A teardown of Microsoft’s Zune HD digital media player revealed the secret to the device’s longer battery life when compared to the iPod Touch. The combination of the OLED screen, the Nvidia Tegra processor and a lightweight device has helped put the Zune HD ahead of the iPod.

The Zune HD weighs only 2.6 oz, almost 35 percent less than the similarly-sized iPod Touch. Zune has a Samsung-manufactured 3.3 inch OLED display, which is also probably its single most expensive component. At just 1 mm, the OLED screen is incredibly thin and seems more rugged than a traditional LCD panel, says iFixit, which did the teardown.

Microsoft Zune HD hit stores Wednesday and the device got a favorable review from Wired.com for its design and software.

As we have reported earlier, the Zune HD has a Nvidia Tegra 2600 processor . Tegra includes an 800-MHz ARM CPU, a high-definition video processor, an imaging processor, an audio processor and an ultralow-power GeForce GPU in a single package. In comparison, the third generation iPod Touch uses a Samsung ARM processor.

Betting on Tegra has paid off for the Zune in an unexpected way. The Zune HD’s battery capacity is 660 mAh, about 16 percent less than the 789 mAh battery in the new iPod touch. Yet the Zune promises a longer run time than the touch for both music and videos.

The battery on the Zune should also be easier to replace than on the new iPod Touch, says iFixit. The Zune’s battery has individual wires for the battery leads. In the Touch, the battery leads run through a single ribbon cable, making hand-soldering a challenge.

Unlike the latest version of the iPod Touch, the Zune HD does not support 802.11n Wi-Fi. Instead, it’s has a Atheros AR6002GZ 802.11g chip.  iFixit’s teardown showed that a Toshiba NAND flash and Hynix SDRAM. But there have been reports that Microsoft is using a few different suppliers for these parts.

Source: Wired News