Well after a few hours with it here's my summary review.
The Zune HD is the best PMP I have ever used. The UI has better usability and eye candy than any iPod I've ever used. It is slick and well integrated. Doing the same things on an iPod Touch that you can do on the Zune HD requires a half dozen different apps that don't feel well integrated. I'm going to be starting a drive to collect parkas to send to hell: Microsoft actually managed to beat Apple in the UI department.
It might make a dent in the iPod Touch market, but it certainly won't dethrone it. Apps are clear second class citizens on the Zune HD. They're one layer under the top level UI. But now the PMP capabilities of the iPod Touch look like a second class citizen.
The way I see it is this. If you want a great PMP that also has app capabilities, get a Zune HD. If you want a portable computer that also has good PMP capabilities, get an iPod Touch. Which is the larger potential market, a PMP with extra features, or a general purpose device? The general purpose device of course. The iPod Touch is safe from the Zune HD.
So I'm going to be enjoying my Zune HD, but I'll still be carrying my iPod Touch in the other pocket.
The screen of the Zune HD is really beautiful. The contrast and colors are great. The blacks really are black. It looks better than my iPod Touch's screen. Consumer won't care that the technology behind it is OLED, but they will care that it looks better.
And as expected, IE on the Zune sucks. It's functional, but ugly. Zooming is smooth, which is a good thing because font and image scaling is terrible, so you're going to be zooming a lot.
The Zune HD is the best PMP I have ever used. The UI has better usability and eye candy than any iPod I've ever used. It is slick and well integrated. Doing the same things on an iPod Touch that you can do on the Zune HD requires a half dozen different apps that don't feel well integrated. I'm going to be starting a drive to collect parkas to send to hell: Microsoft actually managed to beat Apple in the UI department.
It might make a dent in the iPod Touch market, but it certainly won't dethrone it. Apps are clear second class citizens on the Zune HD. They're one layer under the top level UI. But now the PMP capabilities of the iPod Touch look like a second class citizen.
The way I see it is this. If you want a great PMP that also has app capabilities, get a Zune HD. If you want a portable computer that also has good PMP capabilities, get an iPod Touch. Which is the larger potential market, a PMP with extra features, or a general purpose device? The general purpose device of course. The iPod Touch is safe from the Zune HD.
So I'm going to be enjoying my Zune HD, but I'll still be carrying my iPod Touch in the other pocket.
The screen of the Zune HD is really beautiful. The contrast and colors are great. The blacks really are black. It looks better than my iPod Touch's screen. Consumer won't care that the technology behind it is OLED, but they will care that it looks better.
And as expected, IE on the Zune sucks. It's functional, but ugly. Zooming is smooth, which is a good thing because font and image scaling is terrible, so you're going to be zooming a lot.