The Original - Survives

The updated iPod Classic was probably the least exciting of the new iPods announced in the September 2008 update but that does not mean it should be dismissed.



I own the 160 GB iPod Classic that has now been discontinued but there are few differences (perhaps the biggest being the much slimmer shape of this 120 model) and I did get to check this updated 120 GB version out at the store when picking up the new nano and touch.



Firstly the 120 GB version is again smaller than the largest capacity available last year but it is a single platter hard drive which allows it to maintain the slim shape of the 80 GB version from last year. More storage a hundred dollars less and just as small. That is progress despite calls from others that the classic isn't exciting. It still serves its purpose as the original iPod idea. Big capacity in a simple to use device.



Next the software has been slightly updated on the iPod Classic. It now includes Genius like iTunes and the other new iPods. This allows you when on a song you enjoy to select the genius feature. The iPod will then compile a list of songs (playlist) which goes together with the original song you were listening to. This helps you rediscover music in your library with a playlist to fit your mood at the time. I have been using the genius feature for a few days now and it is impressive the way it compiles these playlists. I was skeptical but overall it does a good job. Furthermore as another review mentioned the iPod does seem more responsive with this update from what I saw at the store compared to my original 160 GB iPod Classic. Some speculation has been that the older iPod Classics will receive the software update of this new one but I'm not holding my breath on that.



Overall the original iPod concept was so good and that is why the iPod Classic is still a solid choice for a music and media player. It will hold thousands and thousands of songs (up to 30000 according to Apple at 128 bitrate). I also backup some important files to my iPod Classic in disk mode so that I have that additional extra copy of my most vital files. When you have such a large iPod you can do that. It shouldn't be forgotten either that while the display of the iPod Classic isn't as good as the iPod Touch or iPhone it is still quite good and you can play music videos TV shows and movies purchased on the iTunes Store.



Battery life for this new 120 GB model improved over the 80GB model from last year. Apple now estimates it at 36 hours audio and 6 hours video.



I'd recommend the iPod Classic without hesitation to those who have more than 8 or 16 GBs of music in their iTunes library and want to carry their entire collection. Furthermore if you have videos and video podcasts you want to always carry with you again you can't beat the storage. I have the lower capacity flash devices as well but the big hard drive based iPod Classic continues to play an important role in my iPod Collection.More detail ...

Very nice (yes I actually have one)

As of this writing no reviews are from someone who actually HAS one of the new iPods (10/19). That is about to change....



My 40GB iPod's hard disk had been deteriorating for a while until it stopped working altogether. That happened to be the day before the iPod video announcement (last Tuesday).



On to what you really want to know and what you can't get from Apple's website or reviews regurgitating technical specifications:



1) Can you actually enjoy watching video on a screen that small? What about the video quality?



In short if you're holding the iPod as close to your face as you would hold an older iPod to really read what song is playing the video quality is actually quite nice. The screen is noticeably bigger (the height is about the size of the old iPod width). If you're wondering how the quality comes out on an iPod screen (which is normally fairly pixelated) when you load a video it toggles into a mode much akin to when a computer plays a graphics intensive video game. It takes about 10 seconds for a feature-length film to load (i.e. between clicking play and when it starts playing).



With regard to movies the iPod doesn't support chapters. My guess is that people will eventually want movies distributed as folders witch chapters being the individual files. This will allow chapter skipping. That said once a movie loads fast forwarding works very well.



I loaded a fairly graphics-intensive movie on there at about the highest quality the iPod would allow. The actions scenes come out fine...about what you would expect for an MPGE4.



2) What the heck does this thing actually look like in your hand?



It is about the size of older iPods. It is thinner (a lot thinner if like me you are upgrading from a non-photo Gen4 40gb). The front is a flat screen much like the iPod nano but bigger. The clickwheel is a bit smaller than it was on older iPods but bigger than that of a nano.



3) The screen



I have to say the bigger screen is nice in and of itself. If you have longer track names (if you have live music etc.) a lot more of the name will appear. This is a very nice subtlety since in oder to read a song title you don't need to wait......for....it....to.....scroll....



4) Is it worth it?



Jobs called this a regular iPod with "video capability." I'd say the video capabilities are a little better than that gives it credit for. I don't yet have a composite adapter so I can't see how this comes out on a TV...



