It’s been 4 years since Apple last updated the iPod lineup with the 6th generation iPod Touch in 2015. Today Apple did the unexpected and released a hardware refresh of the dedicated media player.
The new iPod touch is getting a slight hardware upgrade. It will run on the A10 Fusion chip, which is a little older than chips found in the latest iPhones. The iPhone 7 also runs on the A10, so it’s about three years old. But the A10 is faster than the A8 chip that the 2015 version ran on.
The upgraded chip means the iPod touch is “twice as fast as before,” Greg Joswiak, Apple’s product marketing vice president, said in a statement.
One great benefit of going for an iPod Touch is the fact that it’s almost half the weight of modern smartphones. At 88g it’s a relatively featherweight device.
Other than the SoC, the only other apparent upgrade to the hardware is the addition of 802.11ac WiFi, although Bluetooth remains at version 4.1.
Apple has also upgraded the storage option, but disappointingly the smallest model is still only 32GB and comes at a price point of $199. Upsell variants at 128GB and 256GB come at $299 and $399.