The Touch is much flatter than the Classic and a little bit wider. When Classic we still have to do it with a slightly enhanced music player (video, photos, games), however, the Touch is a mix of multimedia mini computer, Web browser and Pocket handheld games console. In this respect, the two devices can of course only partly compare. Nevertheless, the question is interesting whether the touch can completely replace the Classic, so here is a first comparison between the two devices as a music player.
First we have the problem of storage. Who has a very large music collection, must be in touch resign, always being able to only carry a part of it with him, because even rich 64GB for the ambitious collector hardly made. You can always thus with large collections only have a part of it on the touch, but this is quite comfortable to handle with the help of playlists in iTunes. One can for example play lists for the "basics" and for all create new, and can synchronize them with the touch automatically.
The two devices, of course, very different from the handling ago, although the functions have remained about the same. Taken overall, the Touch probably use a little faster than the Classic. Browsing through lists is very fast and flowing, the alphabetic access more precise, and the change in other views (artist, album, genre ...) is faster, because you have to wade through fewer menus. It's also nice that you come by tilting once in the cover-flow that looks super elegant and the Cover Flow also misses just that it's a pleasure. However, it has already in Classic shown that, so beautiful it is the Cover Flow also, in practice rarely used. I think that is also the fact that he always offers only a sorting by artist. If he, for example, as in iTunes also in playlists only the content and the order of the playlist would indicate, and - even better - even the contents of the current Genre etc I would find it much more useful.
On screen "You're listening to" I like especially the much larger version of the cover. This I found the Classic has always been too small. Otherwise, less information is now unfortunately seen first, because you only see above the covers in very small print Title / Artist / Album and below quite clunky controls for back / pause / front and a volume slider, which works pretty accurate. If you want to see the term you have to tap on the cover, then displayed another bar across the top of the cover, which is then cut something so ugly. This extra is visible, then as usual the elapsed and remaining duration, number of songs and a slider that allows you to move within the song, as well as buttons for repeat and random playback. We still do not see the rating stars now, unfortunately, for this we need the little icon click the upper right corner, then the cover turns around and we see the tracklist of you are listening to the album (highly commendable with the term of the title - that's better than the Classic ), and about the rating stars. This is all somehow a little more complicated than the Classic. Two other small improvements, however, there: When coming from an artist has only one album, to get the Classic immediately in the track list. So you see the name of the album only if one alludes a title therefrom. When Touch is seen now finally above the track list the name of the album. Otherwise, I find it a pity that you still see in the Title List too little information, I think it would be nice if you could see here, for example, also Rating, there is room enough yes on the screen. The second improvement is the separate volume controls on the side, which you can use at any time. When the Classic was a big problem when you have just dug in lists and quickly adjust the volume wanted, you had to always wait shimmy through a few menu items.
Here is the summary of the advantages and disadvantages as a music player as compared to Classic:
+ More Cover illustration
+ Somewhat faster operation
+ Separate volume buttons
+ Display of title length in album tracklists
+ Display the album name in performers with only one album
+ Built-in speaker! The sound is indeed bad, but better than nothing.
- Insufficient space for large music collections
- Too little information on the "Now Playing" page
- Hardly any new features: I still lack the ability to support advanced information (year, genre, rating, last played, etc ...) to get songs, and also a "next track" -Wunschfunktion would be very nice - but this below another discovery ...
Some of the other features of touch here only a brief overview:
VIDEO:
excellent image quality, simple operation and good - but little features, no real push, no bookmarks, video playback stops basically the music playback.
PHOTO:
also benefits here from the great screen, elegant handling, slide shows possible unfortunately no way to save the photos in original resolution, they will always be scaled down when transferring.
INTERNET:
Cool and amazingly easy to operate. Especially nice with handheld optimized websites (eg web.de) or special apps (super is from Ebay or integrated Youtube client). But even normal web pages can be viewed well by using the zoom function perfectly. Also great: the radio! There are plenty of clients for individual stations or universal player. The Touch has wireless Web radio throughout the house.
GAMES:
Super. Huge selection, mass free trials and full versions are dirt cheap compared to current consoles. Fascinating good 3D performance. Here everyone will find games freak. There are even adventure Classics like Monkey Iceland, Simon the Sorcerer and Beneath a Steel Sky!
APPS:
Also super. Also great for specialties applications. Two great apps that inspire me as a music freak completely, I would like to briefly here:
BLOOM - a "visualized" sequencer / synthesizer of Brian Eno (!!)
REMOTE - this is the bomb, so you can remotely control the iTunes on your Mac or PC, and that's great! Access to the entire database, select comfortable, remote control the volume, and the cover will appear on the Ipod! And the best: There is finally the "iTunes DJ", so you can comfortably select playlists on the fly, the next song select, etc.
So, I think that's enough for now, although the entire features of this Wundermaschinchens are thus by no means exhausted. A few small annoyances I want to add:
- He stinks! Exudes an unpleasant odor, mainly from the dock connector
- No animated charging indicator, no charge indicator in standby
- It did not succeed to read the manual touch offline. You can download it from Apple, it will be installed as a "database" in Safari, but if you want to open it without an internet connection, there's a error message.
CONCLUSION:
As a pure music player, the purchase is worth only conditionally. Here one is possibly due to the gößeren storage with the Classic better off (or due to the size of the Nano - how you look at it ...)
Who is a nice little game console, a pocket video player, or - looking Web browser will be well served here.
