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

[Mac 128]

It has been said before that iOS 13 might not support the iPhone SE due to its screen size, but since the new iPod touch has the same screen size and will surely support iOS 13, that shouldn't be an issue.

Right, but since a 4" screen is no longer a limiting factor, we're back to the A9 processor being the possible cutoff, which also ends support for the 6S.

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 then why did they discontinue the SE? All they had to do was put in an A10 and they'd have a cellular iPod Touch. I don't believe for a minute there's a larger market for the iPod Touch than for the SE.

As for the reasons you list, risking the $1500 phone is certainly acceptable. But then an Apple Watch would do the same job for about the same money. As for not using wireless, that's a moot point with respect to the iPhone -- since all iPhones have a Lightning connector for attaching Lightning headphones, or an adapter. What's particularly boggling about this is that Apple wants its customers to subscribe to Apple Music -- this device encourages the continued use of downloading music. Regardless, I listen to streamed Podcasts at the gym over BT headphones, and I have never even come close to "killing" my battery during even the longest workouts. And even if yours does, there's always a dedicated Apple battery case you could slap on for the gym. And ultimately, if someone doesn't want to be interrupted by a call during their workout, merely turning on Airplane mode will accomplish that, or set "Do Not Disturb". All of these points are better options than a dedicated and outdated iPod Touch.

 

[Jakewilk]

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.

Apple watch is all of those except wired. If you want a wired cheap device, buy a walkman. Apple isn’t in the business of making your niche product

 

[Cosmosent]

I've looked over the specs carefully.

A used 7+ is a much better value !

AAPL offers $270 for a used 7+, so I'll assume that's the generally accepted (low-ball) Street Price.

There are four, & ONLY four, High-Perf iPhones, the 7+, 8+, XS, & XS Max.

For $270, OR thereabouts, one "could" obtain one of the four !

More DRAM, much better image sensors with Display P3 color space capture support, telephoto back camera, 7 Mpx front camera, 5.5" 1080p Display with Display P3 support !

NOT Rocket Science, NO comparison, the touch 7 is NOT good value !

NOT when compared to a used 7+ !

For those who don't know, the 2016 was the first true High-Perf iPhone AAPL ever made !

The X & XR don't qualify, AAPL didn't put enough DRAM in either ! ... they corrected the X by putting a pseudo 4 GB into the XS, and will very-likely correct the XR when they release the 2nd-Gen version in Sept (bumping it up to pseudo 4 GB as well).

 

[Abazigal]

Being able to afford something doesn’t mean I’ll piss away money on an overpriced product. I don’t care who makes it.
My 6th gen touch works just fine thank you.
There is nothing “premium” about the new touch. It’s and outdated product using outdated hardware. The price point for this is an insult.

One’s “Demographic” doesn’t mean jack squat. Affording Apple’s products has never been an issue for me. Look at my signature. I own plenty.
Throwing good money away for a brand name alone is foolish. There has to be a value tied to that premium price tag.
I’m my opinion, Tim overshot on this one. The updates are marginal at best.

From what I see, the iPod touch is aimed at two demographics - young children whom you don’t want to give a phone to just yet, and enterprise (especially businesses using iPod touches for various uses). This update is pretty much a stay of execution, but it’s enough for the markets Apple aims to serve.

 

[mi7chy]

how is the FLAC format superior?

Lossless FLAC has the widest industry adoption so that means your music collection only has to be encoded once and can play virtually anywhere, on any hardware, any OS and any music player without the need for time consuming conversion.

http://fmedia.firmdev.com/audio-formats/

Plus, with top notch compression ratio and decompression/compression efficiency it can run on tiny low cost hardware. With support of up to 8TB of storage just add battery for the ultimate portable lifetime music library.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3357

 

[EightyTwenty]

Any confirmation on how much RAM this thing has?

Some say 2GB, but other reviews make no mention of RAM at all, which is weird considering that would be one of the major upgrades from the 6th gen which only had 1GB.

