HD Radio was active on-site, and came through very clear in the store. The antenna in the unit seems powerful for the size. It enables any user to have clear HD radio in their car or home via the car pack or docking station. I was able to move around a small area, and the signal quality and the source audio were impressive -- especially when compared against the 1st and 2nd generation models. If the unit performs at such performance levels in real world scenarios, it will provide the folks with a great experience.

Wi-Fi allows users to download on the fly from the marketplace, or queue tracks heard over the HD Radio for later download, if a hot spot is unavailable.

My personal find of the day was that the Zune HD has a spot for downloadable applications through the online marketplace. We do not know much about the section as of yet, but hopefully it will allow developers to maximize the potential of the Zune in new ways. One can hope new applications extend beyond what the community has created so far. A full SDK might allow developers to make a real IM client or email program to help expand the usuability of this device.

Hand’s on, the unit is sleek. It takes two Zune HD's to equal the width of my current player of essentially the same capacity (a white 30GB Zune). The volume control is now on the side of the Zune, to avoid accidental button presses. The hold and power buttons have a reduced presence. The OLED screen is free of clutter and has a large working space. The Zune responds quickly to finger strokes, the active zone around the finger isn’t too large which means a keyboard shouldn’t be too hard to control. Menu response was fast and searching through the index was not a difficult experience.

The Zune HD is an impressive piece of hardware as a 3rd generation player from Microsoft. The Zune takes features and options to new levels for the consumer, while being true to the previous generations. The portable media player market is expanding rapidly, and this new Zune seems to be a move on Microsoft's part that will keep the marketplace battle interesting.

One other minor issue that stood out during the demo was the album art had become distorted when enlarged to 720p. When the icon was enlarged on the TV, the scaling was blurred, while the fonts and video looked fine. Maybe finding a new way to store or handle the album art would pay off to eliminate that. It is currently unknown if this will be remedied in a future Zune Store update or Zune Software update.

Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to do a full, intensive preview of the unit, to the extent where I could test the Internet portion of the device (the store did not have accessible WiFi from what I could tell). I did however get a good impression of the player though, and why it’s being touted so heavily by Microsoft. The new Zune could possibly redefine Microsoft's stance in the market.

In September we will find out if the new Zune is really in tune with the consumers, at launch. Judging from my time spent with it, the Zune HD has what it takes to do well.