The iPod Touch: Our first impressions

An iPhone minus the phone, and plus some welcome extras

Our tests of Apple's new iPod Touch confirm that it is indeed essentially an iPhone without the phone. You get the same generous, 3-in.-wide multi-touch screen, the same superb interface that seamlessly links a multifaceted media player with a powerful Web browser, and the same Internet access via Wi-Fi.

Shedding the phone allows the Touch to be few millimeters shorter and thinner than the iPhone and about a half-ounce lighter--just 4.2 ounces. (Click on the photo on the right, for a close up view of the iPod Touch, left, and the iPhone.) Of course, it also deprives of you of being able to make calls, easily send-e-mails, or surf the Web on the cell network. But phone performance on the iPhone is only so-so anyway, and the phone is married to AT&T, whose middling performance we document in our most recent survey on cellular service providers.

The Touch costs $300 for our 8-gigabyte (GB) test model, which holds about 2,000 songs, or $400 for the 16 GB version--the largest capacity of any flash player on the market.

Related stories:

• Our first impressions of the new iPod Nano
• Inside the iPhone
• How to choose a digital music player

Next: The iPod Touch's Highs and Lows, as well as more images.

HIGHS

The first iPod that downloads. The Touch is the first iPod capable of downloading music, videos, and other content wirelessly. (iPhones will also have this capability later this month when a software update becomes available).

Other players and cell phones already offer wireless downloads, but the Touch generally implements downloading better than many of them. Unlike the Sandisk Sansa Connect, introduced earlier this year, the Touch allows users to buy songs; the Connect only allows you to stream or rent music from the Yahoo! music service for $15 a month. Unlike some other devices, the Touch allows you to share downloaded songs with your computer and other iPods you own. What's more, should you lose your Wi-Fi connection during a download, you'll be able to continue downloading via your computer when you get home.

A Starbucks connection. Whenever the Touch is on and within range of a Starbucks T-Mobile Wi-Fi hotspot, a Starbucks button will appear on the Touch's main menu. Pushing it will tap into the iTunes store and allow you to purchase the song that's playing in the café or any other music from Starbucks' collection. Access is free for these downloads. The service will be rolled out at select Starbucks around the country beginning in October.

Other subtle improvements. The Touch's headphone jack is not recessed, as is the one on the iPhone. This allows you to use any aftermarket headphone you wish without a special adapter. Also, where the iPhone's jack is at the top of the device, the Touch's is on the bottom, making it less likely that the cord will get in the way of the screen.

LOWS

Some iPhone features are dropped. Besides losing the 2-megapixel camera, the Touch dropped icons for e-mail and text-messaging applications, Google maps, weather, stocks and notes. You can still access many of those features via the Safari Web browser, though now it takes a few extra steps.

Other iPhone niceties we miss include the side-mounted volume control, which allows you to adjust the iPod's volume without taking it out of your pocket. The Touch does have a less convenient consolation feature: You can reach its iPod controls with a double press of the home button, where the iPhone demands that you press the home button and then the iPod icon on the screen. The Touch is also missing the iPhone's speaker, which came in handy for watching videos without earphones, and the button on the iPhone's headset cord that allows you to pause songs or advance to the next selection.

For an in-depth look at all of the iPhone's innovative features, check out our virtual iPhone online.

A dimmer display. The multi-touch display also noticeably less bright than the iPhone's under the same lighting conditions, although readability in bright light is still excellent. Other reviewers have also reported dimness and other screen problems in their tests, and some owners have weighed in on online forums. Apple has not yet publicly acknowledged the problem, and we were unable to get comment from the company in time for this post. (Click on the photo at right for a closer look at the iPod Touch, left, compared to the iPhone.)

Relative bulkiness. The Touch's maximum 16-GB storage capacity, though huge as flash players go, is puny compared with others players of around the same size, most of which are hard-drive models. For example, the iPod Classic, with 80 or 160 GB of storage, is thicker than the Touch but actually has a slightly smaller footprint.

BOTTOM LINE

Based on our preliminary tests, consider the Touch if you plan to do a lot of Web surfing or video watching, or if you want the most capacity you can get in a flash player. But weigh other players, including other iPods, if you don't favor those activities and if your requirements lean to less or more capacity than that of the 16-GB Touch.

If you can make do with 4 or 8 GB, for example, consider the new Nano (left), which is much smaller than the Touch. If you want large capacity, consider a video-capable hard-disk player like the iPod Classic, which offer 80 or 160 GBs of storage for $250 and $350, respectively. The Classic lacks Wi-Fi downloads and Web surfing and it's heavier and thicker than the Touch. But its 2.5-inch screen, while smaller than the Touch's, is big and bright enough to comfortably watch video, and its capacious hard drive will spare you from constantly think about what content to bring with you and what to leave behind.

We'll continue to test the Touch, including assessing its battery life, which Apple claims is up to 22 hours for audio playback and 5 hours for video playback.

-- Mike Gikas

—Paul Eng