Music-player manufacturers have been concentrating on the lowish-capacity end of the market lately – new models typically feature between 1GB and 8GB of space. But the latest video iPod bucks that trend by piling on the bytes.

This version can hold a massive 80GB, the equivalent of up to 20,000 songs (in 128kbps AAC format) or 100 hours of video. You can also buy a more modest 30GB model, although even that is an impressive capacity in comparison with the competition.

As far as music playback is concerned, not a lot has changed. The iPod remains an excellent MP3 player, and its sound quality continues to be among the best around, although we did notice a slight hiss when listening to the iPod through a pair of high-end headphones. The latest version adds gapless playback, which eliminates the pauses between tracks.

Apple’s familiar wheel lets you navigate your library with ease, scrolling through individual items and then through letters of the alphabet as you accelerate. A new search feature allows you to select a few letters to pick out a song, artist, or album, which struck us as a good idea, given the device’s large capacity. Unfortunately it proved somewhat tedious in practice, and we suspect that the average user might well stick to the traditional method of selecting songs.

The screens on the older iPods were always rather disappointing, so we’re pleased to report that the enhanced 2.5in 320×240 screen on this version looks great. Videos were very watchable on the display, and the colours are noticeably brighter – 60 percent brighter, according to Apple.

Battery life has also improved: we managed almost 20 hours of music playback.

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