Ipod touch-Nano hands on first impressions.

sere83 · 10-29-2007

So I was near the regent street apple store in london today and since i had not had a chance to get my grubby mits on apples latest line of players I decided to step in and have a butchers. First up, the nano. The first thing you notice about it is how frikin tiny this thing is! I only spent a few minutes with the nano but playing a demo video you realise that the screen on the nano is simply unbelievably crisp. The clarity is literally razor sharp. I might even go as far to say that you may even be able to have a semi-decent viewing experience when watching a series episode or cartoon despite the miniscule size. the menu seemed decent but I didn't really test many of the other functions.
Then came the ipod touch. Now I have never been a great apple fan and always found ipods on the whole were pretty uninspiring. The whole restricted format support, itunes bloatware necessity, boring looks and unoriginality of owning an ipod had lead me to steer well clear of previous incarnations. However........getting my hands on the touch I realised I was dealing with a very different beast all together. The form factor of this machine is truly remarkable. As with the nano the screen is literally razor sharp. The aesthetics are just so smooth and it is unbelievably trim. A real engineering feat. After seeing so many videos of the interface I was straight away able to use the interface seemlessly without any problems. I have to say the multitouch screen was very responsive and the cloverflow mode was very smooth and a pleasure to use. I logged on to the intenet and again I can't fault the safari browser. Simply a joy to use. I Would say that the on screen keyboard is a little cramped but I had no problems hitting the right keys. Youtube worked well and the pinch function for photos and web pages worked well too although I did have to repeat the action a couple of times on occasion. I was unable to play any videos as there were none on the machine. Anyway without going in to a full review, I do have to say the touch is a very beautiful and easy to use machine. Even being aware of apples short comings I couldn't help being taken with it. What it has made me realise more than anything is that there is NO WAY that meizu can EVER match this kind of seemless software and hardware integration. Apple are simply in a league of their own. I never thought I would be ringing apples praises but this machine is just soo smooth and well designed. Saying this though I was unable to test both the most important aspects, the audio and video, so full judgment will have to be reserved until I can give the touch a full run through. However one thing is clear, the ipod touch is just so far away from the m6's sub standard 20fps video playback and numerous firmware glitches. Saying that I think meizu have come a long way in the last couple of years but they have a whole lot of catching up to do in terms of software and hardware integration. The truth is that The ipod touch simply works and meizu's products well........only sort of work.

I still hope to get an m8 but after seeing apples latest interface in action, I may in fact purchase an iphone too just as an everyday phone to watch a few episodes as we won't be seeing the m8 for a very long time.

DusL · 10-29-2007

You're probably true. But you've gotta admit that the "itouch" is rediculusly expensive for what it can do. Without phone option, it is simply a internetting media player with 8gb/16gb.

sere83 · 10-29-2007

yeah your right, hence why If i did buy any apple player I would buy an iphone. The touch is without a doubt overpriced, and i wouldn't use it for music either though as I hate itunes. I was just overwhelmed buy the interface and the form factor of the touch.

DimaMP4 · 10-29-2007

iPod Touchs GUI is hot(10/10). Really nice player but very expensive. My friend is getting a 16gb for xmas (lucky!) If you want a touch, go for iPhone and unlock it.

I'v played with the Nano 3rd gen, I'm actually impressed. It looks a lot better in real life than on pic's. The thing that I like about is that it's tiny, screen is nice and it has a cute GUI. I really hope that Meizu will make a tiny player with about a 2" display.

I'veheard that Meizu M8's GUI will be very good as well. Meizu are maybe working on the GUI really hard to make it look as good as iPhones/iPod Touchs GUI. I actually think so. M3 looks very good compared to Nano 2nd gen.

Minione will have more functions like TV, 3G, ability to use all earphones and so on.

GreenJadeMonkey · 10-29-2007

so yeah the ipod touch is a nice player but unfortunetly overpriced

but dose anybody know about the sound this "300€ Thing" can peform ?

Greetz

nice2know_u · 10-29-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by DusL

You're probably true. But you've gotta admit that the "itouch" is rediculusly expensive for what it can do. Without phone option, it is simply a internetting media player with 8gb/16gb.

it's not just simply az internetting media player, because now it can run iphone apps too!

mfb · 10-29-2007

I must agree with you that the hardware/software integration on Apple products is superb. Using my brothers Mac a few times in the past really impressed me, and I can see the same applied to the iPhone and iPod Touch. I'm a big fan of Meizu, I just hope they can keep up with Apple on this. The only problem with the M6 are stupid firmware problems. Seeing that the M8 is going to run on Windows I can only see more software problems coming up for Meizu.

DusL · 10-29-2007

Hm..... (deep thoughts about iphone apps)

What kind of usefull apps are out now for the iphone/podtouch? I know it all runs through safari which I.....dont really see as pluspoint yet. But the only one's I've seen until now are simple games and myspace-propaganda-apps.
Jailbreaking for the NES-emu looks pretty cool to me though :P:D

Anyway, I've seen and touched the podtouch today too. Holy crap, that thing is thin! The video's etc are looking good on it, but for some reason 720x480 from the m8 is still attracting me (lol). Damn you Meizu Company, what's taking you so long??

Choms · 10-29-2007

Hey Folks!
I own an iPod touch and I can truly say that it is the best mp3/internet/video thing i have ever used.
The sound is impressive, the videos sharp, fotos looking really good.
Software on the iTouch: There are many ways of jailbreaking the iPod touch but I will wait till Apple opens the iPod/iPhone for people to create their own software so that a jailbreak will be unnecessary.
And I don't think that the iPod touch is overpriced.
Of course it is not a cheap Mp3 player, but look on the other iPods they cost like 50$ less or so and they can hardly reach the iPod touchs interface or go to the internet (which just rocks, I mean you can go online anywhere, there are so many people who don't use passwords for their wifi).
I for myself do not regret to have bought a iPod touch.

P.S.: The screen can't be scratched =)

Astradam · 10-29-2007

I'm pretty sure the screen can be scratched...