SSD Modded iPod Classic

A few weeks ago I decided to purchase a modded iPod Classic from a vendor on eBay.  Up to now, I have been using another digital music player which I will write about in the future but I have always liked how the old style iPod units feel.  After some research, I decided to go with a unit from a particular vendor who has a 100% eBay rating based in the US.

I chose him based on his perfect rating mainly.  He had sold several of these modded units previously and people gave him excellent ratings.  There are currently many sellers offering the same items for sale and the cheapest ones are from China while a few are based in the US.  I am actually very reluctant to purchase these type of things from China for many reasons such as poor quality of the aftermarket items and shoddy workmanship.  I understand that the replacement parts were probably from China anyway but I will put my faith in my seller and hoped he chose the best parts for his mod.

After placing the order, it took about two weeks for the  package to get to me.  It was longer than I would have liked but for $10US in shipping cost, I guess I shouldn't complain.

A quick run-down of what I actually got to begin with is an iPod Classic 160GB version which was the last model made by Apple before they discontinued the line. First of all, what the seller did with the unit was remove the standard 1.8" HDD and replace that with a 120GB SSD.  With the extra room he added a bigger battery.  He also replaced the front and back cover with aftermarket ones seeing as the unit was most likely used and had shown signs of wear.  All together, it came to about $265 CAD.

To begin with, I have to say that the aftermarket front plate does not feel at all like the original.  It actually feels cheap like  a knock-off.  The touch wheel especially feels different.  It also does not sit flush to the plate but that is a minor thing.  The back plate on the other hand does feel and look like the original.  Right down to the fake serial number and the logo.  It does seem more prone to scratches.

Moving on to the functionality, the iPod does function and behave like it should.  I was able to sync it with the newest version of iTunes and all my music was able to load without a problem.  So far, I have occupied about 30GB.  I have been using this unit for about five days, as of this writing and have not encountered anything unusual.  The songs play just fine and going fast on the Cover Flow segment no longer crash the unit like it used to do to my old one.  Going back to the cheap feel of touch wheel, I find that I have to use extra pressure to get my movements to register on it.  The original felt very sensitive and more responsive.  With this wheel, you can't press too hard otherwise you end up actually doing the button press and not scroll like you wanted so it does take time to adjust to it.

On to the battery life, it does seem like it is lasting longer than normal.  In part due to the newer storage media without any moving parts and the larger capacity of the battery.  The seller never actually divulged how much bigger the batter is but I have been using it for five days and probably still have a 75% charge in it.  That is quite good I think. 

Overall, other than the cheap feel of the front of the unit and touch wheel, I am quite happy with this purchase and I will stick to this unit as my main music player.  I don't know how long this unit will last but I will have an update if anything happens to it.