5G iPod (With Video) - My Thoughts

[CVD]

It finally arrived today. I was impressed with the delivery actually, because it was in Shanghai on Sunday and Amsterdam yesterday, before finally arriving this afternoon.

I've had a good hour or two to play around with it, and I'm happy. The video playback looks amazing on the 2.5 inch screen, whether on full or widescreen mode. The only video dissapointment (obviously) is the shoddy two hour battery life.

Music is amazing, as standard, for iPods. It's hard to tell the difference compared to my previous 4G Black and White iPod, but there is a small noticable increase in bass, for the music tech geeks out there that were pressurising Apple. Album Art, Ratings, Lyrics in addition to the song name, artist and album are all displayed during music playback.

Photo's also look excellent on the LCD screen, but will obviously depend on the original picture quality resolution.

Overall, it's Apple's best iPod yet, without a shaddow of a doubt. It holds more music, has a better quality colour screen, longer battery life, available in two colours and two forms of capacity (30GB/60GB) and has video playback as a bonus. Apple will need to improve battery life, however, if it is to truly rival the PSP or iRiver for video playback.

Pics:

These were taken with a crappy cameraphone as I have no immediate access to a Digital Camera. Enjoy...

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a160/CVD/1.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a160/CVD/2.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a160/CVD/3.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a160/CVD/4.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a160/CVD/5.jpg

[Cubechris]

Thin and sexy.


The iPod is pretty cool too.

[Dieter]

That's a mighty fine bar of soap you have ;)

[Haver]

Ipods suck get a River or a Creative or build your own.

(Sweet!)

[Jack]

IPODS SUCK GET A RIVER OR CREATIVE OR BUILD YOUR OWN.

(Sweet!)
Good thing you let us know - I've been getting great usage out of mine and it does everything I want to, but now that I know it sucks, I'm throwing it in the bin. I could have been embrarrasing myself if you hadn't warned me.

[Haver]

There's always one!

(I have an iPod mini and it's pretty much my girlfriend)

[Ample]

Meh, does this one crash like the Nano does?

[Tom]

whilst i accept if it a very cool piece of kit, i dont see why you got this instead of going with an equivelent Archos player which has a far larger scree

[Choze]

Video is an extra for the Ipod. Its not like it was made ground up for it.

[Ramar]

I ordered mine on Monday, its my Christmas and Birthday present (they're only a day apart) and now I can't wait for it. Its current status is preparing to ship, and I would assume it will take a while because of the engraving.

Thanks for the review I really appreciate it.

Edit - Mine has now been shipped. :)

[Offerman]

There's always one!

(I have an iPod mini and it's pretty much my girlfriend)

Unreliable, ugly and loose; yup, sounds like your kinda girl Haver.

[CVD]

It's not crashed for me yet, although I've only had it a day. My entire music, photo and video collection is now on it, and I'm only using a third of total capacity, there's plenty of room going to get filled up in the next few months.

And in reply to Tom: I bought this as the main intention is to play music and be easily transferrable to my laptop. I've bopught about 50 songs and videos from the iTunes music store which would become void if I ditched the iPod. Other music players may have a longer batter life or some other features that Apple don't include, but iPod suits me perfect.

[Ashley]

Album Art, Ratings, Lyrics in addition to the song name, artist and album are all displayed during music playback.

Lyrics during the playback, isn't that a bit much? Wouldn't the screen keep scrolling? Although...karaoke all around.

[RoadKill]

My entire music, photo and video collection is now on it, and I'm only using a third of total capacity, there's plenty of room going to get filled up in the next few months.

...

My music is more than 95GB alone.

[Ashley]

...

My music is more than 95GB alone.

Variety is the spice of life. But mine takes under 20GB (Zen size), although I have about 10 albums to add to it but I don't think that'll fill it up.

[Charlie]

...

My music is more than 95GB alone.

Colin obviously discovered bittorrent, or wants legal. :heh:

To the person who said get the Archos one: He's had an iPod before and will most likely have bought music from the iTMS which wouldn't play on another MP3 player.


It's amazing to think that it's still the same width as the 4G iPod, it looks so much wider.

[DS MaNiAc]

It looks wider because: The screen is wider and the click wheel is smaller, making you think its wider.

[Ashley]

Colin obviously discovered bittorrent, or wants legal. :heh:


Could be perfectly legal. My friend has a 60GB ipod and has filled that because he has such an immense CD collection. Hes been getting at least one CD a week (not including birthdays and such) for the last ten years(ish) so he has many a CD.

