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  • Tour & Design

  • Hardware

  • Media Interface

  • Media Management

  • Other Media Software

  • Performance

  • Internet & Wireless

  • Synchronization

  • Organizer & Other Software

  • Conclusion

  • Tour & Design
  • Hardware
  • Media Interface
  • Media Management
  • Other Media Software
  • Performance
  • Internet & Wireless
  • Synchronization
  • Organizer & Other Software
  • Conclusion

Tour & Design

Front
**Ah, the iPod Classic: such an appropriate name for the aesthetic descendent of the original iPod, the MP3 player that started it all. The front of the iPod Classic contains its 2.46-inch screen, along with a d-pad / scroll wheel. The d-pad's four buttons are labeled according to their function: Menu, previous skip, forward skip, and play/pause. The center of the d-pad is the select key.

**

The iconic iPod façade.

 

**Left
**All the sides of the iPod Classic have a metal casing that also covers the device's back. Other than this, there aren't any interesting features on the left side.

**
**

Right

Nothing interesting here either.

 

Top
**The top of the iPod Classic has a standard 1/8-inch headphone jack and a hold switch for locking the device's inputs.

**

 

**Bottom
**The bottom is where you'll find the proprietary data/charging port.

**
**

**Back
**The back part of the iPod classic is metal. It has no important features, although you can find your device's serial number at the bottom. .

**
**

 

Battery Out

Apple doesn't let you change the battery.

**In Box**

In the iPod's box, you'll find some documentation, headphones, a small cradle/dock, and a USB cable.

**Durability***     (6.00)*

The iPod classic has some pretty solid construction behind it. It's basically a small brick, so there's no moving parts that can get broken off. The main durability concern on the iPod Classic is scratching. The screen and plastic seem durable. Neither scratched easily on pocket change, although keys did some damage to both (as a general rule, keep gadgets away from piles of unsorted metal). The metal on the back, however, is far more likely to pick up small scrapes and scratches. These scratches will also be more readily apparent than scratches on the front case. Our review unit's case picked up quite a few scratches, and it remained confined to a desktop. 

*This is how scratched up the Classic got from

sitting on our desk.*

 

**Aesthetics***     (6.00)*

Very few people would say the iPod Classic is an ugly device. It's sleek, simple, and clean. Most of all, unfortunately, it's a bit old. Part of the onus of maintaining the 'classic' aesthetic means it doesn't have the 'new' factor of more recent devices. Also, there are a lot of consumers who won't be interested in this device simply because iPods are so omnipresent. Part of being absurdly popular is dealing with the backlash from supersaturated consumers. Those without such an aversion will probably like the aesthetic, which is a good-looking update to the classic design.

**Portability***     (3.76)*

The iPod Classic is a bit big and heavy for a modern day media player. Its face is almost 10 square inches, which is about 40% larger than a credit card. It's about as thick as the widest part of a push pin, which isn't very thick.

Of course, all modern players are small compared to the CD players of the distant past. Overall, while the Classic isn't the smallest device on the market, you shouldn't have troubles lugging it around.

**Supported File Types***     (8.88)*

The iPod Classic supports a good array of file types. It will play back your music as long as it's in one of the following formats: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC, MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, WAV, or AIFF. You can also watch movies on this thing, providing they're H.264, .m4v, .mp4, or .mov files. In terms of pictures, JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only), and PNG files will work. In all, that's 17 (more like 16.5 because PSD is Mac only) file types, which is a lot. The world is your oyster if the iPod Classic is your media player.

Hardware

**Physical Controls***     (7.00)*

There isn't much to the iPod Classic's controls. The front of the iPod has a touch-sensitive, 4-way d-pad, at the center of which is a select key, and the top of the device has a hold switch. Unlike traditional d-pads, you use the touch-sensitive surface for navigation, not the d-pad itself. Up on the d-pad is the Menu button, which you'll mainly use as a back button when navigating through onscreen menus. The left and right buttons are dedicated skip keys (previous and forward respectively). Down is also dedicated to a playback feature: play/pause.

**Display**

**Screen resolution***(5.54)*

The iPod Classic is capable of 320 x 240 resolution, which is standard. Some of the more advanced media players on the market today [?*: example!?] have higher resolutions. The iPod Classic is meant to double as a video player, and its huge store of internal memory makes it a great portable movie library. While the Classic's resolution will allow for fine-looking playback -- especially considering the comparatively small screen -- we would expect a little better from a video player.

