Hands-on with the iPod Touch

I've been spending some quality time with the iPod Touch, the touch-screen, Wi-Fi iPod that's essentially the iPhone without the phone—and yes, it's thinner and lighter, and it lets you buy tunes wirelessly over iTunes, a killer feature if there ever was one. In my tests, however, the Touch hit some serious speed bumps on the road to greatness.

First things first: I agree with Gina that it would be silly to buy the Touch if you already have an iPhone. Some cosmetic differences aside, the Touch is, indeed, just the iPhone without the phone (unless you count the doubled storage on the 16GB Touch). So if you're already an iPhone owner, I'd skip ahead to the next post (unless you're just curious, of course).

But what about for those of you who want the iPhone minus the phone (and the two-year AT&T contract)? For you, the Touch is probably a tempting choice—maybe even a no-brainer. But before you plunk down your $400 (for the 16GB version) or $300 (for the 8GB version), read on.

What I like:

• Wi-Fi iTunes Music Store: The Touch's coolest new feature (which is set to arrive on the iPhone any day now) works great. You can browse "featured" tunes or top ten lists, or you can just start search (live results start popping up under the search box as you type). While you don't get all the detailed artist and album info that's available on iTunes proper (no big surprise), you do get the album user rating; tap once on a track for a 30-second preview, or twice to reveal the "Buy Now" button. Downloads occur in the background, and your new songs sync up with your system on your next connection to iTunes. And yes—DRM-free iTunes Plus songs are supported. Nice.
• Touch-screen interface: It's pretty much the same as on the iPhone, which is a good (nay, great) thing. One key change is that double-clicking the Home button pops up a mini-player for whatever song is currently playing—it's a clever touch, and one that I hope appears on the iPhone soon.
• Safari, other extras: Web-browsing on the Touch is a first for the iPod family, and it works just as advertised—all your main Safari bookmarks sync automatically to the Touch, and surfing was speedy over Wi-Fi. You also get the iPhone's YouTube application, calendar, contacts, world clock, and calendar.
• Music and video features: Again, we're talking the same functionality as on the iPhone, and that's a huge plus. Also, the Touch supports video-out to your TV and closed captions (features the iPhone is still lacking).
• Thinner and lighter: At just 0.31 inches thick, the Touch feels considerably thinner than the 0.46-inch iPhone, and it's nearly a full ounce lighter (4.2 ounces, versus 5.1 ounces for the iPhone).

What I don't like:

• Poor video quality: The blogosphere has been going nuts in the past few days with complaints about a "negative black effect" while watching videos on the Touch—that is, dark areas of the screen that appear to turn negative, especially during predominantly dark scenes. I've tested the iPhone and the Touch side-by-side while watching the dark submarine scenes in "The Hunt for Red October," and yes, folks...it's true (at least in the shipping Touch that I'm testing). And I'm not just being nitpicky here—the "negative effect" that I saw turned Sean Connery into a dark, shimmery ghost on the Touch, while he looked just fine on my iPhone (I turned the brightness controls for both devices to about 50 percent). It's quite distracting—a serious, practically deal-breaking flaw, if you ask me.
• No external volume controls: For some reason that I can't quite fathom, the Touch does away with the iPhone's external volume rocker, which means you'll have to wake the Touch and use its on-screen slider to tweak the volume—a big problem if, say, you need to quickly turn down the Touch's volume while it's in your pocket. Also annoying is the lack of an in-line remote on the Touch's earphones, which means you must unlock the Touch to pause or skip tracks (again, annoying if you're listening to the Touch while it's in your pocket or backpack).
• Scratch-prone back cover: One of the things I like about the iPhone is that it's relatively resistant to scratches—I've had it in my pocket, sans case, for weeks now, and it's only suffered a few minor scuffs. The back cover of the Touch, however, has the same polished stainless-steel cover that the rest of the iPod family has—and it's a veritable magnet for scratches and smudges. Think twice before putting the Touch in your jeans pocket along with loose change.
• No mail, other missing features: The Touch shares the iPhone's Safari browser—which makes sense, given that the Touch boasts Wi-Fi support. So why can't you check your e-mail on the Touch too? And why no Google Maps, weather, or stock widgets, for that matter? Hmmm…maybe because Steve Jobs doesn't want to cannibalize his iPhone business? Honestly, that's the only reason I can think of.
• Limited storage: I've alluded to this before, and it's worth mentioning again—why not release a Touch with a monster hard drive? If there was a Touch with 160GB of storage (and no "negative effect," natch), I might actually buy one, even though I already own an iPhone (I'd love to watch a season of "24" on the Touch's 3.5-inch screen during, say, a flight to Australia). Sure, using flash memory keeps the Touch nice and thin, but I wouldn't mind the option of trading a massive hard drive for some added bulk.
• So-so battery life (maybe): I haven't had a chance to perform a full battery test on the Touch, but the iPod experts at iLounge have, and they made an interesting discovery: the iPhone blew the Touch away on every battery test they performed (five hours of video for the Touch, versus seven and change for the iPhone, and 28 hours of audio on the Touch compared to 38 for the iPhone). Of course, this is only one test, but the initial results are discouraging, to say the least.

The last word (well, for now):

So, does familiarity breed contempt when it comes to the Touch? For me, the answer is probably yes. I've had more than two months to be amazed by my iPhone, so the relatively pared-down Touch—even with its Wi-FI iTunes support—is likely to be something of a letdown. Indeed, if the Touch arrived on the scene first, you'd probably find me raving about its innovating design and features, so keep that in mind.

That said, I'm concerned about the Touch's video image quality—it's a serious drawback, and I'd be interested to see how widespread of a problem it is. A reader on the Apple discussion forums speculated that a manufacturing issue is to blame; if that's the case, let's hope Apple takes care of it in short order (and replaces the glitchty Touches that have already been sold). And word of so-so battery life is also worrying; I'll run my own test in the next few days and keep an eye out for results from other reviewers.

So, who already has the Touch? Having any trouble with video quality?