Zune HD Teardown Reveals Better Hardware Than iPod

By

zune_hd_teardown

A teardown of Microsoft’s new Zune HD reveals that’s it’s smaller, lighter and better built than the iPod touch — plus it’s got better battery life.

“Microsoft has taken a long time to get to market with this device, and the hardware shows it,” says Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, which has posted details of the teardown online.

  • The highlight of the Zune HD is its OLED screen. Made by Samsung, the screen is only 1mm thick but seems plenty tough, says Wiens.
  • The Zune gets better battery life from a smaller battery – likely a lot to do with the low-power OLED screen.
  • The Zune is not as tall or as wide as the iPod Touch but is 0.4mm thicker.
  • Unlike the new Touch, the Zune HD does not have 802.11n, only .802.11g.
  • The Zune is powered by an Nvidia Tegra 2600 processor, which has OpenGL ES 2.0 (sam as the new Touch) and programmable pixel shaders, according to iFixit.

The Zune HD is getting favorable reviews. Wired.com says its the first music player to match the iPod’s wow factor. “It’s a lovely industrial design, has a beautiful OLED screen, packs in HD radio and HD video out, and syncs to software that outshines iTunes in many ways,” Wired.com says. However, there’s almost no Apps in Microsoft’s App Store, no deep catalog of video, oh, and the biggie: no Mac software.

xune_board

zune_screen

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.