With regard to exporting video to TV there ARE the following options:

TV Out (on/off)

Video Signal (NTSC/PAL)

Widescreen (on/off)



If your iPod is breaking or is pretty old I'd definitely upgrade. If you travel a lot or have downtime where you could hold the device pretty close to your face (train airplane etc.) I'd definitely get it. If you don't have much time to enjoy the video capabilities then it probably isn't worth it.



5) Firewire



The tech specs didn't say anything about firewire so I had been wondering whether it is supported. It actually is not supported at all. In fact I tried connecting via my old firewire cable and the iPod brought up a screen that said something like "firewire is not supported. Please use the supplied USB cable."



6) The "case"



I saw that a case was included on the Apple website...basically the case as you might suspect is pretty bad. I got a 60GB model and it barely squeezes into the case. That said cases that support the new screen will likely be unavailable for 3 weeks or so (if what happened with the nano repeats itself) and so it is ncie to have SOMETHING to prevent you from scratching your new screen (which is now more important because it plays video).



Anyway I hope this answers any questions you might have. I've tried to stick to differences between this beauty and the iPod photo.



If you're still on the fence let me say this...go for it. It is really quite nice.More detail ...

The New Firmware seems to have ironed out A LOT of the bugs others have talked about!

**Before you read some of the negative reviews please consider this was BEFORE the new firmware update 1.0.3 came out so unfortunately they had unresponsive clickwheels itunes messing up etc. Also some people simply did NOT upgrade their firmware for whatever reason but A LOT of those problems have been fixed with the new firmware so UPGRADE YOUR FIRMWARE AS SOON AS YOU GET YOUR IPOD! It will make a BIG difference!**



Ok on to the review..I just got my 80 gb ipod classic recently with a 3 year extended service plan immediately got itunes version 7.5 and upgraded the firmware immediately to 1.0.3 which seems to have taken care of A LOT of bugs people have been reporting. It must have because I am not getting ANY of the problems other have reported such as laggy clickwheel itunes freezing etc. The clickwheel is VERY responsive only a light touch is needed and scrolling through cover art was very quick! No problems whatsoever with the clickwheel. I also have had no problems copying files to itunes and transferring them to my ipod. The ipod itself is a thing of beauty love the non scratchable surface but the back of the ipod is where you can see all the fingerprints etc so get a good cover for it. The slimness of it is very sleek and heck this ipod just looks cool. I got the ipod up and running in no time after I transferred my music over. Love the search feature as well. There is a lot of features settings and extra's. Heck I even like the clock.



PLEASE NOTE:TURN OFF & DON'T use the EQ (equalizer setting)if you want normal distortion free sound. I was using the EQ and wondered why a lot of my songs had distortion. I thought it was due to the bad sound everyone was talking about until I turned OFF the EQ. Upon turning the EQ off the distortion vanished completely the sound was just fine pretty good in fact. It's a shame that you have to turn off the EQ settings to get good sound. Hopefully Apple will fix this with a firmware update.



I almost got one of the itouch ipods but the very limited space is what kept me from doing so. 80 gb is plenty of space for my music a bit of videos etc. It might not have wifi or a touch screen but it's got tons of space for my music and that's what counts! I love my ipod classic can't find much to be picky about except for the sound when EQ is enabled. It does exactly what it's supposed to is easy to navigate videos look crisp/great on it and most of all it holds a crapload of music. Just remember to upgrade your firmware to the newest version disable EQ and invest in a good pair of headphones. One of the best things about the ipod classic is that because it has so much space I don't have to worry about how many mp3's I put on it. I've never downloaded so many mp3's in my life! I literally put my entire collection of mp3's on it and still have tons of space left. Overall I rate the ipod classic 80 gb (black)...absolutely superb.More detail ...

The New Firmware seems to have ironed out A LOT of the bugs others have talked about!

