Size and Weight
The iPod Touch reached a wafer-like standard of thinness when it first launched, then seemed to hit an almost impossibly thin 8.5mm profile with the second generation. And for once, Microsoft hasn’t been able to claw forward at all in this category: The ZuneHD measures 8.9mm thick. However, it is smaller in all other dimensions: Just 2.1 inches wide to Apple’s 2.4 inches, and 4.0 inches tall to Apple’s 4.3 inches. To be fair, much of the difference can be accounted for in the smaller screen (3.3 inches versus 3.5 inches), so we can’t applaud Microsoft too much for eeking out smaller dimensions here and there, when it shrank a vital component to get there.
We could stop and call it a draw, but Microsoft pulls ahead on the scales. For all its thinness, the iPod Touch has always felt a little bit like it was packed with gold doubloons – all 115 grams of it really made themselves felt. By contrast, the Zune HD comes in at 74 grams, a 36 percent reduction in weight. And the difference is noticeable. Unlike the iPod Touch, it actually feels lighter than you would expect upon picking it up for the first time, especially with the brushed-metal exterior suggesting a heavy device. We would pocket the Zune HD over the iPod Touch any day.
Winner: Microsoft
Video Support
At the end of the day, most folks buy an iPod Touch over an iPod Classic or Shuffle for one reason: They want to watch video. And the device excels at it. It handles video up to 640 x 480 resolution at 30 frames per second, and can decode the popular MPEG-4 and H.264 compression schemes at up to 2.5 Mbps.
But as the name would imply, the Zune HD doesn’t draw the line at 480p video. It will handle resolutions up to 720p (1280 x 720) and play them back at 30 frames per second without flinching, a task that even some netbooks choke on. And where the iPod Touch tops out at video played at 2.5 Mbps, the Zune HD will do 14 Mbps. Of course, as a Microsoft product, it will also handle WMV compression in addition to H.264 and MPEG-4 video.
Since both devices have screens well below the resolutions they can technically decode, all these specs really only apply to video played from the device on a larger monitor, like a flat-screen TV. And no matter whose device you buy, you’re going to have to drop some extra coin to make it happen. Apple charges $49 for composite cables, $49 for component AV cables, and makes no HDMI cables. Microsoft charges $50 for a bundle including composite AV cables, a Zune-to-HDMI cable, and a charger, and makes no component cables. In effect, if you wanted to connect your device to both standard-def and high-def TVs, and wanted an extra wall charger as well, you would pay $127 out the door at Apple ($49 + $49 + $29) and $50 for the bundle of three from Microsoft.
Winner: Microsoft
App Support
As iPod Touch owners can attest, the diversity of offerings in Apple’s App Store makes the device as much a portable computer as it is a personal media player. You can create and edit calendars on it, surf the Web, and even find nearby places to eat with Google Maps and its built-in GPS.
If the App Store is leafy oak tree, full of 75,000 apps and counting, Microsoft’s app offering is a seedling starving for water. At launch, Microsoft offers only six apps, including a few games and some basic utilities like a weather app and calculator. While more will be on the way, including additional games later this year, Microsoft claims it has no plans of releasing a Zune HD software developer’s kit, meaning no homegrown apps for the foreseeable future.
Nvidia’s powerful Tegra processor may give the Zune HD a leg up as a gaming platform when and if publishers ever pile onboard, but at the moment, its App potential remains pathetic beside the incomparable iPod Touch.
Winner: Apple
Software
Both Microsoft and Apple make a point of tying their media players tightly to desktop software – Zune and iTunes, respectively – and tying those software packages even more closely to their own marketplaces. On this front, it comes down to taste.
Apple’s 10-million song iTunes catalog easily trumps Microsoft’s smaller library of 4.2 million, but Apple also forces users to buy songs individually for a dollar apiece, while Microsoft offers a very practical all-you-can-listen option, which opens nearly the entire library to you and allows you to download 10 songs to keep every month, for $15 monthly. On the other hand, should you want to buy songs individually from the Zune Marketplace, we hate Microsoft’s impossibly stupid Zune Points, which force you to make unnecessary conversions from an imaginary currency to figure out how much songs and videos cost.