**Screen size***(6.15)*

At 2.46 inches diagonally, the iPod Classic's screen has a slightly larger display compared to other media players. Again, however, the Classic is a device that really wants to be a video player, and 2.46 inches of screen space really isn't a lot. You won't need a magnifying glass to enjoy your playback, but other devices, like the [?*: example!?]...

**Pixels per inch***(6.50)*

Slightly above average resolution crammed into a slightly above average screen size means the device will probably have a slightly higher than average pixel density as well.

**Color depth***(8.00)*

The iPod Classic is capable of displaying 260,000 colors. This means colors on the device can appear vibrant, with smooth fading or transitioning effects. There's only one notch above 260,000: 16 million colors. Though this seems like quite a leap, 260,000 colors is a more than adequate pallette (also, our eyes can't discern more than 10 million or so different colors).

**Screen brightness***(10.16)*

The iPod Classic was able to output an impressive 536 candelas/meter2. To put this number in context, you could very easily use the Classic as a flashlight and not have any issues seeing the screen on a sunny day.

 

**Built-in Speakers***     (0.0)*

The iPod Classic doesn't have built-in speakers.

**Cable Connectivity***     (5.00)*

There are two ports on the iPod Classic: one for data/charging, and a standard 1/8-inch headphone jack. The data/changing port is proprietary, meaning unless you have a few other Apple products, you aren't likely to have a compatible cord lying around. We award more points to devices that accept a standard cable, such as mini or micro USB -- preferrably mini USB, since it's a far more established standard.

**Internal Storage***     (11.23)*

The iPod Classic might claim to have 80GB of storage, but don't believe its lies for a second. For the consumer's purposes, the device has 74.30 GB free. Even though it's not the full 80GB, it's still a sizeable chunk of real estate for your movies and music. Most people would have trouble filling up 1/2 of the iPod Classic with their songs, meaning there will still be room for quite a few TV shows and movies.

**External Storage***     (0.0)*

You'll have to be satisfied with a little less than 80GB of storage, because the iPod Classic doesn't have any external memory slots.

**Battery Life***     (1.19)*

For our battery life score, we leave the device playing a looped playlist and record the length of time it's capable of outputting. It seems our review unit had a faulty battery, because it was only able to last about 3 hours, 57 minutes off of a full charge. We're currently working on getting a few new units in so we can get a better sense of what to expect from your Classic's battery life. This being said, Apple does have a reputation for putting out products with faulty batteries. Be sure you test any new iPod you get to make sure it doesn't have an absurdly low battery life -- it should be lasting at least 10 hours.

Media Interface

**Basic Playback Controls***     (8.25)*

In terms of basic media playback functionalty, the d-pad can handle most functions. Down on the d-pad is also the play/pause button, which will serve as your playback's power switch (there's really no need for a 'Stop' button, since there's no disk that keeps spinning when you've merely hit 'Pause'). Left and right will skip between songs, either backwards or forwards. If you hold either button you'll rewind or fast-forward. You can also search within a song using the scroll wheel: just hit the select key while on the 'Now Playing' screen until you bring up the progress bar with a moveable slider. Scrolling clockwise will fast-forward, scrolling counter-clockwise will rewind. Finally, if you just want your music to play without any outside interference you can always flip the hold switch on the top of the device, locking all further input.

**Advanced Playback Controls***     (6.50)*

There are quite a few advanced playback controls for savvy users to employ. First of all, there are universal shuffle and repeat options which you can activate in the settings menu, off the main menu. You can opt to shuffle all songs with your current playlist, shuffle by album, repeat one song, or repeat all songs.

When a song is playing, the iPod Classic will inform you of a few facts pertaining both to the song playing and to the play settings. On the 'Now Playing' screen, you'll see the song's title, artist, album, position in the current playlist, and album art. There will also be a small symbol displayed describing any activated shuffle or repeat settings. 

 

Media Management

**Library Navigation**

**Library Navigation***     (1.81)*

You'll be scrolling around the library with the scroll wheel. Given how spotty this method of control can sometimes be, menu navigation is often beset with minor annoyances. We perform a standardized timing test with the device to see how long, on average, it takes to switch from one specific song to another specific song. The sporadically unresponsive touch scrolling meant we often had to re-enter inputs or accidentally scrolled past the item we wanted to select. On average, it took us 8.27 seconds to switch from one song to another -- if you have a lot of songs on your iPod, this time will only increase.

