iPod vs. Zune: January 2008 High End MP3 Player Roundup
by Ryan Smith on January 21, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
iPod Touch, Cont
Beyond its traditional media player abilities, the Touch also includes the full suite of iPhone applications, which were missing-in-action initially but Apple has since corrected the bungle on their part and new Touches are shipping with them (we're less happy however that owners of older Touches have to pay $20). The iPhone's excellent Safari browser is included with the Touch and functions every bit as well as we'd expect. The 480x320 screen of the Touch means that it's not a perfect replica of the desktop web browsing experience in spite of Apple's claims otherwise, but otherwise it's very easy to use. The jump start on web application development thanks to the iPhone launch means there are already numerous AJAX web applications that have been developed specifically for the iPhone/Touch that extend the usefulness of Safari and the Touch as a whole.
Also included are the YouTube player and the iTunes WiFi Music Store. The YouTube player loses some practicality in the transition from the iPhone, due to the fact that the Touch only includes a polyphonic tone generator instead of a (larger) speaker. This means that anyone wanting to share videos will also need to share their earbuds, something few of us are generally willing to do.
As for the iTunes WiFi Music Store, Apple doesn't pull any surprises. Given that the device has WiFi abilities it would have been a significant oversight not to include a store - something a lot of users have been waiting on their MP3 players for some time now - so there it is. Like everything else with the Touch that is a translation of a Mac OS X application, the UI has been structured specifically for the Touch and works well given the device's abilities. We would recommend keeping the Touch close to your wallet however, it's easy to quickly forget that you can rack up the music bill quickly with the Touch when buying music.
Rounding out the applications are Apple's personal information management applications Calendar, Contacts, and Mail, along with the general use applications Clock, Calculator, Stocks, Weather, Maps, and Notes. Because these applications were all originally designed around the iPhone, they do lose some of their usefulness on the Touch due to the lack of EDGE capabilities, but especially with the proliferation of city-wide WiFi in some areas it's hard to say they're hobbled in any significant way. If you want to know our thoughts on these applications we'll save on the redundancy and point you to our iPhone review, there has been very little chance in application functionality since that was published. Although Apple was late in including the full iPhone application suite with the Touch, the end result is that finally doing so is to their benefit: the difference between having the applications and not is the difference between an artificially hobbled media player and one of the best PDAs we have ever used.
The design of the Touch's hardware straddles the line between that of an iPod and that of an iPhone: the back is traditional iPod chrome while the front is Spartan with the touch screen and the single home button. The entire device is a fingerprint magnet, and both the chrome and the screen make fingerprints very obvious; this is a bit of a change from other iPods where the matte scroll wheel isn't a fingerprint problem. Granted, it's not really possible to make a touch screen that isn't a fingerprint magnet, but perfectionists will probably have a heart attack. For the rest of us Apple includes a polishing cloth that will no doubt see a lot of use. We do have a minor gripe about the location of the headphone jack however, it's on the bottom which means the earbud plug jabs in to our palm. It could have been put at a location to make the jabbing worse, but it could have also been placed at the top which to us seems like a more sensible location in every way.
The build quality of the Touch is generally excellent with only one minor flaw. Because of the chrome back, a small plastic "window" exists near the top-right corner of the device to allow the WiFi radio to communicate uninterrupted; this itself isn't a problem but on our unit the window isn't flush with the chrome, making it possible for the chrome at the edge of the window to catch on things. Otherwise the Touch oozes the usual Apple design polish, with a very solid design that is hard to break, including the glass screen which judging from the iPhone is virtually unbreakable.
Given all of this however, the Touch isn't perfect; Apple did a good job with the hardware but the software is lacking. On top of the issues we've outlined earlier with the touch screen controls, there are a few more things we believe Apple didn't deliver on quite as well as they could have.
Apple's lack of imagination in using the Touch's WiFi is very obvious at times. Wireless synchronization is not supported and while this is a boondoggle for security issues, Microsoft made it work for the Zune which is plenty of proof that it's possible. Such a feature is definitely useful, especially for minor transfers such as PIM data where the data set is small and there may not otherwise be a need to recharge the Touch at that time. The lack of internet radio abilities is also a disappointment; we have no doubts the Touch's battery wouldn't be able to pull off the play time it can with regular music files due to the power requirements of the WiFi radio, but that should be up to the user to decide if they want to bother with the feature. We certainly would like to be able to listen to our favorite internet radio stations given that the device already has all of the necessary hardware.
