Apple iPod classic (120GB; second generation)

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A year ago almost to the week, we brought you the review of Apple's iPod classic--the 80GB and 160GB hold-all iPod. One year later, it's available in just a single, slim 120GB capacity, with most features remaining unchanged.

Editors' note:

This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.co.uk. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some of other services or products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia. Please check directly with your local distributor for details.

So is there any point upgrading? Did Apple make a mistake getting rid of the higher capacity version? We took a look to find out. It's available now in black and silver for S$398.

Design

Almost no aspect of the classic's design has been changed, except the black finish is a slightly lighter shade of black (no, we don't mean grey). The chassis is identical to that of the old 80GB model, which we do admit is our favorite design and thickness. It's a solid player, with a superb capacity considering its relatively lightweight build. The nano will always be more suitable for the gym, but for other purposes the classic's size and weight shouldn't be an issue.

Unchanged, too, is the 64mm (2.5-inch) 320 x 240-pixel screen--the same, albeit rotated, resolution used in the third and fourth generation iPod nano. However, during side by side comparisons with the first generation classic, the new model appears to have a slightly brighter display, for which we offer up a congratulatory high five.

Features

The most notable addition to the classic's feature set is Genius. This glorified playlist creator automatically builds playlists of 25, 50, 75 or 100 songs based on any given "source song" you select. The playlist it creates should, theoretically, contain songs best matched to your source song.

In our tests Genius worked really well. We first tried it with iTunes, as Genius must first be calibrated with iTunes. When given complex progressive metal track from Blotted Science, iTunes created a list of mostly complex progressive metal. But the same was true when using the classic after syncing--a playlist comprising folky pop rock from Kate Nash, Michelle Branch and Alanis Morissette was created when using KT Tunstall as a source track. The more music you have, the more fun Genius is.

As for your music, the iPod classic's sound is generated by a Cirrus audio chip, and supports MP3, AAC--both unprotected and protected iTunes Store downloads--WAV, AIFF, Audible formats 2, 3 and 4 and the best choice if you wish to preserve your CDs entirely, Apple Lossless--Apple's answer to FLAC--between 20Hz-20kHz. You're unable to play WMA files from the likes of Napster, sadly, as Apple wants you to use the iTunes Store only.

Aside from the iPod touch and iPhone, the iPod classic is one of our favourite devices on which to watch high-quality video. It supports the MPEG-4 and the H.264 codec--as used on HD Blu-ray discs--in standard definition, up to 640 x 480-pixels in resolution, with bit rates up to 2.5Mbps. This allows for extremely high-quality videos, and the potential for watching full-length movies at close to DVD-quality.

You'll need to use iTunes 8 to transfer content to the iPod, and in many ways it remains unchanged from iTunes 7. It requires some getting used to, but iTunes is one of the easiest ways to manage music and movies. It offers Smart Playlists on top of Genius, allowing you to create dynamically updating playlists based on variables you assign, such as building a playlist of 20 songs, not played within the last two weeks, from pop and country genres, that you've listened to at least five times before. And everything--play counts, playlists, song ratings and Smart Playlists--are all transfered to the iPod classic, so you can take your desktop jukebox on the road.

As well as being an enormous music store, iTunes sells TV programs from heaps of television and movie studios. They're only compatible with iTunes and iPods, but if you're using an iPod classic you can buy or rent major films such as Harry Potter, Spiderman and High School Musical, and either watch them on your computer or simply sync them to your iPod and watch them on the way to work, college, or on the plane.

Combine this with the classic's huge hard disk and the potential to output this content to any TV via a separate docking station and the iPod classic becomes an insanely capable music and movie device--and we love it.

Tags: TV, Apple iPod, movie, Apple iPod Nano, Asia

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