The Zune "HD"

It is my joy and pleasure to present to you: the Zune "HD". The final device to wear the Zune name, released by Microsoft in October of 2009. A direct competitor to Apple's wildly successful iPod Touch, the Zune HD was the first Zune to feature a multi-touch display, full web browser, and "app store".

Background

When Apple released the iPhone in 2007, they also announced the first iPod Touch alongside it. The iPod Touch made a lot of sense for Apple and consumers, it's an iPhone but without the phone. You still got all of the media support: music, movies, etc. But now you also got Safari and the App Store on the go. Everything except taking and receiving traditional phone calls and text messages.

By 2009, Apple had reached their 3rd generation of iPod Touch. Although there were no major new features added the hardware had been improved, with a better CPU, GPU, RAM, and more storage. The next year Apple would release the 4th gen which included a retina display and dual front and back cameras.

Microsoft was comfortably in second place after the iPod Nano and iPod Video, but were eager to take a slice of that iPod Touch pie. And so, we got the Zune "HD".

So, what is it?

The Zune "HD" is a handheld portable media device with a 3.3" capacitive multi-touch OLED display.

It included the same WiFi capabilities as the 2nd generation Zune devices ("Scorpius" and "Draco"), but featured a significantly better CPU, GPU, and more RAM. The Zune "HD" also offered the largest amount of flash-based storage of any Zune device, with larger capacities using spinning hard disk drives (similar to the iPod Video).

Like all Zunes, the Zune "HD" ran a modified version of Windows CE with a custom interface. To go with its fancy display and OS, The Zune "HD" came with a full featured web browser: Internet Explorer Mobile version 6.

So, what makes it "HD"?

If you noticed, one of the specifications I failed to mention above is the resolution of the Zune's display. That was intentional, for you see the Zune "HD" has a screen resolution of 480 by 272. That's right, the Zune "HD" has a sub-VGA display resolution.

And no, there's no fancy trickery by using a high-DPI display, the Zune HD uses a 167ppi panel, comparable to the iPod Touch's 165ppi.

What makes the Zune "HD" not a class-action waiting to happen is that if you were to purchase a HDMI adapter, the Zune "HD" can output 720p over it. The GPU, a Nvidia Tegra APX, really is quite powerful for the time. If only it weren't completely betrayed by the awful display it's forced to output to.

It seems like Microsoft was at least partially aware of their deception, because on all sides of the box for the device is fine print that reads:

Accessory (sold separately) required to view HD on an HDTV. Zune screen shows HD videos at 480x272 - not HD.

When you take a step back and look at some of the decisions that Microsoft took, it really is no surprise that the Zune didn't take off.

And that's the thing that really gets me, if Microsoft hadn't decided to try and dupe its customers with misleading marketing and actually put a real 720p display in it, this would have been one killer little device! It also would have beaten Apple to the punch by one year.

So why didn't they do it? We already know it's not a limitation of the GPU, because it already can output 720p HD over the dock connector. It also seems highly unlikely that there was no display on the market that could deliver these results, considering that Apple released the first Retina display only a year later, with the display manufactured by LG. I suppose we may never know exactly why Microsoft chose to make the Zune "HD" in name only.

Perhaps I'm mistaken and the "HD" stands for "Hardly definition".

Using one in 2022

If you know anything about Zunes, you're probably already well aware that when Microsoft pulled the plug they really pulled hard, taking all online services with them. Thankfully, a team of folks are out there working to keep the dream alive: zuneupdate.com. After modifying /etc/hosts, I was able to install the Zune software on a Windows 10 machine and sync up some tunes just fine. I even managed to get a video properly encoded (H.264 Level 3.1) and synced onto the guy.

One strong point in favour the Zune "HD" is its relative (compared to the iPod Touch) ease of repair. The Zune HD uses 4 tri-wing screws to secure a back panel, which when removed gives you full access to the system. The battery is plugged in and can easily be replaced. No sarcasm here, great work Microsoft. This kind of user-first design should be celebrated, because we need more of it.

Unfortunately, despite its relatively nice build quality and ease-of-repair, it's still a Zune. A brand that was so focused on trying so hard to look cool, without actually doing anything to be cool. No amount of trendy marketing and artwork can shake off the lingering taste of big business that comes with a Microsoft product. It's in their DNA.

Apple has made (and continues to make) some terrible product decisions, but ones thing for sure: they'd never release a product called "HD" without it actually being HD.