Zune 2.0 Review, Part 4: Zune 80
There's a controversy afoot about the Zune 80, Microsoft's new high-end portable digital media player. That is, you can't buy one right now. Microsoft is celebrating the Zune 80 as "sold out," but the reality is that very few units were made, thanks to a manufacturing issue that was discovered over the summer. That was since rectified, but in the meantime, Microsoft's hardware manufacturing partners were able to produce a ton of Zune 4 and 8 units, but very few Zune 80s. I'm told that the device should be shipping in volume by mid-December. I'd be surprised if that were the case, and it's unclear what effect this will have on the device's popularity.
Unlike the Zune 4/8 ( see my review ), but like last year's Zune 30 ( see my review ), the Zune 80 utilizes hard disk storage, instead of flash RAM. The result is a bigger player, but one that includes a beautiful screen that rivals almost anything Apple will throw at you. As with last year's model, the Zune 80 competes most closely with a traditional iPod--in this case, the 80 GB iPod classic--but Microsoft's new offering also has what it takes to take on the iPod touch, struggling along as it does with a screen you have to touch and a UI that can't be accessed when the device is in your pocket.
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