| 
 enlarge
| Brand: Apple
Category: CE
List Price: $249.00
Buy New: $189.99
You Save: $59.01 (24%)
New (21) Used (23) Refurbished (6) from $179.99
Rating:  850 reviews
Sales Rank: 291
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Display Size: 2.5
Size: 80 GB
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7 x 5 x 3
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: MB147LL/A
Model: MB147LL/A
UPC: 885909176656
EAN: 0123456789012
ASIN: B000JLKIHA
Release Date: September 5, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 It all depends on your level of expectations.. October 22, 2007
19 out of 21 found this review helpful
My review is gonna be a little long but I hope it brings some light to people who don't know whether to buy or not this product.
The classic is nothing more than an update to the 5th gen ipod. Like ANY update in the world, it adds some new features, cuts others and changes others. Plain and simple. I don't consider it fair to judge it a bad device just because you had the expectation that the classic was gonna reinvent the wheel and solve all world problems.
In my opinion, the only thing I really think that should be improved is the sensitivity of the clickwheel. I loved the way it worked on my previous 5g iPod and in the 6g it's not as responsive.
It fits in my Iskin Evo3 which I used for my previous 30gb (I got the 80gb model). It even feels a little less tight in it meaning it's gotta be maybe a hair thinner than the 30gb. I had to cut the part that covers the clickwheel because it doesn't work anymore through anything (I uploaded a picture of it). In the 5g I could change the volume even through my jeans. The 6g should be touched directly to browse or change the volume.
One welcome feature is that you can change the shuffle mode (off/songs/albums) while playing your music by pressing the center button and without going to the main menu.
Another welcome feature is that you can change the brightness of the screen while watching your videos (then again, by pressing the center button).
One very nice thing I found out is that with my ExtremeMac Tango speakers (since speakers use some standard commands I guess every speaker out there can do the same) if I put the ipod into the much criticized cover flow menu, I could actually browse through my music by pressing FF or REW on the remote and select an album (by pressing play button on the remote). If you selected an album by mistake, just click rewind and it goes back to the cover flow menu and just keep on browsing until you find what you're looking for. This is a very welcome feature since you'd be able to browse by the album cover remotely, select an album and when it finishes you could select another album of your preference without touching your ipod!
What I think of the cover flow? Ok, it's a little slow but I don't think you're into a race with someone to see who finds their music faster. And when I say slow, I'm talking about maybe a second at the most to show the unbuffered covers.. and it happens just when you browse very fast so it needs time to buffer the unloaded album covers. Keep in mind that this little device has more storage capacity than many laptops and desktops out there. There can be lots of information stored in it. Even computers hesitate when showing the thumbnails if you go into a folder full of pictures.
I've read some criticisms about the cover flow menu saying that it should show only the albums instead of the tracks because if you got a large amount of music, it could be difficult to find what you're looking for. Well, this is partially true: if you're looking for an album and you see its cover while browsing because you ran into one of its tracks, just click on it and it will show all tracks in that album so in an album with 14 songs, you got 14 chances to find it. I agree it would be easier and faster if only albums were shown but I don't think it's that bad.
You can't put the album artwork in full screen anymore. No big deal though.
After a couple of minutes, the screen changes to a "Screen saver" mode which shows the current time and the remaining battery life. I'd prefer to be able of seeing what I'm playing instead of the hour but then again, no big deal.
I've used it with the ExtremeMac Airplay FM transmitter and it works but when you push one of the buttons to change the transmitting frequency, it only changes the station one time and then freezes for a couple of seconds. You have to wait until the screen goes back to what you're playing to press it again. This is gotta be some software incompatibility problem since the airplay uses the ipod internal software and screen to show the stored stations and information. It's nothing serious but I hope this would be fixed in the next updates.
With the griffin itrip it worked fine since this one has its own screen and don't need the ipod to show anything through it.
Before update 1.0.2 menus were slower and battery life longer. After 1.0.2 I find menus a little faster but battery life a little shorter. Still, it's endless! Just to test it, I left it playing for more than 20 hours and battery only reached half. Haven't tested with long videos but when playing short video podcasts battery power doesn't drop like the 5g did after playing one or 2 videos. It doesn't drop at all indeed unless you watch a long video or browse thoroughly through videos.
