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iPod touch Who has upgraded from 2g to 4g? Impressions?

I

IJBrekke

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 24, 2009
705
895
Long Beach, CA
I understand that this is one of those entirely opinion-based questions that will differ for everyone, but I am considering upgrading from my 32gb 2g iPod Touch to the 64gb 4th gen, and I was wondering if anyone else that has done this has any opinions or impressions on the matter. My 2g still works well, and while it runs iOS4 a little slowly in spots, it functions mostly like I need it to. It currently serves as my mobile computer, and as such I would be looking for an upgrade in overall speed, the ability to multitask, the screen lock, and obviously double the space. I don't much care about Facetime or cameras, and while the display is nice, it's not a deal-breaker for me.

The potential downsides I see: The new form-factor (less easy to hold and operate), the potential for a non-AT&T iPhone in the near future (negating the need for a new iPod Touch), and only having 256mb of RAM (huge, since the next iOS update will not support anything with 128mb of RAM, putting the 256mb machines at the low end of the totem pole). Oh, and of course, the $400 price point...that's a lot of money.

What I am wondering: those of you that have gone through with this upgrade, would you do it again, and why? What are the benefits? The drawbacks? I literally feel torn, and am wondering how long to hold onto old technology. Any opinions are much appreciated, thank you.
 
I impulsively upgraded from a 16GB iPod touch 2nd Gen to a 64GB iPod touch 4th Gen. It stands as the best impulse buy I've ever made.

Benefits:
  • Very appealing to the eye
  • Much faster
  • Two cameras
  • Excellent video capabilities
  • FaceTime
  • Thinner and easier to hold
  • Screen is much better (for day to day use or things like PS Express)
  • Multitasking
  • Better internal speaker
  • Better battery life
  • Better backlight

Drawbacks: (*indicates a serious issue)
  • Sometimes difficult to grasp by the edges
  • Touchscreen is far from oleophobic
  • Speaker still isn't great
  • Smaller viewing angle than the iPhone 4
  • 128MB RAM (not at all noticable)
  • Cameras produce very low resolution stills* (better than nothing though)
  • Processor-intensive tasks cause the iPod's casing to become fairly hot
 
Mr Slippy IV said:
I impulsively upgraded from a 16GB iPod touch 2nd Gen to a 64GB iPod touch 4th Gen. It stands as the best impulse buy I've ever made.

Benefits:
  • Very appealing to the eye
  • Much faster
  • Two cameras
  • Excellent video capabilities
  • FaceTime
  • Thinner and easier to hold
  • Screen is much better (for day to day use or things like PS Express)
  • Multitasking
  • Better internal speaker
  • Better battery life
  • Better backlight

Drawbacks: (*indicates a serious issue)
  • Sometimes difficult to grasp by the edges
  • Touchscreen is far from oleophobic
  • Speaker still isn't great
  • Smaller viewing angle than the iPhone 4
  • 128MB RAM (not at all noticable)
  • Cameras produce very low resolution stills* (better than nothing though)
  • Processor-intensive tasks cause the iPod's casing to become fairly hot
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure it has 256 MB of RAM. But I can agree with the rest.
 
aNYthing24 said:
I'm pretty sure it has 256 MB of RAM. But I can agree with the rest.
Click to expand...

iPod touch (4th generation) - iPod touch (3rd generation)

Processor: Apple A4 chip - 600MHz, Cortex-A8 achitecture
Operating Systems: iOS 4 - OS 3.x
Capacity: 8 GB, 32 GB or 64 GB - 32GB or 64GB
RAM: 512MB - 256MB

Source: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2010/...-touch-3g-detailed-specifications-comparison/


However, after looking at Wikipedia, I found a site that says 256MB

"... The iPad has 256 MB RAM, while the iPhone 4 features 512 MB. Unfortunately, this means that like the iPad, the new iPod Touch includes only 256 MB of RAM."

Source: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPod-Touch-4th-Generation-Teardown/3562/3


Which I think is more believable, because 512 MB sounds ridiculous for a mobile device like an iPod.


Also, my 2G iPod got stoled three weeks ago, so I am contemplating buying an iPod touch 4G as well, I think it'd be a nice upgrade!
 
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Mr Slippy IV said:
I impulsively upgraded from a 16GB iPod touch 2nd Gen to a 64GB iPod touch 4th Gen. It stands as the best impulse buy I've ever made.

