Official: Zune 80 Battery Results

I have some special facts for you tech hungry people out there on the Zune 80, straight from the horses mouth. Okay, maybe not straight from Microsoft, but it's the best I found. Donald Bell, over at CNET, has just announced that their CNET Labs have undergone a battery test for the new Zune 80 and have compared it to the first-gen Zune and the new 80GB iPod Classic.

The results. While it seems that it has been given a huge improvement from the first-generation of Zunes, which only had 13 hours of battery, it is still trailing behind the 80GB iPod Classic by about 23 hours, rounding the final number to be about 22 hours of battery life. Microsoft stated that the new Zune would be able to have 30 hours of battery with WiFi turned off, however this isn't the case. And even with WiFi turned on, it only gave out roughly 18 hours of battery.(It should be noted here that these tests done by CNET, were done with audio-only and with both WiFi on and off. Results will differ when using video and WiFi)

Is this because the Zune screen is bigger than the iPod Classic screen? Or maybe that WiFi uses up more battery than what Microsoft initially intended the feature to use up? What are your thoughts? Post them in the comments.