Answer ( after the arrival of Sony X-series ) to Apple iPod Touch from Microsoft.
Toyed with almost a week and got some personal comments here.
Pros :
Finishing : Yup, it’s just more industrial. It’s very concrete but very thin & light.
User interface : Pretty eye-catching. Its navigation is very different to iPhone - There’re 2 main menus, a custom and a pre-defined. Custom menu include such as quick play ( Pin ), playlist, News & History while the preset one is a group of core features ( music / videos /pictures / radio / marketplace / social / internet / apps /settings ). All the sub menus are display as a cycle-tree-menu, so you can navigate to any list quickly. The home button is the same to the iPhone one - back to top / main screen.
Screen : A very clear, bright and high contrast 16:9 OLED screen. Can easily overtake any portable devices from market. At the same time, its capacitive multi-touch screen is superb responsive - rival or even sensitive than the iphone. It’s no joke, I tested both photo tilting and the pictures just rotate almost at the same time to my hand.
Sound Quality : It sounds deep, separate, full but not wide enough. Perhaps the EQ choices there are very few and not as customizable as some Korean PMP, but it’s quite easy to hear the difference of different settings. Maybe due to run-in time, I hope it could present a better sound later.
HD Radio : Unfortunately, this feature is not supported in Hong Kong; By the way, the Zune can still receive the common radio station.
Cons :
Audio Format : The Zune is just as wicked as those Apple mp3 player - which doesn’t support all open-sourced lossless audio format. For Zune, we have WMA lossless while Apple lossless for the iPod blessedly.
Apps : There’re currently 9 applications we can find in Marketplace - A horrible number even can’t compare with the WebOS or Android Market.
Internet : The web browser is just half of a junk. Another IE 6 based browser with unsatisfied loading speed and ridiculously not support .gif ?!
Conclusion : Personally I rate the Zune 6.5/10. Yes, it’s lack of many stuffs ( apps / more audio formats / a better browser ) and does have learning curve to use, but we should give more time to MS since the Tegra seems still being sealed, so it should have many rooms for improvements. I am not a Apple fanboy, but if you never own a iPod touch, it’s still a better choice for you at this moment; If you feel bored to Apple design ( just like me ), then this maybe a fresh gadget to you.