Next is how the Touch interfaces with a host computer. Unlike the iPod Classic line, the Touch is not a USB mass storage device but rather a custom device requiring a device driver. This means the Touch can't be used as a portable USB hard drive like the Classic can (although this is admittedly less of an issue with the Touch's much smaller flash memory) but it also means the Touch is only supported by a limited number of operating systems. Apple has never officially supported Linux but since prior iPods have been USB mass storage devices, it has been fairly trivial for capable Linux programmers to write their own programs. This isn't the case for the Touch, where a quick check on our part didn't come across any drivers for it at all. Furthermore Apple was extremely late to the game for supporting Vista x64, it wasn't until this month that they finally released a version of iTunes with a 64bit driver. Given what's happened we can easily see the driver requirements for the device continuing to be a problem for the Touch and its successors.
Out final gripe is once again the earbuds. We didn't like them with the Classic, we still don't like them with the Touch. With the 16GB Touch featuring a $400 MSRP, the issue has moved beyond annoying and towards simply silly.
Before closing out our thoughts on the Touch, the modability of the Touch bears a quick mention. If you're willing to break your warranty, it's possible to run user-created applications on the Touch by jailbreaking it to allow installation of further applications. Apple will be rolling out their iPhone/Touch SDK in February, but we suspect it will be a few months for developers to catch up, and the application signing requirement (along with what we imagine will be a fee to acquire a key) will be a turn off to some developers. In the mean time the iPhone/Touch community has had over half a year to develop a number of good applications that can be installed on a jailbroken Touch, including a number of games, IM clients, UI customizations, and even a SSH server for your inner-*nix hacker. There's a definite risk to jailbreaking a Touch but at the moment it adds a lot of value to the device.
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ThePooBurner - Tuesday, January 22, 2008 - link
Since the article is on current gen, we should only compare current gen. So you can't say apple is superior because of it's touch wheel when creative has the same. My Zen, the Vision:M is a few years old and can be had for under 200$. For that you get video playback of more formats (and an included transcoder for formats that aren't natively supported) than the Ipod, an FM tuner, a Microphone for dictigraphing, an 8gig jump drive that is seperate from the 30gig main drive, and jump dive like operation for the 30gig main drive, so you can use it on any computer. As far as i know, the Ipod has non of this without buying extra parts. I like the GUI of the Zen better than the Ipod by a lot, though the zune's GUI is actually pretty nice in places. Plus, Creative practically invented sound. I would wager that the sound quality and output, etc. are superior on the Zen compared to the other players as well. My music sounds good n matter what i have hooked to it to produce the sound, be it headphones, speakers, or even a TV. Even sounds great when using my 20$ FM transmitter for playback in my car. Plus my battery lasts for ever. I've gotten fairly close to 24 hours of operation. Granted time depend on a few things, as I've gotten as little as 14 also, but i know that the capability is there to meet the advertised claims, or better. And the 60gig version has even more features than mine does!Actually, other review sites, when my version of the Zen came out, said everything i have said and added "Creative has once again created a superior product to everyone else, but will the market give it the credit it deserves, or will it be like Beta? only time will tell."(that's a paraphrase from memory, so forgive if it isn't 100% exact). In short, the Zen is Better and cheaper than the competition. In every way.
michael2k - Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - link
So you want to compare to today, or a few years old?Because from the Creative web site, only the flash players are in stock. The Vison M, Vision W, and even the Zen are out of stock.
But a theoretical comparison of the Zen M vs the iPod classic shows us that the iPod is smaller and more pocketable, has more storage, and longer battery life. A comparison of the Zen W with the iPod Classic shows that the Classic is still smaller and with a better control scheme, more storage, and better battery life.
Of course what you say about the Vision:M may have been true in 2005 when it was announced... except that even then the iPod was thinner, had greater storage, and similar or better battery life.
So sure the "lead" may jump back and forth every time a refresh is announced, but Apple has "consistently" lead; first with USB mass storage, first with smaller form factor, first with faster connectivity, and first with easier usability. Eventually (2004 really), Creative caught up with their Zen but by then Apple had a huge lead.
So your point, while valid, is also outdated. Look today; if your Vision:M broke, what would you buy? The iPod would be a very strong contender.
yyrkoon - Monday, January 21, 2008 - link
Well I did not read the whole article, and only read part of the closing thoughts, but from what I have read, you guys have your priorities wrong compared to what most of the people I have talked to, and have seen on the web are saying. At least concerning the audio player aspect.A lot of people are wanting a device that is simple as possible concerning putting music on it, and a device that also has good quality sound(read: clean, with no background hissing or hum etc, etc). Anyhow, most of what I have read indicated that people would rather pay less for a Creative Stone, or something similar that was small, played music decently, has decent ear buds, and dead simple drag n drop file transferring. A good portion of these people also seem to want a device that does not cause music to stutter/pause on a device while navigating through menus, or folders while looking for a song, or settings.
The problem with the two reviewed items in this article is that I have read that the software that comes with each device is garbage. And they are not alone, as many MANY devices suffer from the same affliction from what I have read.
Anyhow, Creative has DEFINITELY been in this part of the industry much, much longer than Apple, or Microsoft, and so has Sony(Although I must admit I have not had a Sony Walkman in many, many years, but I still have one of the first Creative MP3 players ever with 32MB of memory on it).