 

[rjohnstone]

From what I see, the iPod touch is aimed at two demographics - young children whom you don’t want to give a phone to just yet, and enterprise (especially businesses using iPod touches for various uses). This update is pretty much a stay of execution, but it’s enough for the markets Apple aims to serve.

I see your point. I just gave my kid my old 5S to play games on. She still has her iPad for school work.

 

[Analog Kid]

Such an insulting comment:

Thanks for contributing.

On a more useful note: I wish this [iPod touch] came out a few months ago, it's the perfect size for my daughter. She likes her tablet but little kids can definitely hold an iPod easier.

I will say in support of Abazigal [despite his utterly rude comment]: how is the FLAC format superior? Just because it's open source? That itself would be ridiculous, have you ever had a device that can't play MP3?

It's unusual for @Abazigal to lose patience, so I'd cut them some slack. A more accurate response may have been "a vanishingly small number of people care", but that rounds to "nobody".

There is no difference between FLAC and ALAC. Both are open source (ALAC under Apache license). Both are lossless. Both seem to compress about the same amount.

Having to cross code from lossless to lossless is hardly "gimping" anything.

 

[Plutonius]

Because you have FaceID on some iPhones, touch ID on others, no touch ID on Ipod Touch, some touch bars on Macs and not others, same goes for the Ipad line. It has become a very confusing hardware line even for someone as tech like me.

Yep, but the Touch 7 is exactly the same as the Touch 6 except for the processor so any fragmentation didn't get worse.

You could say however that Apple failed to reduce the fragmentation when they released the Touch 7.

 

[Apple2GS]

So many snarky comments here. $199 for an new iOS device that should last years, not bad. Some people spend that taking the family to the movies or dinner.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Right, but since a 4" screen is no longer a limiting factor, we're back to the A9 processor being the possible cutoff, which also ends support for the 6S.
<snip>

4” screen was never really a factor for the cutoff, since 4” layout is necessary to support Display Zoom on 4.7” devices.

A9 cutoff doesn’t make any sense either; iOS 12 supports the A7/1GB platform, why would that jump to A10/2GB for iOS 13, especially since Apple sold the 6s for most of 2018? My guess is the A8/1GB might get the axe, but the iPad mini 4 with A8/2GB is probably safe. Maybe even the A8/1GB survives, who knows?

 

[Abazigal]

It's unusual for @Abazigal to lose their patience, so I'd cut them some slack. A more accurate response may have been "a vanishingly small number of people care", but that rounds to "nobody".

There is no difference between FLAC and ALAC. Both are open source (ALAC under Apache license). Both are lossless. Both seem to compress about the same amount.

You are right. My response was curt, and maybe I should elaborate on that.

I think a distinction needs to be made between a product being genuinely crippled because of a certain missing feature, and the general user base simply not caring that the product lacks such a feature.

Consider the target audience for this product. As I mentioned earlier - children and enterprise. Neither party is going to bother that the iPod touch can’t do those aforementioned tasks.

Plus, for children, they will likely be using Apple Music (as part of family sharing package) and having those songs saved locally to the device. Sound quality will be good enough for them by and large.

I apologise to anyone offended by that, but I stand by my original response (which is why I am not going to go back and edit it). It’s simply not a dealbreaker for the majority of people who would buy an iPod touch.

 

[Royksöpp]

Apple is finding a use for all their leftover parts.
iPhone XR, and now this.
Pure Genius.

Excuse me, but just how is the XR leftover? It's a different size compared to it's predecessor. It also features the the same processor and single camera as the XS. Are you trying to be funny? If so, you're the joke.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Any confirmation on how much RAM this thing has?

Some say 2GB, but other reviews make no mention of RAM at all, which is weird considering that would be one of the major upgrades from the 6th gen which only had 1GB.

It’s definitely 2GB. You can see it in the video at around 2:25 when they run Geekbench to check the clock speed. It shows 1.96GB of RAM.

 

[s15119]

Might be cool for kids.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Lossless FLAC has the widest industry adoption so that means your music collection only has to be encoded once and can play virtually anywhere, on any hardware, any OS and any music player without the need for time consuming conversion.

