Apple iPod 30GB Fifth Generation

Author's product rating:   

Sound Quality	Excellent
Ease of Use	Very Easy
Look & Design	Excellent
Range of Features	Diverse
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Games, sleek, stylish, sound, colour display
Disadvantages:	Scratches easily, no mains charger

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

-------------APPLE BRAND---------------

You cannot go wrong with iPod, all of Apple's software/products have next to no flaws. They are all made to a high standard. I've had my iPod for over a few years now, and must say that I haven't really had problems with it, and everyone seems to complain about the battery life but however I find that fine. iTunes is a great piece of software, that includes podcasts, radio channels, videos and games for your iPod - you can even change the skin and view, it always is great for keeping the firmware on your iPod up to date as it has scheduled updates.

I do however only fault their old style headphones - this is ironic, but I go into Curry's to get some headphones because my iPod ones had gone all tinny sounding and they call up customer care at Apple, yet they wanted me to pay £17.99 to get some new ones delivered to my house. I refused, my iPod was still under it's year warranty, and I was even paying out extra additional cover as iPod's can be temperamental sometimes. Apple refused to give me a new set of headphones, so the staff at Curry's said, okay then the only choice you give us is, because we don't sell them separate, is to give the customer a whole new iPod as she pays out insurance each month for this. The Apple staff refused to give in, and therefore I got a whole brand new iPod, and to top it off, it was the updated version with new headphones and a black slim carry case. So thanks Apple, I love you!

-----------CAPACITY&WEIGHT--------------

The most amount of songs I've had on my 30GB iPod is 5000, with still tonnes of space to go, with videos on it as well as pictures. However this iPod can hold up to 7,500 songs, with the album artwork included. This is amazing for the iPods size as it still is miraculously small to hold so much information, the dimensions are 10.4 x 6.1 x 1.1 cm in depth. It is fairly light at 137grams, and fits snug in the palm of your hand. It's not as small as the nano, and is much thicker and wider, but this makes it a lot more durable and stronger. The tracks it can hold are the formats WAV, AAC, AIFF, Audible, MP3, Apple Lossless - which gives you the choice of what you want to put on your iPod, but generally all songs in the iTunes library are converted whilst being transferred to the iPod.

Personally I say, it is really easy to use, the slide wheel is much better than any other MP3 player i've used because you've always had to slowly toggle through the songs, however the slide wheel gets you from a-z quickly. Again most mp3's don't have a colour screen however iPod has a bright (and adjustable backlight/brightness for the display). It's about 2.5 inches, a TFT display; I do recommend getting a cover protector for the iPod as it just scratches way to easily, you can purchase them from online or even currys for about £3-5, the new ones cover the whole of the iPod, back and front, you can take it off and reuse it.

-------------------LIFE-----------------------

The battery life is good if you look after the iPod, never letting it go flat out of battery, as lithium ion batteries have a memory… if you keep letting your battery die out the amount of charge on the battery will never be the same again. Even though it says up to 14 hours of music playback, I must agree its probably more, because I have been on holiday, but not listening to 14 hours solid music... but I've probably listened to about over 70 songs in one day. Even longer, the battery lasts if you put the backlight off, or even adjust the time the backlight stays on. I've watched a video on my iPod on the way to Spain, on a flight, and the video was about 2 hours long. My iPod handled this fine, despite it saying 2 hours of video playback, it's probably just over - and I still had battery to listen to music. It holds soooo many photo's, Apple says it holds up to 12,500 photos, which cor, I don't even think I could fill it with that many photo's. Also around 75 hours of videos can be stored on the iPod.

-----------FEATURES/COMPATIBILITY-----------

The great thing about iPod is, that they give you a USB cable to charge from your computer, in a USB port. However I think this is better than a mains charger as it doesn't take up much space, and its always constantly updating your iPod library. However issues arise when you go on travel, there are iPod mains chargers for sale, and even in-car chargers, to charge from the cigarette lighter as you go. I bought a mains charger to go on holiday, it was white to match white iPods, but had a blue charging light and cost me £13, online - so you probably could find one cheaper on eBay.

Another great thing about iPod is that it isn't just MAC OS compatible, but it always works with Windows 2000 and the most popular Windows XP. And as far as computers go, it's like an organiser as well, which can hold your contacts/phone numbers and addresses, as well as to-do lists, like your own personal organiser, that fits in your hand. Too bad it isn't touch screen.

