CNET Labs have just published the results of their Zune 80 audio-only battery drains and the numbers are somewhat disappointing. Microsoft rated the Zune 80 for 30 hours of audio playback with the Wi-Fi feature turned off. Lab testing revealed that the Zune 80 is realistically capable of 22 hours of audio playback with the Wi-Fi feature turned off, or 18.5 hours with the Wi-Fi feature enabled.
While 22 hours is certainly better than the 13 hours we got from the first-generation Zune, it"s nowhere close to the 45 hours we were able to get from the competing 80GB iPod Classic.