Apple iPod 40GB Review

Overall Rating

Extreme high capacity, excellent playback clarity, vast range of accessories, excellent battery life & intuitive user interface.

Display is a little too easy to scratch & is hard to get into to change the battery/HDD.

I have to admit when the iPod came out I was a critic due to the price and fragility of the devices. But time has proved a great healer as the technology has improved and there is a great choice of second hand products on the worlds favorite online auction site e-something-or-other :-).

I was tuned as my car stereo CD player went up toes-up and i started looking at new stereos when I happened to jump in a mates car one day and he pulled out his iPod with his little iTrip griffin FM transmitter tuned it into his car stereo and away we went. From that moment on I was sold on the idea and thought "I WANT ONE". Now you can spend 200 quid plus on a multi-changer unit with MP3 compatibility ...... yadda yadda - but you still have to burn the disks and change them when your bored. Oh-yeah and the setup is bound to your car!

Now a little maths - say you have 6 CD's all crammed with MP3's (all legally obtained - of course) so that's roughly - 10 tracks = 40Mb, so say 160 tracks per CD, so that's 960 tracks in your 6-CD multi changer - that are usually bulky things you have to sacrifice boot space for, and you'll have to install the thing yourself which is a pain or pay for the installation, again more pain. Compiled with the facts, that, you have to stop, open the boot and mess around with CD's to change your selection, pay an arm and a leg for the unit - possibly even buy a new head unit if your current one isn't compatible - so add another leg, oh-yeah and if you want read-ahead - so your unit doesn't start skipping when you hit speed bumps - you can add your other arm!

You'll pay a staggering amount for a system that - in my opinion is obsolete, unless your a chav that wants all the CD's on view like some kind of retro juke box in your boot - but that's a whole different argument. So all-in-all, bottom/mid-range you'll pay £400 ish for the system outlined above. I paid...... £103 for my iPod that can store 10,000 tracks, that are all sorted into albums, artists or genres for me, that i can make my own playlists on the go and then connect to my computer an up load/delete more music - currently I have 5000'ish tracks stored or 16 DAYS continuous playback - and still have room for nearly twice that!

Now, I'm an engineer - so I like gadgets and am not a technophobe, so I bought the iTrip transmitter, sounds complicated? - basically a little device you pop on the top of your iPod that acts as a WIRELESS link to your stereo, the device is the same styling as the iPod itself i.e. pure white & chrome and looks the business, as well as doing it. The only chink in this system is the loss of the stereo playback - which is available but you need at least 2MHz of static either side of the Channel your using to get clear stereo, if you flick to mono you get the clarity with about .5, take it from me mono is the way forward with this system possibly until everybody goes digital. Also worth considering is the fact your in a CAR - not the opera house/night club so stereo isn't really worth the baggage - and to be honest, I don't even notice the difference.

As for battery life - without running the iTrip, the thing will go for 9hrs+, with the iTrip about 6Hrs (due to the iTrip requiring a 5v supply with little current), charge time is an hour or so depending if you topping up or complete fill obviously longer respectively.

I'd also recommend ditching the apple earphones and getting a set of quality in-ear head phones. I bought the Bang & Olufson in-ear headphones or rather my wife did (under instruction) for a birthday pressie - a bit pricey but about £40 from that world on-line trading place e-something. These ear-phones are a staggering 38Watts and WILL rupture your ear-drum before they do, they give a clarity of sound I can only compare to a very old professional set of studio earphones I once had and 10X better than the technics headset I've got. I also use these headphones to play my guitar through my valve amp and the sound is delicious, and coupled with the iPod is a sound system...... second to NONE!

So back to the car paradigm - this system is then removable and i can carry and listen to it on the move - literally, running on the treadmill!

Prices:

iPod 4th Gen 40Gb £103 (£115 - including P&P, UK bought)
B&O earphones £40 (£45 - including P&P, UK bought)
Griffin iTrip FM Tx £7.50 (£15 - including P&P, Shipped from Canada, available in UK 6th December 2006)

Members' Comments on00kowboi's Review

• Ieuanfawr on 28th Nov 2006

  I would comment that while your iPod is working, it's fantastic. And the iTrip is a very useful and easy way to play your music through your car stereo. But beware.
  
  Once your guarantee has expired, your iPod will soon follow, especially those with miniature HDD's of 20Gb or more. Several models have been removed from general sale because their failure rate is so high. Apple have been the subject of many Trading Standards cases over "lasting a reasonable length of time".
  
  Apple have no repair workshop, and will not help you if you have no guarantee. There are independent repairers, but the cost will be similar to buying a new model. iPod's are the ultimate in our throwaway consumer world, and Apple's green/recycling policies are totally absent. Apple are severely deficient in this area. Their policy is to sell, not sustain.
  
  My advice is not to buy directly from Apple, either by mail order or from one of their very attractive stores, but from John Lewis where you can get a 2 year guarantee free. (Apple only give one, the second year is over £40).
  
  Read this article from the Guardian before buying an iPod.
  Is your iPod one of the bad Apples? http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1784400,00.html
  (You'll need to copy and paste the URL into your browser).

• 00kowboi on 15th Dec 2006

  True - I have heard that the failure rate of the internal components is higher than average, but that's probably due to the level of integration on the modules. As I stated in my review - I'm not a technophobe, so replacing a motherboard, HDD, battery or LCD display is not a problem. None of my parts have failed yet - touch wood taps head hopefully. In addition......ALL of the parts are available from that online-world-auction site e-something or other :-) AND at a FRACTION of the price you'd pay from the official retailers!

• Ieuanfawr on 18th Dec 2006

  ALL of the parts are available from that online-world-auction site e-something or other :-) AND at a FRACTION of the price you'd pay from the official retailers!
  
  Pause for a moment and think why. It's because the failure rate is so high, and Apple don't want to know. And what's available from an on-line auction is likely to be reconditioned at best, cannibalised from a failed model, or even worse. There's no warranty or after sales. Genuine spares are expensive, comparable to buying a new model.
  
  My advice is to avoid the iPods with miniaturised HDD's and go for the newer models with solid state memory.