Zune HD user reviews (32GB, platinum)

Pros -Small sleek design
-Harder difficult to scratch all around
-Interface is fast intuitive & pleasing to look at
-Wifi features w/ zune pass you can download new songs whenever wherever
-Browser is awesome & loads everything well
-HD Radio

Cons -Battery drains fast (about 5 or maybe a little more hours) when playing some games that use tilt feature
-No onboard speaker
-Makes my LG Dare look massive... If thats bad

Summary The device has an awesome form factor and seems to fit perfectly in your hand. This is an awesome device for anyone that isn't already tied down to much by apple, those people will pick at things like having no speaker, something that i have never even cared about. The metal finish on the back feels awesome in your hand and is pretty difficult to scratch.

The zune firmware on the device is blazin fast. I am still amazed by how fast everything loads with the Nvidia Tegra processor. I am still stunned by how awesome it looks, flipping through the menu's is fun for me for an unexplainable reason. I don't know if its how fast the response is or the look and feel, but i love it. The History and New features on the menu are an easy way to listen to music without searching through the menus to find what you want. You are also able to pin music to that menu so you can find what you want quickly.

Some of the new features are a lot of fun especially when integrated with zune pass. I love the new social features that let you look at the songs your friends have been listening to, and their favorites and download them if you want. Hd radio is also really enjoyable to listen to, and i hate the radio, but it sounds so amazing on this device i actually listen to it. The tagging features integrated with the radios metadata are really fun.

If you are paying for rhapsody right now, pick one of these up and switch to zune pass. If you are not sure about zune pass I can say it is 100% worth it, you get to download unlimited songs and get to keep 10 of those. With features in zune like channels the zune pass becomes even more worth it. Zune has channels which they update with new songs every week or maybe a little more, it is an awesome way to listen to new music that you wouldn't have heard otherwise.

The zune software is really nice and intuitive. It has a new smart dj feature that lets you hit that on an album or artist and it will do like a pandora sort of thing. Where it plays music that is similar sounding to what you choose, and with zune pass it will also integrate songs from zune marketplace to go along with the playlist.

Overall I am going to have to say that the Zune HD is probably the best ipod alternative on the market and definitely gives the Ipod touch a run for the money in the eyes of consumers.

Pros Brilliant OLED screen; very lightweight and small, but not TOO small; versatile video capabilities including 720p out via dock; subscription music option; fun; can sync wirelessly; smart dj feature surprisingly good

Cons Price should be lower to boost competitiveness; on-screen only volume controls; no 64gb size available (yet)

Summary I've owned Zunes from each generation (first the 30gb, then the 80 and 120, and now the HD), and they've all been solid, capable players with a good set of features that stand up to any competitor out there. With the Zune HD a certain level of flair has been added that has been missing before, with a beautiful OLED screen, a slick and capable UI with some interesting features like the ability to 'pin' commonly used features to the front, and HD radio.

The player is on the lighter side, and may be smaller than you think if you've only seen it in photos by itself. It's very light and smaller than equivalent iPods, but the screen packs almost as much resolution as those larger players. Despite that, it doesn't feel cheap or flimsy.

The UI and player's design aesthetic is definitely different from the iPod, more angular for the player, and a much busier UI that nevertheless doesn't feel cluttered or cramped. Large bold fonts that don't always "fit" the screen feel right because the UI does a great job of having them fly in and out to be legible while given a certain level of style that past Zunes have lacked. It's the kind of thing you have to see in person to appreciate.

The expected tight integration with their 'Marketplace' software is as expected, with some nice capabilities others lack like wireless syncing with your PC, as well as the ability to stream and/or download subscription music wirelessly if within wifi range.

The subscription service, Zune Pass, is a key differentiator for me that led me to choose the Zune ecosystem instead of Apple's iTunes/iPod. iPods and iTunes are undeniably well designed, and work very well for most people.

However, as someone who likes to listen to a wide variety of music and enjoys finding new artists to listen to and appreciate, having the subscription service is a killer feature. For $15 a month you can download 10 MP3 songs to keep, and the other $5 goes towards the ability to stream and/or download from a huge selection of millions of songs. Unlike Pandora, LastFM, or other services you also have exact control over what you listen to, and when.

Many people seem to thinking buying or "renting" music is an either/or option, but if you can afford the extra $5 a month, then you can both buy your favorite songs above and beyond the 10 per month provided, AND enjoy the subscription music. It's a great combo, and is the primary feature that lead me to pick Zunes over iPods without a look back.

The Marketplace software itself is a worthy contender to iTunes, with a well-designed UI that has lots of slick features like 'mixview' to quickly see related artists and/or Zune users who are also fans of the artist, and also a surprisingly good Smart DJ feature that seems finally to actually work well and be of use, as opposed to past attempts. Inspired by Rhapsody's Channels (which came before Apple's Genius feature, and are similar in nature), the Smart DJ will instantly make a playlist from both your collection's music as well as music available via Zune Pass if you have it. This gives you a great way to mix in your favorites with new music discovery and I'm already having lots of fun with it.

Video and audio podcasts are available, as is a good selection of TV show episodes and movies available for both rental or purchase in most cases, in both standard and HD formats.

The built in web browser is surprisingly good too. This isn't too important to me, as I already have an iPhone, but it's good to have for fallback. It's not as polished as Safari on the iPod touch, but it came much closer than I thought it would.

In larger metropolitan areas like Boston the HD radio can also be an excellent feature. The sound quality isn't hugely better than regular FM in my opinion, but what is wonderful is that you have access to additional streams for each HD radio station. For example WGBH has 3 HD signals, so if you don't like what they're playing on one of them, try the other two.

