Today, I was able to get my first hands on time with the new iPod Touch released just two weeks ago. So while I don’t own one and can’t provide any in depth review, I do have a few first impressions.
It’s light. At Best Buy, they have the iPod Touch models all chained down to the charging station with some huge bulky black thing. That actually seems much heavier than the actual iPod Touch itself. When I held the iPhone 4 in June at the Apple Store, I was amazed at how heavy it felt despite being so thin. This time, I was surprised how light it really was. You can’t imagine the weight when the only reference point are point and shoot cameras and laptops. The size of course contributes to how light it is. Personally, I would have preferred it being heavier if it felt like the iPhone, which felt impossibly solid and heavy in my hand.
The cameras work. Chris Pirillo has actively tested the iPhone and iPod Touch side by side. The general conclusion is that the iPod Touch camera is weak sauce. I don’t know what they’re talking about though. My lovely LG Rumor 2 has a 2MP camera, and while it certainly is better than my dad’s 1.3MP camera, it’s not stellar. On the iPod Touch though, in good conditions (which are necessary for any phone camera), it took great pictures. Video recording was also nice but it was harder to test out in Best Buy. Even so, I could imagine doing small video reviews with that. Overall, the cameras are great. (I couldn’t test out Facetime because Best Buy doesn’t bother even putting the other models into the favorites list.)
It’s fast. I’ve had hands on time with every iPod Touch model to date. They were always faster than the previous and this new one is no exception either. At the Apple Table, the iPod Touch sat alone – no older models were around. However, after playing with the new one, I did find an older model in the store still as a functioning demo. It was slow like molasses compared to the new generation. The new iPod Touch opened Apps up fast and switched Apps fast. It was great.
It has mobile safari. Mobile Safari is boat loads better than Opera Mini. Opera Mini works on my Rumor 2, but it doesn’t run Java Script in any true fashion nor does it render pages in their true form. It bothers me that my own pages suck in Opera Mini. I want my device to preview my websites properly. Mission accomplished on an excellent mobile browser. Prior to playing with the iPod Touch, I was playing with the Magic Mouse attached to an iMac. I wrote my review of my recent Logitech Mouse and thought it was great. I did a two finger swipe left to go back a page in safari with the Magic Mouse. Fast forward to the iPod Touch, I thought the same motion would do something similar for Mobile Safari. Maybe I did it wrong?
Finally, it was simply fantastic. I’ve been waiting for a Mobile Browsing device. I don’t care for games or music. I need something light and small (e.g. not a laptop) to use a browser on to view things. I’d like to be able to Tweet occasionally and perhaps update the blog remotely. The iPod Touch 4G lives up to my expectations right now and when I have one, I am sure it will easily exceed them.