Step aside Apple, there’s a new sheriff in MP3 Town and he’s come to eat your lunch. We’re talking about the Microsoft Zune—the second generation Zune in particular—which is a drastic improvement on the original Zune. While the iPod Nano is no slouch, we at OYE think the Zune is the mejor choice when shopping for compact MP3 players. Here’s why.

We reviewed the flash-based Microsoft Zune (available with 4, 8, and 16 GB capacity). The Zune gets high marks for its sleek design and easy-to-use interface. It sports a1.8-inch glass (not plastic) LCD. The glass addition gives the screen better durability but also gives the Zune a classier look.

The new and improved Zune also features the Zune Pad, which allows for superior navigation through your song library. It makes searching and finding your favorite rolas a snap. Like its predecessor, the Zune 2 offers music subscription capability, Wi-Fi music sharing, a high-quality photo viewer, video playback, and its famous distinguishing characteristic: an FM radio. Seems good enough, right? Wrong. The second coming of the Zune has stepped up its game with features like the ability to sync music over your wireless network and audio/video podcast support. Those of you with huge song collections may certainly want to consider the hard-drive based 80GB Zune, but for most of us mere music mortals we like the value and compact size of Zune’s flash versions.

When you consider the superior feature set of the Zune vs. the iPod Nano, we think the choice is pretty clear. Score this battle for Microsoft. How you like them apples, Apple?

4GB – $100,  8GB – $140, 16GB – $180

www.zune.net/musica

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