Music

Zune HD Hands On: Photos and Video Tour

Having just played with a prototype for a few minutes, I’m really impressed with the Zune HD. I’ve got a video, too, showing off how well the animations work.


The device is tighter and more physically beautiful than the iPod Touch and it’s got a better UI, the main menu’s scrolling so natural through the swipe gestures. There’s a little note on the side, under the volume toggle—”Hello from Seattle.” The power button is up top. The home button is nice and prominent, a bar rather than a round button on the Touch. It’s smaller. And the accelerometer is more swift in responding to repositioning; images rotate very fast.

Of course, this thing won’t have hundreds of apps ready for download when it comes out, as the Touch does.

But I would take this in a heartbeat, provided they get around to making a Mac client.

Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)

  • Melektaus

    What about the marketplace though? Are we getting the marketplace? I know we are not getting the Xbox Live/Zune video marketplace thingo (at least not at first) but what about the bog standard Zune music store? I already have a Zune 120GB (and it rocks) but what really makes it snap is the Zune Pass – it’s just a an irritating extra level of difficulty to get access to that from Australia. If I could get it in an official channel I’d might be distracted from the disappointment of us missing out (yet again) on the aforementioned Xbox video store.

  • ObviousT

    “Marketplace” runs off the side of the screen…
    Sure is pretty, hope they’ve made a LOT of improvements for Mobile IE.

  • Melektaus

    Looks like the pre-show information was incomplete – we are getting the Zbox Live/Zune video marketplace. Finally.

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