[CVD]

Like I said, I've downlaoded quite a few legal tracks, my collection is expanding at the rate of 50-100 songs per week. Still, I don;t want GB's worth of stuff on there that I'm never going to listen to.

And as for the lyrics, they're only displayed if you want them to, by pressing in the centre button three times, they take up the entire screen and are scrollable.

[Raining_again]

wow cvd that looks damn sexy. Ive got the 20gb photo iPod, which i bought a month ago, so im not paying for a new one just yet! although im sorely tempted!!

They would be awesome if you could change the battery, when the current one goes flat. my friend has one and it is now pretty much useless unless plugged in cause his battery is done.

[Haver]

Unreliable, ugly and loose; yup, sounds like your kinda girl Haver.

Offerman, you have never had sex with a woman.

[Ashley]

Alright alright we've both sniped, lets leave it there.

And ta CVD, the lyrics thing might come in useful now and again but who doesn't love missinging lyrics?

[Shorty]

I don't get the point of it....

But I'm afraid Haver won that round.

[Ramar]

*waits impatiently as TNT still says my iPod is in Shanghai*

God damn its been there for two days. Either it hasn't moved or TNT are really bad at tracking, I wish it was with DHL, they're super quick.

[CVD]

Don't worry, it said mines was in Shanghai for ages, then within 2 days of the status changing, it was in my hands. Let me know how you find yours when you get it.

[Ramar]

Finally after 5 days my iPod has moved, its now in Arnhem in Holland. If its not here on Wednesday I'm going to call Apple, and be a little bastard about it.

I can't wait to test it, and I'll post a little review.

[gmac]

I'm so tempted to buy one since my current 30Gb one is overflowing (got about 40Gb of music) but don't really want to buy one since next years upgrade will be so much better video wise.

[Lammie]

Unreliable, ugly and loose; yup, sounds like your kinda girl Haver.

The most amusing thing about the ipod/girfriend analogy is that everyone seems to have an iPod except for Offerman.

[RoadKill]

I don't have an iPod.

[Ramar]

Well it came today, which is superb. Plugged it in my computer and the thing froze itself, yes the first thing I did was break it. The stupid thing locked itself and wouldn't unlock, luckily using the menu + central button restart it fixed it.

So I finally got it working (relief, I tell ya) and put Final Fantasy VII Advent Children on and a Slipknot song to test it. The screen is fantasically clear, the movie itself was of small resolution and so it looks perfect, I watched a few minutes as my battery died, I know understand why there is only 2 hours capacity of movie watching. The thing I'm pleased with most is the volume, unlike my brothers iPod mini, this thing has no cap and is fantasically loud and clear.

The size of the screen is great, I really can't fault it there, the size and feel is great. Thing I queery most is the metallic back which gets lots of fingerprints on it and looks a bit grubby after a few touches.

Other than my slip up, I really rate the 5th Generation iPod and its by far the best digital music player I've ever experienced. Top quality.

[I'll add to this review tomorrow, I'm going out tonight and have had about a 20 minutes whirl]

Edit -

Having most of this morning and a bit of this evening tinkering about with my iPod, I can add to the review. Putting songs onto the iPod doesn't differ, simple iTunes transfer. Easy peasy.
I have now tried another video, this one is a music video that came with Disturbed's album Ten Thousan Fists, the album was bought off iTunes and the video was downloaded along with the songs. Fantastic quality, I can really see myself downloading lots of music videos because they're incredibly clear, I thought it would be worse than what it is, bravo Apple.
I haven't tried a home movie (my camera makes .mov files) but I can imagine they're just as good. I haven't tried photos yet, but I have viewed album art, and by the brightness and colourfullness (is that a word?) of the screen, pictures should look fine.

I really do recommend this iPod. Might not be great if you already own one, but great if you've never had one before (like myself).

[Cubechris]

I don't have an iPod.


Do you have a girlfriend?

[CVD]

Nice review. My main question though, is did you install the software before plugging in your iPod? And was the battery fully charged before watching your movie that died after two minutes? Seems a bit wierd to me.

[Ramar]

I hadn't installed the software no, but I had my brothers software installed, so I assumed it would just work.

The iPod came almost fully charged, watching the video didn't kill the battery, but I noticed the charge go down, it was nothing major like a total discharge. It was just me noticing that watching a video takes up more battery power, I don't think I made that clear in the review.

Unfortunately for me now, I have to box it back up and wait for Christmas :(.