They say television adds at least about 10 kg. If true, about the same make and monitor, we all saw different pictures of the new Zune HD from every angle, from the start. But something else was to see him and I play with it in reality. What really proved downright shocking, Zune HD is much more flexible than I could tell from the picture.

Of course, the first thing you see the Zune HD is design, which is a huge leap forward for Microsoft, compared with the first Zune’s (you remember your brown Zune? Blah!). Case is not thicker than a USB stick next generation, just as the dimensions need to sit perfectly in your hand and is surprisingly easy. And this despite the metal used generously in the construction, the entire back and sides of the metal plate. Has a total of three large buttons and wide (well, not too high, but wide enough): one below the screen, the position of “home”, which takes you into the main interface, wherever you are in the menus, and you and out of games or other applications, a second button is positioned on the top side of the player, having the screen lock function (at a short press) but also on / off (if you hold down a few seconds), the third button is placed on the left side without having the function of media in the foreground controls (play / pause, next and volume). On the down side is a proprietary connector for USB cable connects with PC and standard 3.5 mm connector for headphones.

Beyond these elements, the design is dominated by an excellent 3.3-inch OLED screen with a resolution of 480 x 272 pixels. The images displayed are simply superb, with vibrant colors and exceptional clarity of detail, hence the capability to display HD video flawlessly thanks Tegra chip integrated graphics, which also can get HD movies at 720p on a TV screen . But about that a little later.

Another notable design element is a small inscription located on the left side, we send a “Hello from Seattle” in which we can reply only with a warm “go lucky”.

The most obvious of the Zune’s design elements of HD remains, however, the new interface based on touch, zooms and fade’s, which is not only very attractive in appearance, but it and moves extremely well. Zune sites old hard disk (HD Zune is flash storage) had a problem with the sync thumbnail sites where scroll at high speed due to disk access times too high. The new flash memory-based, problem is gone and how you can navigate quickly through large collections of music covers.

The new Zune’s 3.2 firmware comes with an excellent way to quickly sort the albums. If the old Zune to reach a ZZ Top album had to navigate the entire collection (even if your scrolling speed as the hold button was difficult to get exactly where you wanted), the new interface shows you a little quarrel that if you press occur letters of the alphabet and can go directly to the desired point without ever haunt the list. A solution much faster and precise, involving at most two clicks and a bit of a walk with your finger to get the album, song or artist you search. We have but to get used to datul back, because across the interface is intuitive arrow back. You will quickly catch the high points to hit the top of the screen, which, even if you only see half, you go to the previous menu. Average Checks disappear little by pressing Exit top left, which is more than evident, and appear if you press the button on the side or in some empty spaces in the interface. Otherwise, know that you have to navigate through menus by dragging a finger horizontally, left-right, including the view “Now Playing”. Overall, will last from minutes to, possibly tens of minutes to catch up how the whole interface, the function and the speed with which you normally plug the box collector spades. However a pleasure to discover all the ways you can reach the Zune and not much of how to remain locked, you press Home button and pick from the beginning, but not much you need to do this.

Pretty frustrating is that not much goes underground test, ie you can not change the volume without interface to start, or pull it completely out of pocket, thing that the congestion can be cumbersome and in Romania, in places, even dangerous. The same irritated me and the first iPod Touch, but the second was dedicated volume buttons on the side. I say little because you can change the volume and the pocket, but you blindly click on Home then button up or down the side and then on the screen (if you get in the way you give Pause) and finally block it in place, which eo much trouble just to give the volume down, especially since no one understand what you do with your hands in pants pocket (in case anyone cares). So maybe it’s better to get him out of sight for the entire operation. Anyway, it’s annoying, for a function so often used as volume change (or skip to the next item).

Like I said above, the OLED screen is one of the main attractions of the Zune’s HD and if you are passionate about video on-the-go, you’ll be very pleased, but not in direct sunlight, the screen is quite illegible. But OLED screens consume a lot, depending on what show (more white screens consume far more than more black screens, which explains the interface, although I choose to believe it was a deliberate choice of designers). But what makes the Zune so easy to run HD media in a housing so small is small but extremely powerful high-performance processor Tegra, Nvidia product. The processor was designed specifically to run high definition video and can decode video or flash with a much lower power consumption than any other chipset, which means better battery autonomy to enhanced picture quality. Maybe that’s why Microsoft claims that HD can play Zune music for 33 hours and 8.5 hours video (both without wireless enabled).

Unfortunately, the discovery of new music experience, which is a strong point of the Zune’s, is only available in America or there everywhere, I came across a Canadian position that the story and he did get the Zune fully operational, but with a friend from the States, on whose behalf Fri bills. So I will not insist on this.

But still other characteristics with which to have fun, for example if you drag the main screen from left to right, is a quick list of album you listen at that time, all the stuff you’ve recently watched the newest albums added. Additionally, you can “stick” albums or videos here that you want to have immediate access, without having to navigate the directory structure. A small gesture, but matters. I found it very hard and displaying data about artists, they get directly from the Zune online store. Even for bands that you know better, do not hurt a full discography and biography information about artists.

Zune HD has no speaker and Bluetooth, so you have to limit yourself to wired headphones. Included are OK, but not sensational but if you have your favorites and keep the audio quality, do not hesitate to use them too. I for one have a pair of intra-ear, all accessories for the Zune, but I like much more than those included in the package. HD Zune supports WMA, WMA Pro, WMA Lossless, AAC without DRM and Fairplay, of course, MP3. FLAC lossless audio not but know audiobook sites. On the video, the Zune supports WMV, MPEG-4, and H.264 transcodând everything from 720p to a low quality before copying to the player. But I dream Divx or Xvid. You can get a television signal either via HDMI or via composite, but the cables must be purchased separately. Video runs at an excellent quality, only in landscape mode. If you are a 4:3 video button that extends across the screen, but it cut the image up and down. All hardware on the accuracy and speed must necessarily those of the accelerometer, which is by far the best that I’ve seen so far.

Applications of Zune HD is and will remain free, but will be written and supervised by Microsoft. What Microsoft has excelled this time of sotfware the Zune to the PC already reached version 4.0 and that I only now I discovered. The interface looks super cool and has all the functions you need and some extras that you did not know that you need. How Smart DJ appropriate function, which chooses songs that sound like to you, including local music collection. Has a mini mode, it works just like Windows Media Player 11, but the Zune is the only software that can transfer music player, quite surprising that Media Player can not do that. But honestly no no to grasp for the desktop Zune player I liked so much (as I like iTunes once before to take the weight) that remains, for now and the foreseeable future, the default player for music on the system my (you can download from Zune.net, if I was curious).

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