing point, and imo is just a setup to see how Apple would react.
So, still no international release plans? I do not understand why Microsoft doesn't want to sell Zune's outside of the US. Do they not like money now or something?
Well people are saying it's coming out that day in Europe as well.
I think as it stands now, they won't be available internationally at release, but multiple vague statements indicate they will be taking the Zune internationally at some point in the future.
@Jander
With all due respect, I've heard those "vague statements" before and that still hasn't resulted in anything concrete. I'm not holding my breath until there is an official statement on the matter, such as "we will release the Zune HD in Country B on Date Y". Until then it sounds more like this is something they are thinking about, which I would be stunned if they weren't, but still doesn't explain why it hasn't happened yet. How difficult is this? Everyone else seems to manage it and yet this is something that is clearly holding the platform back.
Respect accepted. I hear ya. It's been a long time coming. They've gotten the question for years. It's went from, "we have no current plans" to "We're looking into it" to "It won't happen now, but it will happen"
Grain or salt or no, there is something to what they've been saying over time. It's not a matter of if, but when now.
I boggles the mind as to why they havent released it outside the US, i would DEFINATLY consider one over an ipod, but really in England theres not a great deal of player choice (with software to go with it, yes i like itunes). Come on MS release it over here;)
We have Zunes here in Canada... and we are outside the US.