Apple's iPod vs. Microsoft's Zune

Reviews: Multimedia

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Bradford Day
Kurtis
N/A
May. 1, 2007

Specifications

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The Face-Off, Continued...

Content

More music, movies, and TV shows are available on iTunes. The Zune Marketplace offers less variety and more absurdity with the asinine Microsoft Points system.

Advantage: iPod (although I still think 99¢/song is a rip-off)

Video

Each player has a bright, crisp screen. The iPod's 2.5" screen offers the same 320x240 resolution as the 3" Zune screen. As such, videos played on the iPod are just a touch sharper. But the discrepancy is minor and not enough to make me choose the iPod's smaller screen for my viewing (dis)pleasure. Bigger is better.

Advantage: Zune

Music

Both players come with top-notch earbuds and pump out great sounding tunes. I could tell no significant difference in the clarity or quality from one player to the other.

Advantage: Tie

Overall Usability

The sleek, thin shape of the iPod feels natural and lightweight in my hand. The brick-like nature of the Zune is less pleasing to hold despite the nifty textured surface. Having to go from portrait to landscape mode to view pictures and videos with the Zune is somewhat counter intuitive, especially when the menu and play/pause buttons get moved around to less ergonomic positions in the process.

The Zune is heavier, bulkier and doesn't fit as nicely into a pocket as the iPod. And despite my dislike for the scroll wheel, the iPod gets away with using two less buttons than the Zune, making for a cleaner input surface and better usability when switching from music to video.

Advantage: iPod

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: The Face-Off
Page 3: The Face-Off, Continued...
Page 4: Conclusion

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4 User Comments

1 - Posted by nate011 on May 2, 2007 - 1:35 pm

horrible review.

Many things this guy is talking about are rated the complete opposite then what several reviews on the web and magazines have repeatedly rated the two players. I am not biased in any brand, but the Zune is suppose to be considered one of the best mp3 players for sound quality. I work in recording studios and hands down the Zune sound quality is much better than the Ipod. We ended up switching over to the Zune mainly for this reason in our studio. both are good players but some things he rates acutally are winners for the Zune instead of Ipod and vice verca.

2 - Posted by handrail on May 2, 2007 - 2:39 pm

well, i think i've read quite a few reviews of each player and i disagree with some of your statements. most of what i've read agrees with my general assessments. i rated both players evenly in sound quality because with the stock headphones there is very little difference between the two. your professional ear can probably hear subtle differences but the majority of folks can't, especially while wearing ear buds.

and if my reviews are different than what is out there, please send along some links. my personal preference is going to differ from other reviewers. i also like to think that we don't automatically give an apple product a good rating just for being an apple product, or a microsoft product a negative rating for being a microsoft product for that matter.

i can't see how any of my rated categories are biased or opposite of what has been reported. some people love the apple scroll wheel but there is no way it is more precise than the zune's. and NO ONE can dispute the fact that the Zune marketplace is far less extensive than the iTunes library. and i don't think i made up the numbers for weight or dimension.

feel free to flame my reviews all you want, but please give some specific examples if you're going to compare us to another site or try to take me to task for errors.

thanks for the comment.

brad.

3 - Posted by blackjet on May 4, 2007 - 5:19 am

I liked that review, to the point and easy to follow. It listed all the pros and cons that a general consumer would want to know about and it wasnt too wordy.

nice one brad :-)

4 - Posted by handrail on May 8, 2007 - 7:42 am

so....you're saying my reviews are normally too wordy? :)

thanks man,

brad.

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