iPod Touch 16gb review

[rajputwarrior]

So this will be my review of an iPod Touch 16gb. I just got this recently and like every geek, first think I did was hack it, but I will talk about that later. Anyways, here it is. And oh yeah, pictures will be coming soon (showing of all the apps) (edit: they are up now). To give a bit of a background of my iPod experience, I have owned two nano's and a shuffle (all of which are first gen). So in terms of iPod upgrades, it doesn't get much bigger (well, maybe an iPhone).

A Link to the Full Technical Specifications

Packaging

It comes with the usual iPod stuff, you get the unit, earphones (they suck, apple in-ear FTW), USB cable, dock adapter, polishing cloth, and a stand.

Looks and Size

The thing is bloody gorgeous, no one can deny that. If you haven't seen one of these things in person you are definitely missing out. The 3.5 inch screen is beautiful and vibrant and it definitely something you will be staring at for a while.

When it comes weight, it definitely not nearly as light as the nano's, but lighter then the videos/classics. You will be able to actual feel it in your hands which is a good thing because it doesn't feel like it's going to break. The official specs have it weighing in at 49.2 grams / 1.74 ounces which feels about right. It is also about 4.5 inches high, 2.5 inches wide and stupid thin (.31 inches). The screen will smudge, but that's okay because you have to try really hard to scratch it, so that is a nice payoff. Here is a video showcasing how good the screen is. This is meant for an iPhone, but it's the same screen.

User Interface

Ummm, wow? Well that will be your initial impression, but as you use more and more you will notice the whole touch thing it has going on has some bugs (talk about that in a bit). The initial screen is nice, the "dock" on the bottom has the most used items (except for the music store... i live in Canada, i ain't buying music). I don't know if this has something to do with the iPod or it's just Canada, but I went into a starbucks and for the life of me I couldn't get the show they were playing to show up.

Coverflow is amazing on this thing. Being able to flick your finger on the screen to flow through your music never gets old. When you are actually playing a song everything looks great. A touch of the top right corner will give you all the songs of that album you have on the iPod. If you got a lot of music on it (like i do) you can skip through it alphabetically which saves time. The nicest thing, in my opinion, about this is that you can repeat just the song or album with two or three touches, where as the other iPods you have to go into the settings. Turning on shuffle works the same way. The UI is really responsive which is nice. There have been occurrences for me where the thing goes nuts. It will seem like a ghost is controlling it, but hitting the home screen or turning off and on the screen will fix that. Also sometimes the accelorometer (whatever it is called) doesn't work properly, and you have to flip it and turn it a couple of times to get it going the way it should.

Watching video's is great to, especially when you got episodes downloaded (like family guy) or video podcasts (digg). People will ask if it is worth watching stuff on a screen that small, it's actually not that bad. It's definitely doable if you are just killing some time.

Programs

Safari is unbelievable on this thing. When they say it's a full browser, they aren't kidding. It is a full browser. Their are web pages out there that are formatted for the iPod touch and iPhone and a great link for that one is http://www.podcade.com. Tons of great links on there. Digg and Facebook are my two favourite iPod/iPhone formatted pages. Of course Neowin looks great too as you can tell from the picture above.

The YouTube player is great too. It's fast and the videos look great.

The calendar program is crippled and Apple knows it. You can't edit events like you can on the iPhone (which doesn't make sense cause these things use the EXACT same software). Apple has said they will fix it on a future update. The contacts program is your basic program, nothing special. The clock program is nothing that wouldn't expect and same with the calculator.

If you notice on my pictures, I have three sections worth of programs (which IS NOT the way it comes). Like you can guess I hacked it. I will not tell you how to do it but here is

a great iPod Touch enthusiast site :) http://www.ipodtouchfans.com. It does void the warranty, but you can reflash it so apple will never know what you did. If you got any questions just PM me. Google maps is a great app and I love being able to play Nintendo :). Also using SSH and VNC is pretty cool.

The lack of programs suck, it does need more. When comparing it to the iPhone, it just doesn't stack up, especially when one of the few programs that it does come with is bugged (calendar).

Summary

Pros (Y)

-Sexy

-UI is great

-Responsize

-Screen

-Size

-Weight

-Battery Life (so far working as advertised)

Cons (N)

-Bugs out every once in a while

-Default applications are not great, there is no reason why the e-mail app couldn't be included.

-Sometimes when you flip it go to widescreen or to coverflow, it doesn't always work, you have to try a couple of times.