Saying FLAC has wide industry adoption is a bit like saying SACD has wide industry adoption. It has almost NO mass industry adoption beyond playback hardware (save some audiophile sites). Who is selling music in FLAC format for god's sake? Almost NO ONE. I suppose LINUX has wide industry adoption too...except on the desktop where it matters to every day people (not counting the horridly slow Android menace sitting on top of Linux).

Plus, with top notch compression ratio and decompression/compression efficiency it can run on tiny low cost hardware.

There is virtually no difference between ALAC and FLAC in that regard. Or are you trying to run FLAC on 2004 computers? In short, NO ONE CARES. Convert your CD library to whichever lossless library suits your fancy. Or be REAL and realize only audiophiles THINK they can hear a difference between lossless and 256kbps AAC (I have yet to see anyone prove that claim yet with a DBX box). Lossless is vastly overrated and a marketing tool for Blu-Rays more than anything else. iTunes doesn't sell ALAC files for one reason. They sound exactly the same as the 256kbps AAC files and take up more space.

My 2-channel system has speakers are $2000/pair ribbon speakers actively bi-amped (including an all analog path high-end turntable from my analog pre-amp with a motorized volume control) so don't tell me my system lacks resolution to hear the difference either. It's all horse poo. 24/96 and 24/192 is even worse. It's great on the recording side (headroom is GREAT) and makes nearly ZERO difference on the playback side (anyone who tells you otherwise doesn't UNDERSTAND how digital audio works. If they start talking about 'stair steps' it's a 100% sure sign they don't have a clue how it works).

With the base model iPod Touch and iPhones STILL coming with a paltry 32GB, a large lossless library just takes up valuable space. It's no big deal at home on a 10TB drive, but on a 32GB drive it makes a BIG difference in space.

 

[azentropy]

That blue is still gorgeous. Too bad it is paired with white bezels.

 

[Apple2GS]

There are millions of kids ages 2-10 that would like this product. It's funny how people get upset when Apple makes a product that isn't for them.

 

[Velin]

For gym/hikes/bikes, Apple never should have cancelled the iPod Shuffle. For $50 it was a rock-solid two-GB device. Stored a lot of songs. Very strong and convenient clip. No screen, battery lasted a long time. It weighed nothing, just clip it to your shirt collar and go. Best reasonably-priced device that Apple ever sold, period.

 

[Abazigal]

For gym/hikes/bikes, Apple never should have cancelled the iPod Shuffle. For $50 it was a rock-solid two-GB device. Stored a lot of songs. Very strong and convenient clip. No screen, battery lasted a long time. It weighed nothing, just clip it to your shirt collar and go. Best reasonably-priced device that Apple ever sold, period.

That’s what the Apple Watch is for.

 

[Altis]

That’s what the Apple Watch is for.

No headphone jack.

 

[Abazigal]

No headphone jack.

Airpods.

Are you starting to see a trend here?

 

[mofunk]

$400 for an iPod Touch is not bad. You could eliminate your phone by simply using a hotspot with your iPod if you are someone who doesn't need the phone features like making a car.

 

[PickUrPoison]

That’s what the Apple Watch is for.

No that’s what eBay is for!

 

[Slix]

It's bizarre to see everyone here claiming the iPod touch has no market. I used different iPod touches from 2008 until 2017 as my primary device, and now I have a prepaid carrier iPhone 6. Wifi makes the costs of data cheaper for people that don't need ridiculous amounts of data (seriously, how does anyone use more than like 5 GB in a month?). Loads more places have public wifi than 10 years ago, so the iPod touch is much more useful than it was back then too. It's also important to note that I still can't stand the iPhone 6's massive screen compared to the 4" iPod touch. Apple really had the best screen size in the 4" devices.

Honestly, if it weren't for Pokémon Go, I'd probably still be using an iPod touch as my main device.

That said, my 6th gen iPod touch's battery plummeted after about 2 years of having it, so I really hope the new processor in the 7th gen one gets better battery life after it's been worn out some.