iPod Classic Review - First Look : Specs, reviews and prices.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning, nothing out of the ordinary. A bit dull, with rain clouds hovering over the area and dampening the spirits. It was about at this time that the MW head honcho Paul (aka Maverick) sent me an email approving an iPod classic for review. As Saturday was pretty gloomy, I decided to head up to the big apple on Sunday to purchase Apple's latest toy for the masses.

Remember how I got the Apple iPhone in five minutes? Well, today I found out that it takes just about a minute to buy the iPod classic at the Fifth Avenue store in New York City. And I didn't even have to go to the checkout counter there. Apple has these guys placed strategically around the store showcasing the latest and greatest stuff. I happened to find one as soon as I entered the store, and he had on display the new iPod classic - both the 80GB and 160GB models. He had a Symbol portable computer with integrated card reader. All you do is present your card and ID and the 'pod is yours. He even stuck a small Thank you note on the iPod classic before bagging it and handing it to me.

Package contents

I couldn't wait to try it out. Not that the audio quality was different from any other iPod - the included headphones still suck. But the UI has undergone some changes, which is great. Now, I don't know if it's just me, but after being used to the iPhone, the iPod's interface seems a bit difficult to use. Especially the click of the button which seems to take a lot more effort, while on the iPhone a gentle tap would do the trick.

So, yeah, Apple decided that Cover Flow was something that they should standardize on all their portable products. In case you haven't been in touch with gadget news lately, Cover Flow is Apple's UI to browse your music library by album artwork. Introduced initially with the iPhone, it definitely became a hit.

Again, navigating Cover Flow on the iPhone is much more nicer than on the iPod classic. Don't go buying that iPod Touch yet, though. I can assure you the iPod classic is better than Touch (size-wise and more) any day.

Read Part 2 in the extended entry.

Menu organization
As can be guessed, the first option in the Music sub-menu is Cover Flow. Still, navigation with the Click Wheel is not the most convenient. For those menu items with short titles, the iPod classic presents a split-screen, with the right half filled with pertinent icons if you will. For example, if you are in the main iPod menu and Videos is highlighted, you see a film strip icon. Nothing terribly useful but it's there.

One of the other features that is available on the iPod classic is closed captioning for videos. If enabled, and if you are playing a video that comes with CC info, you basically see the text on screen, same as you can on the TV.

iPod Classic Goodies
In case you missed it, the new iPod classic ships with 3 games on-board. They are iQuiz, Klondike and Vortex. Other usual extras include Calendars, Clocks, Notes and Contacts. There's also a stopwatch.

I still haven't tried filling up the full 80GB capacity on the iPod classic to see if there's any sluggishness. Then again, this is a hard drive so you can expect a bit of it I guess.

See here for our coverage of the iPod Classic -> http://www.mobilewhack.com/ipod-classic-80gb-160gb-click-wheel-ipod/

Here are some more reviews i found on youtube: