Top alternatives to an iPod Touch

The world has been in awe of the iPod Touch for too long now. It was innovative and slick when it first came out but Apple has not moved the technology on much since then. There are rumours of a new version of the iPod Touch coming in the near future but the changes proposed are far from exciting. iPods are like Marmite you either love them or hate them… I am in the latter camp. I haven’t got anything in particular against iPods I just think you can get more for your money, and that is where this article comes in. We have trawled through the masses of alternative personal media players with touch screens to find the best iPod Touch competitors out there and put them all in one easy to find place, namely here.

What does the iPod Touch offer?

To discover the best alternative to the iPod Touch we first need to identify what we are trying to beat, so let’s take a quick look at the specifications of Apple’s top PMP.

The Apple iPod Touch is quite a compact little number, measuring just 110 x 61.8 x 8 mm and weighs only 120 grams. Apple have managed to shove a 3.5″ widescreen multi-touch screen which displays at a 480×320 resolution into this small casing.

With the iPod Touch you can play audio formats: ACC, Protected ACC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV for 22 hours. And you can play video formats: H.26 and MPEG-4 for 5 hours. You have a choice of three flavours when it comes to buying an iPod Touch: 8GB, 16GB or 32GB flash drives which will set you back £169.99, £232.00 and £289.00 respectively.

Other than that you are able to surf the internet wirelessly, as long as you can find a wireless connection but the iPod Touch doesn’t have Bluetooth connectivity.

The key feature to Apple’s iPod Touch is, well, the touch-screen. It has sparked an interest from the public and motivated Apple’s competitors to try and come up with the same technology. There are many perks to touch screens, like eliminating those pesky buttons that take up space, thus allowing for larger screens, but there are also disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is the feel of interacting with a touch screen, when you press anything you have to look to see if it is pressed, there is no feedback unlike a physical button which you know you have pressed. Apple has not tried to overcome this flaw, but some of the competitors have.

The Apple iPod Touch is nice to look at and nice to use but its features leave something to be desired, for example the format support is not great, the battery life could be improved and the price is definitely too much for what you receive. Apple feel safe so they don’t try anymore; like many couples married for a while we need to spice things up a little and the spice in this case comes in the form of competition. Of course, when others try to mimic the leader there are many failures but there are also many successes.

We have compiled a list of the best personal media players with touch screens which give Apple a run for its money.

1). Cowon iAudio D2

Recently made it in to the list of top ten mp3 players. In fact not just made it, three different variants of the Cowon iAudio D2 were in the list. So people already realise the iPod Touch is not the best deal around. Let’s start with price as we have done before, and let’s face it everything is going to be cheaper than an iPod Touch it just depends how much cheaper. The Cowon iAudio D2 comes in at £45-£75 cheaper depending if you the D2 with DAB radio or not (encase you are wondering it is cheaper without). Familiar start; 1-0 to the Cowon iAudio D2.

iAudio D2 doesn’t have Wi-Fi or Bluetooth so we are back to a draw with 1-1, but hang on, although the iAudio doesn’t have these there are a few other nifty things it does have like a memory expansion slot, which is lacking in the Touch. And for all those times when you are bored of your own music you can switch to the DAB radio in the D2 and listen to a bit of Chris Moyles on radio1. I think that is worth a point to the Cowon, two features for one of the Touch’s: 2-1.

At 2.5″ the screen on the iAudio D2 is smaller than the Touch’s, and coupled with the lower resolution of 320×240 the iPod Touch gets a point back to make the score 2-2. The Touch has another ace up its sleeve with its touch screen, the iAudio D2 has “Virtual click” which is an overlay navigation function but still loses this one: 2-3 to the Apple iPod Touch.

Battery Life - partially due to the smaller screen the iAudio D2 has a whopping 52 hours of audio playback and 10 hours of video. No contest: 3-3.

Codec - MP3, WMV, WAV, OGG, FLAC, AVI, JPG, TXT. Not great so back to Touch being the leader: 3-4.

Weight and Size - 78 x 54 x 16mm and weighs 91g. Smaller in every way except thickness and with the iAudio D2 being lighter score becomes: 4-4.

This is a petty even match, so it comes down to: do you want to pay a lot of money for an iPod Touch and get a slightly larger screen, multi-touch interface and Wi-Fi or do you want to pay £45 less for DAB radio, memory expansion slot, better battery life, TV out and better sound quality?

2). Samsung Yepp YP-P2

Recently featured in “Want a Bluetooth MP3 player?” the Samsung Yepp YP-P2 is a good £40-£50 cheaper than the equivalent 8GB iPod Touch. That’s 1-0 to the underdog Samsung YP-P2. Next up we have connectivity which is a little difficult to judge. The iPod Touch has built in Wi-Fi web browsing but the YP-P2 has Bluetooth, it is a tricky call as both technologies have advantages. With Bluetooth you can connect to a variety of devices including wireless headphones, and even your mobile phone so you can take calls through your PMP if you so wish. With Wi-Fi access you have to ask yourself, are there really that many hotspots around? The answer is probably no at the moment but that is set to change. So for the time being you are likely to be accessing the internet at home and how likely are you to want to do that on a 3.5″ when you have a full screen monitor sitting elsewhere in the house. Having said that with Wi-Fi you could use your device as a media remote control. I think we will call connectivity a draw and give them both a point: 2-1.

