It has been a long time, hasn't it? Today Microsoft opens preorders of Zune HD, the portable media player that was bred and tamed for, mostly, one reason – walk strait into iPod Touch market and take as much of its sales as possible. The real action starts September 15th – the date of the retail availability, when we will see if Zune HD can get away with it. Since then, preorder is your only option, which is available via major online stores: Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart and Microsoft Store. At the moment two colors are available: black (16GB, 219.99 USD)and platinum (32GB, 289.99 USD).I am quite sure there is small need to name all the features of the Zune HD partly because some people will choose it for glam looks only, but mostly because Zune enthusiast know them for a long time now. Just in case you are neither, there you go:
- 16 or 32GB disk space
- 3.3 inch 480 x 272 OLED display with 16 : 9 aspect ratio
- HD video output (HDTV and Zune HD & AV Dock required)
- HD radio tuner
- Internet browsing over Wi-Fi
- HD video streaming on Xbox from Zune
To give little preview of how Zune HD will compare to iPod Touch, let's just say that Zune supports flash and that speaks for itself. For thorough comparison we'll wait till Zune comes out.