Benefits:
  • Very appealing to the eye
  • Much faster
  • Two cameras
  • Excellent video capabilities
  • FaceTime
  • Thinner and easier to hold
  • Screen is much better (for day to day use or things like PS Express)
  • Multitasking
  • Better internal speaker
  • Better battery life
  • Better backlight

Drawbacks: (*indicates a serious issue)
  • Sometimes difficult to grasp by the edges
  • Touchscreen is far from oleophobic
  • Speaker still isn't great
  • Smaller viewing angle than the iPhone 4
  • 128MB RAM (not at all noticable)
  • Cameras produce very low resolution stills* (better than nothing though)
  • Processor-intensive tasks cause the iPod's casing to become fairly hot
Click to expand...

Great reply, exactly the type of info I was looking for. I'm almost certain it's 256mb of RAM, as I believe the iPhone is the only current mobile Apple product with 512mb.

Even knowing I don't have much use for cameras, the 0.7mp shooter annoys me on principle alone. Still, it IS better than nothing, and along with the front-facing camera it makes FaceTime possible. I'm sure I could adjust.

Glad to hear you still feel good about the upgrade. I'm leaning in that direction, though I'm very curious about what's announced in January.
 
its 256mb ram... and if your getting the ipod for the camera, dont lol (it sucks haha, but its better than nothing even after photoshop). Get a dslr.
 
It's not the best camera, and I do wish that Apple had included at least a 2MP camera, but it's a PMP after all. It's not bad for quick snaps in decently lit places. The fact that it can shoot HD video and the quality of it is on par with a Flip MinoHD is pretty great. Some of the top of the line smartphones can't claim that (Nexus S, for example).
 
...coming from a 1st gen 16Gb model to the 4th gen 64Gb model was a great purchase... I would have gone iPhone 4 if I was in the USA though... (if you think AT&T is bad, you haven't seen Softbank in Japan)...
 
After owning the 4G for a few weeks now I really don't see all the big deal about these. Many of the emails I get with attachments won't work (Adobe player). Can't open any Word attachments in emails. The music player isn't that great (My Sansa is much better). Camera is not very good. Contacts are hard to manage. Safari is a POS. A lot of the interest forums I'm on won't even allow posting. List goes on and on. Maybe I need to explore the "Jailbreak" thing and see if this is an improvement. 3 bills is a lot of money for a toy :apple:
 
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pepi said:
After owning the 4G for a few weeks now I really don't see all the big deal about these. Many of the emails I get with attachments won't work (Adobe player). Can't open any Word attachments in emails. The music player isn't that great (My Sansa is much better). Camera is not very good. Contacts are hard to manage. Safari is a POS. A lot of the interest forums I'm on won't even allow posting. List goes on and on. Maybe I need to explore the "Jailbreak" thing and see if this is an improvement. 3 bills is a lot of money for a toy :apple:
Click to expand...
Get iBooks to view PDFs. It's free. Documents to Go works well for word documents, but it is $10. There are other document viewers for cheap, just look through the app store. The rest are your opinions and I dont think most people would agree with them.
 
IJBrekke said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)



Great reply, exactly the type of info I was looking for. I'm almost certain it's 256mb of RAM, as I believe the iPhone is the only current mobile Apple product with 512mb.

Even knowing I don't have much use for cameras, the 0.7mp shooter annoys me on principle alone. Still, it IS better than nothing, and along with the front-facing camera it makes FaceTime possible. I'm sure I could adjust.

Glad to hear you still feel good about the upgrade. I'm leaning in that direction, though I'm very curious about what's announced in January.
Click to expand...

My mistake. Meant 256.

The camera is absolutely the most annoying thing at first, when you're convinced you want it for stills. But eventually you learn to love its great FaceTime and video capabilities. It's a tradeoff, but definitely a tolerable one.

As for the upgrade, just do what feels right. Should you feel like seeing what comes from Apple and Verizon in Q1 2011, go ahead. All you could possibly lose by waiting is a month or two with a new iPod (not too bad since you have one now). If you're happy with your phone though, or if you just don't feel like waiting, I say you should pull the trigger. It was a great upgrade, and the little things I noticed every day when I first got it just made the experience that much better. Either way, I'm officially signing off MacRumors for a few days, so best of luck to you with whatever decision you make.

Slippy out.
 
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