The iPod touch got a splash of white paint a new price point, but not much else.

Nowhere on Apple’s tech specs page for the iPod touch does it mention what CPU the device has inside. My guess — based on Apple not touting an A5 — that the “new” iPod touch isn’t all that new after all, and still has an A4 under the hood.

This is surprising to me. Maybe Apple couldn’t source enough parts or get the price right.1 Maybe the iPod touch is too thin to stuff a big enough battery in its chassis.

Whatever the reason, the A5 seems to smoke the A4 when it comes to gaming performance.

The very thing Apple pimps as the iPod touch’s reason for being.

Furthermore, the iPod touch didn’t get 1080P video recording. Or an IPS display. Or better battery life.

The iPod touch feels less like an “iPhone without the phone” and more like “an old iPhone without the phone.”

  1. This is a huge factor. The iPod touch starts just at $199, with much of the same parts as the iPhone, which is over $600 without a subsidy. ↩︎