Ipod Classic Reviews

Apple iPod classic

80 GB Black (6th Generation)

This is my third iPod. My first iPod was a 4G 40GB, my second was a 5G 60GB.

When I upgraded from the 4G to 5G it was a big improvement. I absolutely loved the new features such as color, photos, video, album art, etc...

Unfortunately my upgrade to the 80GB iPod `Classic' has been nothing but a big disappointment. When I heard Apple was about to release a new line of iPods I sold my 5G and was eagerly awaiting Jobs' keynote. First I must admit I was very disappointed they didn't release a high capacity `Touch'... I mean really disappointed... Although I strongly desire all the amazing features of the `Touch ' such as WiFi and the fullscreen touch screen, my first requirement would be enough capacity to hold my entire 63 GB music library. I settled for the 80GB `Classic' since I was iPodless.

My first reaction with the iPod `Classic' was that it looked like a much sexier 5G iPod. This 80GB unit was noticeably thinner. The brushed aluminum front looked really great too. Unfortunately it was all downhill from there:

* The `Classic' does not come with the little sleeve case that 5G's came with.
* The screen is slightly lower than the brushed metal front and I am concerned it will begin to collect dust around the edges.
* The click wheel is HORRIBLE (what the hell happened) it completely lacks response and sensitivity. My 5G 60GB was so easy to navigate and after over a week of using my new `Classic' I find it the biggest pain to navigate. For this reason alone I wish I had my old 60GB 5G back.
* Coverflow... I was really looking forward to this feature. I make a lot of effort to maintain my music library and I'd say 95%+ of my music has cover art. Unfortunately the coverflow is so slow and laggy that it renders the feature completely gimmicky and not functional. When I flow through albums all I see are "question mark albums" and it takes a few seconds for the actual album covers to replace the "question mark albums".
* Another big disappointment is that you are no longer able to view album covers full screen as you are playing a song. (You used to be able to do this by clicking the middle button a few times when playing a song)...
* Also overall I find the GUI pretty slow when browsing my library... Sometimes it takes a few seconds to view the next layer of navigation when you push the button.
* I think Apple added some cool visual aspects to the GUI like animation in between menus etc.... Unfortunately these are sometimes choppy making me wish I just had the simple less-fancy old menus back.
* My iPod has frozen a few times. Sometimes I can scroll through the main menu but when I actually click on something (such as Music, Podcasts, or Extras) nothing actually happens...