Apple iPod Touch review

The Apple iPod Touch is not bound to a specific computer, so you can copy music from several computers to one MP3 player. However, you can bypass using iTunes completely, as iCloud synchronises all of your purchases to all of your iOS devices via iTunes in the Cloud. You can also subscribe to iTunes Match for £22 a year, which scans your home library and makes all of your music available in the cloud for use on all of your devices.

While it’s easier to get content on to your iPod, there’s still comparatively limited file format support. It has native support for MP3, AAC audio, as well as the uncompressed WAV, lossless ALAC and proprietary Audible audiobook formats. Some third-party apps are available for those who feel the need to play other formats, such as FLAC. When it comes to video, you’re also limited to Apple’s preferred formats: MPEG4, H.264 and M-JPEG, but it’ll happily play videos encoded at 1080p. Although these limitations will irritate some, you’re not short on options for playing high quality audio and video.

In terms of the visual experience, video quality is better than ever before thanks to the 4in, 16:9 1,136×640 Retina display. Contrast on the small screen is excellent, even in the darkest of video clips, while skin tones and scenery are natural and beautifully coloured. We prefer watching films on larger screens, but the quality of the display will definitely keep you entertained on longer journeys. There’s still no support for video playlists, though, unless you want to invest in a third-party app.

The iPod Touch produces surprisingly high quality video and photos, thanks to the five megapixel camera built into the rear of the player. A second, 1.2 megapixel camera is built into the front, so you can use Apple’s FaceTime video chat and take pictures of yourself making amusing duckface expressions.

Photo quality isn’t particularly remarkable, although it’s certainly an improvement on your average mobile phone snap. Our videos really did look good, with a surprising amount of detail and accurate colour even under difficult light conditions, although we noticed a fair bit of motion blur.

It’s easy to get your snaps and videos off the device, too, as – unlike audio files stored on the iPod – they’re stored in a directory that you can simply browse to using your computer’s file manager. Of course, they’re also synchronised to iCloud, appearing on any iOS, Mac OSX or Windows device connected to the same cloud account.

We’re used to seeing a massive battery life from Apple’s portable devices. The Touch has exceeded even the previous generation’s battery life in our audio playback test, lasting for 54 hours and 36 minutes. That’s over three days of continuous music, while in our video test, the new Touch lasted for almost eight hours.

This is undoubtedly the best device of its kind, and that’s before you consider the huge range of high-quality games available for it through the App Store. Essentially, what you get here is an iPhone 5 – complete with excellent web browsing, an email client and access to the App Store – only without the ability to make phone calls.

The 32GB version is available for £249, while the 64GB version costs £329. Unless you need to carry around truly massive amounts of media, the 32GB version is probably the better bet, winning our Best Buy award.