Apple’s fifth gen iPod touch lacks an ambient light sensor because it’s apparently too thin

Some of you guys might have heard by now that Apple’s fifth gen iPod touch appears to be lacking the auto-brightness adjust feature. Apparently this is because the iPod touch does not come with an ambient light sensor and we’re sure that many iPod touch owners are asking why. Granted it’s hardly a make-or-break feature, but we can’t help but feel curious as to why that is the case as well. The folks at iDownloadblog have posted a copy of an email sent by one of their readers to Apple’s SVP of Marketing, Phil Schiller, who asked why there is no auto-brightness setting on the fifth gen iPod touch.

According to Schiller who replied, it seems that there is no ambient light sensor because the iPod touch is “just too thin”. If you’ve ever played with the latest iPod touch in any of Apple’s retail stores, you’ll find that the device is incredibly thin at 6.13mm at its thickest (not including the camera lens protrusion), versus the fourth gen iPod touch at 7.13mm. Granted there’s no way to verify the authenticity of the email, but Apple executives have been known to reply emails sent by customers every now and then, but what do you guys think? Was the ambient light sensor really omitted because the iPod touch was too thin?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Audio
Tags: iPod Touch