The app store is the one feature that is no match for its iPod equivalent. There's a rather sad selection of a handful of apps at the moment, and is in no way currently a competitor to the vast and enjoyable Apple app store. Who knows what will come with time, but this certainly won't change anytime in the near future. If apps and/or internet browsing is a key feature for you, then an iPod Touch may still be your best choice.

But, if you are primarily concerned with using this player for music and video, then it's unique features make it something very much worth considering, with a unique and enjoyable combination of features and options that no other player has.

Pros Zune Pass changes the way you consume music
HD Radio w/tagging helps you find new music on the go
16:9 OLED screen = video w/out letterbox
Movie rentals
Compatible w/ Xbox 360 video store
3D games
Wi-fi sync
Battery life
Very light
Zune 4.0 software

Cons HDMI out requires dock
Podcasts & Videos are not downloadable without PC sync
Web browser is very basic
Free games include ads
No speaker
No native Mac support - Boot Camp & Emulation work
Twitter app, Facebook, PGRacing, AudioSurf not until Novem

Summary Remember back when your 56K dial-up ISP went from a very limited timed internet usage per month to unlimited all you can eat usage? Remember when your cellphone provider made your text messaging plan and voice calls to other people on the network unlimited for a flat rate? Unlimited access fundamentally changes the way you use devices and the amount of time and enjoyment you get out of them. Zune Pass does this for MP3 players allowing you to take any song you like. Hear a brand new song or a classic favorite on the Zune's FM radio that you really like? No reason to hesitate. Click the purchase button on the radio screen and next time you connect to the internet it will download the song to your Zune. Heck take the whole album while you're at it, Zune Pass is all you can eat. By the end of the month you can choose 10 songs to keep forever so you'll automatically own 120 songs by the end of the year. That is Zune Pass and it's wonderful as I've just described it but it gets even better...

The Zune 4.0 software, which is the best, fastest, and most eye-pleasing music/marketplace I've ever used now has a feature called "Smart DJ." This feature doesn't just create playlists for you out of your own collection of MP3's, if you choose it can pull songs off of the Zune marketplace that you don't own and suggests them to you based upon your song preferences. Now once you combine Zune Pass with this new feature you have something really special. Like an iTunes Genius on steroids you can start grabbing music you like off of Zune marketplace by the handfuls as you discover new artists and albums. And then there are the hundreds of premade "playlists" you can download from the Zune marketplace conveniently ranked in order of popularity. These playlists include things like the 100 most popular songs from any year in the last 30 years. Want the best songs from 1985? A couple of clicks and they're all on your Zune in a playlist. How about all the songs that won a Grammy this year or all the songs that were nominated for a VMA? They're all yours with Zune Pass. You can also subscribe to channels like the Billboard top 40 and have the top music in the country automatically synced to your Zune every week. You see people write off Zune Pass as little more than "renting music" when it's so much more than that. It's more like having a personal chef live in your home with a menu of hundreds of dishes he can instantly prepare for you. Having an MP3 player without a Zune Pass is like having an Xbox without Xbox Live. Zune Pass opens up a whole new experience with music like you've never had on an iPod or in iTunes.

And lets talk about the experience of using the new Zune 4.0 software for the PC. It's phenomenal. Whether you get a Zune HD or not, you must go to the Zune website right now and download this software. I guarantee you will fall in love with Zune 4.0 the instant you discover the artist view visualizer in the Now Playing section. When the Zune software starts pulling down the images of your favorite artists from the songs you are playing and displaying their bio info and data on how many people have played their songs on the Zune network you will start to fall in love. This is the future of album art and liner notes. The people who made this software truly love music as much as you do and they treat the experience of playing and discovering new music with reverence. The Zune software is super speedy, visually pleasing, and well integrated into Windows 7 with jump lists to your favorite artists, and a mini taskbar player that is perfect. Give the Zune software a try and you will probably never want to play your music in iTunes ever again. Even if you don't spring for the Zune Pass the ability to have the software dynamically create playlists out of the standard 30 second previews is nice. Hey maybe you just want to listen to a 30 second per song rundown of all the top songs on the billboard charts or play a playlist of the top 100 songs from 1991 without having to listen to each song in it's entirety; in that case Zune Pass not needed.

There are also a ton of community features built into Zune as well. If you have Xbox Live you will immediately be familiar with the Zune cards which show your friends and what songs and albums they've been listening to. You can send these people songs, check out what they listen to and download anything they've listened to if you have a Zune Pass. The Zune software automatically shows you all the people on your Xbox Live friends list and what they've been listening to on Zune.

There's so much more to say, I haven't even talked about video. The Marketplace lets you rent and purchase standard definition and high definition movies and TV shows. The Zune HD w/ it's proper 16:9 OLED display will display videos w/out letterboxing. In November Xbox 360 will connect to the Zune video store and anything you purchase on PC/Zune/360 will be free to download on all devices linked to your account.

Pros Video is really something. I purchased a history channel program that had cartoon graphics, old video and interviews and was really pleased with the quality of the video. Organization of music songs is nice. Audio is crisp.

Cons If this were a phone, I'd throw my Pre in the trash.

Summary I've been waiting for the Zune for two months and could not be more pleased now that I have the device. It's a cool, sleek device that's come a long way. The music and audio are very, very good. It's quite a concession to the quality of the Zune if a main remaining difference with the IPod is the Apps - as I had an Apple rep in a Best Buy tell me yesterday. He said he had only "five or six" apps on his IPod - hardly a key differentiator to me.

A few more apps, a few more games, larger music selection .... come on Microsoft, I have bigger plans for my Zune HD, make it happen.