CNET Labs has just published the results of their Zune 80 audio-only battery tests and “the numbers are somewhat disappointing,” Donald Bell reports for CNET.
Despite Microsoft’s rating of the Zune 80 for 30 hours of audio playback with the Wi-Fi feature turned off, “lab testing revealed that the Zune 80 is realistically capable of 22 hours of audio playback with the Wi-Fi feature turned off, or 18.5 hours with the Wi-Fi feature enabled,” Bell reports.
“While 22 hours is certainly better than the 13 hours we got from the first-generation Zune, it’s nowhere close to the 45 hours we were able to get from the competing 80GB iPod classic,” Bell reports.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple historically understates battery life. For the 80GB iPod classic, Apple rates music playback time at “up to 30 hours when fully charged.” For the 160GB iPod classic, Apple rates music playback time at “up to 40 hours when fully charged.”
Bell asks, “Does the fact that the Zune’s screen is nearly twice as large as the iPod make up for the battery life being about half as good?”
MacDailyNews Take: Uh, no, especially when you realize that the screen resolutions (320-by-240-pixel resolution) are the same, so all you get with Microsoft’s Oldsmobile, er… Zune, besides general derision, social isolation, and ownership of an ugly, squircled, also-ran iPod wannabe with less than half the battery life, is a blocky, pixellated, inferior image.
Full article here.
Not half the player either.
Also, when they ran their continuous playback, why is the screen ON? It should have gone to screensave mode where there’s virtually no loss due to screen.
Or.. they are managing the power poorly in Zune.
Who’s Zuning who?
Who cares???, I haven’t got one, never seen one in the flesh! & will not loose sleep over it for sure!!!
Nothing here folks, move along now, quickly please!!!
If it was an Apple problem, it would be a class action suit inevitably.
For Microsoft, it is just common practice. Nobody is really disappointed or surprised.
I give Microsoft two years before they close the doors on a very painful and expensive mistake…
this CNET story is just another data point for ….
Zune = turd
the zune 80 supply shortage is a Microsoft publicity stunt to deflect attention from the reviews and create fake buzz
and the idiots in the press (including Jim Cramer) are buying it !
Sitting here anxiously, anticipating the sometime-this-ten-year-cycle release of the Zone, which will be my first phone… yup!! And I’ll keep it turned off most of the time, and just use my pager/beeper to catch calls, which I then can return by…presto…turning on my Zone. This way, I just know I’ll get 4-5 days between recharges. Eat that, you iPhanboys..
It’s amazing how many Zune lovers tout the size of the Zune screen being large and superior. Yet they fail to realize that even though its larger, its still 320×240 and worst yet, not even anywhere close to the 163 pixels per inch. So viewing fine details, like small text or images/video lose details and subtleties than the iPods easily display.
One Windows/Zune idiot even said that why would you want 163 pixel per inch on such a small screen? He related the lack of high pixel count on the Zune to a big screen projector in which the further you are away from the screen the better the image will look. So why would you want 163 ppi on a small screen? ahahahaha… I didn’t even bother to answer that one. It would just confuse the idiot even more. Yes be happy to view your Zune from 6 feet away! LOL
The wireless “squirting” is the battery gobbler.
does the zune smell like shit ?
it looks like it and performs like it.
MDN ads load fast.
MSN content loads slow.
Finally saw one of these over the weekend. You wouldn’t believe all the ‘old” Zunes still on display in Sears and other stores. Real effort going into proper holiday marketing by MS. How often can the ball be dropped by this company?
If you look at Amazon Electronics today, you’ll notice that the Zune 30 has fallen to #22 in the countdown. That puts it below 6 different models of iPod, despite it’s lowish $179 price tag.
There was a lot of tricky business in the press last week, from big news of shortages to sudden jumps in polling numbers. It seems that the effect didn’t last.
I am, however, dubious regarding the Amazon Kindle’s #1 position. If I want something that big, it better do more than just show me stuff that I have to pay Jeff Bezos to put on it.
MDN, why don’t you say what you really think?
Impatient
If you use Firefox the ads can be eliminated with Adblock plus!
Typical…
Microsoft OVERSTATES their products.
Apple UNDERSTATES theirs.
Come to think of it, that’s fine with me.
Hey, who is using my handle!! (IE: Eric)
But the Zune has FM radio man. Who cares that the battery doesn’t last when you can listen to the radio. I mean, it’s the RADIO man!
Which makes its wireless features even more dubious… If you have to plug it in to recharge every day (or two), you might as well sync the Zune at the same time while connected by wire, especially if the batteries last only 18 hours if wireless is turned on. Apple wisely added wireless to the iPod/iPhone products that can actually do something useful with wireless capabilities.
I tested my iPod touch’s battery life and got 23 hours (wi-fi off, screen off). That’s one more hour than Apple’s stated duration of 22 hours. It even had a thin sliver of red life left in the battery meter, but I had to give in and charge it.
I saw a Brown Zune 30 advertised at $79 on Black Friday – like that’s a draw for (savvy) consumers!
I saw the “new” Zunes in a case at Walmart. They are an ugly plastic knockoff of the previous generation iPod nano and classic. About the only positive thing that you can say about them is Microsoft is (at least superficially) getting closer to the Real Thing.
UK, zune free forever
The Zune looks like something that would have been designed by the Soviet Union in the ’80s.
I never complain about MDN’s ads because I want MDN to profit from the traffic. If that’s a way to support MDN then I am all for it.
@Jooop
… or perhaps a clunky tv remote from the 50’s?