The only thing better than a Zune is a bigger 80GB Zune of course. The 80GB version costs $489.98 total and has no warranty from Microsoft. Compared to limited edition pink Zunes that sell on eBay for $800+ we think the 80 Gigger is a steal. Ipodmods.com offers replacement hard drives in 30GB, 40GB, 60GB and 80GB sizes. They even offer free installation with the purchase of a drive. Our drive of choice was the Toshiba 80GB MK8009GAH which sells for around $240. (ZuneScene)
Looking at the Toshiba 80gig Harddrive on the right, you can notice that it made in the Philippines. As far as I know, Toshiba's disc producing plant is somewhere in Laguna.
So the question on everyone's mind now is "why didn't the Zune Team create an official 80-gb Zune model?"
ZuneScene has pointed out 2 good reasons:
- The Zune Team may have wanted to lower down the cost of the Zune as it is the first of it's kind. Microsoft maybe thought that introducing a product which costs more than the leading competitor wouldn't be wise at all. They ended up cutting the price the same as iPod's $249.99 price tag.
- Another reason was the form-factor and safety issues of the player. When installing the 80gb drive, it will require more space probably because of the added drive plates. It will require removing the special protective metal casing which the Zune Team decided not to do because they felt it would compromise the whole player.
Or a third reason would be that Microsoft is holding on to the release of the 80gb version of the zune for something new next year...Let's just wait and see :)
