Hands-On With Apple's New 7th-Generation iPod Touch

[jclardy]

From a developer's perspective, it's idiotic to still offer a 4" screen.

So much for standards.

This is the biggest annoyance for me. The SE is likely out with iOS 13, so we would be clear of 4" screens if not for this device.

I guess this does revive hope in an iPhone SE 2 though...but what will it be, the iPhone SE as it is exactly, plus an A10?

 

[mannyvel]

Battery life?

 

[jagolden]

gotta love you loyalists. This product will make all 6 in the world that you describe who can justify the price.

The prices ARE outrageous, especially for this minor "upgrade", but you’ve missed or are ignoring the point of his post.

 

[joningi]

From a developer's perspective, it's idiotic to still offer a 4" screen.

So much for standards.

It’s a good thing then that the target group isn’t only made up of developers.

 

[reallynotnick]

There is still a large enterprise use for this for checkouts and such where they need a stable supply of new cheap devices (can't just go buying refurbed phones and what not). Keeping the form factor the same allows it to be a drop in replacement for old devices in scanner sleds and cases.

 

[kemal]

I suppose if Apple applied their flavor of innovation to the Touch, they would have killed the headphone jack. So this is the iPod Touch, Craven Edition.

 

[Rocketman]

The only iPod I have ever had was a shuffle. I got it free and gave it away. Music is not a major use case for me, but iPhone was a major game changer for me starting with the original in the first month.

I have seen the touch used for POS systems since it seems to have wifi or bluetooth.

 

[mikayla82ca]

Fixed storage limited to 256GB seems archaic compared to micro SD card slot that can take $99 512GB card, recently released 1TB card or higher capacity in the future.

Stop trying to make Fetch happen Gretchen. Apple is NEVER going to go with removable or expandable storage in iPhone, iPad or iPod. If anything they will better utilize cloud services like Apple Music where you stream the songs over a connection and download specific playlists to the space available for offline play. I mean, do you really need the entire Fleetwood Mac catalog everywhere you go? Or can you make do with your favorites when you're working out and then explore deeper when you get home to a connection? If that doesn't sound like something you want, then this device is not for you. If you want to carry around an encyclopedia of music, buy an iPhone and and an Apple Music subscription. Or, you could purchase physical copies, rip them to your computer and find a device that allows you to swap storage... but that sounds a bit crazy not to mention expensive and excessive.

 

[jagolden]

Beware! The iPod Touch 6G had miserable battery life when on Wi-Fi — you turn on Wi-Fi and just watch the battery drain!

The battery gauge is off, too. Do a restart and the gauge will jump to a higher level. It also frequently shuts down unexpectedly even when the battery still shows 12-13% juice left. Rarely does it go below that before going kaput.

Alas, the iPod Touch 7, just like the iPod Touch 6, is the ONLY i-device in Apple's line up for which they DON'T give the Wi-Fi battery life! That is a HUGE RED FLAG.

No wonder they didn't provide that info for the IPT 6. It's probably the same reason they haven't given it for the IPT 7 — a tiny battery that cannot support Wi-Fi well at all.

If anyone's in the market for an IPT, it'd be better to get an iPhone SE and simply not activate the cellular service. Costs about $50-100 less and you'll get superb battery life! And, a device that's easier to hold!

I use a 6 gen Touch. The battery indicator is a little flaky. However the battery run-time is nowhere near as dire as your, I guess, agenda, claims.
With or without WiFi turned on I get at least 3 solid 8 hour nights out of a full charge.

 

[Laird Knox]

From a developer's perspective, it's idiotic to still offer a 4" screen.

As a developer who is also a user, I'm glad that developers don't always get their way.

But you need a bigger screen to get HD audio!

 

[jeffreyg]

I wish there was an iPhone that looked like this.

 

[mannyvel]

It’s a good thing then that the target group isn’t only made up of developers.

If developers had their way we'd still be using 40x24 character terminals - in amber.

It's amusing to me how many places have a TN3270 emulator running in a web browser on Windows 10. It's sort of vaguely comforting to see how stable that technology is, and sort of horrifying that someone's back-end code on that mini/mainframe is still running.

 

[mikayla82ca]

I hate this short sighted attitude. There are TONS of reasons to have a dedicated iPod. Not everyone wants to risk their $1500 phone in a sweat and metal filled gym. Not everyone wants to use wireless. Not everyone wants to store their music on their phone and kill the battery during their workout. Not everyone wants to be interrupted by a phone call during their workout.