The Zune and iTunes software packages both have their individual merits as well. While iTunes used to offer features like Genius that Microsoft couldn’t match, the latest Zune 4.0 software includes the very comparable SmartDJ feature to automatically generate playlists based on what you like. And unlike Apple’s offering, Zune Pass also allows it to pull in songs from the Zune Marketplace that you haven’t yet downloaded, making an easy way to start tapping music you hadn’t previously taken advantage of. Zune also offers a more cinematic picture-heavy interface, while iTunes uses a more logical, if slightly dry, design.
Winner: Draw
Overall Winner: Microsoft Zune HD
Taken soley as a personal media player, the Zune HD outshines the iPod Touch in many ways. It’s lighter, brighter, well-engineered, solid, and if you want to pump 720p movies to your home high-def set, the Touch simply cannot compete. But for those who see the iPod Touch as more of a blank slate than a purpose-built PMP, and intend to use it as such, the Zune HD comes nowhere close to replacing the sheer flexibility and utility of Apple’s wonder box. And for those folks, 75,000 apps in the App Store may as well be 75,000 different reasons not to buy the Zune HD. But we didn’t come here to treat the Zune HD as a wannabe PDA, and with the categories rated as such, the Zune HD simply makes a better device.
As an all-around entertainment machine and productivity device, Apple’s iPod Touch remains the reigning champion of the touch screen.
For someone with no interesting in piddling around with apps, looking solely for the ultimate personal media player, the Zune HD truly makes a better buy.
Amazon has a larger library than both zune and iTunes so saying that a device is better than another because because of the companies marketplace size is absurd because neither come near the size of library you get just purchasing CDs or using amazon. Let's keep the debates about the devices. Saying the ipod is better because of the apps is dumb as well. Being and iPhone user i can say 90 percent of the apps are a waste of time I mostly use it for quick web browsing on the fly. Individuals may debate saying the iPod has games and things that are fun may be their personal preference but I would never spend 200$ and higher to play angry birds I would rather pit that cash to a console or to a pc of sorts to play games on. The apps are a joke As far as which device triumphs in cost and practicality and technical specs there is no question the zune is the victor.
For all you apple fanboys who are so in love with your apple products and think apple is so great! Well let me burst your bubble, Apple was NEVER the first to invent the first mp3 player so it just copied others like Audio Highway who brought out the first mp3 player, then South Korea-based Saehan Information Systems, then Diamond Multimedia with the Rio, Compaq, Creative and wait for it…….. then Apple finally did in 2001! Yeah maybe made it look all pretty on the outside but nothing special on the inside, just another fashion accessory! That's why Apple is not as great as everyone thinks!!!!
iPod touch 4g FTW :D suckerzz
obviously none of you have a 4th gen itouch,with a camera,voice control and ofcoarse!ANGRY BIRDS
APPLES IS #1!! apples has better games/apps. (I play cod zombies on my iPod touch and splinter cell, dead space, and more!) so what if zune's screen has better quality. It's all about size. Why look cool but be so small. iPod touch has lots of updates for its iOS. Plus iPod touch 4gen has a camera. Zune has nothing. iPod touches have built in speakers. Camera for video and pics. So many people have iPods that when you get a zune and your dating someone who has an iPod touch you can't do apps together. No video chat or app to app games. Who needs to use a iPod touch or zune for over 3 hours without it plugged in? Why not plug it in when your home or in the car so battery life! Haha who cares. Zune softwear is SLOW! iTunes is fast and better. ITunes music and movie choices are more then zune. More apps then zune. iPod touches have better sizes. Got a little kid like 6,7, or 8? Get them an iPod touch 8gig. They don't need much room. iPod touches connect to iPhone (sprint (I think) and verizon) iPod touches 1-4gen and iPads. Plus zune softwear can't work on apples computers but iTunes can work on all computers. Most people have been using iTunes since forever and have all their music on it. Why switch to zune and screw all your stuff up? Plus while zune hd is new and all apples is comming up with a new and better thing to beat it. So waist money on zune hd while I'll have the new and better iPod touch. IPOD TOUCH AND APPLES FOREVER!!!!!!