The Samsung has done a fantastic job with the interface which you can customize to your heart’s content, just like the iPod Touch it has an amazing touch and grab interface but there is nothing on the market at the moment which can beat the Touch’s unique “Multi-touch” interface so I although the YP-P2 has a stunning interface I begrudgingly give the point to Apple (it only just wins though): 2-2.

Now for the quick fire round:

Battery Life - YP-P2 gives you 35 hours (audio), 5 hours (video). The 35 hours beats the Touch without even breaking a sweat: 3-2 to Samsung.

Codec - MP3, WMA, JPEG, WMV, MPEG4. A narrow win for Apple’s baby, it has more codec support but the YP-P2’s formats are more common. 3-3

Weight and Size - 100 x 52 x 9.9mm and weighs just 79g. Although 1.9mm thicker than the Touch it wins on all the others so Samsung break back into the lead with 4-3.

On top of all of that the sound quality of the Samsung YP-P2 is marginally better, and not only can you change the sound settings for music with the nine band equalizer, the YP-P2 unlike other PMPs also has three settings for video. I make the score now 5-3.

With a final score of 5-3 to Samsung this little device is strong competition for the iPod Touch. If you want to see a little more here is a video.

3). Archos 605 Wifi

A little chunky, the Archos 605 is a good deal cheaper than the iPod Touch. At around £100 cheaper for the 30GB version the storms into the lead: 1-0. Even the 160GB version is cheaper than the 32GB version of the iPod Touch but I am guessing part of the cheapness harbours from it not being flash memory.

Both the Touch and Archos have Wi-Fi and are able to surf the web and stream your media from your PC but the web browser doesn’t come as standard with the Archos, it is an optional extra so we have a draw again: 1-1.

Few can compete with the design of the Archos 605; they have really done a superb job. The large 4.3 inch screen that provides and amazing 800×480 resolution really makes the videos leap out with exceptional brightness and clarity. The screen far outstrips the Touch in size and resolution; 2-1 to Archos. The touch is very nice to use and somehow the Archos prevents smudges from excessive use, so although the iPod Touch has multi touch, smudges are one of my pet peeves so: 3-1.

Battery Life - Archos 605 Wi-Fi has a poor 17 hours (audio), but add half an hour to the video play to get 5.5 hours (video). Not a good show from Archos here: 3-2.

Codec - MP3, WMA, WMA DRM, WAV, MPEG-4, WMV, JPEG, BMP, PNG, PDF (with optional plugins: AAC, AC3, H.264, MP2). With the optional extras Archos supports more of the commonly used codecs. 4-2

Weight and Size - 122 x 82 x 15mm and weighs just 190g. Heavier and larger Archos loses this one but part of the reason for the size increase is the larger screen, so don’t be too hard on it. 4-3.

Audio is alright and definitely equals most of its competitors but video is really where the Archos 605 shines. With the superb screen quality on a 4.3″ screen and the fact it comes with a built in kickstand and internal speaker you can see why the final score is 4-3 to the Archos 605 Wi-Fi. Check out this strange video battle of the Archos in action.

A leap into the future

Not so much a leap as a step. Coming out in the very near future are a few touch screen PMPs that will really make Apple run screaming to the hills.

1). iRiver Spinn

The iRiver Spinn is a very, very nice personal media player due out soon. It has lots of features that put the iPod Touch to shame including a touchscreen AMOLED display with haptic feedback. The AMOLED display would be a huge improvement itself, but remember me saying it can me strange using a touch screen because you can’t feel if you have pressed a button or not, well the haptic feedback removes this and so makes the use of the touch interface much easier and nicer. The iRiver Spinn also has a unique spin control to quick navigation; you can see it in action here. I could go on for hours about how much better the Spinn is with its 24 hours payback, DAB radio and Bluetooth but you get the idea.

2). RAmos iMovie T8

The RAmos iMovie has a large 4.3-inch screen that takes up most of the device as you can see from the image.

Featuring a slim 10mm aluminium-magnesium frame, the iMovie will cost around £117 for the 32GB version.

The RAmos iMovie will support playback of: RMVB, AVI, FLV, WMV, MPG, MP4, DAT, and 3GP.

3). Meizu M7

Basically an iPod Touch clone with a slightly smaller screen. The Meizu M7 will have a 3-inch touchscreen with 480 x 288 resolution, 15:9 aspect ratio, 16.6 million colours and support H.264 at 720 x 480.

Although the Meizu M7 is similar in looks to the Touch it is a lot cheaper, at about £87 for the 8GB version that is £82 pounds cheaper.

Links to Touchscreen PMPs from across the Web

If you are want more information on these devices and many more check out the following sites:

• Amazon’s range of Touchscreen players
• Kelkoo’s list of Touchscreen players
• Lightinthebox.com has an extensive list
• Pixmania’s collection
• Advanced MP3 Players

Summary

Having reviewed the touchscreen market extensively I have seen plenty of evidence which proves what I have always suspected. With any popular brand you pay for the brand name rather than the item that has the brand and iPod Touch is no different. If you want a personal media player so that you can say you have an iPod Touch then this article is not for you, but if you want a person media player that offers value for money and superior technology then have a look around there is plenty on the market that is not an iPod.

iPod Touch was cutting edge once, and that is why it has reached such fame but it has not moved on since and is being left behind by its competitors. The consumers are starting to realise this as the top ten list shows, let’s hope Apple has also noticed and will be doing something about it soon.

Know of any other good touchscreen personal media devices? Drop us a comment below…