Reviews : Hardware : Portable Multimedia : MP3 Players / Digital Music Players

MP3 Players Buying Guide: These days, you'd be hard pressed not to have heard of MP3 players. With the popularity of products such as Apple's iPod continuing to skyrocket, and the increasing prevalence of support for music playback across a variety of devices (games systems, mobile phones, etc), you'd have to have at least be aware of digital music. Read more...

MP3 Players / Digital Music Players

Apple iPod

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Apple iPod 4.50

Explain star rating

RRP

$439.00

Review Date

Tuesday, 5th of April, 2005

What's Hot

Battery life and click-wheel control have are an improvement over earlier iPods

What's Not

Limited codec support, music online can only be purchased from Apple

The Final Word

The iPod's thoughtful design and features make it an excellent MP3 player, but for picky buyers who are holding out for the ideal portable music device, the wait continues.

Notes

# This product is no longer available directly from the manufacturer. It may be available in retail and distribution channels, or second hand. The price displayed is the price at review time and the last available recommended retail price.

Apple iPod (20GB)

Eric Dahl (InfoWorld) 05/04/2005 13:20:07

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In mid-2005, Apple launched its fourth-generation iPod--and by now you either love the slick-looking player or are unimpressed by its features and price. In our view, this version is much better than previous iPods, but it's still not perfect.

The major improvements: Apple rates the new iPod's battery life at 12 hours of continuous play (up from 8 hours), and I netted exactly that in tests of a shipping 40GB unit. To improve usability, Apple added the iPod Mini's click-wheel control, which elegantly combines touch-sensitive scrolling with easier-to-use click buttons.

Other improvements are minor. You can now speed up Audible.com audiobooks without triggering the chipmunk-on-helium effect; you can better manipulate On-The-Go playlists (and more easily save them); and you can shuffle through all of your songs or albums with a single click.

Frustratingly, the iPod continues to suffer from several feature omissions. Apple limits codec support to AAC, MP3 and Apple Lossless (plus .wav and AIFF), so fans of WMA, Ogg Vorbis, and FLAC are out of luck. You still can't change the order of songs on a playlist, and, at the time of writing, you could only purchase music online only through Apple.