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Apple iPod Touch (second generation, 8GB)

Manufacturer: Apple Part number: MB528LL/A

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$214.97 - $244.00 at 8 online stores

CNET Editor rating:
4.5 stars Spectacular
Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 56 reviews

Sep 2008

More product information:: Editors' review; User reviews; Specifications; Product series; Manufacturer info

Bottom Line:: The second-generation iPod Touch includes features that are light-years ahead of the competition, its design has improved, and its price has finally come down to earth.
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CNET editors' review

Apple iPod Touch (second generation, 8GB)

price range: $214.97 - $244.00

Reviewed by: Donald Bell
Reviewed on: 09/11/2008

The good: The second-generation Apple iPod Touch has it all: music, videos, photos, podcasts, e-mail, Web browsing, Internet radio, games, Nike+, Wi-Fi music downloads, and an App Store for adding thousands of custom features.

The bad: The second-generation iPod Touch may be overwhelming to users looking for a simple music player; audio quality is average; and iTunes software is required.

The bottom line: The second-generation iPod Touch includes features that are light-years ahead of the competition, its design has improved, and its price has finally come down to earth.

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iPod Touch (second generation)

As the less-gifted sibling of Apple's celebrated iPhone, the iPod Touch has had to work hard to prove itself. Now in its second generation, Apple has finally given the iPod Touch a chance to shine by lowering its price (an 8GB model now runs $229), improving the hardware, and practically doubling the features from last year's original model.

Design
Apple's updates to the iPod Touch's design are subtle, but the hardware has definitely changed for the better. A slim volume switch now graces the left edge of the Touch, making it easier to make quick volume adjustments. The chromed steel back of the second-generation iPod Touch now mimics the rounded design of the iPhone 3G, giving the device a slimmer profile at its edges. Whether psychological or by design, the second-generation iPod Touch feels less fragile than last year's model and makes the plastic enclosure of the iPhone 3G feel cheap by comparison.

Minor improvements aside, the second-generation iPod Touch hardware is largely unchanged. Both the first- and second-generation iPod Touch share the same dimensions (4.3 inches by 2.4 inches by 0.31 inch), same glass-covered screen (3.5 inch), and same arrangement of headphone jack, dock connector, sleep button, and home button.

Apple's Cover Flow music menu is a bit useless on the smaller screens of the iPod Nano and iPod Classic, but it's a fantastic way to browse music on the iPod Touch.

Features
Priced at $229 (8GB), $299 (16GB), and $399 (32GB), the second-generation iPod Touch still commands a fairly high price compared with other MP3 players with similar capacities. When you weigh the price of the iPod Touch against its features, however, the device becomes much more attractive. Out of the box, the second-generation iPod Touch includes an amazing music player, podcast support, video playback (including iTunes rentals and a YouTube player), a Safari Web browser, photo viewer, an e-mail reader (compatible with Outlook, Exchange, MobileMe, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, or any POP e-mail service), an integrated Wi-Fi music store, and a host of smaller utilities (weather, calendar, maps, stocks, notes, clock, contacts, and calculator). Provided you can become proficient with its touch-screen keyboard, the iPod Touch is more pocket PC than MP3 player.

As of version 2.0 of Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch firmware, the device's stock features are just the beginning. The new iTunes App Store, accessible from your computer or directly from the iPod Touch, lets users download and install thousands of applications, including Internet radio players, games, voice recorders, and social-networking tools. You can also extend the capabilities of the iPod Touch using third-party "Made for iPod" hardware accessories such as Bluetooth transmitters, audio/video docks, external battery packs, and speaker systems.

The second-generation of the iPod Touch also introduces Apple's new Genius feature, which lets you create an instant 25-song playlists based on the musical characteristics of a single song. The Genius feature is easy to use, and the results are fun, provided your music collection holds enough songs to make interesting connections. You can create and save Genius playlists directly onto your iPod Touch, and with automatic syncing enabled in iTunes you can also transfer them back to your computer. Oddly, the Touch's Genius feature won't work if you haven't enabled Genius on your computer's iTunes software. If you find iTunes' Genius feature too demanding on your computer's resources or too invasive of your privacy (the feature reports your listening habits to Apple), then you'll need to live without the feature on your iPod as well.

