The verdict is in on Apple's three new iPod models. The iPod touch, iPod nano, and iPod shuffle have all been all unboxed, tested, and evaluated—and our conclusions might surprise you. For a quick, close-up look at the new iPods, as well as some added insight, check out our video review below.
All three reviews are linked above, but here's the short story on how each iPod fared:
iPod Touch: Still Top Dog
No surprise here: the iPod touch retains its five-star rating and Editor's Choice award for its excellent fourth generation model, which finally includes two cameras, one for still shots and video, and the other for FaceTime video chat, which works seamlessly. And the addition of Game Center for social gaming, and Ping for social networking only promise to make your iPod experience more fun. Every year now, with the touch, Apple seems to outdo itself and leave the competition scrambling. In fact, at this point, the iPod touch doesn't really have much legitimate competition—it seems former competitors like Samsung are now focusing on tablets, like the upcoming Galaxy Tab, in an attempt to grab some of the iPad's considerable market share.
iPod Nano: An Unexpected Change
The biggest shock this year is the sixth-generation iPod nano, which in the past has garnered high praise. This time, we were not impressed. The video camera, as well as all video-playing capabilities, have been removed from the iPod nano in favor of a much smaller touch screen. Touch controls are nice, but they seem somewhat pointless without the ability to truly zoom in on pictures—you can only tap once to a fixed rate, and not at all if the photo is in widescreen format. This nano would have made a great new iPod shuffle, but at the same price as last year's comparatively feature-loaded nano, this year's model is a bit of a letdown—especially if you want video features on a budget.
iPod Shuffle: Price is the Best Feature
Meanwhile, the iPod shuffle finally gets on-player controls. Now, only the shuffle and the still-the-same iPod classic use a click wheel for naviagtion. The shuffle still has VoiceOver to tell you what song or artists is playing and it still lacks a screen, but for $49, you get 2GB, and the cheapest way to load a portable player with songs via iTunes. There are more feature-driven budget players out there, but none that work in Apple's iTunes ecosystem.