iPod Touch review
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007So I’ve had my iPod for a couple of weeks and now it’s time to share my thoughts.
Box
When the box arrived I was very impressed, even by the box. The box is smaller than I expected it was going to be, much smaller than my brothers first gen Nano box (less waste you see, good for the environment), with a picture of the iPod Touch embossed onto the front which I thought was a pretty nice idea. But I didn’t spend too long looking at it.
Interface
The iPod itself is incredible. I didn’t read any of the instructions before I powered it up and started playing around with it. It’s surprisingly easy to use and doesn’t take long to get used to, scrolling through lists by simply flicking your finger across the screen such as when looking for a certain artist or song when listening to music, but theres also an alphabet along one side and by pressing a letter you’re taken straight to that section. Turning the iPod landscape while listening to music lets you flick through all the album art and select a new album to listen to. It’s easy to use, and everything just fits together nicely.
Effects
Light animations appear everywhere on the Touch, yet they never seem to get in the way or begin to annoy you even though they happen all the time. When turning from portrait mode into landscape and back the whole screen spins into position. Menus and applications zoom in and out and fade. The way force affects how fast you scroll, and how the pages are elastic and bounce back into screen if you try and scroll too far on a list never gets old no matter how many times it happens and really shows how much effort was put into the device.
Screen and weight
Screen size isn’t really an issue. Zooming in and out on photos and web pages simply by pinching two fingers together on the screen with the multi-touch functionality is incredible, and the screen is plenty big enough to browse websites, watch YouTube videos and movies on comfortably. I personally don’t think the iPod Touch weighs too much, but it has been commented to me by friends that it is quite heavy, especially compared to the new Nanos (but I just think they’re jealous).
Typing is also much easier than I first thought it would be, the iPod has an inteligent dictionary and will auto correct mistakes while you’re typing. It learns about common mistakes you make and picks up on your writing style, but also gives you the option to cancel these changes before they are made. The keyboard is standard QWERTY but despite it being quite small, especially when holding the device in portrait, its incredibly easy to press the right letter and quick to type on with one finger. (I have tried typing with more than one finger, but it’s faster and you make less errors when just typing with one hand). Having said this, typing for long periods of time on the touch can be quite tedious; the keyboard also takes up a large amount of the screen especially when in landscape view on web pages.
The screen can be easily cleaned just by wiping it, and it doesn’t look like it will scratch easily (but the metallic back of the iPod Touch has picked up scratches quite quickly despite me being careful with it).
Applications
There are some nice little apps on the iPod as well. Obviously music; videos; photos and the iTunes store; but also a calculator, a clock application with world clock times, an alarm, stopwatch and timer; a calendar (but unfortunately this can only be updated when plugged into the PC/mac and synced with a calendar application which is a dissapointment); YouTube videos application (which is really nice) and a contacts/address book.
It will be nice to see what applications come out in the future. Mini versions of websites specially built for the Touch are starting to pop up, but hopefully we will see some native applications for the iPod such as IM and email clients.
Battery
Battery life is good, especially considering the large touchscreen. It’s nice that the screen can be turned off (and will also power itself off after a certain amount of time) when listening to music or left idle to conserve power. Even with heavy usage the battery doesn’t seem to decrease too quickly.
Overall
Overall the iPod Touch is a great device, if not a little buggy at the moment. The iPod gets slow to turn on when full of content and music and can sometimes crash when, for example, listening to music and browsing the web (the music will cut out and you will be brought back to the menu screen and lose sessions on the web) but the Touch is still a first generation and there hasn’t been a patch to fix some of these problems yet, but there will be a patch released in the next couple of weeks no doubt. The features on it are incredible, along with the interface. It’s a really usable device for anyone.
Conclusion
Despite how good the iPod Touch is however, I can’t help but feel incredibly let down by it. There’s just so much missing from the Touch that would make it brilliant. I’ve paid the same for it as I would an iPhone yet the iPhone is leagues above it. Some of the things that make the iPhone stand out such as the Notes, Maps, Weather and Stock applications are all missing from the iPod Touch, and I think they should all be included or at least there should be an option to download/install them from Apple. There’s not even a built in e-mail application on the iPod Touch despite it having WiFi capabilities.
Nothing about the iPod Touch feels special when you think about the iPhone. That is the device that all of this technology was created for, and the iPod just feels like an after thought. If you’re thinking about getting one, just get an iPhone.
I’ll post some pictures soon.