After four years, Apple hasn’t abandoned the iPod Touch just yet.
You’d be forgiven for forgetting the company even still sells the product. In a surprise announcement, the company revealed its first new iPod Touch since the product’s sixth generation was released in July 2015—This iPod comes equipped with the A10 Fusion, the same chip used on the iPhone 7, and it “performs more or less just like an iPhone 7.
The A10 has come to be Apple’s entry-level CPU. Originally introduced in the iPhone 7, it currently ships in the entry-level iPad and, now, the iPod touch. The CPU is just over half the speed of the A12 in the latest iPhones for multi-threaded tasks, though the gap is much smaller in single-core performance. The A10’s built-in GPU delivers about 56 percent the performance of the A12. It was the last Apple system-on-a-chip to use Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR chip. (Apple now designs its own graphics silicon for iOS devices).
That’s the model that you’ll find in the store with the A10 today. Nothing else has changed. The design and chassis are the same, the color options are the same, it weighs the same, and it offers the same battery life (up to 40 hours of music playback time, up to eight hours of video). It still has a 326ppi, 1136×640, 4-inch display with an 800:1 contrast ratio and a maximum brightness of 500 cd/m2. And it still offers an 8-megapixel rear camera with 1080p 30fps video along with a 1.2MP front-facing camera that shoots video at 720p.
The main reason for this upgrade is probably to ensure the iPod Touch can run games that will be available as part of Apple’s upcoming gaming subscription service. This version of the iPod Touch will also be capable of group FaceTime chats. But the actual design has been kept the same, meaning the home button and headphone jack both live to fight another day, as explained by the company.
Here’s the pricing for all versions:
- 32GB: $199/ Rs 18,900/ £199
- 128GB: $299/ Rs 28,900/ £299
- 256GB: $399/ Rs 38,900/ £399
The new iPod Touch will be available from today. It’s quite disappointing that Apple didn’t upgrade anything but the chip. They could’ve included a new screen and better speakers to make it a more attractive buy. Probably, you’re better off buying an entry-level iPad at $329.
