Review: 4G 40Gb iPod

by Atomic

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Here is the 4G iPod playing

and the 3G (looking blacker than the 4G)

Here is the 4G's battery charging meter...

And the 3G's - notice the screen looks very blue in this shot.

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...

And the 3G 30Gb results...

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.