Engineer's Take on Zune Hardware

"...I sat down with a key member of my product review team (my wife) to compare it against my (also white) 30 GByte iPod with Video. Contrasting Zune and the iPod from my engineering mindset, supplemented by my spouse's consumer slant, has been an interesting experience. As usual, there are no absolute winners and losers here; just reasonable cost, feature and form factor trade-offs..."

This is a very interesting and well thought out review from Brian Dipert, who eyes the Zune hardware from an engineering perspective. The review is very balanced and does a nice job of comparing Zune to the closest iPod model, the 30GB iPod Video. (Unlike those who insist on comparing Zune to the shuffle or Nano.) As Brian points out, there is no clear-cut winner; both units having advantages and disadvantages. Brian does a nice job of voicing some my same opinions concerning the hardware. Yes the Zune is larger than the iPod, but it's hardly as gigantic as much of the media would have you believe. Yes, the Zune specs plainly state that it  weighs slightly more, but it honestly feels lighter than the 30GB iPod Video, which I too own. In addition to his nice review of the Zune hardware, Brian also touches on some of Zune's potential, the DRM debate, and the controversial pay-per-player agreement with Universal. This review, which comes in three parts, is well worth the read:

Welcome To The Social
A Sufficient Hardware Foundation For Future Firmware Perfection?
DRMs and CLMs