UI 4.5/5

Performance 4/5

Features 4/5 (After it's hacked 9/5 also it used to be 5/5 but i have to take off a full point cause apple still make some of the crappiest headphones ever)

Value 4/5 (after taxes it came in at just under 500 bucks Canadian for the 16gb)

Overall 4.5/5 :)

edit: pics are up :)

edit 2: thanx slimy for the front page up:) and because of that I formatted the article and made some updates to the grammar :)

edit 3: for those of you worried about protecting the iPod, i have purchased this one and I will let you guys know how it is when i receive, should get it in a week or so. I got this mainly for the back of the iPod cause the back is very scratch prone. A full list of cases can be found here. I would suggest ebay though as there are a lot of reliable sellers and the cases are cheap.

Edited October 21, 2007 by rajputwarrior

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

i got a 80Gb Pod Classic, and a 16GB Touch,, i enjoy the touch above the classic, i rarely even use the classic anymore,, but i do enjoy the Classic over my 60GB 5th Gen. but the Touch does take the Cake

[SnowRanger13]

I just really want a 16GB iPhone... Nice review though! It is such a sleek device.

[MrKuro]

where did you buy it?, everywhere here in edmonton the touch is sold out

[itsnotabigtruck]

If you're gonna post pictures, post actual pics of your own iPod and not just the marketing ones off Apple's site. Also, you listed a few cons at the end of the review but didn't criticize the unit at all in the main part of the review.

Otherwise, good review.

[assassin08]

If it wasn't for the fact that it's so expensive, at $449 + tax, even when the Cdn Dollar is doing so well right now... I would've gotten one for sure, so... for the life of me (as well as the account), I'm looking at the Nano, again (have a 1st gen., now-iconic, white 4 GB'er).

Also, to the reviewer, the reason that you haven't been able to get info. for those Starbucks songs is because... well, the service has only started rolling out in the U.S., will be a little while before us Canadians get a taste of it.

[rajputwarrior]

where did you buy it?, everywhere here in edmonton the touch is sold out

yeah they sell quick, i just got mine at futureshop (helps that i work there and i know when they are coming)

If it wasn't for the fact that it's so expensive, at $449 + tax, even when the Cdn Dollar is doing so well right now... I would've gotten one for sure, so... for the life of me (as well as the account), I'm looking at the Nano, again (have a 1st gen., now-iconic, white 4 GB'er).

Also, to the reviewer, the reason that you haven't been able to get info. for those Starbucks songs is because... well, the service has only started rolling out in the U.S., will be a little while before us Canadians get a taste of it.

i figured that was the reason

[rajputwarrior]

If you're gonna post pictures, post actual pics of your own iPod and not just the marketing ones off Apple's site. Also, you listed a few cons at the end of the review but didn't criticize the unit at all in the main part of the review.

Otherwise, good review.

i wrote the review during class, hence the PICS COMING LATER TONIGHT at the end of the post. And you are right half right about the cons comment, i talked about a couple of them, but not all of them, but i edited that. Thanks for the feedback though it's my first review, so bring it on with the criticism.

Edited October 19, 2007 by rajputwarrior

[Fugi]

I'm really concidering getting one of these. I would keep my video to ski with so I wouldn't have to worry about breaking it and use the touch for every day use do you think its worth the $400 price tag if I already have a video that I could just use all the time?

[Digitalx]

taking too long to save up i want one now :( hurry up november!

[Rappy Veteran]

I was very close to getting one of these but got a nano in the end but I should be getting the iphone.

[L3thal Veteran]

-Sometimes when you flip it go to widescreen or to coverflow, it doesn't always work, you have to try a couple of times.

pics coming later tonight

That annoys me a lot :pinch:

[Googintosh]

The compliant I have about mine is with syncing photos. Some photos it refuses to copy to the iPod, and others get corruption. Though I'm not sure if this is a Windows Vista iTunes problem or iPod problem.

I'm really happy with my iPod nonetheless.

[sundayx Veteran]

I don't like your claims. "Apple in ear FTW", Features 5/5, I have doubt for those points.

However I love my touch and I give it a 4/5. I hope they get the bugs fixed (Safari crashing, music stopping), add in the iPhone apps (I jailbroken mine but I hope its native). Some things I'd like to see as well are:

1. Auto sync when plugged to computer.

2. Enable disk usage mode.

3. Fix the "Top played" autoplaylists, it doesn't sync right ATM.

4. Some songs cannot be played on the touch, its fine on the nano.

5. Sync photos and album art in "native" resolution without the stupid poor quality resizing.

[rajputwarrior]

i agree with you sunday, those are some things that would be great to add. except the sync thing, it sync automatically for me

Edited October 20, 2007 by rajputwarrior

[SojIrOu]

great review. :) i'm already running out of space on mine. only 3gb left. i've already reduced the songs, videos and pictures i'm putting in compared to my 5g video. i guess the next step is to re-encode in 192kbps (using 320 right now).

