Apple iPod Classic user reviews (80GB, silver)

Pros Great screen, crazy storage

Cons Frustratingly slow interface

Summary The new eye candy introduced (imagery to the right of menus) w/ the iPod classic has made navigating the menus unacceptably slow. There are frequent pauses and delays as images are loaded on the fly.

With no way to de-activate these graphic elements, these navigation delays make the iPod classic very frustrating to use.

And Coverflow, though it looks cool, is too twitchy to be useful.

My advice: wait for either a revised model or, at least, a major firmware update before purchasing.

Pros Nice Graphics, Easy Navigation, Long Battery Life

Cons ITunes sucks, Buggy Dial, Slow Loads

Summary Being my first Apple product, I must say I'm not overly impressed. ITunes seems to be made for the complete novice that just wants the program to do everything automatically. You can turn all the auto stuff off and then upload to the IPod manually. A huge flaw that I found was that you can upload the same song multiple times which is very annoying if you don't already know it's on the IPod. As for the IPod itself I'm satisfied. Good interface that is easy to navigate. I wish I could erase songs without being hooked up to my computer. Earbuds can be thrown away upon opening the box. They're pretty cheap. I have a pair of Shure SE530's on order that I have high hopes will solve this problem. My Sennheiser muff headphones do sound great on the IPod, however. Overall, I went for the IPod Classic bacause of the enormous memory for the money. I was really considering a Creative Labs Zen, but could not get it into my budget. I must say I'm satisfied, but not blown away by the IPod and may even try a Zen in the future. Good buy for someone just entering the MP3 player scene that doesn't want to break the bank.

Pros Lots of storage, very long battery life

Cons Sluggish interface, mediocre sound

Summary I own a 1st generation iPod nano which, overall, I like a lot, but the storage capacity is limited and the battery life is short, so I thought it could be nice to have an 80GB player. Having read the mixed reviews on the iPod Classic, I decided to test it myself in the Apple store. My conclusion is that the Classic is not a bad product, but it is far from what I expect from Apple: I expect a very refined and high quality product. With these expectations in mind, the iPod classic fails to deliver. First, I don't like the way it sounds (I tested it with my Shure E4C earphones.) It's not terrible but I would describe it as mediocre. I found the sound to be harsh at times, and to completely lack soundstage. Bass was strong enough, but was messy dynamically. In comparison, the ipod touch and nano both sounded to me significantly better than the Classic (Both were more than acceptable.) Second, the user interface in the Classic is surprisingly sluggish. The clickwheel is difficult to control. The overall response of the interface is slow and a little bit erratic. Where is the attention to detail that we have come to expect from Apple?

Pros Large Capacity, Video GREAT, iTunes

Cons Sound quality not as good as some PC based players

Summary Purchased this in November 2007, and have been using it in my car and at home through a Kenwood THX receiver and Polk speakers extensively. While I can say that my Creative Zen V sounds better through headphones, the iPod sounds just as good in my car and over the stereo. The capacity can't be beat, I love video Podcasts and I have Mac desktop computers. So for me this is a slam dunk!