- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 269 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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17 out of 18 people found this review helpful
4.0 stars
"Almost perfect..."
Pros: UI is innovative and the best looking out there, WiFi configures easily, decent battery life
Cons: Price makes it less accessible to general public, screen is a smudge magnet
Summary: I have to admit right now, I am annoyed at all the zune and other 'non-iPod' fanboys. Their ratings have completely messed up the overall score. However, I gave the iPod 16Gb an '8' because I know that even if I give it a '10' to 'compensate' for the shameful fanboy scores, it will be to no avail and I will just have to depend on savvy consumers who are doing a thorough research on what they are going to buy.
To give you a recent and brief history of mp3 player ownerships, I have owned a standard no name brand mp3 player, iPod Mini, 5G iPod 80GB video and the Zune 30GB unit. They all have their places and it was a toss up for me between the 5G iPod 80gb Video and the 1st Gen 30GB Zune (Black). I liked the iPod's ease of use and iTunes feature sets and I really loved the Zune's navigation, durability, out of the box sound quality and it's nice widescreen view. Now to the 16GB iPod Touch...
The Touch comes with a docking tray adapter for you past gen dock users, which is nice. It also comes with the standard iPod earphones (get yourself some better ones) and a little cleaning cloth for all the smudges you will eventually have to wipe away once you start using it. It also comes with a USB cord adapter for charging/syncing.
I don't claim to be a professional audiophile, but I do know this from general research, the human ear can 'basically' only hear the 20-20,000 range sound 'spectrum'. So all of the comments made about the poor quality of sound that the Touch resonates seems to elude me. Do these people who complain about the sound quality have dog-like listening ability? So yeah, the sound quality to me is just fine.
User Interface. This is the bread and butter of the iPod Touch. The interface is so intuitive and well thought out as to give the user a feeling of instant recognition of icons and navigation throughout it's interface. I can say that everytime I have pulled this device out to use one of it's features I would get a compliment on how nice it was. So it definitely has a cool factor. Let's not forget that the Touch has some sort of accelerometer built in to it so it can automatically switch to landscape view when you turn it on its side. This works when you watch videos, pictures and web browser. The cover flow is a nice added 'touch' here as well.
Touch Screen. The touch screen is easily smudge-able. However, it is made of glass which makes it very durable, giving it a very 'solid feel'. Apple did not skimp on the build quality of this device, that is certain.
Video- Video was very nice and just a tad bit bigger than the last gen 30GB Zune. The videos were also very nice and had excellent vibrant color to it. I have owned this device since launch and I can say that I have watched a few different types of videos on it from cnet video podcasts to football videos (GO Broncos!) to episodes of BSG (Battlestar Galactica) and have never experienced any problems at all.
Other notes- Web browsing is very easy and to be honest, was a very different experience than what I have ever experienced before. I've used 'touch screens' before, but the Touch is definitely unique in that it just 'feels' like it was meant to be used with your fingers. This is coming from someone who used touch screens with a stylus and regular plain old touch screens like ATM's. The browser is excellent, however, you will not be able to view flash sites and some other types of videos on some internet sites. The WiFi is fast and easy to set up and will ask you if it ever needs to access a different network for web browsing.
The Calendar is very useful, in fact, it just recently got an software update that allows you to add contacts and dates/events to your contacts/calendar and when you sync your Touch, it will automatically update your computer's contacts/calendar events as well. Very nice. The Clock (which can add multiple time zones/world clock), Calculator were also welcomed little programs that I use quite frequently.
The You Tube function of the Touch is more of a specific function, but it works. For what I use You Tube for, it works just fine.
What I do like about the Touch is that it is still both Windows and Mac compatible as where the Zune (even the new ones) is not. You can only use Windows for Zune unless you use Apple's Bootcamp or other Windows emulation software within the Mac OS. Just something to consider if you have narrowed down your search to these two types of devices.
The Touch has a button on the top left that if you push it once 'quickly' it will put your screen into 'sleep mode'. Which saves on batteries and also prevents any accidental 'touches' to your screen. To turn it completely off, press and hold the same button for a few seconds.
There is no recessed headphone jack like the iPhone, so using any other ear/headphones of your choice is not a problem.
For people who like to keep their 'stuff' private, there is a 'security lock' function that allows you to use a 4 digit password to unlock the device. You can even set the time to 'lock' from 1 minute on up.
The 16 GB storage seems to turn alot of people off, but for me it works just fine. I have been able to put all of my music library (about 2 gigs) and some videos on it no problem. I've even put an entire season of Battlestar Galactica on it and still had plenty of room to spare. I can't even imagine having that much videos and music on it. I always keep my Touch's storage 'clean' by only putting what I want on it and leaving the rest on my laptop. Right now, I have a few video podcasts, Bronco season highlights, one tv show and my entire music library on it right now and it has only taken up just a tad over 3 gigs of space leaving me with 11.5 gigs still available for whatever I want to put on it. Depending on how you use your space on this device is up to you, I personally recommend using your space management skills with this device. But it works for me and what I do with it.
The iPod Touch is a very very nice device and if you have the money and do not want or need an iPhone, I highly recommend this product.
This works just fine for what I want it for since I would rather have an actual cell phone with other features that would compliment this device.
Thanks for reading my review and I hope it helps you in your decision making process when choosing this device or others of this type.
- 1 reply to this review
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Donwright, thanks for the info on the IPOD TOUCH. I was on my way to purchase one. I'm a DJ, I need something to store music! Without all the viruses! Hey, what about LIMEWIRE can I download it, to my TOUCH? You have truely convinced me to get one. I like movies also, but I'm very organized. I like I-TUNES, but LIMEWIRE'S better. Well, I'm going to buy this thing and let you know what I think.
darvellpankey@gmail.com
Where to buy
Apple iPod Touch (first generation, 16GB):
$328.95
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$328.95 | Yes |
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