We have been sitting over the new Apple iPods for some time now and its just amazing as to how Apple manages to UP the game each passing year. Along side the original iPhone in 2007, Apple launched the iPod touch later that year and since then its pretty clear as to where the PMP market is headed according to Apple. The iPod Nano seems to be the first one to drop the click wheel and go full touch, and there has been no update to the Classic this year. As flash memory gets cheaper and smaller, its certain that the Classic would be phased out (in all probability sometime in 2011), and we would see updated iPod touch fitting in over a 100GB or so. But for now, we have the new iPod touch with dual camera and a unique design iPod nano with multitouch support.
iPod nano multitouch (2010)
The new iPod nano has a super wow factor. I was surprised when people received the new nano with more cheer than the new iPod touch 4G that I am carrying along with it. Thanks to a wonderful multitouch display that makes up the new nano! The iPod nano multitouch display is just 1.5? in size, but the sensitivity and touch is better than a whole lot of full touchscreens selling out there in the market.
The new iPod nano manages to fit in a 30 pin dock connector that we are used to seeing in Apple’s handhelds / iPods and at the same time this thing has just 3 other buttons. The volume controls and the sleep button. It would be apt to call the nano multitouch a larger shuffle with a touchscreen fitted into it. There is a shuffle style clip attached on the back and compared to the previous gen iPod nano this is a big shift (akin to the experiment Apple did with the shuffle design last year).
Navigating the menus on the nano is just like swiping through pictures. To go back anywhere in the menu, just swipe backwards. There are 4 homescreens with 15 options in total, including FM, Fitness and Audiobooks. The interface has an iOS like feel and is super responsive.
Managing pictures on the nano is fun. Though the display is small, you still get quite impressive results. You can rotate pictures (or for that matter the entire UI anytime) using the two finger gesture and zoom in / out with a double tap and pan around as smoothly as on the iPhone.
The new nano is a good innovation but guess Apple is a little early here to define the future of shuffle. Given the price point of the nano, consumers would certainly see more value in the 5th gen iPod nano that bundled in a camera for the same price. The nano 6th gen, is a gizmo worth having – but would sound lesser value for money to many. But if you don’t mind the camera being left out here, this is one trendy, futuristic and eye catching iPod!
iPod touch 4G
The iPod touch 4G are the fastest iOS device I have seen, and it perhaps the best hardware to show off the strength of iOS (yes iPhone 4 has more RAM, but heck the sleek design of the iPod touch makes up for it ). The iPod touch 4G design is the same as expected, 3.5mm audio jack / speaker on the bottom along with the dock, sleep button on the top and volume keys on the left. Apple has managed to slip in a camera on the front side aswell as the back side and yet keep this thing slimmer than the 3rd gen iPod touch aswell. When handled the iPod touch 4G feels like a brittle piece of biscuit in our hands – yes its that sleek.
The iPod touch 4G does HD Video and here is a sample video we recorded from the device:
Also see iPhone 4 video capabilities compared to iPod touch 4 (marginal or no difference) . Comparison video blelow:
Surprisingly the iPod touch 4G does pretty average 960×720 still images, which comes down to 0.69 megapixels. The clarity isn’t a big complain (though much difference compared to an iPhone 4) but the scaled down camera limits the usage of these pictures for social networks / web only. Here are a couple of sample pictures taken from the iPod touch 4G:
Interestingly the debate of such low resolution camera on the iPod touch 4 remains unanswered, but we seem to have figured out atleast some logic here. We were able to snap back to back pictures from the iPod touch 4 camera faster than any other device we have used (including the iPhone 4). Quick twitpic moments can’t be captured any faster than this and we would like to assume that the megapixels are compromised here for speed!
iPod touch 4 also features the a Retina display which gives a stunning resolution in the limited 3.5″ space. However there has been a good enough debate on the topic of iPhone 4 vs iPod touch 4G display. Apparently the iPod touch display lacks IPS technology thus giving inferior viewing angles when compared to the iPhone 4. While we don’t expect the iPod touch 4G to match up with the iPhone 4 in all aspects, perhaps the A4 chip and Retina resolution that both these devices have in common has spiked expectations. Here is our comparison of the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4 display:
(It was hard to find an image comparing the iPod touch 4 and iPhone 4 in terms of IPS performance, so we snapped an image with both devices on 100% brightness and with same background wallpaper. You can clearly see the difference in the two displays!)
The new iPod touch is sleek, fast and internet ready. And we almost forgot to mention FaceTime video calling, the iTunes App Store effect and the amazing multitouch UI. If you haven’t experienced the iOS yet this is the time to get one. The best iPods around 🙂
Ps: I know its a late entry for 2010 iPods review. But had to share my thoughts! Thank you for reading.
