Before we go into the details, let's agree on some rules of engagement. We're reviewing the iPod photo, shown in Figure A, here in Connected Photographer Magazine because the product is now photo-related. So we're not really reviewing it as a music player, but as an accessory for a photographer. And as a photographer's accessory, the iPod photo is relatively uninteresting.

FIGURE A

Wow, the iPod has a color screen. Quick, Marge, bring me the credit card! Click picture for a larger image.

By the way, when the original iPod Photo was introduced, Apple capitalized the "P" in Photo. But with the release of the newer models last week, the "P" was demoted to a lower-case "p" -- which may be a subtle reflection of how mediocre the photo features are for this device.

What makes the iPod photo a photo device?
When Apple added a color screen to their venerable iPod design, someone over there had the bright marketing idea to claim an added media domain for the product: photography. After all, the reasoning went, if the device has a color display, it can display pictures. And if it can display pictures in addition to playing music, it's now a media device, right?

Well, not so much.

The iPod photo's LCD screen is all of two inches in size and can only display 220 x 176 pixels. By contrast, most Pocket PCs display 240 x 320 pixels, most Palm OS devices have 320x320 display, and the new Dell x50v has a 640x480 display. As you can see in Figure B, the iPod photo's display size is very, very disappointing compared to other handheld device displays.

FIGURE B

In some cases, size does matter. Click picture for a larger image.

While we're talking disappointing, we turn our attention to another aspect of the iPod photo's display: the color depth. Color depth refers to the amount of color a particular device can show. Typically, displays that allow 8-bits per pixel can only show up to 256 colors. Displays like the iPod photo that can display 16-bits per pixel can only show about 65,000 colors per pixel, and your PC's display can display more than 16.7 million colors for each pixel.

While 16-bit color is tolerable for a handheld display, this device is specifically named the iPod photo, so one would assume it would display images in excellent fidelity. This device does not. 16-bit images can display photos, but the subtle variations of color (like skin tones, for example), are lost to this display. Of course, since you're only able to see a very small picture anyway, there's no real great loss.