On the iPod you have the feature of shuffle, this is where you can mix the songs up and put them on random play, as well as it having the feature to hold album artwork. You can rate the songs by pressing the centre button at least twice which you then select on a scale of 1-5 stars, 5 solid blue stars as the best rating. A new improved feature which allows you to change the brightness of your screen more, and as you scroll through the artists it skips to each letter quickly, there is also a search menu - these improved features are put on the iPod when it is updated from the iTunes program.

As well as the function of viewing photo's there is videos. You can even view the photo slideshows on your iPod with accompanying music or on your TV if you buy the iPod AV cable. Furthermore you can view lyrics if they are stored. There is a notepad and address book feature where you can put people's addresses and phone numbers. Battery level indication is in the top corner to warn you how much battery life you have left and turns from green to red when it is low. There is a hold button at the top left of the iPod so when you have it in your pocket the buttons can't be knocked and the track doesn't skip.
There is a volume limiter, basically this just protects your ears. Date display as well as the time, for when you're on the go.

Upgradeable firmware, which is always good for keeping your iPod up to date and running smoothly.

Languages that are supported are:
Danish, Hungarian, Czech , Chinese (traditional), Chinese (simplified), English, German, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Polish, Finnish, Swedish, Russian, Spanish, Dutch, Greek, Turkish, Japanese, Korean

-------------PURCHASING-------------

You can buy videos/music with iTunes, iPod's software which is great as it covers nearly every genre, and makes your iPod look smart, as it comes with the album artwork, some even with lyrics. Now iTunes are even doing iPod games, for you. I mean there are 2 games on the iPod already, like pinball where you hit the bricks and they disappear, and some parachuting game, however you can buy/download the latest iPod games.The latest iPod games i've seen is Tetris and PacMan (highly addictive games) and available to download onto your iPod for £3.99: which is fairly cheap, I haven't bought one yet. I'd say iPod is the best mp3 player out there, as it can hold so much information, it is very speedy and doesn't lag. The sound quality is amazing, especially with the newer iPod's with the new headphones. Another point is you can set the sound settings to like "rock, pop, jazz" so it alters the bass and treble levels, creating the atmopshere better.

There are so many add-ons for iPods now, accessories too. Whether it be jelly protecting cases, for about £10, newer headphones, pouches to attach your iPod to your arm. Endless ideas that iPod keep springing up with. The little slip in case that come with iPod protects it if you don't buy a casing. I recommend a plastic film sheet to put on the iPod which sticks and stops it from scratching. I've dropped my iPod with this on and it was durable, it didn't scratch or crack. The jelly protecting cases or hard cases however do a better job.

I'd definately choose this over the 60gb model, as the 30gb is thinner is size, not chunky or heavy at all, it's very slimline and slips into your pocket easily. I'd definately recommend an all over plastic stick on reusable cover for your ipod, as they do scratch quite easily. I've only dropped my iPod once, but it was quite durable as it didn't crack or break. It still worked.

Er, anything else? well I've seen blogs online where people have bought an iPod mini and tried everything in their power to destroy it but it still seemed to keep working, whether it was sit on it, throw it off a bridge, put it in the sun(which I dont recommend) - they still found that it worked, even if the screen was cracked.

---------COLOURS----------

Great thing is that it comes in black or white, but there are always other cover colours to suit your mood, they have even brought out iPod socks at around £20, but if you want the iPod in a colour itself you should go for iPod, mini however they only hold 4gb or 8gb which isn't that much compared to iPod videos. And they don't play videos... but they come in pink, blue, green, silver, black and white. I think iPod video would be more successful if it was in different colours but you can customize them by buying casing etc.

-------------PRICE------------

The cheapest place to buy the iPod i'd say is curry's next to most PC worlds!! because I got mine for 219.99, but then it dropped to 189.99 and probably to 169.99 now, so I'd say thats the cheapest place I've seen it. There is always eBay, however if your iPod goes wrong you can't send it back. Or buy it directly from the Apple store, you can get your name engraved on the back of the iPod - extra little personal touch. Although they are dropping in price, they definitely are an expensive product.

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?mc o=30F51C&nclm=iPod
Check out the apple store where it sells at £179.00 and is shipped in 24hrs.

Included in every BOX there is the:
•iPod, earphones, USB 2.0 cable, dock adapter, case, guide

---RECOMMEND---

Buying a decent set of headphones around £15-25 because apple's aren't that good, they break eventually. And also a protective sleeve would be a great idea as if you drop it, it will be protected against scratches etc. Always keep it in a film case, or the provided case to avoid scratches etc.

Thanks for reading, rating and putting up with nearly 2000 words!!
Hope I didn't bore you! xx