**Before you read some of the negative reviews please consider this was BEFORE the new firmware update 1.0.3 came out so unfortunately they had unresponsive clickwheels itunes messing up etc. Also some people simply did NOT upgrade their firmware for whatever reason but A LOT of those problems have been fixed with the new firmware so UPGRADE YOUR FIRMWARE AS SOON AS YOU GET YOUR IPOD! It will make a BIG difference!**



Ok on to the review..I just got my 80 gb ipod classic recently with a 3 year extended service plan immediately got itunes version 7.5 and upgraded the firmware immediately to 1.0.3 which seems to have taken care of A LOT of bugs people have been reporting. It must have because I am not getting ANY of the problems other have reported such as laggy clickwheel itunes freezing etc. The clickwheel is VERY responsive only a light touch is needed and scrolling through cover art was very quick! No problems whatsoever with the clickwheel. I also have had no problems copying files to itunes and transferring them to my ipod. The ipod itself is a thing of beauty love the non scratchable surface but the back of the ipod is where you can see all the fingerprints etc so get a good cover for it. The slimness of it is very sleek and heck this ipod just looks cool. I got the ipod up and running in no time after I transferred my music over. Love the search feature as well. There is a lot of features settings and extra's. Heck I even like the clock.



PLEASE NOTE:TURN OFF & DON'T use the EQ (equalizer setting)if you want normal distortion free sound. I was using the EQ and wondered why a lot of my songs had distortion. I thought it was due to the bad sound everyone was talking about until I turned OFF the EQ. Upon turning the EQ off the distortion vanished completely the sound was just fine pretty good in fact. It's a shame that you have to turn off the EQ settings to get good sound. Hopefully Apple will fix this with a firmware update.



I almost got one of the itouch ipods but the very limited space is what kept me from doing so. 80 gb is plenty of space for my music a bit of videos etc. It might not have wifi or a touch screen but it's got tons of space for my music and that's what counts! I love my ipod classic can't find much to be picky about except for the sound when EQ is enabled. It does exactly what it's supposed to is easy to navigate videos look crisp/great on it and most of all it holds a crapload of music. Just remember to upgrade your firmware to the newest version disable EQ and invest in a good pair of headphones. One of the best things about the ipod classic is that because it has so much space I don't have to worry about how many mp3's I put on it. I've never downloaded so many mp3's in my life! I literally put my entire collection of mp3's on it and still have tons of space left. Overall I rate the ipod classic 80 gb (black)...absolutely superb.More detail ...

The Original - Survives

The updated iPod Classic was probably the least exciting of the new iPods announced in the September 2008 update but that does not mean it should be dismissed.



I own the 160 GB iPod Classic that has now been discontinued but there are few differences (perhaps the biggest being the much slimmer shape of this 120 model) and I did get to check this updated 120 GB version out at the store when picking up the new nano and touch.



Firstly the 120 GB version is again smaller than the largest capacity available last year but it is a single platter hard drive which allows it to maintain the slim shape of the 80 GB version from last year. More storage a hundred dollars less and just as small. That is progress despite calls from others that the classic isn't exciting. It still serves its purpose as the original iPod idea. Big capacity in a simple to use device.



Next the software has been slightly updated on the iPod Classic. It now includes Genius like iTunes and the other new iPods. This allows you when on a song you enjoy to select the genius feature. The iPod will then compile a list of songs (playlist) which goes together with the original song you were listening to. This helps you rediscover music in your library with a playlist to fit your mood at the time. I have been using the genius feature for a few days now and it is impressive the way it compiles these playlists. I was skeptical but overall it does a good job. Furthermore as another review mentioned the iPod does seem more responsive with this update from what I saw at the store compared to my original 160 GB iPod Classic. Some speculation has been that the older iPod Classics will receive the software update of this new one but I'm not holding my breath on that.



Overall the original iPod concept was so good and that is why the iPod Classic is still a solid choice for a music and media player. It will hold thousands and thousands of songs (up to 30000 according to Apple at 128 bitrate). I also backup some important files to my iPod Classic in disk mode so that I have that additional extra copy of my most vital files. When you have such a large iPod you can do that. It shouldn't be forgotten either that while the display of the iPod Classic isn't as good as the iPod Touch or iPhone it is still quite good and you can play music videos TV shows and movies purchased on the iTunes Store.



Battery life for this new 120 GB model improved over the 80GB model from last year. Apple now estimates it at 36 hours audio and 6 hours video.



I'd recommend the iPod Classic without hesitation to those who have more than 8 or 16 GBs of music in their iTunes library and want to carry their entire collection. Furthermore if you have videos and video podcasts you want to always carry with you again you can't beat the storage. I have the lower capacity flash devices as well but the big hard drive based iPod Classic continues to play an important role in my iPod Collection.More detail ...