So at 0900 hours I got the Zune HD.
Just to get a few things out of the way - I live in the UK, I still managed to buy it. £216 in total for a 32GB.
Ok.... First impressions.. (I'll add pics tomorrow)
Absolutely beautiful player
Holding it in your hand... It feels sturdy, yet incredibly light. Brushed metal on the back and a beautiful screen at the front.
3 buttons in total
- Media button - This is incredibly useful, basically a quick tap of this whilst playing a song, it pops up with volume controls and skip/go back controls, even when locked. Note that the button needs to be pressed in, so it bumping around somewhere will not press it
- Power/Hold button - Hold to turn off (you have to slide down the screen to complete shut down) and tap to Hold.
- Home button - At the bottom of the screen, to get you quickly to the home screen.
First thing is first - To get the marketplace and apps and stuff on my Zune, I changed my REGION settings to United States... And that's it. That's all I need to do. Gives you access to everything the Americans have.
Now, small overview on the Zune software -
- It's actually quite unique. There's no design I've ever seen like this. It's "snazzy" and pretty neat. It doesn't have a lot of customizable features, but I doubt you'll be using it as your primary media player. If you do use it as that, it's actually pretty good. It's not some cheap shit like Sonys software or Samsungs Emodio. You can tell MS spent a lot of time getting this just right.
- It's fast and easily accessible. Folder monitoring is a breeze and it updates almost instantly when you add new music.
- It uses a bit more than MM or Foobar does in terms of RAM, but it's still not too bad.
- Syncing isn't fast nor slow. It's average.
- Syncing through Zune is actually probably a better idea than just dragging and dropping - It actually updates Artists bios and artist images and plays them in the background when listening to music on your Zune. It's also really effective at finding album info and renaming songs that may be wrong. It's probably also safer to use this if you want to make sure the Album art goes onto the Zune.
Right, a few images of how it works
Music View - This isn't the main view, don't need to show you that, it's not very relevant
Marketplace - This is really cool. Tells you what songs you would like according to what you're listening to or what you have in your library. Also works directly off the Zune and you can download the songs on the Zune right there and then (if connected to wifi)
Apps - There aren't many there yet, but the ones that ARE there are pretty fucking awesome. Audiosurf and Hold 'Em are very well done. I'll go into more detail later
Ok, so onto the player.... Needed to upgrade to the latest version of the software... Was pretty quick and painless.
First impression of the screen? (I will add pics later, I'm updating it and charging)
Absolutely beautiful. Whites are so crisp, and the darks... Well, it's an OLED screen, what else can I say? The blacks are just the screen turned off, so they look absolutely stunning.
First slight problem? It's a fingerprint lover. It smudges, and it looks nasty... But I bought and Invisible Shield so I will be fine when I get it.
At first, the feel of the screen is a bit.... Sticky? Non-slidey, if you wish... But after a few minutes, it's perfect.
Ok, some images of the screen
This is the home screen - It's not very "full" but I personally think it's perfect. It has everything I need there and see the big PLAY button beside music? Just hit that and it goes into automatic shufle of all the songs. Pretty cool.
This is a really really cool feature - Basically, if you swipe to the left on the home screen, you get this... It shows you what is currently playing, your Quick Pin albums (this is pretty neat. You want an awesome album quickly accessible, just add it here), Your History of music/apps/etc and then the Recently Added. Really useful
This is the album view. One of the many views you can take at looking at your music. Looks lovely when you've filled it up like I have. Then you click on an album or you can zoom in to look closer at what you have
This image also shows "letters" this is even more awesome, for a quick browse, just click that letter and it will take you to a layout with the alphabet, then it will zoom into whatever letter you choose. Pretty nifty if you have lots of albums or artists.
Wanna know how the touchscreen fares up with the iPod? It's just as flowing, if not more, than the Touch. There is no lag, no jumps, nothing. It's totally smooth. The nVidia Tegra chip does an astounding job.
The accelerometer? It's so much more responsive than the Touch. I downloaded Audiosurf (yes, AUDIOFUCKINGSURF for free, and it looks absolutely amazing, btw. The 3D chip is just amazing) and a small tilt moves the car/whateveritis and it's so responsive.
I want to go into detail with everything, but I want to see what people comment about what I have already written.
What do you want to know about it?
As a summary - All EU users that have heard about it/looked at it, you have no reason NOT to get it. It's cheaper than the Touch and works perfectly in the EU. Apps, Marketplace, the lot.
