Apple iPod Video 5th Generation White (30 GB) MP3 Player
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- Number of Songs: 7500
- Usage: Music Video Photo Viewing
- Interface: USB 2.0
- Screen Size: 2.5 inch
- Main Storage Type: Hard Drive
- Storage Capacity: 30 GB
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About one month to failure on 2 out of 2 iPods
Pros
Reasonably good sound if upgrade earphones.
Cons
Quality problems. Pita battery replacement. Service could be better. Scratches very easily.
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
wouldn't recommend player that doesn't let you move songs from player to computer or let you replace the battery as as you would in a cell phone.
The one I bought lasted a barely a month. By the third week the battery would only hold charge for about an hour. By the fourth week, it wouldn't hold a charge at all.
You can't simply replace an ipod battery like you can, say, a cell phone. You have to send it in for service and then they send back another used ipod; not the one you had, so it won't have the songs and data on it that you had on yours. That's seems just silly for mere battery replacement. Imagining doing that with your cell phone when the battery wore out!
As an alternative to mailing in your ipod, you can take it to an apple store if there is one near you. More than a few ipods come in for service apparently since you have to make an appointment just to drop it off at an Apple store for battery replacement. Then the store mails it off for service so the wait to get the ipod back is about as long as when you just mail it yourself. But instead of mailing it back to you, they promise to telephone you as soon as the the unit is ready.
You can't move songs from the ipod to a computer or disk, only from a computer to the ipod. You have to buy aftermarket software to move songs from the ipod. That also seems like a silly design nuisance.
The DAC (digital-analog converter) chip is pretty good but the earphones that come with the ipod are quite bad. You definitely need to upgrade to something better if you like high quality sound. Luckily there are lots of aftermarket earphones and headphones available.
If you want to play your ipod on your home stereo, apple and other folks want to sell you special "docks" with a special connector, etc. and you can easily end up spending $60 to $130. Actually, all you need is an cable that has a dock connector on one end and audio rca-plugs on the other and you can get those from cables-to-go for about $4-$18 last time I looked.
The front plastic and rear-cover plating is very soft are very high gloss and relatively soft. This includes the screen. iPods show fingerprints easily and scratch very easily. You can buy films or cases to cover the iPod to reduce prints and scratches.
Overall, the unit is pretty easy to work but understand the battery quality and battery replacement issues. Some other MP# and AAC players share some of these problems and other don't. Definitely shop around and compare price, features, accessories, and service before buying.
UPDATE regarding replacement of 1 month old battery. The Apple store said they would call as soon as the iPod was ready for pick up. I found out you can look up repair status on line and when I did I found out the repair was completed 4 days ago. I called the store and they confirmed the iPod was indeed repaired and ready for pick up. They couldn't explain what they hadn't called me for four days.
At the store when we took it in for service, they said they'd give back the same iPod. They didn't.
They said they'd return it with all the music on the returned iPod. They didn't.
They said they'd call when it was ready for pick up. They didn't.
The repair charge was $214 (or about $20 less than the iPod cost new). That's what we would have had to pay if we were one day out of warranty. Lucky for us we were only one month into warranty -- if you call that luck.
Update Mar 8: I purchased a second iPod (an 80GB) in January and 7 weeks later the line-out right channel has gone dead. The earphone output still plays both channels but if you hook up the iPod with a dock connector to a home hifi or to a PC and play via Itunes, the right channel has no output.
So far, Apple quality has not been impressive.
You can't simply replace an ipod battery like you can, say, a cell phone. You have to send it in for service and then they send back another used ipod; not the one you had, so it won't have the songs and data on it that you had on yours. That's seems just silly for mere battery replacement. Imagining doing that with your cell phone when the battery wore out!
As an alternative to mailing in your ipod, you can take it to an apple store if there is one near you. More than a few ipods come in for service apparently since you have to make an appointment just to drop it off at an Apple store for battery replacement. Then the store mails it off for service so the wait to get the ipod back is about as long as when you just mail it yourself. But instead of mailing it back to you, they promise to telephone you as soon as the the unit is ready.
You can't move songs from the ipod to a computer or disk, only from a computer to the ipod. You have to buy aftermarket software to move songs from the ipod. That also seems like a silly design nuisance.
The DAC (digital-analog converter) chip is pretty good but the earphones that come with the ipod are quite bad. You definitely need to upgrade to something better if you like high quality sound. Luckily there are lots of aftermarket earphones and headphones available.
If you want to play your ipod on your home stereo, apple and other folks want to sell you special "docks" with a special connector, etc. and you can easily end up spending $60 to $130. Actually, all you need is an cable that has a dock connector on one end and audio rca-plugs on the other and you can get those from cables-to-go for about $4-$18 last time I looked.
The front plastic and rear-cover plating is very soft are very high gloss and relatively soft. This includes the screen. iPods show fingerprints easily and scratch very easily. You can buy films or cases to cover the iPod to reduce prints and scratches.
Overall, the unit is pretty easy to work but understand the battery quality and battery replacement issues. Some other MP# and AAC players share some of these problems and other don't. Definitely shop around and compare price, features, accessories, and service before buying.
UPDATE regarding replacement of 1 month old battery. The Apple store said they would call as soon as the iPod was ready for pick up. I found out you can look up repair status on line and when I did I found out the repair was completed 4 days ago. I called the store and they confirmed the iPod was indeed repaired and ready for pick up. They couldn't explain what they hadn't called me for four days.
At the store when we took it in for service, they said they'd give back the same iPod. They didn't.
They said they'd return it with all the music on the returned iPod. They didn't.
They said they'd call when it was ready for pick up. They didn't.
The repair charge was $214 (or about $20 less than the iPod cost new). That's what we would have had to pay if we were one day out of warranty. Lucky for us we were only one month into warranty -- if you call that luck.
Update Mar 8: I purchased a second iPod (an 80GB) in January and 7 weeks later the line-out right channel has gone dead. The earphone output still plays both channels but if you hook up the iPod with a dock connector to a home hifi or to a PC and play via Itunes, the right channel has no output.
So far, Apple quality has not been impressive.
