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As much as I love my Sony Walkman MP3 player (pretty impressive for a sub $100 PMP), I've decided I need to upgrade to something with internet access and a touchscreen.

Naturally, the decisions I have are between the Zune HD or iPod Touch.

Both have excellent features, although I must admit that the Zune HD has a few over the Touch that makes me want it more than the Touch. It has a radio and a better, more colorful OLED screen, and a sleeker design in my opinion, although the interface looks a little too "bland"; maybe it's just because it doesn't make use of menus like the iPod? ::shrugs:: However, the Touch has more games and useful apps and the internet browser is supposedly better, although since I own neither of these PMPs I can't decide that for myself, which is where you guys come in.

To Zune users: How is the internet browser? Is it as bad as some reviews say it is (in that it's slow and you should forget about trying to watch YouTube on it because of the slowness), or is it fairly decent?

Also, what's the marketplace like? How do you order music? The info isn't exactly clear on things like the Zune Pass and Zune Store. Do I need a credit card to order and download songs?

And has anyone used XNA to create games for the Zune? I might if I go with the Zune; it would be rather fun to develop for I think.

To iPod Touch users: Is the Touch's web browser nice and fast like they claim? Is the webpage displayed clearly and sharply?

I know how iTunes works. I'd just use it with the $50 cards you can purchase from any WalMart or Best Buy. I don't think the Zune works that way, which is why I'm asking how the marketplace works for it.

And for both groups: What's your favorite features of your PMP of choice? What don't you like about it? Is there any particular reason you chose one over the other? Do you wish you had bought the other instead of the one you are holding in your hand?

Thanks for any and all responses!

-CoffeeCoder

I have a Touch, and I absolutely love it. Previously, I had a RCA Opal 8gb, and I know what you mean about upgrading.

As for the radio point, look at http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Apple-iPhone-iPod-FM-Receiver,news-4855.html. They have a receiver, so I'd wait and find out if Apple is making a radio app. There are also accessories that you can buy that can pick up radio for a Touch/iPhone.

For the browser (Safari), I like it a lot. It's simple and efficient, and easy to use once you get used to touch-navigation. Some links are hard to tap and some text is hard to read sometimes because it zooms the window to fit the width of the text, and if it's wide then text will be small (and the link will be small.) However, you can always zoom in on it, so it's not a big deal that's a deciding factor IMO.

The resolution and clarity of the Touch's screen are good for a device it's size, I can happily watch movies on it that look great.

I'd say that my favorite thing about my Touch is its versatility. There's just so many things that I can do with it. There are only a few things that it lacks IMO, first being a camera. It also would be nice to multitask (which you can do if you jailbreak it ). Blue-Toothing to any device would be great (you can only use Blue-Tooth headsets), and being able to listen to radio anywhere'd be nice too (though you can get iheartradio and listen to many stations over wifi from anywhere). I'd wait out for the new 4g Touch that will be coming out soon, because it may have quite a few of these wanted features in it.

EDIT: One more thing I forgot to mention that I don't like: Adobe and Apple don't see eye-to-eye, so there's no flash player, which means no flash games on Safari, some embedded videos don't work, etc..

@CoffeeCoder Apple tends to release new ipod touches every september, well they have done so for past two or three years as far as I'm aware, so it all depends if you want to wait three months, typically there haven't been too high of jumps of difference between the versions but judging by the release of a completely revamped new iphone there might be a revamped ipod touch in the works or not.

@OrzeL:

Very true. There's a few rumors floating around the internet already that there's an iPod Touch 4 in the works. And as Digger pointed out, Apple seems to be developing a radio app for the iPhone/iPod Touch, so that's cool.

I'd be waiting a few months to get this anyway, since I don't have $200 to spare. By then I'm sure it's a safe bet that both Microsoft and Apple will have upgraded their touchscreen media players. I think the Zune HD is still in its first generation, as they're still calling it a "new platform". So I'm definitely going to play the waiting game and see which new model comes out on top (for me). I'm guessing it will be the Touch, especially if they upgrade their screen to an OLED one and get a radio feature on there.

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Also, I found out how the Zune Marketplace work (took some diggin', too!). Apparently, you purchase songs, pictures, movies and TV shows with "Microsoft Points", which you can buy cards for ($25 will give you 2000 MS Points), or you can order them with your credit card online. I don't know if that's a good deal or not compared to iTunes, but if it's cheaper than iTunes in the long run then I'll probably still go with the Zune HD.

I definitely think you should get an iPod touch, I've had one for a while and they are amazing, the touchscreen is really good and the glass is really hard to scratch or break. Not to mention the app store has practically anything you would ever want...

I'm not saying that that would be a bad choice, but I don't think its fair to recommend one product over the other if you have not used both.

Maybe you did, in that case, I'll shut up.

Heh, everybody's who's posted here already has an iPod Touch.

After Googling around , I've come across a few articles that say a "Zune HD2" seems to be in the works and will be more like the iPod Touch, in that it will have more apps, games, and perhaps a faster web browser (I hope!).

So, I guess I'll just wait until the end of the year when both new releases are possibly going to be out, although I still welcome comments on both of these devices and why you guys like/dislike them.

My dad had a zune, so i've seen one, but yeah, i am a bit biased.