Speaking about the size you do realize that htc hd7 using zune software for the media player has a 4.3 inch screen and the samsung infuse will have a 4.5 inch screen and my laptop has a 17 inch screen and my tv has. 42 inch screen so why complain about .2 inches you do realize how minuscule that is right? Both have good points and bad. But saying the zine has nothing regarding .2 inches is like saying my car is faster than yours because it has a quarter of a horse more. Or that one house is nicer than another because they planted five more flowers in the front yard. It's obvious that your a fanboy and there is no changing your mind but consider how stupid you sound making comments like that next time you post something.
I myself has never owned a touch, i have always owned zune/microsoft products. Yeah the zune hd is sweet (wouldn't mind owning one) but i have to lean towards apple on this one. the zune has a VERY small selection of apps (where 95% of their app are as worthless as apples) and the ipod, even though some are stupid, theres still like what? 50,000ish apps to choose from. to me a lot of which one you like better has a lot to do with what mp3 player you've previously owned.
Aah.. iPod touch wins. Lol. Useless apps? Your opinion. Apparently apple and the Thousands of owners don't think they're so useless. Way more durable… Flimsy zune. It's laughable. They use a knock-off OS from windows phone, and iOS is it's own all out Operating System.
Ah read the article again moron .. Zune wins for media experience, if you don't care about APPS but for Apps the icrap wins!! Talk about Flimsy, itouch or ipod isn't anything special as there were tons of mp3 players before Apple came out with theirs, they are the copy cats! They are useless, I'm sure lots of others would say the same thing! Maybe you should try it before you knock it … MORON!
Serious if you've never owned a zune hd how can you say it's flimsy? They are both 8mm thick how durable can it possibly be and if you take care of your devices why would durability matter. Are you planning on driving over your device with a car for shits and giggles to test the durability.
ipod touch is way way way way way better then the zune beacuse the 4th one has an cam and the crapy zune dosent
plus YOU HAVE APPS!!!
up 4 a bang????
Get this, they aren't even the first ones to come up with the mp3 player! They are the copy cats:
The reason the Zune Hd doesnt have a camera is because it is a FIRST generation Zune Hd which means they will make more with better features
Enough of these idiots saying "these apple fanboys wont support their facts!" Boo hoo. The iPod Touch is still superior. There are way more apps on the iPod touch. Somewhere around 250,000. Even if there are way too many useless apps, Infinity blade, for instance, provides true gaming on a pocket-sized device. And no, I can't list all the great games, but i can give you a few: Pocket Legends, Infinity Blade, Call of duty, Racing Live, Rock Band Reloaded, and that's only a slight few! And to those that say the Zune is better for music, well, I have to say the iPod Touch plays the best music I have ever heard! And once I told a Zune fanboy that the iPod had a better browser and a camera, he said get a laptop and a digital camera. Can you fit a laptop and a camera in your pocket? Last time I checked, the answer was no. And the price, the ipod gives you way more "bang" for your buck. Keep your zunes, but I'm staying with my 4th gen iPod Touch 32gb that I wrote this comment with.
Your opinion is as objective as theirs, though.
While the differences in sound quality are discreet, you saying "the iPod Touch plays the best music you have ever heard" is a perfect example of "apple fanboys not supporting their facts."
I'm torn between the two devices, mainly because I want 32 GB but there's a $70 difference between the two. I may end up going with the Zune HD simply because I do not use iTunes, nor do I have plans to (tried it many times in my life, but never liked it – Winamp suits my tastes much better).
I may, however, obtain an iPhone or similar Android phone in the future to handle all my organization, gaming and other miscellaneous tasks. For now, though, I may just stick with what's simple and cheaper. I'm a poor college student, so these choices will decide whether I eat something decent tomorrow night, or have to microwave another package of ramen noodles and pop a Vitamin C tablet. :P
Not to argue, but what I meant by “The iPod plays the best music I have ever heard” was that out of all the mp3 players I have ever listened to music out of, my iPod touch sounded the best in my opinion.
Ah, that makes sense now.
I'm waiting to see if Microsoft unveils its new secret "future of portable multimedia" device anytime soon and if it will be worth noting before making the purchase.
Secretly, I hope it's worthwhile, since it'd be nice to get some new, fresh material into a market that's become so stale and monopolistic.