The poor man’s iPhone: iPod Touch
There are three kinds of people in Mobile devices world. iOS users, Android users and Windows’ users. iOS users are dearly called iSheep by Android guys and Android folks are called Fandroids. So, here I am, writing a review on Apple iPod Touch and will try my best not to sound like an iSheep or a Fandroid.
First of all, iPod Touch is THE mini iPad. iSheep.. Apple fans, not all, have not realized that iPad is a bigger screen iPod touch. I never can understand their logic. First release iPod Touch, then release a bigger version and call it an iPad. And then release a smaller version of the bigger version of the iPod. Now you see why they have high profits?
Design:
It is thin and light. Feels nice to hold in the hand. Typical Apple design language. The rear is Aluminum, looks good. Once you hold it in the hand, everything else feels like a brick! Apple showed off their innovative prowess by introducing the Touch in five different colours. Fancy that! And not only that, they went on to add a sling. It just makes the touch so easier to carry, that is what they say. I found it useless and threw it away. The Touch doesn’t have a light sensor. Which means users have to manually adjust the brightness. The display is good though. Not as saturated as Android phones. Just good.
User experience:
It has iOS6, not the most Advanced OS as Apple touts it. For Android folks, iOS is downright boring and restrictive. Some of the features it has feel awesome, but then they’re not practical. Siri can do many things, like search, text, call, open apps, give directions and many more. But then, all these tasks are lot easier when manually done. Siri doesn’t revolutionize anything. Just makes things amusing for users. Options like Wifi, bluetooth are hidden away in settings. Whereas in Android they’re in notification centre, so much easier to swipe.
iOS doesn’t run two windows in same screen. So, you can’t watch a video and type the same time. Multitasking in this is just switching from one app to another. The UI is largely the same old boring. Not many new things. But stability seems to have gone down. Apps keep crashing. Not only third party apps, even Apple’s own apps. The camera keeps crashing every time I set it into Panaroma mode, the Appstore has its own mind and iBooks is slow. Slow in opening book, switching to PDFs.
Of course you’ve many apps available. But the most agonizing part is syncing with iTunes. iTunes is a good software. I use it on my Mac, it is the most stable app on Mac by Apple. But then, everything went south after connecting it to iTunes. It took me a lot of time in figuring out how to put songs individually instead of playlists. And extracting photos require iPhoto. Another pain in the neck. It required me to create an album to upload photos on the Touch. There are many small things, and all these things just make you think if iPod is worth it or not. It is not strictly plug and play.
The Touch runs only on Wifi, so I was restricted to Apps not involving internet. Games run great, the graphics too are good. The Touch has an A5 processor, iPhone has A6. But except for few crashes, everything just works. There won’t be much to complain. The Camera is good, takes good quality photos in good light. Low light photos are not that good. The Touch has Apple Maps in it. It is okay, but since it is one Wifi there are not directions available. I haven’t used maps at all.
The ear pods are amazing! I’m sold over this. They’re a huge improvement over old gen. Even Audiophiles will like them
Battery life is surprising. The maximum you can get, with Wifi on and having multiple apps in background, is 6 hours(Approximately). 40 Hours of music and 8 hours of video is questionable. The touch gets hot a lot quickly. Even if wifi is off and only music app is running.
I didn’t bother pulling up specs, I know they’re not the best. iPod Touch is a niche device. It is the kind of device a rich spoilt school kid would get as gift, a gift to just shut him up. It doesn’t have anything magical in it. In fact, every time you flash the touch people will clearly know that you’re poor and you can’t afford an iPhone. As it is said widely, iPod Touch is the poor man’s iPhone. Well, technically, you’ve got to pay $299, so not really ‘poor’ poor.
Is iPod really worth buying? No. Not unless you’re an someone who has to fulfill his life long desire to own an Apple product or entirely absorbed into the ecosystem Apple has set up. Instead you can buy a Windows phone or Android. They do everything the touch does, also they have phone facility. Call me names, but this is absolutely pointless.