Competing MP3 players like the Samsung P2 (right) do an admirable job emulating Apple's touch-screen control. But when push comes to shove, it's easy to tell which of the two companies has more experience with software design.

If you own a first-generation iPod Touch, you can spend $10 to upgrade its firmware to include all of the software capabilities (including Genius playlists) found on the second-generation model. There are three features, however, that you're only going to get on the second-generation Touch: a built-in speaker, Nike+ support, and headphone jack microphone input. The speaker included on the second-generation iPod Touch isn't visible from the outside and its sound quality is far from spectacular. Despite its poor quality, the addition of a speaker makes it easier to play games or listen to your morning podcasts without hunting down your headphones. We're also happy to see the inclusion of Nike+ functionality considering the popularity of MP3 players as workout companions. And if you're interested in making voice memos, an investment in a compatible iPod microphone headset (due out in October) will allow you to make voice recordings directly to the iPod Touch, provided that third-party developers begin creating voice applications specific to the Touch.

We're still disappointed that the iPod Touch still can't stream Flash video or audio content through its Safari browser; however, many of the Web's more popular content providers are working around the problem by creating specific App Store applications for their content (Pandora Radio and vSnax video are prime examples). We also can't help but crave the camera and GPS capabilities included on the Touch's close relative, the iPhone 3G. With any luck, a third-party manufacturer will step in with some clever accessories.

iTunes Wi-Fi
Both the iPod Touch and iPhone let users browse, preview, purchase, and download music from the new iTunes Wi-Fi music store. The store is limited strictly to music downloads--no movies, TV shows, podcasts, or games--at least, not yet. You'll have to hop onto an available Wi-Fi Internet connection to take advantage of the wireless music store, but once connected, you can search for any artist, album, or song in the iTunes catalog, as well as browse by genre, top sellers, featured artists, and new releases. Store purchases require you to enter your iTunes password as a security measure. Once the download is complete, the song is immediately available to listen to and will transfer to your computer's iTunes music library the next time you sync the device. The feature seems to work without any kinks. Even interrupted downloads pick up once a Wi-Fi connection is re-established.

Taking some design cues from the Apple iPhone 3G, the second-generation iPod Touch has a rounded back and includes a rocker switch for volume adjustments.

Performance
Having handled our share of touch-screen iPod and iPhone imitators this past year, we've yet to find a product that measures up to the responsiveness of Apple's multitouch technology. Granted, some Web-based applications need a few seconds to warm up, but the majority of the features on the iPod Touch react with an uncanny immediacy and fluidness. Small things such as album cover art that flips over to reveal track listings, menus that scroll with artificial momentum, and photos that resize with a pinch of your fingers, all illustrate an attention to detail not offered by the iPod's competitors.

For reasons known only to Apple, the obsessive detail poured into the iPod's design doesn't translate into audio performance. The barrage of sound enhancement settings packed into MP3 players from Sony, Cowon, and Samsung, are in stark contrast to the unchanged and marginally useful list of EQ presets included on the iPod. That said, the balanced and smooth audio quality of the iPod Touch is likely to satisfy the majority of listeners, despite the limited scope of its audio control. Like all iPods, the second-generation iPod Touch supports playback for MP3, AAC (including protected files), Audible, WAV, AIFF, and Apple Lossless. There's still no support for WMA music files, but you can always convert your WMA tracks to MP3 within Apple's iTunes software.

If you are looking for a way to take video on-the-go, the iPod Touch has a lot to offer. You can load the iPod Touch with video podcasts, TV shows, and iTunes movie rentals, or watch endless amounts of free video clips using the included YouTube widget. Viewing angles on the second-generation iPod Touch seem better than the previous model, while color balance and brightness seem about the same.

