The Zune HD is seen by many as a too-little-too-late attempt at challenging the iPod touch, but it's a formidable portable media player in its own right. Its multitouch OLED touchscreen makes everything from the intuitive interface to TV shows and movies pop; the integrated HD Radio is great for discovering new music, and you can output HD content right from the Zune HD to your TV (with an optional accessory). We also like the integrated Web browser, even though its not best in class. Microsoft has a long way to go to catch up to Apple in the apps department, but the Zune HD is a slick and satisfying device that will get better with age.
Design
We love the look and simplicity of the Zune HD player. Its luxe aesthetic goes well with the interface overhaul and premium aura. The brushed aluminum backing, graced with a Zune logo etched into the metal, comes in black and platinum with red, blue and green available via Zune originals. Smooth and streamlined, the Zune HD has has three buttons. On top, the power button is flush with the case, the slightly raised Home button sits below the screen, and on the left is a narrow button that shows and hides the on-screen player and volume controls. Both the headphone and data/power cord inputs are on the bottom.
Measuring only 4.0 x 2.1 x 0.4 inches, this little player manages to make the iPod touch (4.3 x 2.4 x 0.33 inches) look almost bulky. The size and narrow screen is more akin to the Sony Walkman, which is 0.2 inches shorter. At 3.5 ounces, the Zune HD is also 0.7 ounces lighter than the iPod touch. With a resolution of 480 x 272 pixels, the Zune’s OLED display (1.6 x 2.8 inches) is noticeably smaller than the Touch’s 2 x 3-inch screen.
User Interface
We found the capacitive, multitouch display responsive, as long as we used the pad of our finger and not our nails. The interface is very intuitive and easy to navigate. When you first turn on the Zune HD, you're faced with a simple text menu. If you slide your finger to the right you get the QuickPlay menu showing thumbnails that represent what's currently playing, new and recent items, plus whatever media you've pinned for fast access. Everything from songs to games to radio stations show up in the QuickPlay area, providing a nice graphic overview of your multimedia life.
Navigating through menus is easy, and the level above is usually accessible by tapping the text or arrow at the top of the screen. Scrolling vertically and horizontally is smooth and quick; when changing songs, flipping through albums, or searching for radio stations, we rarely had to repeat an action to get the desired result. Same with tapping; a light touch was all it took in most instances.
We only ran into trouble when the elements we wanted to select were small, as it was hard to be precise with the tip or pad of our finger. For example, it’s difficult for users with fingernails to be accurate with the on-screen keyboard because the individual keys are tiny, though users who were used to tapping with the tip of a finger fared better.
Even in landscape mode we found the keyboard layout frustrating to use. Entering our Wi-Fi password and typing URLs in the browser took so long and involved so much backspacing that it took over a minute to type what should have taken a few seconds. Additionaly, some of the games included small elements or menu items that were hard to select and move around.
Though the Zune HD includes an accelerometer, it doesn't change the orientation on all screens. We were a little disappointed that we couldn't see menus or the music player in horizontal mode, only vertical. Videos only play horizontally, which is understandable since vertical video doesn't make sense.
We often wished for button controls when watching video; even with clean fingers, every swipe and tap left smudges on the screen. We appreciated the streamlined look of the Zune HD, yet would have liked a way to start or stop video and change volume without touching the screen.
Performance
The Zune HD is the first available with Nvidia’s Tegra APX 2600 processor, a chip specifically designed for handheld devices. The advanced visuals, 3D graphics, slick UI, and HD video are made possible by the chip’s eight distinct processing cores.
Moving through the interface was fast and quick most of the time, and it takes a second or less for music and videos to load. However, we had to wait about 4 - 6 seconds for the Marketplace to load and up to 20 seconds for the browser to load, since the wireless connection has to start first. Game load time is hard to determine due to the advertisement that displays before you get to the main screen.
Returning to the home screen from most functions was quick -- again, 1 second or less -- but returning from games or the browser took up to 5 and 8 seconds, respectively.
