Digital Trends

Apple iPod Classic (80GB)

September 12th, 2007 | by Brandon King

Testing Cont'd

Once past the first two levels of the menu structure, the interface switches to a nicely-spaced, text-based scrolling scheme with summary information… or rather does, except for the Cover Flow option. That’s right: Like the newer versions of iTunes, the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and new nano, the Classic also sports Cover Flow, which allows you to flip through your albums visually. It looks nice, works well and shows no significant lag, but is ultimately useless when you have 120GB+ of music. Maybe adding Cover Flow as a sub-option under Artist or Genre would make more sense, but after using it as is, we’ll probably never touch it again. Otherwise, the Now Playing screen has been significantly revamped with much clearer text, more track information, less lag when switching tracks or moving through the Now Playing options, and, most noticeably, a nice 3D perspective of the album art with reflection below. 

Of primary import, sound quality from the Classic is exceptional, as with previous iPods. There are 22 equalizer settings, though no custom setting, and user changeable volume limiter and volume normalizer. (Amusingly, the included ear buds are an embarrassment, as always, and were relegated to our bin of unused accessories.) That said, we tested the sound quality using a number of tracks ranging from Jazz and Vocal to Industrial, Rock, and Techno. All were MP3s encoded at 320kbps played through Super.fi 5 Pro in-ear monitors, and could not identify a consistently underperforming category.

Coverflow Screenshot

Conclusion: 

The Apple iPod Classic is a nice evolutionary step in iPod design aimed at previous generation owners who require more storage capacity, or new owners who don’t want to pony up premium fees for less than premium storage. Granted, the unit’s new interface changes have been well thought-out and prove welcome additions, but do require some tweaking on Apple’s end in order to make the system more responsive. The upshot being as follows: While nothing about the iPod Classic wowed us besides the capacity, we were left feeling satisfied with the purchase. If you are a current 5G iPod owner and don’t need additional space, there is no compelling reason to upgrade. But on the flip side, owners of earlier generation iPods have many nice bells and whistles to look forward to.

Pros: 

• Huge capacity
• Excellent sound quality
• Revamped interface

Cons: 

• Sluggish/balky menus
• No docking station included
• Requires iTunes 7 or newer
• Might not be compatible with some accessories