iPod Touch Mini-Review

[Selotape]

iPod Touch Mini-Review

Intro - well, im going to look at this player side by side with my old beat up h320, but im mainly going to cover the iTouch, since most of you probably know everything there is to know.

I was very excited at first about the iTouch so naturally, when a friend of mine told me he got one I rushed over to his place to check it out..
Let's just say that my enthusiasm dropped after a while..

In this review I will cover some of the features I checked out, I want to apologize in advance for not having pictures, my friend went to South Africa for 3 weeks or so, so I couldn't get any flicks.
All right, let's get started.

Design
At first look this device is BEAUTIFUL, I mean seriously, it looks like the apple design team thought about what apple is trying to maintain in the last decade or so - Simplicity. Overall the device feels very natural in your hand, the only mistake apple made here is the back, which got smudged by greasy fingerprints, but that is apple's label, if you may, for iPods, so I didn't care much.

Music
Well, music on this device was disappointing..
Of course it looked good, with cover-flow and all. it's just that to be honest the sound quality stinks, I used my shure e2c's for this small test and I tried the same song on both the iTouch and my h320 and the h320 just blows the iTouch away. There is no competition sound quality-wise.
But then again, we already knew that ;]

Overall I wouldn't get this device if you're looking for amazing sound quality. \=

Video
Wow, this just looked beautifully on the large iTouch screen.
It was clear, vivid. I wouldn't mind watching a whole full length movie on this device.
I am usually against watching movies on mobile devices such as the iTouch but I have to say the video on this device blew me away, and not because it was particularly good, it was just totally different from what I expected apple to create, since they usually have pretty crappy video (i.e. the iPod video).

Overall it was very good, sounded average and looked nice, the transitions were smooth yet looked crisp, not too blurry. Easy on the eyes.

P.s the clip I watched was a Music Video clip of Jet - Are you gonna be my girl.

Photos
I loved this, I know it's very gimmicky but I loved flicking my finger on the screen left or right to scroll the pictures. Putting that aside, the pictures looked very nice.
you can directly set up a wallpaper from here, just double tap the screen to bring up the options, select "set ass wallpaper" (or something like that) and then just align the picture (zoom and move) and you're done.

p.s I hate this about the iTouch - You can have a wallpaper for real, it's more or less like setting a screen saver, you'll only see it when you need to unlock the device (un-hold more like it), so the basic "front page" where all the icons are will always be black, and you cannot change that.

Safari Web Browser
Wow, just wow, amazing feature, I loved this, on a 11g connection it loaded up Mistic River in about 3 seconds, for Google it took about a second or even less. The speed was amazing.
The keyboard takes time to get used to but overall the screen is very responsive, not too responsive but just right. Apple nailed the keyboard for this feature.

you can literally pinch the screen to zoom in, or just double tap it to zoom in on a certain segment of the page, which I found very handy because safari automatically aligns the text you zoomed in on to fit the screen's size nicely.

Remember for a landscape mode all you have to do is turn your iTouch over to the side, and the page automatically aligns itself to landscape mode.

P.S I hear flash support should be coming around soon, maybe in October next year.

So overall about this feature I liked the speed, the on screen keyboard and the ability to move around the page simply.

Youtube
Not much to say about this feature, the speed was amazing, just like browsing with safari.
Videos stream very fast and there was close to no downtime.

Again the keyboard is very nice and it takes time for your fingers to adjust to the size of the letters but once you get used to it you can start typing fast.

The only issue I have with this is the sound quality, which quite frankly sucks. For more, read above.

Calendar
Can anybody say useless ?
I seriously don't understand why would apple create such a nice touch-keyboard and not include the option to add events to your calendar. But I suppose that will be patched.

If it is patched, at all, then this would make a very nice feature. Yet currently it seems like space filler in my eyes.

Contacts
Eh, I wouldn't use it..
If im carrying around this device then I probably have my cell-phone with me as well. Therefore this feature is useless. I really can't see how they can patch this to make it better \=
Useless.

Clock
overall a nice feature to have, I like seeing the time in other places, since I play a couple of online games I occasionally forget the time differences so I don't know when the weekly maintenance ends and I can get back to playing, so this feature might come in handy.

Calculator
Really nothing special about this, just a normal calculator..
Not much to say besides that I like how the buttons on the calc light up when you touch them.

iTunes WiFi Store
Sorry, I can't test this since I don't have a iTunes store account..im not really that much into buying music, if you catch my drift.
But im hearing from a different friend of mine that the downloads are incredibly fast.

overall if you have a iTunes store account this feature will probably be one of the things you're gonna like the most about the iTouch.

Settings
Didn't really have the time to pry into this area, though I will update when I get a chance to examine the settings menu, up closer.

Summary !

I really liked this device, though I will go with the h320 any day of the year because of the superior sound quality.
But if you're looking for more of a Gadget, not so much of a DAP, this is for you.
The WiFi is incredibly fast, the Youtube portion is cool, I can see myself chilling out in some hotspot and watching movies on Youtube.
The overall feeling of the device is very cool, but you cannot deny the fact that this is without a doubt a gimped version of the iPhone. Not necessarily in a bad way, still - it will always be in the shadow of its dad, the iPhone.

I would rate this 7/10 because I really appreciate a couple of things :

1. The internet speed, mind blowing.
2. The touch interface, im not a big fan of these but apple nailed this one.
3. The keyboard, once you're used to it is very nice.
4. And lastly, the design is awesome.

All right then, its 2:18AM here, so ill be off to bed soon.
Good night.

Signed,
Omer.

[gorcorps]

Nice honest review, and about what I expected.

[LordMattman]

Thanks for the power-review.

[clieos]

Good review. It is how I felt when my friend let me play with his Touch. It is a so-so audio player, but I will love to have it as a PDA - if only Apple releases a open source SDK kit and renames it to Newton, I will buy one ASAP.

[saints]

If they made it into a phone, now thats an idea

[hxkclan]

seems awesome friend of mine has one, it's great, too bad i don't have enough cash ATM for an iTouch of iPhone XD.

Nice review

[saints]

This is a great "in car" device, where you can put up with the sound quality over a roaring engine.
The easiest dap Ive owned to "change music whilst driving"

[pachinkoman]

I have the "touch" and the phone.

I packed my ipod hatred away in a box and embraced both devices as well as a Macbook Pro - love em all.

Apple's customer service is head and shoulders above most main line retailers now, products are not for everyone, but are OK in my book right now.

[LordMattman]

Pman, for the enjoyment of all of us you should post a picture of all your electronics... please?

[pachinkoman]

Sure, just have to put the wide angle lens on my D300...LOL...

Seriously, I'll see what I can do. These electronics are like locusts in my house, they just keep expanding...

[LordMattman]

Awesome, thanks. hehehe