[Atomic]

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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom:
0">Review: 4G 40Gb iPod</p>
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by Atomic</p>


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<p align="justify">I received my 4th generation 40Gb iPod recently and had a chance to put together this small review against my current 3rd generation 30Gb iPod.</p>

<p align="justify">The packaging is typical Apple although now the outer sleeve of the box has the colourful silhouettes on each side as featured in their print and television ad campaigns. Out of the box, the new iPod looks and feels roughly the same size and weight as its predecessor however, putting them side by side is another story. The 4G model is thinner and a touch lighter than the 3G model. I was also fortunate enough to not have any sticky residue all over the iPod as some mini and iPod owners have reported. Here are some pictures to give you an idea</p>

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<p align="justify">There have been reports about the screen on the 4G iPod looking more blue rather than black and although this is true, the later models of the 3G iPod also had similar screens. I had my 3G model replaced in April this year and immediately noticed the screen was different to my original model. Depending on the lighting conditions the screen looks black and sometimes it looks blue. The pictures below will demostrate this.</p>

<p align="justify">Being a 3G user for about a year, I still find myself looking for the 4 buttons above the new click wheel but know this habit will diminish soon enough. The click wheel feels solid and sturdy and doesn't feel cheap or fragile at all. The rest of the iPod feels exactly the same as before which is reassuring. Unfortunately, sound quality compared to the 3G has diminished slightly also - Listening to the exact same tracks and EQ settings reveals the 4G iPod lacks crispness at the top end of the audio spectrum. Its not a lot but definitely noticeable when doing an A->B comparison test. </p>

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<p align="justify">As has been widely reported, Shuffle has been added to the main menu and Audiobook functionality has been enhanced. I also noticed that the audible click option can now be played through the speaker, headphones or both. On previous models you only had the option to turn the speaker on or off. The battery meter has also been updated when charging and appears to more accurately represent the iPods current charge status during usage. My 3G iPod's battery meter was very tempramental and would change with the weather - very frustrating.</p>

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<p align="center">Here is the 4G iPod playing</p>

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<p align="center">and the 3G (looking blacker than the 4G)</p>

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<p align="center">Here is the 4G's battery charging meter...</p>
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<p align="center">And the 3G's - notice the screen looks very blue in this shot.
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<p align="justify">Disk performace has also increased according to XBench - This may be due to the higher density HD in the 40G model - I dont have a 3G 40Gb model to test, nor have I seen any benchmarks - Please post your XBench results here if you have one of these models. Here are the 4G 40Gb results...</p>

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<p align="center">And the 3G 30Gb results...</p>
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<p align="justify">Overall, Im happy with this purchase, although I was hoping for a 60Gb model this time around. I will be travelling soon and wanted to use the iPod to store my music and photos while on my journey. I only had about 2 gig to spare on the 30Gb model which would not have been enough. Anyone with a 3G 30Gb or 40Gb model should not bother upgrading as the 4G model does not contain anything new or ground breaking (apart form the click wheel) to justify the cost. New users however, or those upgrading from 1G or 2G models will not be disappointed. </p>
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[estoyloco]

Hey Atomic, nice review... you hit a topic that i havent found in other review.. nobody has compared the sizes of the 40G's.....I'm glad that the 40G 4G is smaller than the 3G..(apparently the 40GB and 30GBG 3G's are the same size) and your photos gave a good view of the changes..
... its good to have the pics...

Like you i was after the 60GB... but if it comes in a larger form factor that it is now inthe40GB i will just get the 40GB.....

U said ur traveliing.. are u going to use the Belin media reader? or the Belkin USBadaptor thing?? cheers.. if you get it soon i would LOOOOOVVVEEE a review of that with some speed tests!!!

what size card do you have???

Anyway....nice review!

PS: is the audio output really noticeably different??? are you using the standard earphones or have you got the remote??? have you tried using 3rd party earphones???

Cheers!!

[Husq]

I'm also curious to know about how much the sound quality has dropped. iPodLounge tested the 3g v 4g and found several but not all 4g iPods (40GB) had inferiour sound.

Since I am about to get a new iPod, Airtunes etc would like to know if anyone has found the 4g to have the same sound quality as the 3g.

[Atomic]

To put your fears to rest, the sound quality is still top notch and won't be a concern at all - I was merely stating that the top end is slightly lacking when compared to the previous model (very slight, no need for alarm). I dont use the supplied headphones at all. I didnt on the 3G and won't with the 4G so it is unfair for me judge the sound using the standard headphones when I haven't used them.

I will try and get my hands on a Belkin media reader soon and do some tests - i'll post the results here as soon as I do.

[playa]

Good time to sell the 3G on ebay, good return $400+ for a good 3G-20GB not bad when you can get a 4G-20GB for less than $499.00

I'm going to sell my 2G-10GB looks like I'll get A$200+ not bad. If I was to sell my PowerBook I would loose a Bomb.


Next I'll sell my eyetv analog. Going to get the EyeTV-400 Digital...

[Ozi]

I want an eyetv... please post in our trading forums when you do decide to sell. I don't need the digital one, just an analogue would suit me fine.

[Mr Super Cycler]

Hey great topic!! Perfectly suited most of my questions. Well... I'm 16 and I live in Canada (hahaha it's funny that I'm on an Australian forum... but this one seems like a good one). I just got a part time job at a grocery store 3 weeks ago and now I have about $300 CDN in the bank. I have to admit that I was thinking about selling my old 3G 15GB iPod for a newer one (hoping that the extended battery life would satisfy my needs and wants) but I don't know anymore. There is a wholesale store where I can get a 20GB iPod 4G for about $280 CDN but I still don't know if this is the right choice. The same store is selling a 30GB iPod photo for $340 CDN and the 6GB iPod mini for $240 CDN. I don't know if my post will get answered... this is the first time I've done this and I realize the last post was from 2004... but I believe that this is the right place to post this otherwise. Thanks for all the great info!! Godday,

Chris Borchert (from Vernon, B.C., Canada... which is about 350 km north of Vancouver)