Handy Dandy Zune, but That's Not What The HD Stands For!
September 28, 2009 He 
I like the new Zune HD. It’s easily the best Zune Microsoft has come out with. Rather than update the old Zune, it seems they wisely threw it out and started over. The high tech-look black metal back, and 3.3” vivid 16:9 OLED display is bright and attention getting. It weights just 2.6 ounces and is only 8.9 mm thick. A press-once on/off button on the top and a home button at the bottom of the screen are the only controls on the front. Once on, use the touch screen to slide your screen-saver up and the navigation screen choices are revealed. You can wirelessly buy, stream, and update your music and games via a WiFi connection. You also can stream songs over WiFi directly to your Zune HD. With my so-so eyesight websites seemed small, but you can tap the screen to zoom in and make things bigger. You type via a QWERTY touch-screen keyboard. It took a few minutes for me to get the hang of where to hit the screen to type the letter I wanted. A unique feature is the built HD Radio. You get better sound, a lot of choices and it’s free. There are two models right now. The Zune HD 32 GB ($220)holds up to 10 hours of high definition video; 48 hours of standard definition video; 8,000 songs; or 25,000 pictures. Double that for the 64GB (Platinum) model ($290). You can use your Zune to watch 720p HD movies on your HDTV. To do that you’ll need the optional (About $90) Zune HD & AV Dock. (It’s video out only, you can’t use the dock to record shows to the Zune.) The Zune HD also plays your HD videos on the go on its own bright OLED screen. But on the player videos are downscaled to 480 x 272. Music wise, Leo loves Zune pass. You pay $14.95 a month to play all the music you want. Like other play & pay systems when you stop paying, you lose your music. But, Zune Pass has a nice difference! You get to own 10 songs you downloaded forever! So it’s more like paying $4.95 a month assuming you buy a lot of songs monthly. There is a ton more features, which you can read about here:
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