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iPod touch The deferences between the iPod touch 5 and the iPhone 5

L

LGN

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 24, 2010
32
0
Arstotzka
I'm going to keep track of the differences between the iPod touch 5th Generation and the iPhone 5. If you have something to add, please tell me.

Processor
The iPhone 5 has a new Apple A6 chip which has been touted as the fastest mobile device chip yet. It has 1 GB of RAM, 2 processor cores, and 3 graphics cores.
The 5th generation iPod touch has an Apple A5 chip. This is presumably the 32nm chip Apple shipped with the $399 iPad 2 and the 1080p Apple TV. It has two processor cores, and 512 MB of RAM.

Display
The displays of both the iPhone 5 and the 5th generation iPod touch are 4" in size. They have a resolution of 1136x640 and are IPS displays. They also both have fingerprint resistant oliophobic coatings.

Camera
The Camera of the iPhone 5 is an 8 megapixel camera. It can also shoot 1080p video. It has an LED flash and a sapphire crystal lens cover.
The camera of the 5th generation iPod touch is a 5 megapixel camera (as seen on the 3rd Generation iPad). It can also shoot 1080p video. It has an LED flash and a sapphire crystal lens cover.
The front cameras of both the iPhone 5 and the 5th generation iPod touch are able to take 720p video.

Networking
Both devices have the capability for 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi at 2.4 and 5GHz as well as Bluetooth 4.0.
The iPhone 5 also includes an LTE radio, a GSM radio, may include a CDMA radio (depending on carrier), as well as GPS and a compass.

Extras
The 5th generation iPod touch is 6.1mm thin, while the iPhone 5 is 7.6mm thin.
The 5th generation iPod touch includes the iPod touch loop.
Both devices include a Lightning to USB cable and Apple Earpods, and the iPhone 5 includes a USB Wall adapter.
The iPhone 5 is available in Black & Slate or White & Silver.
The 5th Generation iPod touch is available in Black & Slate, White & Silver, Blue, Yellow, Pink, and (PRODUCT) RED.
 
R

rovex

macrumors 65816
Feb 22, 2011
1,231
176
Both devices come pre-installed with iOS 6. ; )

Otherwise that's pretty much all there is to it.
 
TheKnowledgeGuy

TheKnowledgeGuy

macrumors member
Apr 23, 2010
78
0
Yeah, this is the only thing that I don't like. The iPhone 5 and the iPod touch 5 aren't kept similar enough.
 
D

dthree36

macrumors regular
Feb 4, 2008
218
2
They really need to add GPS to the iPod touch and then you would have one hell of a product. I know most GPS apps require a data connection but several are stand alone.
 
Q

qwerty123123

macrumors newbie
Apr 19, 2012
26
0
i remember reading somewhere that ipod touch's displays are actually made out of higher quality materials, is this true?
 
S

sineplex

macrumors 6502
Aug 24, 2010
342
0
LGN said:
Camera
The Camera of the iPhone 5 is an 8 megapixel camera. It can also shoot 1080p video. It has an LED flash and a sapphire crystal lens cover.
The camera of the 5th generation iPod touch is a 5 megapixel camera (as seen on the 3rd Generation iPad). It can also shoot 1080p video. It has an LED flash and a sapphire crystal lens cover.
The front cameras of both the iPhone 5 and the 5th generation iPod touch are able to take 720p video.
Click to expand...

iphone camera has auto focus and zoom as far as i know at least one of those things is lacking in the ipod touch.
 
C

caramelpolice

macrumors regular
Oct 6, 2012
212
232
Paradoxally said:
It's actually the opposite: e.g. the Touch 4G doesn't have an IPS display, unlike the iPhone 4.
Click to expand...

With the iPhone 5 and 5th gen touch, however, they're finally at screen parity.

Also, yes, the 5th gen touch does have autofocus and digital zoom.
 
G

GoodBoy

macrumors 6502
Nov 17, 2007
474
0
There's a lot more to the camera differences. With iPod touch 5gen you get:

- less saturated colors compared to iPhone 5
- video stabilization is a lot worse resulting in shaky recordings, it's not even on par with iPhone 4S, but more with iPhone 4
- when shooting images the picture is displayed with black bars while in iPhone 5 they're displayed full screen. It's a result of megapiel differences
- images and videos give less impressive results in low-lightining situations than iPhone 4S/5
- images and videos have more grain/artifacts

Other differences:

- iPod touch cannot render as much details in games as iPhone 5. "Wild Blood" is the perfect example of this.
 
B

Blackened

macrumors regular
Jul 14, 2010
114
0
gcrr said:
Are you sure?? That would be so stupid since the 4g has zoom and not to mention the 5g comes with a damn camera strap.
Click to expand...

my bad, that's just what I had heard, I can now confirm the 5G does have zoom.. not sure if it's digital or optical though..
 
Beeplance

Beeplance

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2012
1,564
500
adnbek said:
It's always been digital, never optical.
Click to expand...

Yes, it has always been the case. Optical zoom mean the lens of the camera is capable of zooming in by itself, whereas digital zoom means the software is utilised to zoom in because the camera does not have this function. iPhone and iPod touches always had digital zoom even since iOS 4 when the features is introduced. Digital zoom is less desirable and of a lower quality, and zooming in creates grainy pictures. That's why most of the time, people do not use it to zoom in unless it's really necessary.
 
canman4PM

canman4PM

macrumors 6502
Mar 8, 2012
299
30
Kelowna BC
Blackened said:
my bad, that's just what I had heard, I can now confirm the 5G does have zoom.. not sure if it's digital or optical though..
Click to expand...

Both are digital. Optical requires the ability to move the lenses further from each other. Something a thin mobile device can't really do.

Edit: Oops, doubled up the other guys. My bad.
 
Last edited:
Photography

Photography

macrumors 65816
Apr 10, 2007
1,063
36
The biggest difference between the iPod touch 5th generation and the iPhone 5: You can save approximately $2,000 (give or take) per year by buying the iPod touch and not the iPhone.
 
Beeplance

Beeplance

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2012
1,564
500
coolosxapps said:
The biggest difference between the iPod touch 5th generation and the iPhone 5: You can save approximately $2,000 (give or take) per year by buying the iPod touch and not the iPhone.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. The price of contact times 24 months is a lot of money even though it's over a period of 2 years. If you have wifi at home/office, the iPod touch will be just fine with internet access besides not being connected on the go. And with the 5th generation, Apple has significantly narrowed the disparity in terms of hardware between the touch and the iPhone 5, as compared to the 4th generation and iPhone 4/4S. Although I'm not intending to get a 5th gen iPod (already have my 4th gen 32GB), I think it will be more than capable of playing games, listening to music, watching videos etc, while at the same time providing decent battery life. My 4th gen is able to last ~1 week on a single charge since the only things I do on it is listening to audio most of the time, watching some pre-loaded vids and occasionally playing Plants vs Zombies :), so I'll expect the 5th gen to have similar if not better battery life.
 
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