 

**Sorting Options***     (6.50)*

The iPod Classic gives you the option of viewing your songs by playlist, artist, album, compilation, song, genre, or composer. There's also an option to only display only audiobooks or podcasts. You can also choose to only display audiobooks. Video gets far less specific search options. You can either view all videos, just your movies, or just your TV shows. Overall this is a good list of sort criteria. One option we would've liked to see was the ability to sort by rating.

**Searching Options***     (6.50)*

Since the sorting options only get you so far, it's important for a media player to have good tools for searching through long lists of songs. The iPod Classic's main method of searching is its scroll wheel. The faster you turn the scroll wheel, the faster it'll skip down the list. You can also utilize a multi-tap search, where you can input criteria into a search engine that then looks at your songs' titles, albums, and artists to find a match. Entering in the search criteria is a bit awkward, however: you have to scroll through an alphabet with the scroll wheel, then select a letter with the select key. It's not too much different from a label maker. 

Like all iPods now, the Classic lets you browse through album art with the cover flow tool.

 

**Playlists***     (12.87)*

One thing iPods can do very easily is assemble a playlist. While the devices only have one playlist you can edit on the go, appropriately titled the 'On-The-Go' playlist, we were able to create a playlist with relative ease. We do a timing test where we see how long it takes to assemble a set playlist from a pool of songs. Some media players take 40 seconds or more to complete this test. The iPod Classic got it done in just over 11.

All you have to do to add something to your playlist, you have to first highlight it. It can be a song, album, artist, or any other criteria. Then just click and hold the select key. A short pause later and whatever you just clicked on will have been magically transported to the On-The-Go playlist.

In this section we also score for built-in playlists that change dynamically, such as 'highest rated,' or 'least listened to.' The only one the iPod Classic comes with is a 'shuffle all songs' option. 

 

**Equalizer & Filters***     (12.00)*

While the iPod Classic doesn't allow you to fiddle around with levels yourself, it does have a 22 equalizer presets. This is so many that it really reduces the usefulness of an actual equalizer.

The Classic will also let you play around with volume normalization, in case a song is too loud or soft. Most people have had to deal with the heartache of that one ripped CD in their MP3 collection that's about half as loud as the rest of their music. If you don't turn up the volume you miss the song, but if you do turn it up, you run the risk of being startled horribly once the next song kicks in. Thankfully, the iPod Classic and its volume normalization will save you from your cruel fate.

Other Media Software

**Photo Album***     (2.85)*

The Classic doesn't have the best photo album ever. The only available view is thumbnail view, and there aren't any organization options. There aren't any zooming, rotating, or editing options. The slideshow functionality is a little better, allowing you to add some music, or  a transitional effect. You can also customize how long each picture is shown for, or tell the show to loop back to the start once it's done. If you'd like, the Classic will also let you broadcast the slideshow elsewhere, via video out.

The photo album software is a little plain.

**Podcast Support***     (10.00)*

The Classic and iTunes go very far in supporting the noble past time of podcasting. The Classic will keep podcasts separate from the rest of your music, and supports advanced podcasts. iTunes will let you automatically download your podcasts or schedule a specific time. Overall, we were really satisfied with the breadth of the Classic's podcast support.

*This is us browsing our podcasts separate from music. Now none

of our Episodes of the Nutrition Diva will accidentally make it onto a party playlist.*

**Audio Recording / Voice Notes***     (0.0)*

Unfortunately, the Classic won't let you record any audio clips.

Performance

**Frequency Response***    (9.61) [

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/mediaplayers/content/How-We-Test.htm#Frequency_Response)*  

The first of our tests is frequency response, where we look at how well the iPod Classic 6th generation takes on the challenge of playing back the many frequencies that music contains. We do this by playing back a special file that contains all of the tones, while our testing system listens in. It then produces this graph, which shows the frequency response from the low (on the left) to the very high (on the right). The ideal media player would have a flat line on this graph, indicating that every frequency was played back at the same level. The iPod Classic was pretty close to perfect; the frequency response was very flat along most of the frequency curve, except for a slight bump at the very high end. But this bump is so slight that most people are unlikely to notice, and overall the iPod classic had excellent performance in this test; only the iPod Nano got a very slightly higher score.

**Distortion***    (9.45)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/mediaplayers/content/How-We-Test.htm#Distortion)  

The iPod Classic had a similarly strong performance in our distortion test; we found only very minimal amounts of distortion. For music, distortion is any difference between the original waveform of the music and the output of the player; a difference means that the music won't sound the way it should. This won't be a big issue with the iPod Classic; we found only a very, very small amount of distortion, so the music will come through cleanly and clearly.

