iPod Classic 80GB Review

It’s Geekie.net time to make a review of the new iPod Classic. You have lots of information out there regarding the iPod Classic. Bugs, annoying issues, good things, bad things. Loads of feedback from happy and less happy owners of the iPod Classic. So, I guess it is a good time to provide my review for the iPod Classic. I don’t really need to introduce it to you since you know what I am talking about. It is another opinion from someone that is using one.

And yes, I bought one. Apple didn’t send one to geekie.net. Shocking, I know

The one I have is the iPod Classic 80GB black version. It took me a few days to decide between the 80GB or the 160GB. What made me choose the 80GB? Simply two things. The looks and the difference in sterling. It’s around 70 pounds difference. The looks? you ask. Yes, the looks. The 160GB looks a bit more bulky than the 80GB one and I don’t really need the extra space to be honest. It would be nice, specially because of the extra battery time (10 more hours of music play and 2 more hours of video), but for £70 no thanks.

First impressions:

When I opened the little and stylish box and took the iPod out I just thought that it was a bit big and also heavy. I have to say that this iPod is my first MP3 player. I usually use my mobile to listen to music (SE W810i). Some hours before buying the Classic I was playing with an iPod Nano first generation which is quite small and light. That is why I thought the Classic was a bit big and heavy. Although after a few hours of playing with it I got used to the size and weight, which for the amount of space you have is quite acceptable. It is also quite comfortable to use. Both the touch ring and buttons work very well.

Using it:

The first thing I did after turning it on was going through the menus to discover what cool things were there. To my disappointment, no demo music or podcasts to test it right away. I was able to try out the 3 games coming by default. They are ok, but nothing really exciting. I specially enjoyed Vortex. It is a fun arcadish game (a kind of 3d Arkanoid). Also worth to mention was the brightness of the screen. It’s amazing. Really, I mean it. My current setting is 50% and it is more than enough. At least for indoors. If you raise it to the maximum you will have to wear some “shades” to be able to look at the screen. It is really good. The one thing I found to be annoying was the hard drive “noise”. If you are holding the iPod and playing with it you are able to actually feel the hard drive working, which some times can become annoying. Of course you will probably get used to it. Note: I am already used to it

After experimenting with the equalizer and all the music functionalities I have to say that it is very pleasant to listen to music in the iPod. The supplied headphones could be a lot better. They hurt my ears after around half an hour of using them. Regarding the sound I think the headphones are ok although you don’t have the kind of bass that some in-ear headphones offer, even some cheap ones. Also they just don’t isolate the outside noise at all. If you want some external noise isolation than you need to buy some new headphones. They are good if you use the iPod on the street, where you are better without sound isolation. It could be dangerous.

After playing with it for a while I started to become frustrated with the iTunes software. Syncing stuff is a headache if iTunes is new to you. I was trying to sync some podcasts and it was deleting all of my music. This is because I am also using other software to copy music and podcasts to the iPod. I had to restore it two times already. iTunes does not like third party software to be used with the iPod. In the end I guess it is alright if you only use iTunes.

Video:

Well, the iPod is a music player, right? Well, yes but you can also play video on it. It is more a multimedia player than just a music player. I have been downloading some movie trailers from the Apple website to watch on the iPod. The cool thing is that you can download trailers from the Apple site directly to iTunes with no conversion needed (there is now an rss feed on this site displaying the new trailers on the Apple website ). I was a bit curious about this. I didn’t think that watching video on such a small screen would be any good. I was wrong, it is alright. You can actually watch these podcasts or trailers with no problems whatsoever. Of course, if you usually use subtitles to watch any films then forget about it on the iPod. The screen is too small to use subtitles. Even if you are able to read them it would become a strain to your eyes.

Games:

The iPod Classic comes with three games; Vortex, Klondike and iQuiz. Klondike is the same old and nice game but doesn’t bring anything new or exciting. iQuiz is quite cool, but I became bored after a short time. I found Vortex to be quite nice, but it lacks something. It’s not addictive. I like addictive games There are a couple of nice games I bought from the iTunes store to try out and I have to say they are quite good. But that will be part of another post .

Conclusion:

Lots of storage space, nice screen, nice looks, good music quality, good games, ability to watch video and all the other features not covered in here (such as outlook sync, notes, etc) make this iPod the way to go. My objective was to buy a good MP3 player. In the end I got that plus a nice gaming gadget and also a small movie player. Great