~snip~ If you just wanna listen to music and play games then go for 4th which i dont suggest web browsing as much due to low ram. you can save some money and earpods is something you wouldn't miss.
I personally owned and sold 3 Ipod touch gen 4, two in black and one is white. Just keep getting back to it because there arent any good substitution for what it can do. Now with the 5th gen, you can kiss goodbye page refresh on Opera and useless camera. Although, many many games still not optimized for bigger screen. Its like playing games that didnt design to fit the screeen which could irretate some.
Yeah now I'm sorta leaning towards getting a refurb 4th gen to replace a 1st gen I've used for a really long time just to listen to audiobooks and as an alarm upstairs. Camera and chipspeed pretty irrelevant for that. Once in awhile I might pop it out of the dock and turn on the WiFi and grab the weather or news, markets etc., but mostly it just plays music or books. That whole upstairs setup is getting long in the tooth; the old Altec Lansing I use with the 1st gen touch still works great but it cannot charge the later iPod touch or work with iPhones. So I'm thinking to move my newer Altec-Lansing 30-pin speakerdock from the kitchen to upstairs and use it with a 3rd gen iPod touch that I know charges ok in it.
So if I move the 3rd-gen touch upstairs, then a refurb 4th gen iPod touch could become my "main" iPod touch that I rotate fresh content into and carry around. I only use it for music, movies, books, very light WiFi needs. I can just charge it off the Apple adapters I have for iPad.
Anyway I figure now to use a jambox or some such bluetooth speaker going forward, and forget about docking appliances until I see the next generation. I still have iPhone 4S so the only lightning-connector iDevice I have right now is the 7th gen nano. By the time I upgrade from iPhone 4S there should be some new bunch of speakerdocks to choose from.
The only thing I might miss in the immediate future with this plan is not having that Altec-Lansing in the kitchen. I have liked being able to stick any of my gear into it for listening and charging, but also to put a 3rd gen Phat-nano or a video iPod in there and watch TV reruns while waiting for pasta to cook etc. So if I can pick up something inexpensive in the 30-pin style of speakerdock, I might do it. It's not like I need stellar sound quality while frying bacon, and I still do have a bunch of 30-pin devices that I listen to and have to charge up. Otherwise just rack up the iPad where the Altec-Lansing has been sitting and use bluetooth for audio out for now. I'm sure some of the kids in the neighborhood would be glad to see me move some of those older iPods out the door and in their direction