Darius Wey
11-17-2006, 08:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://gear.ign.com/articles/746/746470p1.html' target='_blank'>http://gear.ign.com/articles/746/746470p1.html</a><br /><br /></div><em>"Rather than shining polycarbonate plastic and chrome, Zunes are encased in very pleasant feeling hard-rubberized plastic. The inside of the case is painted a different color than the external surface, which gives the edges of the player a two-toned glowing look that Microsoft is calling the "doubleshot effect." To our eyes and fingertips, the finish may well be the nicest of any mp3 player yet, dramatically less prone to scratching and smudging than the iPod's snobbish aluminum, and quite a bit more pleasant to hold in hand. After days of use we can't see a scratch on our (unprotected!) Zune, as opposed to our 5.5G iPod that got scratched during the unboxing photos."</em><br /><br /><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2006/wey-20061118-zuneign.jpg" alt="" /><br /><br /><a href="http://gear.ign.com/articles/746/746470p1.html" target="_blank">IGN</a> has published a reasonably balanced review of the Zune - quite a few ups and downs are highlighted, and some decent shots are included. They threw a few 8s and 9s out of 10, so overall, they were pretty happy with the hardware. Give it a read.