So you'd rather sacrifice a $200 to $400 device that cant be insured while at the gym? Got it... personally, I'd rather you slam my phone under those weights than an iPod that I'd have to repurchase. I'd much rather walk over to the Apple store or AT&T look the guy dead in the eye, slam down my broken phone and go... "Oops" and have it replaced. But hey, to each their own. And as far as phone calls at the gym, I don't know what gym you go to but the people at mine are constantly on their phones between sets, pretty sure they aren't bothered by whatever call came in while they had their ringer set to mute... And do people really care about dead batteries during a workout? How many of us are running into the gym with 10% left on our phones which... by the way is enough to get through a 2 hour workout while listening to music. Most people have a car charger that the phone was connected to on their drive over. You're just making excuses now. Do you have any more of those "TONS" of reasons for a dedicated iPod? And... why not just spend the money on an Apple Watch and put your workout music on that if you're so worried about your phone? You can pick up a series 3 for $200.00 right now... #Justsaying...

 

[Focusx0131]

"Since this is a 4-inch phone, it has a small battery."

Not a phone.

I’m skeptical of this logic. Was the SE this underclocked due to the size and small battery? If they resurrected the SE with no other changes other than this nerfed A10 there would be riots everywhere.

 

[Jay42]

I hate this short sighted attitude. There are TONS of reasons to have a dedicated iPod. Not everyone wants to risk their $1500 phone in a sweat and metal filled gym. Not everyone wants to use wireless. Not everyone wants to store their music on their phone and kill the battery during their workout. Not everyone wants to be interrupted by a phone call during their workout.

There are solutions to each of these "problems" that don't involve buying an unnecessary $300 outdated device.

 

[b11051973]

My niece had an iPod touch and an iPad mini 4. She carried that iPod everywhere. She would message her little friends with it whenever on WiFi. I think kids like them because it is like an iPhone and that is what they really want. My niece got an iPhone last fall and I assume the iPod has been retired.

 

[Lancetx]

I did spy one other upgrade (which you can see beginning at the 2:12 mark of the video) that I haven't seen mentioned. In addition to getting the A10 chip, it appears that the RAM has also been doubled from the 1GB in the 6th gen A8 model up to 2GB now.

 

[341328]

"Apple is undoubtedly underclocking the processor to save battery life."
- or just make it slower.

 

[Kobayagi]

Tbh I much rather have seen a nano 8g, even with the same design and everything of the 7g model but with 64gb or even 128gb storage. Love that small form factor for music and yeah, it can't do much else, but that's the point. This touch model WILL get slower if you update it. Of course you can ignore the updates, but then certain apps will eventually stop being supported. All problems a iPod nano doesn't have.

 

[Pakaku]

I think I might want to get one; small screen, pocket-sized, headphone jack, it's basically all I want and I don't even think I mind the old outer shell.

Now let's take that casing, put in cellular hardware, and make it a new iPhone SE. I'd snap it up with the quickness.

I don't see why they haven't already, it's an easy way to just quintuple the price

 

[citysnaps]

Agreed... that $30 is just a wild guess. I have no clue what Apple pays for the chip, but we can all guarantee it's not anywhere near as high as what they charge for it.
A quick check shows a Micron 256GB module sells at $6 each when purchased in lots of 1,000.
The chip footprint and pads are identical from one capacity to the next. It really is just a matter of swapping chips on the line. Hell there isn't even a programming change required.

Don't worry about it. Apple sells premium devices to those who can afford to pay premium prices.

If you're not in that demographic, simply find an alternate device that you can afford.
[doublepost=1559260873][/doublepost]

gotta love you loyalists. This product will make all 6 in the world that you describe who can justify the price.

See above.
[doublepost=1559260926][/doublepost]

The prices ARE outrageous, especially for this minor "upgrade", but you’ve missed or are ignoring the point of his post.

See above.

 

[mi7chy]

Does Apple still gimp support for the superior open source multi-platform FLAC format? More specifically, can you mirror your FLAC music collection over iTunes and play them with native Music player? Or, does iTunes force conversion to proprietary ALAC or require use of 3rd party music app to play FLAC?

 

[hkeith]

I hate this short sighted attitude. There are TONS of reasons to have a dedicated iPod. Not everyone wants to risk their $1500 phone in a sweat and metal filled gym. Not everyone wants to use wireless. Not everyone wants to store their music on their phone and kill the battery during their workout. Not everyone wants to be interrupted by a phone call during their workout.

I agree. Few MacRumors readers will buy this product. But millions of young kids like my nieces and nephews will beg for them (until they are old enough for an iPhone). Also, it is great for a significant number of people who want a device other than their phone for podcasts or other specialized uses. Not to mention the fact that many folks actualy like the smaller size .....

 

[Peepo]

This will help Apple Arcade whenever they release it. A $199 game system targeted towards kids, along with all other iOS features like iMessage, Apple Music etc.

 

[lyngo]

I don’t know if this has been said yet, but this might be a perfect device to test and work on iOS 13 developer or public beta before it is fully released without putting it on your main device.