Apple iPod Touch 8GB 2nd Generation

I reviewed the 1st generation iPod touch back in December 2007. The iPod touch has certainly come a long way since then. The iPod touch runs the same operating system as the iPhone, which is now up to version 2.1. iPhone OS 2.1 runs very smoothly, with fast installation of apps, minimal input lag, faster automatic backups in iTunes, and excellent stability.

With the 2nd generation iPod touch hardware, it is clear that Apple DO listen to their customers. Make no mistake, the 1st generation hardware was and still is excellent. But no product is perfect, and there's always room for improvement. So how is the 2nd generation iPod touch hardware different from the 1st generation? How is it better?

Thickness was never a problem with the 1st generation iPod touch. After all, how much thinner than 8mm do you need a pocket computer to be? Well, despite Steve Jobs saying "it's even thinner", the 2nd generation iPod touch is actually thicker. Yes, thicker. It's 8.5mm thick in the centre. However, it feels thinner in your hand because of the contoured design, borrowed from the iPhone 3G. Apple's big thing in 2008 is eliminating the sides of products, and replacing them with swooping curves that taper to a soft point. For the iPod touch this is a good thing, because it feels less hard and angular in your hand, making it far more comfortable to hold.

The Battery Life of the 1st generation iPod touch was already good at 24 hours for Audio, and 7 hours for Video. The 2nd generation iPod touch dramatically improves on Audio, now at 36 hours, but mysteriously drops 1 hour for Video, down to 6 hours.

The biggest problem for me, with the 1st generation iPod touch, was the lack of physical buttons. How many Consumer Electronics products can you think of that only have 2 buttons? It's a miracle the 1st generation iPod touch did what it did (e.g. Mail, Internet, YouTube, Maps) with just 2 buttons! However, changing the volume of your Music was unnecessarily awkward. First you'd have to tap the Home button to wake the iPod touch from sleep, then you'd have to double-tap it again to bring up the iPod Controls, then you'd have to slide your finger across the screen to operate the virtual volume slider. Fortunately, Apple have overcome their fear of buttons and actually added a physical rocker-switch to the side of the iPod touch. Press one end to increase the volume instantly, and press the other end to decrease it. Genius :-)

Let's be clear, the 2nd generation iPod touch still comes with Apple's normal, no-frills iPod Earphones. However, it will also work with Apple's brand new £19.00 Earphones with Remote and Mic. These are brilliant and actually an improvement over what's shipped with the iPhone 3G. There's a tiny white "block" on the cord of the Earphones that contains 3 buttons and 1 microphone. Squeeze the centre button and you can pause your Music. Squeeze it again and you can continue playing your Music. Double-squeeze it and you can skip forward to the Next track. Triple-squeeze it and you can skip back to the Previous track. The hidden microphone may not seem particuarly interesting at present. But it's worth noting, with this piece of hardware, the iPod touch is all-set to become a VOIP Wi-Fi Phone. All it needs is a Skype app on the App Store! While you wait for the official one, try Fring instead, which is free.

Finally, anyone that's used an iPhone will appreciate how useful it is having a built-in speaker. It's fun for playing video games, it's sociable for watching videos with friends, and it's essential for apps such as the French Talking Phrasebook. Well, the 2nd generation iPod touch now has a built-in speaker. The catch is, the speaker isn't as good as the one in the iPhone 3G. It's completely internal, with no visible hole or port, so the quality of the sound is weaker and tinnier.

This is an impartial review based on my experience of the iPod Touch 2nd Generation, and other Personal Media Players.

Strengths:

+ WiFi and Safari Browser. Superb mobile browsing experience. For example, you can stream BBC iPlayer to the Touch perfectly. A real joy.

+ Youtube widget for playback of youtube videos.

+ Integrated Nike + Support, so that you can use the device as a training tool for exercise.

+ App Store. You can download from thousands of Apps on iTunes, including games, and stream internet radio, for instance.

+ Superb capacitive glass touch screen. Older touch screens use `resistive' technology. These work on a different principle, and are less responsive. (The Archos 5 uses a resistive screen. The Cowon S9, however, uses a capacitive one like the iPod Touch).

+ Incredible User Interface. Beautifully conceived and implemented. Music and Videos are organised with an astonishing attention to the user's goals, and you regularly feel that Apple designers have read your mind when you go about tasks.