**Crosstalk***    (8.82) *[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/mediaplayers/content/How-We-Test.htm#cross_talk)  

At the risk of sounding repetitive, the iPod Classic had no big problems here; in our test for crosstalk, the Classic did very well. Crosstalk is where the sound destined for one channel gets into the other. It happens because there is always some leakage from one side to the other inside the player, but we only saw a very minimal amount of crosstalk with the iPod Classic; we measured it at around -103 decibels. This effectively means that you'll never hear any crosstalk; the amount that sneaks from one channel to the other is so small as to be pretty much inaudible.

**Output Power***    (7.37) *[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/mediaplayers/content/How-We-Test.htm#Output_power)  

Output power is a measure of how much energy the player outputs on its headphone socket; the higher the output, the better job it can do driving bigger and better headphones. We measured the output of the iPod Classic driving a 10 ohm reference load at 29.7 milliwatts, which is enough to drive most headphones, including big, high impedence headphones that other media players may be unable to work with. This is important because many higher quality headphones have higher impedence than the ones that come with the player (Apple claims a figure of 32 ohms for their standard headphones, while many pairs of higher end headphones have impedances of up to 400 ohms). And the higher the output power, the better the audio quality will be with a pair of high impedance headphones, making the iPod Classic a good pick for those who already own a pair of expensive headphones, and want a media player that will work well with them.

**Noise***    (9.79) *[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/mediaplayers/content/How-We-Test.htm#Output_power)  

Some media players introduce a lot of noise into their outputs, but that didn't seem to be an issue with the iPod Classic; we measured the signal to noise ratio (the ratio of the output level for a signal, such as music against the amount of noise in the signal) at an impressive 90.74, meaning that the noise should be pretty much completely inaudible.

**Included Headphones***    (3.3) *[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/mediaplayers/content/How-We-Test.htm#Included_headphones)  

Headphones are often an afterthought for MP3 players; the manufacturers include the cheapest ones they can find to help keep the costs down. But they are a vital part of the package; without them, you can't listen to your tunes. We do extensive test to see how good these are, and we were not particularly impressed with the standard Apple ear buds that ship with the Classic (and all iPods). We found that while the could handle plenty of volume,  they added significant distortion to the music, particularly at low frequencies. They also did  little to block outside sounds; noises around you are almost as clear with the headphones in your ear as with them out. And they leak a lot; we could clearly make out the music playing over them from several feet away.

The iPod Classic is definitely a media player that would benefit from an additional investment in a better pair of headphones. And a better pair of in-ear headphones will also do a better job of keeping your music to yourself, which is important if you are a regular commuter.

Internet & Wireless

**Wifi / Bluetooth***     (0.0)*

The iPod Classic doesn't have Bluetooth, wifi, or any other wireless technology.

 

**Music Store Client***     (0.0)*

The iPod Classic doesn't have a built-in store client. This makes sense: without wireless connectivity, a music store client is virtually useless.

 

**Streaming Audio / Video***     (0.0)*

No internet connectivity means no streaming audio or video for the iPod Classic.

Synchronization

**Synchronization Ease of Use***     (0.0)*

To sync up your iPod Classic, you'll probably have to rely on Apple's own iTunes (though there are plenty of third-party options out there). For such a popular program, iTunes doesn't have many sync options. You can only sync over playlists. iTunes does offer a few built-in playlists: 'My Top Rated,' 'Recently added,' 'Recently Played,' and 'Top 25 Most Played.' These playlists change dynamically to reflect your ratings or listening habits, which helps expand an otherwise limited synchronization system. We would've like the ability to sync over your whole library. The easy work-around for syncing your library is to just drop all your songs onto a playlist and sync that over, but said playlist won't stay updated when you add or remove songs from your actual library, so this solution is a bit annoying. This being said, iTunes is otherwise intuitive and easy to use. Some of its organization options are drawback-free. For example, music, movies, TV shows, and podcasts are all managed separately (the same goes for radio and ringtones, although the Classic doesn't care about either). Many media players will lump all audio and all video together, which is annoying for those who want to keep their podcasts out of their music, or their movies separate from their other video clips. Overall, iTunes is a great tool as long as you give it free reign over how your music is actually stored. If you're a do-it-yourself-er, you'll butt heads with iTunes quite a bit.

**Synchronization Features & Support***     (5.00)*

When it comes time to sync over your media, you'll have to connect the iPod Classic to your computer via the proprietary USB cable since the device doesn't support wireless synchronization. When you connect the Classic, it'll show up as a removeable hard drive (assuming you've enabled this in iTunes). This doesn't, however, mean you can just drag & drop music onto your iPod willy nilly. Unless you're using 3rd-party software, you'll still have to go through iTunes to get music onto your Classic.

