Apple have just unveiled their first iPod Touch is four years, and this new model is faster, cheaper and has more storage – and it has gaming at its heart.

You could be forgiven for thinking that Apple had quietly discontinued the iPod Touch, after the last model was released back in 2015. While the concept of the iPod Touch – effectively a scaled-down iPhone without the cellular capabilities – might seem a bit outdated, the lower price and smaller size helps attract a different type of customer. At its peak in 2008, the iPod sold in excess of 55 million units, but after sales slumped to fewer than 20 million in 2013, Apple stopped released sales figures for these devices, and they now have much less prominence on the company’s website. They do, however still attract a niche audience, and it seems that’s what’s behind Apple’s move to release an updated model.

This new seventh-generation iPod Touch isn’t a particularly radical update, featuring the same 4-inch display, cameras, and home button; it also keeps the 3.5-inch audio jack, which for a device designed to play music, makes sense. But the new iPod Touch does have an A10 Fision chip, currently used in the iPhone 7, and the least powerful chip that Apple now uses in its devices. This means the new model will be able to utilise group FaceTime calls, and Apple’s augmented reality apps built through the ARKit. Apple also claim the extra firepower from the A10 Fusion chip will offer CPU speeds that are two times faster than the sixth-generation iPod Touch, and three times faster graphics.Let’s not forget that at its heart, the iPod Touch is an MP3 player. The new model will now come with a storage capacity of up to 256GB, and physical storage space is particularly important here because the Touch can only connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi.  

The inclusion of the A10 Fusion chip also means that the iPod Touch will be optimised for gaming, and Apple is drawing particular attention to its upcoming Apple Arcade gaming subscription service, which the new model will be comfortably able to run. The timing of the release of the new iPod Touch is no coincidence. Apple Arcade is launching this autumn, sometime between September and November – meaning the new Touch will be perfect for users who don’t want to fork out hundreds more for an iPhone. Like Apple Music, Apple Arcade will be a subscription service, allowing users to download a library of games.