I think now days, and personally, I would rather have something that is small, but not tiny, sounds decent, has a USB chargeable battery onboard(I dont have a problem taking such a device apart and replacing the battery myself; if and when it is needed), and somethin g that has drag and drop file transferring with the ability to play any music format whether DRM or not. IF this device were an all around media device, then it MUST have the ability to read PDF files. More than 2-4GB on such a device would be a waste for me however, so we are talking onboard flash, and probably a 8-10 hour battery play time before recharges.
TP715 - Monday, January 21, 2008 - link
You might want to take a look at the Cowon D2 and A3. Both have drag and drop and support many audio codecs. D2 is small, available in 2, 4, and 8GB (can increase via the SDHC slot), has USB chargeable battery with 52 hr life and will display TXT files (but not PDF as yet). A3 is probably bigger than you want, but will display DOC and PDF files (with transcoding).Others: AnandTech did mention that this is only the first of reviews on MP3 players, so others will probably be covered. I would suggest they look at Cowon as well as Creative Zen etc. They are available only online, are a bit expensive, and have nonstandard UIs, but they have good audio quality and lots of codec support (incl OGG, FLAC, APE etc.). The also support recording, ie line in.
michael2k - Monday, January 21, 2008 - link
I think 119m iPods sold disagree with you.1) Sound quality (if you read the whole article you will see) on the Classic (and correspondingly Nano and Shuffle) iPods are fine.
2) Drag and drop works fine for a couple hundred megabytes (IE, a handful of folders or files) up to a couple gigabytes of files, but falls way short when there are several to tens to hundreds of gigabytes of files. iTunes is then simple (plug and go)
3) The problems described with stuttering/pausing is new, and will probably be fixed. The first 5 generations of iPods did not have this problem.
Anyway, you're welcome to your device. It sounds like you're describing an iPod Touch, so long as you can stand iTunes.
michael2k - Monday, January 21, 2008 - link
I think you need to recognized that for some people the included earbuds fit perfectly.Freeseus - Monday, January 21, 2008 - link
There's something that I haven't seen mentioned in many of these iPOD reviews that I find very annoying. I'm sure I'm not the only one here. Or perhaps, I simply missed over it as I perused this article (as well as previous ones on other sites).The iPOD UI has significant slowdown/pauses/sluggish "stutter" playback while accessing music, particularly when:
a: attached to a transmitting device (iTRIP, for example)
b: while accessing a long or high-quality song
Many a time I find myself waiting to see the data appear and waiting to see the song begin to play. I don't even need to mention the album art in the new Classic, which suffers the same problem as iTUNES does in general with displaying custom artwork as you scroll through your music.
And in the latest CLASSIC generation of iPODs, the "stutter" is at least twice as bad as it was in the previous generation.
Why has this not been mentioned? I considered getting a ZUNE simply because I was tired of the lacking capabilities of the iPOD's processing/coding. But, I haven't purchased a ZUNE simply because there is no 160gig model.
The newest iPOD classic is a step down from the previous generation. It needs a cleaner, less intense UI and/or some more powerful hardware. End of story.
Ryan Smith - Monday, January 21, 2008 - link
It wasn't mentioned because I never experienced it on the 6G hardware. I also own a 5G where I have experienced it, so I see where you're going, but I have never had that issue with the Classic used in this review.cmdrdredd - Monday, January 21, 2008 - link
I find that anandtech has fallen into Apple's traps like so many others. The iPod is hardly the be al end all of players anymore. Hell, the Zune has a FM tuner which Apple expects you to pay for in an accessory. The Zune also bundles earbuds that actually sound good, no Apple's pack in ear buds are nowhere the quality. Plus, I don't have to do the "safely remove hardware" to disconnect my zune, I can just unplug it. Doing that with your iPod can corrupt it completely. The battery life on the Zune I find better than mentioned here. Turn off the WiFi if you don't use it. On the touch if you use the web features it's necessary, but mostly for the Zune you don't need it. It's not ment to do the functions the iPod Touch does via wifi so having it on is unfair in the comparison. The zune has flaws too like the screen not being very high rez for it's size, and inability to put videos into a playlist. The latter of which is easily fixed via software update.The Zune also has the bonus of not using a case that is easily scratched.I also find the UI to be more eye pleasing than the iPod classic because of the ability to customize the background.
I'm honestly just a little sick of people writing off everything else as an option and telling everyone else to just buy an ipod because it's "cool" or "it's an ipod, duh". That's the same as telling everyone to buy a Wii, even when the Wii doesn't have the games people buy an Xbox360 for.
lefenzy - Wednesday, March 5, 2008 - link
I agree with you about the ipod not being the best, but I've never had an issue pulling out my ipod nano without safe renewal.