Apple rates the new iPod Touch at 36 hours for music (up from the first-generation's 22 hours) and 6 hours of video (up from 5 hours). Our CNET Labs found the second-generation iPod Touch realistically capable of 38 hours of music playback when Wi-Fi is turned off, or 35 hours with Wi-Fi turned on.

Video battery life test results for the iPod Touch are harder to nail down, because of the product's unique auto-brightness sensor and battery management features. Bearing this in mind, our lab team tested the iPod Touch with Wi-Fi switched off, screen brightness set at half, and the auto-brightness sensor deactivated, and reached around 4.5 hours of video playback before the screen went to sleep. After waking the screen and resuming the video, the iPod Touch made it to 5 hours before giving its first low battery warning. Then, after tolerating a few more low battery messages and narcoleptic screens, the labs team finally clawed their way to about 5.8 total hours of video playback.

The iTunes factor
Before you run off to buy an iPod Touch, consider this caveat: those who use the Touch (or any iPod) will be required to install and use iTunes. No other piece of software has equaled iTunes in both praise and scorn from CNET's users. Some argue that iTunes is a top-notch media library tool and online music store, while others become infuriated by the software's insatiable demand for system resources and frequent updates.

Whatever side of the iTunes debate you take, know that iTunes 8 is a mandatory install for the second-generation iPod Touch. If you haven't used iTunes before or haven't upgraded the software in a while, we strongly recommend giving the new software a spin before committing to a new iPod.

Is it worth the upgrade?
We think the second-generation iPod Touch is one of the best iPod's ever made. Inside and out, the iPod Touch is in a league of its own in the world of portable entertainment. If you have an old, worn-out iPod, and you're ready to upgrade, we think the second-generation iPod Touch should be your first consideration.

That said, if you already own an iPhone or an original iPod Touch, it would be hard to justify buying the second-generation Touch. Also, if all you really want is a no-frills portable music player, the iPod Touch is probably overkill.

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User reviews

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Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 56 reviews
My rating: 0 stars

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 56

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4 stars

Expensive Toy.

by sf_bayarea on September 18, 2008

Pros: It's an APPLE!

Cons: See below:

Summary: 1) Expensive.

2) Sound quality is just average.

3) Form over function: Handling it as handling a thin bar of wet soap! A big design flaw.

4) Wi-Fi is not ...

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Summary: 1) Expensive.

2) Sound quality is just average.

3) Form over function: Handling it as handling a thin bar of wet soap! A big design flaw.

4) Wi-Fi is not working as advertised. It can only connect ot an opened network. Try to save time and headache if you want to connect it to your own secured network.

5) Everything has to go through iTunes!

6) Another design flaw: Volume control on touch pad beside two hard mechanical buttons on the side. You could accidentally hit the max volume and your ears will be ringing afterward

Take CNET reviews as a grain of salt. They now even review cars!

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13 out of 21 users found this user opinion helpful.
6 stars

Good but not perfect

by talmy on October 1, 2008

Pros: Good sync of contacts and calendar, usable browser, great for viewing photos, lots of great apps in App Store

Cons: WiFi DHCP is tempermental. No search in calendar, no to-do list -- if only it was a capable a PIM as OS X or my old Palm Tungsten. "Keyboard" is difficult to use with big fingers.

Summary: I purchased to replace my failing Palm Tungsten E, so I was primarily interested in its PIM features. It should be better than my Palm syncing to my iMac but ...

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Summary: I purchased to replace my failing Palm Tungsten E, so I was primarily interested in its PIM features. It should be better than my Palm syncing to my iMac but it implements only a subset of the iMacs functionality. But PDAs are a dead market segment with everyone but me going to smart cell phones. I gotta take what I can get. It looks slick -- I have played a couple videos on it, but I've yet to use it as a music player!

Updated on Oct 1, 2008
I will add that some apps crash regularly. In years of use, I never had my Palm crash. Hopefully things will improve with time.