Just to get a few things out of the way - I live in the UK, I still managed to buy it. £216 in total for a 32GB.
Ok.... First impressions.. (I'll add pics tomorrow)
Absolutely beautiful player
Holding it in your hand... It feels sturdy, yet incredibly light. Brushed metal on the back and a beautiful screen at the front.
3 buttons in total
- Media button - This is incredibly useful, basically a quick tap of this whilst playing a song, it pops up with volume controls and skip/go back controls, even when locked. Note that the button needs to be pressed in, so it bumping around somewhere will not press it
- Power/Hold button - Hold to turn off (you have to slide down the screen to complete shut down) and tap to Hold.
- Home button - At the bottom of the screen, to get you quickly to the home screen.
First thing is first - To get the marketplace and apps and stuff on my Zune, I changed my REGION settings to United States... And that's it. That's all I need to do. Gives you access to everything the Americans have.
Now, small overview on the Zune software -
- It's actually quite unique. There's no design I've ever seen like this. It's "snazzy" and pretty neat. It doesn't have a lot of customizable features, but I doubt you'll be using it as your primary media player. If you do use it as that, it's actually pretty good. It's not some cheap shit like Sonys software or Samsungs Emodio. You can tell MS spent a lot of time getting this just right.
- It's fast and easily accessible. Folder monitoring is a breeze and it updates almost instantly when you add new music.
- It uses a bit more than MM or Foobar does in terms of RAM, but it's still not too bad.
- Syncing isn't fast nor slow. It's average.
- Syncing through Zune is actually probably a better idea than just dragging and dropping - It actually updates Artists bios and artist images and plays them in the background when listening to music on your Zune. It's also really effective at finding album info and renaming songs that may be wrong. It's probably also safer to use this if you want to make sure the Album art goes onto the Zune.
Right, a few images of how it works
Music View - This isn't the main view, don't need to show you that, it's not very relevant
Marketplace - This is really cool. Tells you what songs you would like according to what you're listening to or what you have in your library. Also works directly off the Zune and you can download the songs on the Zune right there and then (if connected to wifi)
Apps - There aren't many there yet, but the ones that ARE there are pretty fucking awesome. Audiosurf and Hold 'Em are very well done. I'll go into more detail later
Ok, so onto the player.... Needed to upgrade to the latest version of the software... Was pretty quick and painless.
First impression of the screen? (I will add pics later, I'm updating it and charging)
Absolutely beautiful. Whites are so crisp, and the darks... Well, it's an OLED screen, what else can I say? The blacks are just the screen turned off, so they look absolutely stunning.
First slight problem? It's a fingerprint lover. It smudges, and it looks nasty... But I bought and Invisible Shield so I will be fine when I get it.
At first, the feel of the screen is a bit.... Sticky? Non-slidey, if you wish... But after a few minutes, it's perfect.
Ok, some images of the screen
This is the home screen - It's not very "full" but I personally think it's perfect. It has everything I need there and see the big PLAY button beside music? Just hit that and it goes into automatic shufle of all the songs. Pretty cool.
This is a really really cool feature - Basically, if you swipe to the left on the home screen, you get this... It shows you what is currently playing, your Quick Pin albums (this is pretty neat. You want an awesome album quickly accessible, just add it here), Your History of music/apps/etc and then the Recently Added. Really useful
This is the album view. One of the many views you can take at looking at your music. Looks lovely when you've filled it up like I have. Then you click on an album or you can zoom in to look closer at what you have
This image also shows "letters" this is even more awesome, for a quick browse, just click that letter and it will take you to a layout with the alphabet, then it will zoom into whatever letter you choose. Pretty nifty if you have lots of albums or artists.
Wanna know how the touchscreen fares up with the iPod? It's just as flowing, if not more, than the Touch. There is no lag, no jumps, nothing. It's totally smooth. The nVidia Tegra chip does an astounding job.
The accelerometer? It's so much more responsive than the Touch. I downloaded Audiosurf (yes, AUDIOFUCKINGSURF for free, and it looks absolutely amazing, btw. The 3D chip is just amazing) and a small tilt moves the car/whateveritis and it's so responsive.
I want to go into detail with everything, but I want to see what people comment about what I have already written.
What do you want to know about it?
As a summary - All EU users that have heard about it/looked at it, you have no reason NOT to get it. It's cheaper than the Touch and works perfectly in the EU. Apps, Marketplace, the lot.