You can drag & drop songs into your iTunes library, however. Once you do, iTunes will immediately get to work converting it to a usable format, downloading its album art if necessary, and filing it away.

In addition, you can sync over your contacts and calendar, although you can't edit either on the device. Still, it's nice to have access to this information on the go.

 

**Other Synchronization Software Features***     (7.00)*

As a media player, iTunes is intuitive, and can import and convert just about any file into an Apple standard. iTunes is also pretty good with organizing your music for you: there's an option to give iTunes full reign over how your music folders are organized, allowing the folder hierarchy to update as soon as you change a song's tag. The one problem, however, is if you prefer to manage your own folder structure. If you decide to move a song from one folder to another, iTunes totally loses track of it. If you give your folder system an overhaul, iTunes is going to think half of your songs disappeared.

Organizer & Other Software

**Overall Software***     (8.00)*

The iPod's interface is in keeping with the brand's aesthetic: simple and clean. The interface involves a series of list-based menus which you navigate with the scroll wheel. Selecting an item is done with the select key. Backing out of a menu is done by pressing the Menu button. Really, the only button you use to call up an additional menu is the select button: on the Now Playing screen, the select button toggles the function of the scroll wheel, letting you change the volume (the default function), fast-forward or rewind, or assign a rating. Nomenclatural ambiguity aside, the iPod's interface is about as intuitive as you can get. There were a few options we would've liked slightly better access to, such as the 'repeat one' feature, but overall it's hard to get lost in the menu structure. The menus are laid out logically and the OS in general is responsive.

 

 

 

 

**Address Book***     (0.50)*

The iPod Classic will let you check out contact information synchronized over from iTunes. It won't, however, let you edit that information.

*Here's a thumbnail of how contact information is displayed.
*

Clicking on a contact will get you here.

**Calendar***     (0.50)*

As with the address book, the calendar has a strict policy of 'look, don't touch.' 

 

**Todo Lists***     (0.0)*

You can't even look at your todo lists on the iPod Classic: todos aren't even partially supported.

 

**Memos & Other Documents***     (0.5)*

You can sync over notes via iTunes or drag & drop, but you can't edit these documents on the device iteself.

 

**Games***     (6.00)*

The iPod Classic comes with a few games:  iQuiz, Klondike, and Vortex. The first is a trivia game that ranges from ridiculously easy to stupid hard.  Klondike is sort of like solitaire. Vortex is like Arkanoid in a 3D tunnel. These three games are very basic, but they'll help you remain occupied for a few minutes. When you get sick of them, you can hit up the App store, which has quite a few options available for the dusty old iPod Classic. 

*As you can see, this was taken before we played Klondike or Vortex.

Neither have had a profound affect on our lives. *

 

**Extensibility***     (8.00)*

Apple's App store can be used to put myriad different programs on your Classic. While the device itself doesn't have a store client on it, you can sync over appropriate applications via iTunes. Unfortuantely, the Classic isn't quite as hip as its brothers and lacks an accelerometer. This, plus the Classic's non-touch-sensitive screen will limit the number of software options available for download.

 

**Other Features***     (0.0)*

The iPod Classic really doesn't have any other features worth awarding points for.

Conclusion

**Conclusion
**The iPod Classic is almost nostalgia-enducing at this point. In a world with the iPhone and iPod Touch, the simple, list-based interface seems quaint by comparison. If you can find an 80GB version for around $170, it's not a bad deal for what it offers. We're slightly more skeptical about the 120GB version, however, since the extra memory isn't even necessary. If the iPod had a bigger, better screen, it'd be a more feasible video player. As it is, however, we wouldn't necessarily recommend it to frequent video watchers. If you listen to lots of music or have libraries on tape, then 80GB shoudl still be suitable. Comparing the Classic to the Nano, it seems as though most of your dollars towards the Classic are going towards memory. If you can't use that memory, then the Classic is far too burly a device with far too small a screen. If you still want the iPod experience, but in a smaller, cuter package, we'd recommend the Nano over the Classic. Really, unless you can use the vast archives of memory the Classic provides you with, we'd recommend the Nano.

Meet the tester

Mark Brezinski

Mark Brezinski

Senior Writer

@markbrezinski

Mark Brezinski works on the Home Team, reviewing refrigerators, minifridges, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, air conditioners, air purifiers, and fans.

See all of Mark Brezinski's reviews

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