Microsoft's First Foray into the World of Competition

A few years back Microsoft tried its hand in the portable music player market. Much like many of their other products, it was supposed to have a lot of different features but none of them really worked that well. This was in stark contrast to Apple who chose to make their devices more simply, but with functions that worked as they were supposed to. The same ethos has continued in many of Microsoft's products; squeeze everything into them and we'll make it all work later - but now there is something different happening over at Microsoft HQ, it seems that it is time to make everything work now. They have improved many of the problems with their Vista operating system, they have improved Windows Mobile to be far more functional than ever before, they have made Office a more user-friendly suite of programs and provided operational updates that help the end user, and finally, they have made a second generation Zune that blows the first generation out of the water and one that takes the iPod for a bit of a ride.

One of the most noticeable changes in the Zune is the exterior design overhaul. While the iPod has slimmed down progressively over the years, the Zune went to fat camp. It is now just 0.5 inches thick and about 4.5 inches long and about 2.5 inches wide. Unlike the old Zune, which could not practically be stored inside the pocket of your favorite dungarees without some embarrassing explanations, the new Zune is now far friendlier to a hip pocket dwelling. If nothing else, this makes the Zune far more convenient to carry than it ever was before.

The second massive improvement to the Zune is the screen. While many are the devotees of the iPod, one would be hard pressed to compare it to the screen on the Zune. At a whopping 3.2 inches, it eclipses the seemingly paltry 2.5 inch screen on the iPod. In addition to the screen size, Microsoft also added an upgrade material. Unlike the plastic screen of the iPod and all its scratching problems, the Zune glass screen provides a far more indelible surface on which to observe the workings of the device. Since multi-party viewing is actually possible to some extent, the angle at which the members of that party must arrange themselves does come into play - the Zune does not disappoint in this regard as the glass screen does afford a far wider viewing angle than its more traditional plastic counterparts. Also, again thanks to the glass material, the Zune screen is far clearer than other plastic screens and eminently more viewable in all light conditions.

The touchpad of the Zune is the last major external update made by Microsoft. The Zune Pad is similar to the iPod wheel in that you can either move your finger across its surface or you can click on it. The Zune differs in that you can move the onscreen selector by either sliding or pressing, whereas on the iPod movement is only achieved by sliding and clicking is for an action. The dual functionality of the Zune allows for different scrolling speeds. This is especially helpful when moving through long lists of songs. While this is not necessarily better than iPods accelerating scroll, it is somewhat different and may be preferred by the end user. Ultimately, anyone can get used to either one and it is really not a matter of being more useful, it is only to show the Microsoft is trying to change things for the better and is succeeding nicely.

The first loss to the Zune that audiophiles alone will probably notice is the absence of the equalizer. Although this was a part of the first generation Zune, Microsoft yanked it from this version for one unknown reason. It may have been an attempt to streamline a fairly complex product and because it is a feature that many people do not use, they thought its nonexistence might not be noticed. Although audio purists who like to have the sounds set just so, I imagine that most media player users are not in that category and, like me, are generally more than happy with the factory EQ presets.

Despite the loss of the EQ control, the Zune audio quality is excellent. While you may no longer be able to adjust the EQ to compensate for the deficiencies in an inferior set of headphones, a good pair like the Ink'd earphones demonstrate the admirable audio the Zune is capable of producing without adjustment. Perhaps the most upset will be the folks that like to accentuate the bass of any song. By the same token, those surrounding the user who likes to accentuate the bass of any song will no doubt thank Microsoft that that is no longer possible.

Another of the internal changes on the Zune is the addition of a massively larger hard drive. The original Zune had a small 30GB hard drive. The second generation was outfitted with an 80GB hard drive. This puts the Zune in the category of the iPod and makes it truly capable of storing all the music, video, and other media in significantly higher quality formats. This is another reason to appreciate the upgraded screen and the increased hard drive size allows you to take advantage of the Zune's media playing abilities in two ways: native file quality and playback quality.

The original Zune had Wi-Fi built right in as one of the features that really distinguished it from the other music players out there. In this latest edition of the Zune, the user can perform two critical functions with the Wi-Fi connection: they can sync their Zune wirelessly to a home network and they can share pictures and music with other users. Using the Zune software, you can also share your music playing preferences online. Supposedly there is some plan to integrate this information sharing with MySpace or Facebook. As is apparently the natural progression in the sharing-yourself-online world, not only can people know what you are doing while both at and away from your computer, they can also find out what music you use to block out the world with which you are sharing that information.

The video quality of the Zune is fantastic. The 3.2 inch glass screen already discussed makes anything displayed on it look vibrant and warm. Combining with the high capacity hard drive and the concomitant ability to store videos in high quality formats, the Zune makes video viewing very enjoyable. The only thing better on the wide market today is probably the Apple iPod touch. With its slightly larger screen and excellent screen characteristics, it is certainly up there with the Zune, if not better. Again though, this is another example of Microsoft making a real stab at the Dominant player in the market, Apple, and doing a darn good job of it.

The included headphones with the Zune, while not up to par of those purchased separately, are certainly far better than those that come with most music players and in fact, far better than the ubiquitous white headphones of all those products Apple. While I still favor ditching the provided headphones in favor of my Ink'd earphones, for the short time that I used these headphones, I found no particular range in which they were deficient, I remained entirely comfortable, and not once did I snag my hand on the too-long-cord that is often supposed to somehow make up for the shoddy quality of the included headphones.

The final and perhaps one of the most important aspects of this player is that of the battery life. Apple is again the real dominating force in this department. Apple claims they can get in excess of 45 hours of life out of their player and the folks at Microsoft only claim about 30 hours for the same audio-only playback. In my experience, both of these manufacturers built in a bit of whimsy to these numbers. I have never heard of an iPod to last as many as 45 hours and I certainly did not get the Zune to last for 30. I did get the Zune to last more than 20 hours, which is more than enough time for the average user as that most likely equates to over one week of use without charging. Also, this must be viewed in the context of the original Zune which was supposed to get a measly 12-15 hours. Getting 20 hours is a big jump and Microsoft must be commending for expanding the battery capacity and minimizing the power draw of a device with as much functionality as the Zune, especially the Wi-Fi feature.

While the second generation Zune is not the most amazing device on the market, it is a quantum leap forward from the first generation player and is certainly some major opposition for the music lovers previously dedicated solely to Apple's iPod. The Zune has shown what Microsoft is capable of and if they can keep this sort of advancement movement, the third generation Zune will be a venerable player to which to look eagerly forward.