Makeover Monday; Or… The ManVBlog’s Guide to the iPod Lineup v. the Zune HD

Okay. So, you want THE best experience out of listening to music or watching portable movies as you wait in line at your favorite doctor’s/dentist’s office. What do you do to kill time? Forget that Sony Walkman and your extensive tape collection that features MC Hammer’s “Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em”, Vanilla Ice’s “To The Extreme”, or your Boyz II Men single “End of the Road”. (All classics, and on my player, of course).

But, all the guides out there that try to compare the iPod line to the Zune line don’t quite get it. Comparing, say, the iPod Touch to the Zune HD is like comparing a fruit salad to an orange. Yeah, you get lots of stuff with a fruit salad, but that orange you get purely the orange and all of its goodness without an apple or whip cream thrown in the way to cloud that orangy-orange flavor. And for some people, they like having the fruit salad, while others prefer the orange or the apple or banana.

So, here’s the deal. iPods are like that fruit salad. They do lots of things: movies, music, internet, camera, touch screen, and the largest collection of downloadable free and purchasable applications for any mobile platform. Period. Lots of things packed into a nice package. And if you get the iPhone, you can combine all of that with your phone, making it like a portable media entertainment package that you can use on the go in all instances. Sounds good, right?

Well, I don’t like fruit salad, as there are certain fruits that I just can’t stand (like having to use AT&T for an iPhone). I like to have specific flavors that tantalize my taste buds, experiencing the full flavor of the orange without being interrupted by a stray grape or mellowed out from the whip cream. I like the sultriness of the apple as I bite into it, that rush of tastiness with each passing mastication. That, my friends, is the Zune HD.

The latest in the Microsoft (*coughs*) lineup is the Zune HD. Available in the 16gb or the 32gb version, it is like holding the ultimate entertainment package in your hand. Of course, it doesn’t have the applications as the iPod has, but you really get the full experience in music and movies that play through this baby. Oh, and it comes with HD radio, which is a new thing if you haven’t heard about, and it sounds fantastic. CD quality music pumped into your ear lobes will have you wondering why you settled for fruit salad instead (if you went that route). The Zune HD’s movie ability is phenomenal, sparkling upon a 480×272-pixel OLED (yes, OLED!) display that makes you want to drool. As an accessory, you can purchase an HD-OUT station that will allow you to hook up your Zune HD to a (preferably) HDTV so you can watch those movies or music videos or anything else you might have stored on it.

So, yes, you could go buy a fruit salad and be content with that, and that’s all good and fine. I have a fruit salad player (iPod Touch – 8gb – 1st Gen.) and never knew what I was missing and I was completely content with it. But once you have tasted that lustful sweetness, that tangy goodness and that pure, unadulterated awesomeness that it is something perfect at what it does and doesn’t have to try and be everything, then you may never go back.

Do yourself a favor, and go makeover your portable multimedia player self today and eat just the orange today.

And yes, I did use a thesaurus today. I felt big words would make me sound smarter.