The iPod touch hasn't changed much over the last few years; while there have been a number of small performance and aesthetic improvements, the overall design and feature set have remained unchanged. Consumers have paid no mind, of course, and despite only receiving minor upgrades since it launched in 2007, the iPod touch has proven to be one of the most successful models in Apple's iPod lineup.
But after three years, the iPod touch was long overdue for a significant upgrade; and earlier this month Apple announced the new and improved iPod touch, which brings many of the most popular features of the new iPhone 4 to the platform, including a powerful A4 processor, a built-in gyroscope, a high-resolution retina display, and, at long last, built-in cameras. With the gap between Apple's two strongest products narrower than ever before, is there any reason to buy an iPod touch?The answer is and has always been: to avoid expensive monthly service fees. As it turns out, that is more than enough reason to pique the interest of consumers, and subsequently why the new iPod touch is the greatest iPod to date.
If you've used an iPod touch before, seen it in stores, or even watched an ad on TV, the new iPod touch should be plenty familiar. It looks, feels, and functions just like every preceding model, but with a few noteworthy improvements, which in the interest of time, we'll focus exclusively on.
First off, let's start with the stars of the show; the built-in cameras. Users have been clamoring for Apple to add a built-in camera to the iPod touch for years, and now the company has added not just one, but two cameras to device. On the front users will find a VGA camera that is capable of both still photography and video recording, though its primary purpose is to enable Apple's FaceTime video conferencing. The front-facing camera has a maximum resolution of 640x480 for both still photography and video, and a maximum framerate of 30 frames per second. The rear camera, however, is capable of higher resolution photos and HD video, with 1280x720 (720p) resolution videos and 960x720 photos.
While the front-facing camera is comparable to that of the iPhone 4, the rear camera's quality for still photography is inferior in terms of maximum resolution, coming in at roughly 1 megapixel, while the iPhone 4 is capable of taking 2592x1936 resolution images, or 5 megapixels. The rear camera also lacks a built-in flash, limiting its functionality for dark photography and video recording. Nevertheless, the iPod touch is still capable of taking decent looking photos and video, and while we wouldn't consider it a replacement to a point-and-shoot, it does provide a nice level of supplemental functionality.There is also the highly-touted retina display, which boasts a 960x640 LCD display and a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch. As a result, the new iPod touch features incredibly smooth and detailed menus, game graphics, photos, and video playback. The performance of the iPod touch's retina display is nearly identical to that of the iPhone 4 – incredible color range, bright, and vibrant, but lacking in one key area – viewing angle. The iPhone 4's retina display incorporates in-plane switching (IPS) technology, which provides it with a viewing angle of nearly 180 degrees, the iPod touch does not. Without IPS, the iPod touch's viewing angle is much narrower, giving the display varying degrees of a blueish tint when not viewed head-on. While this effect is common for most standard LCDs, as well as the previous iPod touchs, it is somewhat of a disappointing omission. But again, costs had to be cut somewhere in order to maintain the player's previous MSRP.
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