Howdy friends, family, gentlemen, and especially the ladies. I hope you enjoyed last week's review of the Apple iPhone, because it isn’t over yet. Phone Week may be over, but now it's MP3 Madness! Today I’ll be specifically reviewing the MP3 capability of the iPhone, which is presumably comparable to the iPod Touch, the latest and greatest iPod featured by Apple. I’d review the touch, but it seems Apple doesn’t believe my opinion is worth the cost of providing me a free model to review, how unsporting! For those of you that still love Apple, I've thrown up their iPhone as an iPod commercial. It is located after the review for your viewing pleasure.Just a reminder, I’m pretty lazy and since I’m still technically reviewing the same product as last week... the next two paragraphs are more or less cut and pasted from the previous review; feel free to skip them if you want to get straight to the new stuff.
Construction and Battery
The iPhone is sleek and fits comfortably in the palm of your hand. Unlike most MP3 Players, the new iPhone features two colors. Users have the choice of either a black or white body color (though many protective cases can be purchased in varying colors). Due to my somewhat clumsy nature, I have firsthand experience with the resiliency of the phone. After several weeks of use the outer case is somewhat scuffed, but the screen has yet to suffer any cracks or scratches. I'm thoroughly impressed with how solid the phone has proven to be, 10/10.
The battery on the other hand has been a bit of a disappointment. It seems that with each update Apple accidentally damages the total battery life. Updates are not meant to be detrimental to a product, quite the opposite in fact. That being said, the iPhone can operate as an iPod for something on the order of 16 hours before I start to get worried about the battery (Yes, I left it on and playing music for that long before I decided I needed to use my phone and should charge it). Having not used another MP3 Player recently I’ll stick with my 5/10 from before.
Interface
The second interaction you’ll have with the iPhone is with its touch sensitive interface. Not surprisingly, it performs quite well and as I noted before, it seems that Apple put more effort into the multifunction capability than into the actual phone. The accelerometer changes the interface based upon the orientation of the phone. When in landscape mode, the MP3 displays the cover art for individual CDs that is easily navigable with the flick of a finger. Unfortunately, if you didn’t legally import your CDs into iTunes, you’ll have to download and copy the cover art individually. Way to make things complicated for 95% of the world Apple. When oriented vertically the iPhone exhibits your standard fare interface. It has all the expected sorting options and remains easy to use thanks to the touch screen. Give yourself 10 minutes with the device and you’ll have it figured out without a problem, my vote is 7/10 for usability, cover art issues are annoying and the lack of buttons means you cant adjust settings while wearing gloves or with the player in a pocket.
Sound Quality and iTunes
It has been my experience with the iPhone that the sound quality is effected not just by the level of compression of the MP3, but also by the quality of headphones and even your ear for music. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have the best hearing, but I was able to mess around with different speakers and headphones as well as different compression versions of the same song. The stock Apple headphones are pretty cheap, I’d suggest you swap them out quickly. My pair is getting a little old and tends to shock me in one ear so I don’t usually wear them. When paired with a headset designed for competitive video games (built in surround sound and small subwoofers) the iPhone outputs a surprising level of sound. The clarity decreased somewhat significantly as I increased the volume, with distortion highly obvious at about 87% of full volume. For the stock package delivered by the iPhone, I’ll concede a 6/10, the cheap headphones and tendency to distort at high volume is a big turn off.
iTunes is a big question mark for a lot of people. DRM music is only usable on computers linked to your account or pieces of hardware that you own. At any time, Apple could technically kill or remove your property, even though you paid for it. On one hand, the ability to download music, movies, applications, games, and all manner of entertainment on demand is great. On the other, the level of control that Apple leverages over your personal property is almost big brotherish. Unfortunately, you can’t use one without the other so looks like you’re stuck. On the upside, iTunes works significantly better than the Windows equivalent. 8/10 for the software, docked 2 points for the invasion or property.
What it all Means
The iPhone is a solid MP3 Player. It does everything in an efficient and pretty manner, though outside of the touch screen it fails to innovate in any standout way. Applications have been available for years and while access to the iTunes App store means access to limitless potential, it is also the potential to spend a lot of money on things you’ll just lose anyway. My score leaves the phone sitting not so pretty at a 74, just above average. If you plan to use a MP3 player for everything under the sun and never intend to be away from it, then the iPhone/iPod Touch is for you. But, if you want a dedicated player I’d suggest looking elsewhere.
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