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By Donald Bell, CNET.com
Sep 19, 2007

If you find yourself dazzled by the Web, video, and music capabilities of Apple's iPhone, but can't stomach the contract commitment, the iPod touch might be just what you're looking for. Offered in 8GB (US$299) and 16GB (US$399) capacities, the iPod touch is a premium-priced device with an attractive set of features for a midsize portable video player (PVP). Still, the Touch's limited storage capacity makes it a difficult choice when held up to higher capacity products like the iPod classic or Archos 605 WiFi.

Design
For better or worse, the iPod touch is clearly the iPhone's baby brother. Like most products that roll out of Apple, the touch shows the love of committed designers, hardware engineers, and usability experts. The touch measures a slim and pocketable 110 x 61.8 x 8 mm, with an all-metal-and-glass design that feels as expensive as it looks. Because nothing will ruin a portable video player faster than a gouge across its screen, we're happy to see that the face of the iPod touch uses the same scratch-resistant glass found on the iPhone. Most users will still want to buy a protective case, however, since the touch feels a little fragile and the back is covered with the glossy, scratch-prone, smudge-loving chrome exterior common to most iPods.

There are only two physical buttons on the touch: A button on the face of the player used for calling up the main menu; and a screen deactivation button found on the top-left edge of the case. The touch is controlled largely using an icon-based touch screen navigation menu nearly identical to the iPhone's, but with greater emphasis placed on music, photo, and video playback.

The two design details that distinguish the iPod touch from the iPhone are the headphone jack and volume controls. While the iPhone surprised us with its difficult, recessed headphone jack, the 3.5mm headphone jack on the iPod touch runs flush with the case and accepts any standard minijack headphone connection. In the absence of dedicated volume control buttons, the touch gives users the ability to bring up an onscreen volume slider by double-clicking the main menu button. The same volume screen offers controls for playing, pausing, and skipping through tracks.

When it comes down to it, the iPod touch's most unique selling point is not its feature set, but its interface. You can find products that offer more features, as well as higher quality audio and video performance, but you won't find any other product that can match the feeling you get using the iPod touch interface. In the absence of jetpacks or flying cars, the futuristic novelty of zooming photos with a pinch of the finger or flying through your music collection in Cover Flow is difficult to quantify into a bullet point, but it is probably the most justifiable reason to invest in the Touch.

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