ZuneHD

I'll preface by saying my Mp3 player fanboyism for a specific company is still for sale; currently up for bid between Microsoft and Creative.

Pre-Story: The only reason I am able to review the ZuneHD is because I accidentally washed my Zen X-Fi; I then took this as a sign from God that I should invest in a ZuneHD (washed it Sunday, ZuneHD came out Tuesday 9/15). The Zen is currently in transit to Creative Labs where I'm hoping my "accident" warranty will score me an X-Fi 2 (doubtful). If this does happen though I will be able to make a well informed decision as to who I'm going to be a total whore to. Currently, Microsoft is winning.

I've had a little over a week to fall in love with the ZuneHD, and I'll tell you; I'm considering proposing. People have general complaints about the ZuneHD such as, "It has a limited Apps store!" or "They removed the local social feature!". These are all problems that I expect to be solved (and can be done through firmware), but really don't bother me right now. I consider all the apps to be extremely gimmicky, and while I do enjoy being able to check the weather or facebook; music is my main concern. The way I see it, if you like flashy lights and shiny objects; go buy an Ipod Touch. If you love music, buy a ZuneHD. (I would like to point out that all the Microsoft apps will be free, just throwing that out there though.)

The first noteworthy function of the ZuneHD for me so far has been the music Channels: you can subscribe to channels that the Music Program picks based on your music, and everyday I plug my Zune into the computer, it puts new tracks on it. Opening the Channel is like opening a present, even if you don't always like it. My next favorite feature (probably my favorite) is being able to wirelessly download almost any track in existence with a Wi-Fi connection. Zune pass ($15/month gets you unlimited access to music from anywhere you have Wi-Fi: this price is equivalent to a semi-nice dinner and you get to keep 10 tracks: It's like buying an album). Then of course there's HD radio that you can bookmark tracks on for your player to automatically retrieve, the NVIDIA Tegra processor, an OLED screen (druel), 33 hours of battery life, and a grocery list of other features that make it (whatever your word for freakin' sweet is).

My only complaint so far is that this thing is so damn pretty I obsessively wipe the screen off on my shirt.

The ZuneHD is currently available in 16 or 32 GB and a multitude of colors if you order from microsoft.

More as the ZuneHD is updated.

If you want to add me on Zune my tag is Reviewfi.
If you have questions, comments, or concerns you can email me: sherwoodfi@gmail.com