Tech Expert Holiday Gift Guide

19. Microsoft Zune HD 32 GB

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Microsoft Zune HD 32 GB

Few people liked the original Zune, myself included. Compared to the iPod, it was ugly, clunky, and uninspiring. When the iPod touch and iPhone arrived, many gave up the Zune for dead and felt that Microsoft would not and could not ever catch Apple in the portable player space. We were wrong. Once again, Microsoft proves that there are few markets in which it can’t become an 800-pound gorilla given a little time and two or three revisions.

A lot of hoopla gets made over whether this player or that player has a sexier look and feel. There was no question that the original Zune was ordinary at best. As a blind date, you might have called it “plain.” The Zune HD is hot—sleek, slim, aluminum, and dominated by a luscious 3.3" OLED touch screen that positively dazzles thanks to the Nvidia Tegra chip fueling it. The Tegra chip also gives the Zune HD an extremely fluid and instantaneous response to touches and multi-touch gestures, never mind a nearly three-dimension interface and excellent 16:9 video output (480x272). By three-dimensional, I mean you get the sense with the Zune HD that you’re zooming in and out of layers of the device, not flitting from one menu list to the next. The fonts are large and pleasant and the user interface is very intuitive. Likewise, the sound quality on the Zune HD is outstanding provided you ditch the obligatory pair of bundled garbage buds and step into some decent headphones.

On the usage side, my only semi-complaint is Microsoft’s omission of DivX and MKV formats. Given the company’s stalwart dedication to legit content, though, I can’t say I’m surprised. Nor do I much care given how little time or interest I have in video torrents. The Zune HD’s HD Radio and integrated WiFi are far more useful to me. Microsoft’s integrated browser is still pretty limited, but again, I’m not surprised. The company is probably still trying to figure out how to segregate its smart phone and media player platforms without cloning Apple’s efforts. If we’re to perceive Windows Mobile as a business platform, it could be argued that it should have a more robust Web experience. Or perhaps Microsoft just took Zune HD to market with what it had ready.

This brings up another reason that I’m viewing the Zune HD through fresh eyes. In my original Zune criticisms, I felt that Microsoft’s storefront was a joke compared to iTunes. The new Zune Marketplace and Windows client are dramatic improvements. They’re not iTunes yet, but they’re catching up fast. And now we see Microsoft going somewhere where Apple will have a hard time following. If you’re an Xbox Live user, you know that the old Video Marketplace has been rebranded as Zune Marketplace. Why? Because the portable player, PC, game console, et al. are now become one big family tied into Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. Before long, the content you have in one place will be available in all places, and as long as Microsoft makes it fun to access and use that content, it will not only catch Apple—it will surpass Apple. Yeah, I said it.

This grand Microsoft Unification Theory hasn’t come to pass yet. Xbox Live is still largely separate from Windows Live, which is still separate from Zune Pass. Zune Pass is a $14.99/month subscription service. With iTunes, there’s no subscription as you simply pay a buck per song. With Zune Pass, you can fill your Zune with all the music it can hold, plus you get credit for downloading 10 DRM-free songs per month. How long will it be before Microsoft starts offering a triple-play billing option, just like the broadband service providers do? The point is that you’re not just buying a media player anymore—you’re buying a player and a platform. And if we can agree that the iPod and Zune HD now deliver similar hardware experiences, give or take, then we have to start asking which is the better platform for you in the future.

If you decide that the answer is Microsoft and the Zune HD, then know that for $15 more, you can direct-order the Zune HD from zuneoriginals.net in any of five colors with the back laser-etched in any of dozens of themed designs. (My favorite is Jaspar Goodall in the Artist Series. It’s like "Axis: Bold as Love" meets "I Dream of Jeannie.") In years past, someone receiving a Zune might have immediately thought, “Nice. Why didn’t you get me an iPod?” I don’t think people will be thinking that anymore. --William Van Winkle