Haven't even gone to the games menu because I use my ipod mainly for listening to music. I haven't tried the video out neither for the same reason. I think is much more than a hassle to convert a video for the ipod so I can play it in a TV. Apple should drop this "we-are-so-picky" thing and accept standard formats like avi and mpg!!!
Well, in summary, this is my personal experience and opinion. I respect the other opinions and by no meanings I'm trying to make a dispute here. Just thought it was worth it to make some things clear. My rating would be between 4 and 5 stars out of 5.
Pros:
- It may be a "less-beautiful-to-some-people" aluminum face but it's much more resistant. I prefer it to be this way though: what's the use of it being beautiful if you have to put it into a case immediately because it scratches so easily and gets ugly so fast? to my taste, it looks very nice indeed.
- Battery life
- Storage space
- Price
- Nice menus
- Thinner than the 5g
Cons:
- Not-so-responsive clickwheel
- Some software-related incompatibility with -SOME- accessories that worked even with the 5 /5.5 gen
 Latest Generation has problems October 22, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This latest 6th gen seems to have some OS problems. It works, but the interface is very slow. Also, when listening to podcasts (or any music really), selecting a song to listen to often fails to start the song or podcast and has to be pressed again, or it will play the next song instead. I have a 5th gen 30GB which has neither of these problems. It's very annoying. I don't think I could live without an ipod these days, but I wish they'd spend some more on quality control.
 Bought this one and found the issues (as expected...) October 22, 2007
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Why did I buy this one? I have a 40GB iPodphoto and it got full. I have 9954 songs in it. I could not add any more since a few months ago and I would like to have more capacity.
As many reviewers commented, the system does not respond smoothly. It looks something similar to what happens to your old PC running latest resource hungry software. I suspect this is due to not-enough hardware resource such as logic processer, memory or system design itself, or otherwise resource consuming software. I think Apple should have used more powerful hardware to adjust its capability and to bring better balance to its system. That might increase power consumption and heat and size of the iPod but anyone will get more and more irritated gradually if he/she sees slow interface everytime he/she uses it. Every little makes a mickle.
Its UI design almost remains the same and looks OK but what matters most is the user experience. Unlike PC, you cannot increase memory to boost the performance of iPod. Only Apple can do it. But their profit margin is expanding. I feel there is something wrong here.
Otherwise, software UI looks almost the same as the previous version. I basically like it but sometimes feel that it would be nicer if I could change the sequence of the recent added songs and purchased ones, as the songs in the added albums are shown and played in a reverse order.
Bottom line - no rush to buy expecpt you need more capacity. Hope Apple will update the software to solve this problem. - may be just a wishful thinking -
Two stars.
Poor Audio AND Video Playback October 22, 2007
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
I am presently owning the 5.5 gen. Ipod 80GB and the new iPod Classic 160 GB, which should replace the old one. I am using the iPod mostly as a Video Player, when I am away from home.
The pros for the 160GB Classic are the better case top, the prettier design and I like the new clickweel over the old one. It also does not freeze on Video playback, like the predecessor did too often! It has the double space, which has been the major reason, why I have purchased it.
But there are serious negative points:
The Audio playback is significantly worse than on the old Video iPod. Just listen 1:1 with a good headphone and EVERYONE will hear the difference. Additionally, the picture on Video playback is not fluent, it seems to judder. You especially see this with a white background and some people moving from left to right or opposite.
And I am not talking about the sluggish response, when you are trying to browse your lists.
Worse Audio AND Video playback compared to the predecessor is a knockout criteria, I will return the iPod until Apple fixes this major problem.
Great mp3 player October 20, 2007
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I just upgraded my 3rd Gen Ipod the "Classic" I was already using iTunes 7.4, so uploading all my music and photos was a breeze. I love being able to use the ipod as a backup for my all my photos. At first I didnt like the split screen menu, but now Im starting to like it. I like how you can preview photos and album covers. A lot of people have complained about the cover flow. Since most of my music is from ripped cds, I dont use it. I downloaded a couple of TV shows and the picture is very crisp. But I couldnt use it to watch a movie...screen still too small. Battery life is huge, and the metal enclosure is very sturdy. I also love the search feature. My only complaint is the click wheel. It seems my 3 year old ipod's wheel is more responsive. Other than that, I love my new ipod!!
|
|
|