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8 out of 9 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

Now it's worth it!!

by sexymexi26 on September 12, 2008

Pros: Beautiful screen, app store, design, volume control buttons, external speaker, i can go on and on...

Cons: no cases are out for it yet, still has fingerprint loving backside

Summary: I purchased the first ipod touch at 399 for 16 gigs, but I just thought the whole thing was not worth the money. So when I heard about the updates ...

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Summary: I purchased the first ipod touch at 399 for 16 gigs, but I just thought the whole thing was not worth the money. So when I heard about the updates apple made I thought I'd give it another try. I went and bought the 32 gig touch... twice the size as the original ipod touch, but the same price!!

The first thing I noticed was the design. It feels a lot more sturdy, but thinner than the first. The contoured shape feels really nice in my hand. The screen is as gorgeous as ever with a 3.5 inch widescreen. The volume control is a nice convenient feature as well as the external speaker. The external speaker isn't great quality or anything, but just produces a sound for casual listening great for sharing youtube videos and songs. With the added app store, I can play games, get a to do list, organize my finances, etc. I realized it is now completely identical to the iphone except the phone part of course. This is like my mini PDA!! The only complaint I have is that the back has that polish that attracts fingerprints. It hasn't scratched on me yet, but being careful until a case comes out for it.

I feel this is definitely worth the purchase now and will be keeping this great and entertaining device for a long time!

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8 out of 15 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

Great Product. It's everything

by rayman312 on October 22, 2008

Pros: Great music playback
Awesome apps

Cons: Very bad battery life

Summary: The iTouch is a lifesaver. I use it for everything. I'm a junior in high school and I use my ipod everyday. Most of my teachers don't mind ...

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Summary: The iTouch is a lifesaver. I use it for everything. I'm a junior in high school and I use my ipod everyday. Most of my teachers don't mind and are actually intrested. In my Algebra 2 class, I downloaded a free graphing calculator from the app store. It works great and is always correct. You can zoom in and out by pinching and trace by double tapping the screen. I also have the instapaper application which helps you with writing essays and doing research by saving web pages on your iPod. You can view without wifi and it makes bibliographys and work cited a lot easier. The Scientific calculator works great with chemistry but it costs $.99 to download a periodic table. You can also download a unit converter to convert from customary to metric. I have A.P. english and I downloaded a dictionary app that helps a lot. I also have the constitution and the D.O.I. on it for my A.P. U.S. History. I also have a program called iProcrastinate which acts like my personal assistant. It is better than an average homework planner. I have all my assignments in there and you can have it arranged in many ways. Parents, buy this for your kid. It raised my grade up and makes school less stressful.

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3 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
4 stars

The new Ipod Touch 2G and WiFi Problems

by 49goldrush on September 12, 2008

Pros: I agree with the cnet review of the 2G, but with one exception...the WiFi

Cons: WiFi will not connect to a router using WAP-2. This seems to be a problem in Apple's software ver 2.1.1. Read the forums on apple's support page.

4 out of 8 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

The best iPod ever made

by bobtech101 on December 17, 2008

Pros: Speaker, compatible with the new in-ear headphones w/ a mic, faster processor than previous gen.

Cons: WiFi antenna a bit weaker than the 1st gen touch, the volume rocker + the sleep button a bit hard to press, not jailbreakable yet.

Summary: I got this new ipod to replace my 1st gen touch which had a cracked screen. After comparing the two together, I noticed that the 1st gen seemed to pick ...

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Summary: I got this new ipod to replace my 1st gen touch which had a cracked screen. After comparing the two together, I noticed that the 1st gen seemed to pick up more wifi networks than the new one. Also the settings menu has a bluish tint to it. The speaker is quiet, but is meant to be used for "casual listening." The battery life is pretty good and the faster processor speed is noticeable. Even if this seems like a mild upgrade to the 1st gen, it feels like a totally new device.

