Microsoft's new Zunes: officially in 80, 8, and 4GB sizes

October 3rd, 2007, 19:54 Posted By: wraggster

via engadget



We love a good non-mystery around here, and Microsoft's new Zunes are about as un-mysterious as they get. But we also love a good product refresh, and now that the cat's officially out of the bag we can really dig into the new Zunes, which definitely have a lot going for them. There's plenty to cover, so here's what you need to know.

Hard drive Zunes

It's called the Zune 80 and, shockingly enough, it has 80GB of storage.
Uses the new Zune Pad -- four way touch-sensitive d-pad (with up, down, left, and right buttons).
It will sell for $250 (with "premium" headphones).
Available only in black (to start).
Screen size has increased to 3.2-inches (from 3-inches). As far as we know the resolution is still QVGA.

Dimensions are 61.1 x 108.2 x 12.9mm (2.4 x 4.25 x 0.5-inches), some 1/3rd smaller than the classic Zune.
The classic Zune will now be known as the Zune 30 -- it's not going anywhere. More on that in a sec.
New flash Zunes

Zune 8 and Zune 4 are the names for the 8 and 4GB flash based models.
Also uses the Zune Pad.
These will sell for $200 and $150 respectively.
Both will be available in pink, green, black, and red.
It will feature a 1.8-inch screen (compare to the nano's 2-inch screen).
Dimensions are 41.4 x 91.5 x 8.5mm (1.6 x 3.6 x 0.33-inches) -- compare to the new iPod nano, at 69.8 x 52.3 x 6.5mm (2.75 x 2.0 x 0.26-inches).
Everything else

New Zunes ship in November, date not yet announced.
All Zunes (including the Zune 30) will have a new, redesigned interface and feature parity. In other words, early Zune 30 adopters will have all the same software features as new Zune 80, 8, and 4 users.
Additional native video codecs for h.264 and MPEG-4 -- users no longer need transcode those file types to WMV.
Zune can FINALLY sync video from your Media Center PC! Jeez, took you friggin long enough, guys!
WiFi sync to host computer! Includes moving over music, movies, photos, podcasts, etc.

Podcast support! (Sorry, no over the air downloads -- sync only.) Podcasts can also be shared via WiFi.
The 3x3 song sharing DRM has had its three day restriction removed, but users can still only play files three times.
There is still NO wireless music store.
The Zune software is all new and rewritten, and is supposed to actually be more than a rebadge of WMP10 now. Friggin finally.
The Zune music store is going DRM-free, with over 1m MP3 tracks being made available for download. Other details (like which labels, whether there is a DRM-free upgrade path is for users who've bought music with DRM, price differences, etc.) are not yet revealed.

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