 When
it comes to Apple products there are two distinct camps, those that
think they all "rock" and those who wonder if they are buying a lot
of brand value as opposed to real solid functionality. So when a new
device like the Apple iPod touch comes along you have to get one
have a play and make the value judgement, which is exactly what this
review is about.
There was no doubt in the office that the iPod touch would be very
sexy as it has a lot in common with the iphone which much of the
country and gadget press have been going slightly nuts over. Now the
touch is much smaller than the iPhone although it does use the same
screen as the phone but that is where the physical resemblance
stops, it is closer in form factor to the iPod Nano measuring 110 ×
61.8 × 8 mm and weighing 120 grams.
It also lacks any external buttons so unlike the iPhone it does not
have hard keys for control of volume levels which some will dislike
as you do have to use the screen UI to do everything.
Open up your Apple iPod touch and try to use it and you are in for a
surprise, its not ready to go out of the box. In its factory
condition it needs to be connected to a PC or Mac and iTunes in
order to receive its final config. Perhaps this is a sign of things
to come, much like the mobile phone model Apple is as interested in
getting you hooked into iTunes and its music service as it is
selling your the device.
So the touch will keep showing the cable to iTunes icon until you do
so, that said its quick and easy when connected to iTunes and soon
it will be activated and filling up either the 8 or 16gb of flash
storage depending on the model chosen. Clearly even the 16gb model
is small in terms of storage compared to most MP3 players on the
market so Apple is relying on its UI and "experience" to bridge the
gap.
So power up your iPod touch and you will get something very similar
to the iPhone, the combination of Cover flow (the album art browsing
system) and multi touch makes the touch feel just like the iPhone.
You also get WiFi and the Safari browser but more on that later.
The interface displays large icons for music, video, photos and
iTunes across the bottom of the screen and the browser and other
items like a link to youtube sit above. Open up your music
collection and you soon see that its no standard click wheel and
list. For those that haven't seen the coverflow system its a rather
nifty way of using your finger on the 3.5" touch screen to drag
through a filing system of album covers.
The UI is quite special as it has a natural responsive ness and
latency when browsing through lists or screens, a drag of the finger
tip starts the movement and when you stop it or slow it there is an
amount of spingyness. It makes for a very easy way to trawl through
lots of data and is far better than the acclaimed click wheel
set-up.
We were very impressed with the iPod touch and the way the interface
works so naturally, however it was hardly a surprise as it is really
the iPhone skinnied down. Gone is the phone (obviously) gone is
Bluetooth, camera, speakers etc so this really is an iPod nano style
device with the iPhones interface and WiFi thrown in for good
measure.
The WiFi is 802.11b/g and not the forthcoming n, it works well and
when paired with the Apple Safri browser it makes for an ok web
browsing experience. We say ok because the small 3.5" screen isn't
suited to most websites including our own. Yes the screen
automatically changes from portrait to landscape by sensing how you
are holding the device but even sideways the 3.5" lcd doesn't really
display a webpage to make it readable.
The primary use of the WiFi is to connect iTunes via the web direct
to the device so that you can download (and of course buy) tracks
and movies directly without a PC. The movie playback is a bit more
useful than web browsing and despite a low 5 hr playback when in
video mode it would be good for a flight or journey, we suggest its
far more likely to be used to share music videos.
 Battery
life is steadily improving but still the touch has only 22 hours
playback from a charge for audio, 5 hours for video and from our
tests not much more than 4 hours for web browsing via WiFi. And true
to form Apple have chosen not to make the battery user replaceable
so you will need to send your touch off on holiday and part with
cash to have the battery changed when the time comes, or risk a DIY
out of warranty swap.
Also true to form Apple had a dodgy batch problem again with
screens, this time in displaying black and reducing the viewing
angle, a firmware fix was issued and our had no such problems.
As a music player the iPod touch is as you'd expect a good device,
audio quality is as good as its bigger brothers and despite the semi
poor earbuds shipped as standard our usual test tracks sounded fine.
The weird thing is that the "experience" of playing with a touch
seems to be more important than the function. We found ourselves
suckered into the whizzy menus and almost forgot that for £199 we
got just 16gb of flash memory and an MP3 and Video player with a bit
of WiFi.
There is no doubting that the Apple iPod touch is a very smooth and
polished device but we do feel that this is very much form over
function, better value is to be found in saving £40 and buying a
80gb classic iPod as opposed the smaller 8gb touch and certainly not
the £269 16gb version!
Its amazing the difference hard cash makes but we just cant
recommend the extra outlay of your hard earned pounds when Apple
themselves have much better value options. if you must have a touch
hold off and wait for the price to get in "touch" with reality.
Published - 02/01/2008
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