The BBC takse a look at four different players – Sony’s PSP Slim, Archos 605wifi, Nokia’s N800 and the Apple iPod touch – and assess their strengths and weaknesses in different categories:
• Design: In terms of UI the iPod touch is the standout device – its touch screen interface is a revelation and rewrites the rules for mobile devices. Whether its skimming through hundreds of songs, cover art for albums, contact information or video files, it is a delight to use.
• Audio: As the only ‘dedicated’ music player the iPod should win hands down. And it does.
• Video: If I had to choose one device as the winner for video playback I would plump for the iPod as its contrast and brightness seemed better than on the Archos.
• Web Browsing: Apple has received a lot of press for its use of the touch screen in web browsing. Pages load very quickly indeed and users double tap on an area of a screen to zoom and the page can be moved around with just a finger. It forces a different way of looking at and reading web pages but once mastered it makes browsing very pleasurable.
The Beeb reports, “For the quality of video playback, innovative interface and simplicity of design the iPod touch stands out.”
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dirty Pierre le Punk” for the heads up.]
The best got better.
Let there be no doubt.
The review thinks it’s wonderful that the others can play divx and stuff. H264 is state of the art and the open standard. They should ask why the others don’t play it, or use it with an extra cost attached which is even weirder.
But fair do’s, reading between the lines it is the only one to consider.
I used to watch Benny Hill.
Benny Hill was great.
So is the new iPod.
I am sure the others are good devices but the Touch just makes it all fun to use rather than frustrating. I have a PSP and it’s cool for games but browsing is a pain. It’s poo to type on. It needs a proper keyboard.
The others. Well I ain’t used them.
The iPod and PSP have a completely different focus. With some work the PSP web browser could be much better than it is, and the RSS channel and download capabilities are good signs of things to come. If only Sony could consult with Apple or folks that think the way they do the PSP could be a great all around device. Apple is quite a bit closer to perfecting the mobile web experience, but they still have quirks to work out. Flash is too widespread to be ignored, but just like the PSP I think it will only be a matter of time until it’s supported. The PSP supports flash, but their web page scaling isn’t the same as it was before. I’ll just keep using my Mac to surf the web and my iPod to listen to music and my PSP to play games for now.
Interesting how MDN chooses to highlight only the areas where the iPiod Touch is considered the clear winner, and not mentioning the shortcomings; in many ways, the article also favoured the Archos…
Yeh that’s interesting Mark..you wouldn’t expect to find something like that on a mac website..
I hope they use Mary Poppins as the Apple spokesperson on their new ads. “The iPod Touch is Supercalafragulistic expialadocious”
How did the BBC let this positive review of a Mac product get through?
Over the years, I have noticed strong and unfounded bias against most things Apple from BBC. One of the few reasons why I avoid most links to BBC myself.
Interestingly enough, I cannot find any good comparison/review of the video playback on the iPod Touch and the PSP.
The BBC article does not do the PSP enough justice (based on my quick read) as there are applications available that encodes video for the PSP which plays at the full screen resolution (480×272). There is no mention of the resolution of the MP4 file which may have put it at a disadvantage.
Also, based on my limited experience with the iPod Touch at a local Apple Store, I was none too impressed with the video playback as all the clips on the iPod Touch were blocky and pixelated (compared to videos on my PSP encoded at the native resolution).
Can anybody point me to a good (and fair) comparison of the iPod Touch vs PSP video playback? Its important to me as I am thinking of getting the Touch primarily for its video playback capabilities.
MDN Word : “big” as in the PSP screen is bigger than the iPod Touch? hahhahah
It says “The Archos 605wifi is the all-rounder”, thus Archos is better if you care about actual features, storage and price.