While visiting the Zune Insider blog I noticed, several posts deep, information I have been waiting on for months to answer my last remaining burning question: How is the battery life?

Well, it appears Zune battery life will be much better than expected:

• Music
  • With wireless disabled: 14 hours (max)
  • With wireless enabled: 13 hours (max)
• Video/Pictures: 4 hours (max)

How did the individuals responsible for the above numbers achieve the 14 hour result?

1. Wireless set to off
2. 128 kbps WMA files ripped from an average-length album
3. Playback set to repeat
4. EQ (equalizer) set to none
5. Volume level set to default
6. Backlight timer set to 1 second
7. No other activity during playback (e.g., navigation, pictures, pause, etc.)

While this configuration is not very real-world, benchmarks typically aren’t since they are also meant to be repeatable. I’m going to take the numbers at face value with the typical “lab results may differ from real-world use” grain of salt.

With that last vestige of concern put to rest, our household will be buying two Zune’s as soon as possible — even TB is excited about her (yet-to-be-purchased) Zune which is kinda weird. At least I know I will have one person to share songs with. Scratch that. I don’t want any Anita Baker tracks messing up my Zune experience.