The Apple iPod Touch is alive and well with its new refresh in 2019...well, it's alive
for now at least.
I've been performing systematic durability tests on hundreds of portable electronics
for the past 4 years.
And most of the time these electronics survive my tests, but some of the time, like with
the iPad Pro, they...you know...don't survive.
It's time to see what happens with this dainty feeling, bright pink, 2019 iPod Touch.
This video is sponsored by ExpressVPN.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
You might be thinking to yourself, who needs an iPod Touch?
I imagine Apple made this for people who don't want to pay for a monthly cell phone plan
and are usually still surrounded by Wi-Fi.
Or for parents who want to communicate with their kids for cheap.
Since the iPod Touch starts at $200 bucks, it's a much better bargain than the thousand
dollar iPhones.
My Mohs mineral picks can tell the difference between plastic, glass, and sapphire.
And during the scratch test on this 4 inch display, we start seeing scratches at a level
6, with deeper grooves at a level 7, on par with the latest iPhones that are using tempered
glass displays.
That means that the front camera up here is going to be protected from scratches – all
1.2 megapixels of it.
You heard that right – 1 whole megapixel.
It's nice to see Apple competing with the flip phones of 2004.
There is a plastic physical clicky home button, which is nostalgically refreshing.
No complaints here.
There is no earpiece though.
Apple has to keep at least some separation between the iPod Touch and the iPhones because
they both literally do the same things.
You can add your own microphone and earpiece with the headphone jack....which is back.
Thumbs up for that.
It's super interesting that even though Apple tried watering down the iPod Touch as much
as possible, this $200 device still does 90% of what a full-fledged thousand dollar iPhone
can do.
Even the design is all metal.
With Wi-Fi phone calling through the headphones, FaceTime, social media messaging, and full-fledged
Wi-Fi internet access on the iPod Touch, I could totally see this $200 device being used
as a daily driver.
The only thing you'd lose out on is the physical phone calls, but those are all Robo spam anyway.
The rear camera isn't half bad with it's 8 megapixel sensor, protected by a minor metal
camera bump.
Apple's not advertising sapphire protection this time around, which is refreshing since
their attempt at sapphire is, well, an attempt.
I have another cool sapphire video coming out soon, so make sure you're subscribed for
that.
Looks like this lens has the same scratches at levels 6, 7, and 8, like we've seen on
the other iPhones and sapphire version of the Apple Watch.
It's the same weird hybrid material that Apple always uses.
The pink anodized coloring of the 2019 iPod Touch is pretty brilliant.
Pink is actually one of the most calming colors.
Some jail cells in Switzerland are even painted pink in order to calm the inmates down.
Kind of crazy.
There are quite a few flowers that are also pink, including the beautiful roses.
One thing you might not know though is that roses, if the flowers aren't picked early,
actually have little fruits that grow underneath the flower called hips.
Rose hips.
And the hips are totally edible, full of vitamin C. They make all kinds of rose flavored products,
including rose hip syrup.
I haven't tried rose flavored syrup before, but now I totally want to.
The secret to rose hip syrup is to start up a flame and boil equal weight of rose hips
and sugar and water until the right consistency is reached.
Just make sure you don't burn anything.
The 326 pixel per inch display of the iPod Touch, which is the same pixel density of
the $800 dollar iPhone XR, but who's keeping track?
It took about 12 seconds to go black from my flame, but being an LCD, it didn't fully
recover.
The pixels all eventually came back to life minus the evaporated oleophobic anti-fingerprint
coating, of course.
It's time for the bend test – the ultimate test of construction and build quality.
Remember, most phones survive this test just fine.
I'll start from the back, and with a subtle flex with no noises or cracks, the first bend
of the iPod Touch absolutely destroys the display underneath the glass.
There's no external damage, but the internal damage is catastrophic.
The screen is broken and the device is unresponsive.
Even the power button is not working anymore.
This particular bend wasn't even that drastic compared to what other phones and tablets
go through during my tests.
I'll bend one more time from the front.
Everything is still structurally intact, no cracks on the glass or kinks in the metal
frame, but the iPod Touch is still dead.
It has a flaw internally that can't handle any abuse.
The 2019 iPod Touch fails my durability test.
What do you think of the iPod Touch?
Would you get one?
Let me know down in the comments.
We'll have to wait and see if that internal design defect becomes a widespread issue or
not.
But until then, a case will go a long way towards physically protecting the device.
Physically protecting your device is important, but so is protecting yourself online.
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Huge thanks to ExpressVPN for sponsoring this video.
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And thanks a ton for watching.
I'll see you around.