Post's Pegoraro: iPod Photo Not Worth the Price

Washington Post reporter Rob Pegoraro reviewed two Apple iPod Photo models in his Sunday column calling them "expensive" to view photos on that seems "unlikely to get enough everyday use to justify their extra cost."

Mr. Pegoraro called the iPod Photo "elegant" and something that could only come from the "design-conscious" team at Apple.

But the accolades stopped there as Mr. Pegoraro criticized the 60 gigabyte version at US$599 as a portable media device that "costs more than many new computers."

Those added dollars buy you a sharp, clear but cramped color screen," he noted, but the screen was "too small to display fine detail without distracting visual artifacts" and the slow refreshing of thumbnail images was "distracting".

Mr. Pegoraro noted that the capability of outputing photos from the iPod to a television was nice, but reminded readers, "most digital cameras offer the same basic capability."

Separate from his criticism of the device itself, Mr. Pegoraro noted a basic human trait that makes the iPod Photo less than functional: "itis a lot harder to gawk at pictures while walking, running or driving than it is to listen to music; none of Appleis engineering wizardry can change that."

At the debut of the iPod Photo in late October, Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs called the joining of music and photos into a handheld device as "the next big thing."