October 3rd, 2007
Zune 2 vs. iPod, by the numbers
Information on Microsoft’s new Zune 2 is all over the place this morning. The question on everyone’s mind (well, everyone in Redmond) is, will the Zune be enough to break into Apple’s near-monopoly on portable music/video players? For some inexplicable reason, my review package of Zunes hasn’t arrived yet (ha) so we’ll have to settle for looking at the specs of the two lines to see how they compare.
The Zune 2 comes in three flavors: an 80GB hard drive model and two smaller flash models (4GB and 8GB). For this article I’ve picked the iPod nano 8GB model to compare against the 8GB Zune, and the iPod classic 80GB model to compare against the 80GB Zune. Microsoft has nothing comparable to the iPod shuffle or iPod touch.
8GB Flash models
- Storage: 8GB (well, duh), approx. 2,000 songs.
- Display: 2.0″ (iPod), 1.8″ (Zune)
- Resolution: 320 x 240 (both)
- Colors: Black, Red, Green (both); White and Blue (iPod only); Pink (Zune only)
- Battery life: 24/5 hours audio/video (iPod), 20/4 hours a/v (Zune)
- Dimensions:
- iPod: 2.75″ x 2.06″ x 0.25″ (28.7 cm^2)
- Zune: 1.6″ x 3.6″ x 0.33″ (23.7 cm^2)
- Weight: 1.7oz (both)
- Price: $199 (both)
80GB Hard drive models
- Storage: 80GB, approx. 20,000 songs.
- Display: 2.5″ (iPod), 3.2″ (Zune)
- Resolution: 320 x 240 (both)
- Colors: Black (both), White (iPod only)
- Battery life: 30/5 hours audio/video (iPod*), 20/5 hours a/v (Zune*)
* (estimates from amazon.com; Apple claims 40/7 on iPod) - Dimensions:
- iPod: 2.4″ x 4.1″ x 0.41″ (67.2 cm^2)
- Zune: 2.4″ x 4.25″ x 0.5″ (85.3 cm^2)
- Weight: 4.9oz (iPod), 4.5oz (Zune)
- Price: $249 (both)
Both models support standard MP3 files, H.264 video, and MPEG-4 video along with proprietary formats.
Of course, more than specs will determine the success (or failure) of the new Zune models, and they won’t actually be available in stores until November. Just by looking at the specs, though, it seems that Microsoft’s new products are pretty close to Apple’s, for the same price. Will “pretty close” be enough?
<Updated with battery life and weight info from Amazon and engadget –Ed>
Ed Burnette is a professional developer and author of several articles and books about computing including Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform, 2nd Edition. For disclosure of Ed's industry affiliations, click here or to view his full profile click here.
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| 10/03/07
