iPod touch (2012) enters the fifth generation

Apple has just announced the fifth generation iPod touch, calling it the “best iPod touch we’ve ever made.” That’s starting to sound like a broken record, but let us dive into the latest iPod touch’s improvements.

Boasting 175,000 games in its library with 150 million players hanging around the Game Center, the 5G iPod touch is a thing of beauty at just 6.1mm thin, tipping the scales at 88 grams while retaining most of its predecessor’s look, albeit with a more squarish back.

The back is made up of brushed aluminum, so you need not worry too much about scratches now. Apart from that, a speaker located at the bottom alongside the newly announced Lightning connector and headphone jack complete the external connections, as your eyes feast on the same 4″ display that is found on the iPhone 5.

Underneath the hood lies a dual-core A5 processor, where Apple claims is able to deliver “7x faster” graphics compared to its predecessor. A demo involving “Clumsy Ninja” (a game that will be out this holiday season) helped show off the iPod touch’s capabilities, and it did perform admirably to be honest.

Performance specifications of the new 5G iPod touch include up to 40 hours of music playback or 8 hours of video, which is a wee bit of an improvement over the 4G iPod touch. Throw in a new 5-megapixel iSight camera that boasts of backside illumination, f/2,4, five element lens and a similar (theoretically) scratch-proof sapphire crystal lens cover, and it is pretty much in line of the expectations of many for any new iPod touch release. It also does Full HD video recording with Image Stabilization, while up front there is a FaceTime HD camera.

There lies, however, a button at the back of the iPod touch 5G which is known as the iPod touch loop. You are able to hook up a wrist strap to the back, not the newest idea on the block really, but a practical one, something which some might think would detract from the iPod touch’s aesthetics.

There will be Siri support for the iPod touch 5G; something that fans of this portable media player will definitely be happy with. The lack of 4G connectivity might prove to be a disappointment for some though.

You can pick up the iPod touch 5G in raw aluminum, black, blue, yellow and red shades. Now for the juicy part – the 5G iPod touch will come in 32GB and 64GB flavors which retail for $299 and $399, respectively. As for the 4G iPod touch, those will still be within our realm of existence, with the 16GB model going for $199 while the 32GB model retails for $249.

Image courtesy of Engadget.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Apple, Breaking
Tags: Apple Inc, iPod Touch