[Code.Red]

Nice review! I do have one question though, how does the iPod manage wifi networks? What kind of interfaces does it provide to connect to a network, see networks around you, etc? I've been looking and can't seem to find any pictures/explanation of how it deals with this.

[rajputwarrior]

Nice review! I do have one question though, how does the iPod manage wifi networks? What kind of interfaces does it provide to connect to a network, see networks around you, etc? I've been looking and can't seem to find any pictures/explanation of how it deals with this.

it will detect networks around if their are any. It does it like Leopard (well from what i have seen in the screenshots) and not tiger, where it'll tell yuou what networks are secure and unsecure. it supports WEP, WPA and WPA2 and you can connect to hidden networks as well, which is nice and how the school has it set up (but it doesn't remember those ones, which suck. Like any other computer, it will remember the networks and reconnect to them when they are avaialable, and if no new ones are available, and little pop up will occur when you try to access the internet asking you what available network you would like to join.

[McSmiggins]

Can I ask a question?

I listen to a lot of podcasts on my commute, the absolute best thing the touch could do would be if I could walk into work, sit it on the desk and have it sync my podcasts automatically, is there any chance of it doing that or is the store for bought music only?

Thanks!

[astrokat]

Is it lighter then the iPhone. The iPhone was too heavy for my tastes.

[rajputwarrior]

Can I ask a question?

I listen to a lot of podcasts on my commute, the absolute best thing the touch could do would be if I could walk into work, sit it on the desk and have it sync my podcasts automatically, is there any chance of it doing that or is the store for bought music only?

Thanks!

it'll sync podcasts no problem, on one of the screen shots i posted there was the latest dig video that got synced on there

[itsnotabigtruck]

i wrote the review during class, hence the PICS COMING LATER TONIGHT at the end of the post. And you are right half right about the cons comment, i talked about a couple of them, but not all of them, but i edited that. Thanks for the feedback though it's my first review, so bring it on with the criticism.

oops...heh. should have RTFOP a bit better.

Are you planning on haxxing it?

[Digitalx]

oops...heh. should have RTFOP a bit better.

Are you planning on haxxing it?

So this will be my review of an iPod Touch 16gb. I just got this recently and like every geek, first think i did was hack it, but I will talk about that later. Anyways, here it is. And oh yeah, pics will be coming soon (showing of all the apps). To give a bit of a background of my iPod experience, i have owned two nano's and a shuffle (all of which are first gen). So in terms of ipod upgrades, it doesn't get much bigger (well, maybe an iPhone).

:p

[Rusty.Metal]

If you notice on my pictures, i have three sections worth of programs (which IS NOT the way it comes). Like you can guess i hacked it. I will not tell you how to do it but here is

a great iPod Touch enthusiast site :) http://www.ipodtouchfans.com. It does void the warranty., but you can reflash it so apple will never know what you did. If you got any questions just PM me.

Jail breaking and installing apps on your Touch does not void the warranty. If you restore, no one would ever be able to tell it had ever been Jailbroken in the first place. So I'm not sure how you can void your warranty on the Touch via software..

What voids your warranty, and what apple is getting ****y about, is iPhone Unlock programs that unlock it from the ATT network. Inherently you need to be able to run the unlocker program, which requires jailbreak. The unlock programs flash your iPhones baseband(phone chip), which is the "Irreparable Damage".

[betasp]

I beg to differ. Jail breaking and installing apps on your iPhone/Touch does not void the warranty. If you restore, no one would ever be able to tell it had ever been Jailbroken in the first place. So I'm not sure how you can void your warranty on the Touch via software..

What voids your warranty, and what apple is getting ****y about, is iPhone Unlock programs that unlock it from the ATT network. Inherently you need to be able to run the unlocker program, which requires jailbreak. The unlock programs flash your iPhones baseband(phone chip), which is the "Irreparable Damage".

Thx for the review, but I still think people should wait for the Touch Gen2 or instead get the iPhone

I returned my 16GB touch and got an iPhone (which I unLocked). The touch was great, but the phone is a more complete device for me. To your point, I agree that a jailbreak should not void your warranty. A simple restore and no one ever knows. The UnLocks DO void your warranty, but it has nothing to do with the unlock itself and everything to do with the technique

Note: It took 1 hour to unlock my phone at 1.0.2 and 4 hours to fix the baseband to upgrade it and another 2 hours to unlcok the upgrade. I don't recommend the iPhone to anyone who thinks it is "easy" to unlock. I tell people, "If you buy it to unlock it, you had better like it the way that it is because there is no guarantee that you will ever be able to upgrade."