How do the new Zunes stack up against the iPod Touch?

Microsoft is preparing to release new Zunes, namely, the Zune 80 hard drive player, the Zune 8 and 4 both featuring flash memory.  The new players are touting a new interface, a couple extra features, larger screen in the case of the Zune 80 and a new interface.  There are some areas where Microsoft ups the ante over the iPod Touch but I don’t think it will be enough to topple Apple from the top of the heap.

The Zune 80 features an 80GB hard drive, the new Zune Pad controller, comes in the box with “premium” headphones (whatever that means), is only available in black (for now) and has a 3.2-inch display (smaller than the iPod Touch).  The classic Zune will be sold alongside the new model and will be called the Zune 30.  The Zune 4 and 8 feature 4GB or 8GB of flash memory, come in pink, green, black or red, features a 1.8-inch display (smaller than the iPod Nano) and will sell for $150 and $200 respectively.

Right now the Zunes are set to ship in November though an exact date has not been announced.  Zune 30 users will get the same software features as the new Zune owners, additional media codecs have been added and it now has the ability to sync videos from a media center PC.  There is WiFi syncing to the host computer, podcast support and the Zune store is now DRM free.

All in all, not bad now let’s take a look between the new Zunes and iPod Touch.  Since there is no direct comparison between any of the models and the iPod Touch, I’ll do my best.  First of all, the iPod Touch, on the high end has 16GB of storage which is more than the Zune 8 or 4 but less than the Zune 80.

I don’t like hard drive based players because hard drives tend to break more than flash based models due to the moving parts of the hard drive being exposed to the shocks of daily motion, vibrations, etc.  That’s one of the reasons I think Apple was smart to use flash memory in the iPod Touch as opposed to a hard drive.  Some are complaining about that, since flash memory does cost more than a traditional hard drive but it is also more durable.

Aside from that, the Zunes do not have a touch screen.  Touch screens are good, especially if it happens to be the multitouch all-glass display that Apple decided to use on the iPod Touch and power it with a mobile version of OSX, the interface is nothing less than spectacular, say what you will about it missing tactile buttons, you don’t need them with the multitouch interface.  The iPod Touch also has the largest display of them all at 3.5 inches and a higher resolution to boot.  I can only imagine the legal problems Microsoft could have faced if it had decided on the “Zune Touch.”

The Zune has WiFi syncing which the iPod Touch does not have, this is a cool feature but syncing over WiFi is going to be slower than using a USB 2.0 connection, I’d rather have faster transfers over a cable.

The Zunes also do not have mobile YouTube or a browser (Safari for the iPod Touch).  Those features certainly aren’t necessary for a portable media player but once you get used to them, as I have, you won’t want to give them up.

Okay, so the Zune wins on having a DRM free music store, I have to concede that point but the iPod Touch still wins on features, except storage capacity but for me, that’s not enough to push the Zune to the top.

Then there is the case of price, which the Zunes win, hands down but you get what you pay for and I’d rather save that $250 and put it towards the 16GB iPod Touch for $399, keep in mind, flash memory players are more durable than those with hard drives, more storage or more durability is a choice you will have to make for yourself.  I made mine with the iPod Touch and do not regret it one bit.  Though, Apple still has a little something to learn called “the customer is always right.”

Lastly, a lot of companies like announcing products before they are available for purchase, this is the one thing Apple does right.  Usually when Apple announces a product, it will be available for purchase later that same day, not weeks or months later.  I wish other companies, including Microsoft would adopt this strategy, Apple proves it works and I’m sure at least two people would love to grab the new Zune players.

• 

• The New Zunes are doomed to fail like the Zune of yore
• Are Zunes outselling iPods?
• New Zunes beat Apple to the punch on wifi
• New Zune 4 and 8 do not have video out capabilities
• 5 Reasons the iPod Touch cannot replace a Palm