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Apple iPod Video 5G
Testing: Hardware
And here I go. I'm actually using an iPod. This is a big step for me. I've used various iPods in the past for short periods of time, but living with one for a couple weeks has changed my perception of the beast; for better and for worse. Powering on the unit takes a few seconds from dead stop. After it warms up I'm greeted with the familiar white menu screen and a bevy of choices: Music, Photos, Videos, Extras, Settings and Shuffle Songs. I headed for the Music menu most often. The included earbuds are quite adequate for most songs. They lack in the same areas where most other earbuds fall off, in the bass response, but are in the top tier for stock earphones. I always ditch earbuds anyway as they are horribly uncomfortable for me. And this way I can use my rather dull Sony earphones as a field-leveling comparator for all MP3 players that I review. The iPod puts out top notch quality sound and there is a multitude of EQ choices included in the Settings menu. Still, there are no custom settings available. Navigating the iPod is a seemingly simple chore. There aren't too many buttons or toggle switches; just the innovative scroll wheel and the menu choices are logical. The touch sensitive pad tracks your finger movements around the matte finish ring while flush push buttons (located at 3, 6, 9 and 12 o'clock on the touch ring) act as fast forward, rewind, track skip, play/pause and menu selectors. Another flush button located in the middle of the scroll wheel selects highlighted menu options. Overall the tactile response of the buttons is great but I just couldn't get used to the inaccurate touch wheel. At times I felt like it was too sensitive while during other movements it felt as though the wheel wasn't registering my finger motions at all. The iPod's screen is bright and crisp. Videos, photos and album art display with clean lines and sharp resolution. I played a few fast paced music videos with quick flashes of movement and bright, rapidly changing colors looking for ghosting and pixilation. I found very little of either. However the glare from the screen does inhibit my viewing pleasure in brightly lit rooms. Slideshow picture viewing is reasonably clear, although large, detailed pictures tend to loose a bit of their glory on the small screen. I was disappointed to see that no wallpaper options are available for the iPod's menu screen. The Zune was all about background images and I quite liked being able to choose my décor.
Page 1: Introduction & First Impressions
Page 2: Testing: Software Page 3: Testing: Hardware Page 4: Testing: Daily Usage Page 5: Conclusion 
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Add Comment
7 User Comments 1 - Posted by
socokid
on April 18, 2007 - 6:15 pm There is, however, one big difference between the 30 and the 80 GB iPods. The 80 gets 6 more hours of music playback (20 hours as opposed to 14 on the 30 GB). Just had to point that out...
2 - Posted by
Kurtis
on April 18, 2007 - 6:36 pm Good point on the battery life of the iPod variants, socokid.
3 - Posted by
handrail
on April 19, 2007 - 7:52 am indeed. obviously the 80GB is the sensible way to go if you can afford the extra dough. but since we wanted to compare apples to apples, zunes to ipods, as best we could...we got a 30gigger. good to know that 80GB has better battery life too. thanks for the info! brad. 4 - Posted by
some guy
on April 19, 2007 - 8:06 am The often cited lack of FM support in iPods is not entirely true. A prospective buyer (just) needs to shell out additional $49 for the Apple branded "iPod Radio Remote" which acts as iPod FM antenna and cable remote control. 5 - Posted by
Kurtis
on April 19, 2007 - 9:43 am lol, i don't think anyone would argue you can't buy an accessory for that functionality. heck, you can buy an accessory for the iPod for anything. you can probably get a toothbrush attachment for the thing. the problem people have is that as expensive as the iPod already is it is not as feature-rich as some other players out there which tout those features from the box. 6 - Posted by
handrail
on April 19, 2007 - 3:35 pm i guess then one could also say that the iPod comes with a car as long as you shell out $20k for it, right? :) kurtis has already pointed out...well, my point. doesn't come with it out of the box like the zune and so many other players. not that it appears to matter. i'm probably the last person on earth who gives a crap about the iPod not having native FM functionality. 7 - Posted by
Rich
on April 20, 2007 - 9:55 pm I guess hell really did freeze over! Brad with an iPod. hah!
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