Here's an example: you wish to download a podcast. You go to an internet address in Safari. Safari automatically grabs the address, boots you into iTunes (on the device itself), and takes you to the podcast listing within the iTunes store. Two more clicks and you're downloading your content. That's the way things should be done.

+ Advantages over the previous generation include a dedicated volume rocker, slightly more curvaceous design, slightly improved battery life, integrated Nike + support and mini speaker.

Weaknesses:

- Very, very average sound quality. Now it is a mystery to me why so many users and reviewers overlook this issue. Having owned the Touch, I have come to the conclusion that it is stylish Swiss Army Knife whose MAIN BLADE is blunt.

It is true that many people will have no issue with the sound quality probably because their only reference point to the world of personal media players is the iPod brand. This is useful ignorance, because I would challenge anyone not to be thoroughly crestfallen with the sound of this device compared to something as cheap yet beautiful sounding as the Sansa Clip.

- Video playback. If you are happy to be locked into the iTunes universe, then you will love this device. You will endlessly pay for movies and will enjoy them on this device. If like me, however, you like to play your own physical DVDs in DivX format,in addition to a range of movie files in various formats and codecs, then the Touch is simply not your friend. It only supports a few video codecs, which means as a device for video playback, it is somewhat paralysed.

- Terrible battery life. Three hours of mixed use, and the Touch is wheezing for a recharge. It's great being a Jack of all trades, but Jack gets tired rather too quickly sometimes!

- Being `locked in' to iTunes. There are some Apple hating brand lunatics who simply disparage anything Apple for the sake of it. For me, I feel that iTunes is an excellent software (especially on a Mac) but it is also limiting. With iTunes organising my device, I can't just drag and drop files onto the Touch, and this is a bit of a pain. But you may feel different, so this one is up in the air...

Conclusion and buying advice:

Having owned it, the Touch is either superb or mediocre depending on whether you wish to buy it as 1) your mini WiFi web browser with an App Store, or as 2) your multimedia player.

1) As a mini browser, it is excellent. Browse the web, download podcasts, stream iPlayer, etc. (But remember, when you're not near a WiFi signal, none of these capabilities count for anything).

2) But as a genuine media playback device, it just does not cut the mustard. Think of it as a second rank device in a field of stellar performers. The sound quality for music playback is just average, and in some cases, embarrassing when listened to devices made by Cowon, Sansa, iRiver and Sony. And its Video playback is equally crippled by its lack of codec support.

So what is the bottom line?

Well, I owned this device but decided to sell it when I bought a £20 Sansa Clip and stopped listening to music on it because the sound quality was so much superior on the Sansa. This is not hyperbole, and I do not hate Apple. In fact, I love Apple, so do take this as objective advice.

I simply realised that my priority was sound and video quality, and that I would get all of the extra features of the Touch most important to me (namely WiFi and a stunning User Interface) when I buy a Macbook in the future.

I have since purchased a Cowon O2, which is a stellar sounding device (admittedly without the Touch's `extra' features) but in a league of its own in terms of sound quality for music playback, and movie playback. (It supports a cornucopia of music and video files and in this regard is a much more accomplished device).

So then, what are you after?

A mini WiFi enabled device with music/video as an extra? Well then buy the Touch! Go for it. You'll love it and enjoy its brilliance.

But if the answer is an audiophile experience of sound and video, do not buy this device. Start investigating a Cowon O2 or S9, or an iRiver Spinn.

Hope this helps.

- Written by a non-partisan audiophile.

Son got one just after Christmas. He bought case and screen protector to protect his investment. Very nice product which he spent many hours playing games, music etc etc.

After just over a month it started switching off anytime you touched a button - including volume. Took it back to Argos who duly sent it away. Two weeks later, it came back un-repaired because the liquid indicator (inside the headphone socket) was pink and Apple will not touch it - 'xcuse the pun - if the indicator is pink.

So assuming that the "very accurate indicator" (as Apple describe it) is what they say (!!), the only possibility is that some dampness occurred when it was heavy rain one day and it was in his Sprayway jacket pocket. If this is it, then I would suggest that the product is not fit for purpose. I am not aware that Apple state you can only use in dry weather, not in a bathroom, not during the months of December to March (August to June if you live in Scotland like me).

This product is really good and a joy to use, but if it needs kept in a hermetically sealed environment, then it's not really much use for the very market it sells to.

So buy it but take very good care of it.