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
8 stars

One of the best iPod I've had

by jerkmonkey on November 14, 2008

Pros: - Thin
- 3.5 inch display
- Love the WiFi option
- Good battery life
- Volume buttons on the side are a huge plus

Cons: - Because its so thin, the iPod Touch does get quite warm at the back
- For me, the screen sometimes freezes, but it is an easy fix

Summary: I love the iPod Touch. Huge screen is perfect for playing games or surfing the web. I dunno about other cities but now with hot zones all over Toronto, you ...

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Summary: I love the iPod Touch. Huge screen is perfect for playing games or surfing the web. I dunno about other cities but now with hot zones all over Toronto, you can basically connect to the internet from anywhere. Especially perfect for me since I'm a university student and one of my profs dislike laptops because he finds them distracting. No problem, take out my iPod Touch and log on, and he can't see it because of its thin size.

Battery life on this is awesome. It will probably last me a whole week before I need to recharge it. It's not like I use my iPod rarely. I actually use it during breaks and going to and from school which amounts to about 4 - 4.5 hours a day.

One problem I do have with my iPod Touch, and I'm not sure if anyone else has this problem, but most of the time, when I'm listening to my music, my iPod is in my pockets. When it's in my pockets, it switches the display from the songs album cover to the album flow option (vertical display to horizontal display). Sometimes, when I take out my iPod to backtrack on the song, or go to my menu to switch to a specific song, my iPod's screen stays in the horizontal display even when I'm holding it vertically. I just fix this by pushing to Home button then tapping the music button again. It can get annoying at times.

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

IN-F&$KING-CREDIBLE!!!!

by home4dixons on November 11, 2008

Pros: You can't even call this an MP3 player. It is a full fledges computer in the palm of your hand. The graphics and touch screen will make you drool. The functionality and apps will make your head spin. And the WiFi will give you a heart attack.

Cons: For the price it would be a sin to complain!

Summary: If it were a choice between shoes for your kids or the 8GB Ipod Touch, let the children go barefoot.

Summary: If it were a choice between shoes for your kids or the 8GB Ipod Touch, let the children go barefoot.

1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

Simply awesome product, easily worth the 229 dollars!

by M_cKade on September 19, 2008

Pros: The curved edges make the iPod Touch feel incredibly thin in your hand! Also, Safari is one of the best features because I am writing this review on my iPod touch!

Cons: The the back of the iPod is a super magnet for fingerprints and scratches!

Summary: The iPod Touch is a very sexy device. The touch screen is amazing! Built in speaker, volume controls and tapered design is the new features of the 2 gen. The ...

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Summary: The iPod Touch is a very sexy device. The touch screen is amazing! Built in speaker, volume controls and tapered design is the new features of the 2 gen. The built in Safar web browser is my favorite thing about the iPod Touch! It is sooo easy to use and pretty fast too. I think 229 dollars is a reasonable price for something that can do this much. The storage capacity is a little small for the 229 version with only 8 gigs, but if you want to pay 70 dollars more you can buy the 16 gig model or 399 for the 32. Apps store makes the iPod complete. There are so many useful applications that you can download and some are even free!

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
5 stars

Sound quality?

by azure13 on January 7, 2009

Pros: All Ipods are fun to use and have a great user interface.

Cons: All Ipods have questionable sound quality.

Summary: Why is CNET putting this as it's top mp3 player if the sound quality is not great? Isn't sound quality the most important feature of a MUSIC player?...

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Summary: Why is CNET putting this as it's top mp3 player if the sound quality is not great? Isn't sound quality the most important feature of a MUSIC player?
I'm ticked that I bought into all the hype over Ipod only to find out after buying one that it doesn't sound that good. What a waste of money...
I've tried several different earphones, costing hundreds of dollars and also tried other conversion softwares to convert my CDs all to no avail. After messing around so much that is when I decided to do more research and found out that the sound is a common complaint.
Normally I would have done more research ahead of time, but as I said, I bought into the hype.

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Apple iPod Touch (second generation, 8GB)

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