September 1, 2010. Steve Jobs walks onto a stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. He’s wearing the uniform—black turtleneck, New Balance sneakers. He’s about to change the way kids and teenagers consume the internet forever. That was the day the Apple iPod Touch 4th generation arrived. It wasn't just a music player. Honestly, calling it an MP3 player feels like an insult. It was the "iPhone without the phone," a gateway drug for an entire generation that wasn't old enough for a data plan but desperately wanted to be on Instagram.
It was impossibly thin. 7.2 millimeters. If you hold one today, it feels like a piece of jewelry compared to the "Pro Max" bricks we carry in our pockets. But that thinness came with a price. The back was made of that classic, polished stainless steel that looked like a mirror for exactly four seconds before becoming a roadmap of scratches. You didn't even have to touch it. Just looking at it wrong seemed to scuff the finish.
The Retina Display changed everything
Before this model, screens were... okay. They were fine. But the Apple iPod Touch 4th generation borrowed the Retina Display from the iPhone 4. This was a massive leap. We’re talking 960-by-640 pixels. At the time, it was the highest resolution screen ever packed into an iPod. Everything looked sharp. Crisp. Real. You couldn't see the individual pixels anymore, which sounds like marketing fluff until you actually saw it in person.
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However, there was a catch that Apple didn't shout from the rooftops.
While the resolution matched the iPhone 4, the screen technology didn't. It lacked the In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology found in its more expensive sibling. This meant the viewing angles were kind of trash. If you tilted the iPod slightly, the colors washed out or inverted. It was a "budget" compromise that most of us ignored because we were too busy playing Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja.
Two cameras, but don't get your hopes up
This was the first iPod Touch to feature cameras. Plural. One on the back, one on the front. This brought FaceTime to the iPod. Suddenly, you didn't need a phone number to video call your friends; you just needed an email address and a Wi-Fi connection. It felt like living in the future.
The actual photo quality? Terrible.
The rear camera shot stills at a measly 960-by-720 resolution. That's roughly 0.7 megapixels. Your modern smartphone probably has a sensor 100 times more powerful. It couldn't even autofocus. But—and this is a big but—it could record 720p HD video. For a device that thin in 2010, that was a huge deal. It became the go-to tool for early YouTubers and kids making skate videos in their driveways. The front camera was "VGA quality," which is code for "grainy and dark," but it served its purpose for the era of low-res selfies.
The internal engine: A4 and the RAM bottleneck
Under the hood, the Apple iPod Touch 4th generation ran on the Apple A4 chip. This was the same silicon found in the original iPad and the iPhone 4. On paper, it was a beast. In reality, Apple made a decision that would eventually kill the device's longevity: they only gave it 256MB of RAM.
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The iPhone 4 had 512MB.
That 50% reduction in memory meant that as iOS grew heavier and apps became more demanding, the 4th gen iPod started to chug. By the time iOS 6 rolled around, the lag was noticeable. When iOS 7 hit with its radical redesign and translucent layers, the 4th gen iPod Touch was left behind. It never officially received iOS 7. It stayed stuck in the world of skeuomorphism—fake leather textures, glossy buttons, and the iconic felt-green Game Center.
Why we still talk about it in 2026
There’s a specific kind of nostalgia for this device. It represents the peak of the "iPod era" before the iPhone completely swallowed the world. It was the ultimate secondary device. You’d save your iPhone battery by using your iPod for music. Or, if you were a student, this was your entire digital life tucked into a pocket.
It also featured the 30-pin dock connector. Remember those? Wide, chunky, and always filled with lint. It was the standard before Lightning took over. If you find one in a drawer today, it probably still has a library of 2011-era dubstep and "indie" tracks you downloaded from iTunes.
Modern problems for a vintage gem
If you're thinking about buying one today for a hit of nostalgia, there are a few things you need to know. First, the batteries are almost certainly shot. Lithium-ion batteries don't like sitting in drawers for a decade. They swell. They die. Replacing a battery in a 4th gen iPod Touch is a nightmare involving heat guns and soldering because the casing is glued shut.
Second, the "app gap" is real. Almost no modern apps work on iOS 6.1.6, which is the final firmware for this device. Even the built-in YouTube app has been dead for years. You’re basically looking at a dedicated music player and a very pretty paperweight.
Getting the most out of an old iPod Touch
If you actually have one of these sitting around, don't throw it away. There are a few legit use cases for an Apple iPod Touch 4th generation even now.
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- The Dedicated Car Jukebox: Plug it into an old car with a 30-pin adapter or a simple AUX cord. It’s a great way to have 32GB or 64GB of music without using your phone's storage.
- Retro Gaming: If you can find old .ipa files (the app format for iOS), this is the perfect hardware for games like Doodle Jump, Pocket God, or the original Tap Tap Revenge. These games were designed for this specific screen and processor.
- Distraction-Free Writing: Some people use these as ultra-portable note-taking devices. No Slack notifications, no TikTok distractions—just a simple Notes app and your thoughts.
- The "iPod Classic" Replacement: For many, the 4th gen Touch is the best-sounding "thin" iPod. It doesn't have the DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter) cult following of the 5.5 Gen Video, but it’s plenty good for a pair of wired Sennheisers.
Basically, the 4th generation was the last "pure" iPod Touch before they started adding colors and the "loop" wrist strap with the 5th generation. It was sleek, professional, and slightly fragile. It was a bridge between the old-school clickwheel iPods and the modern smartphone era.
If you're going to pick one up, look for the 64GB model. The 8GB version was useless even back then; once you installed a few games and synced a couple of albums, you were out of space. The white model, released a year after the black one, is particularly striking if you can find one without a cracked screen.
To keep one running in 2026, you'll need a vintage version of iTunes or a third-party tool like iMazing to sync music. Don't expect to use the App Store. Don't expect to browse the modern web—most sites will fail to load because of outdated security certificates. Treat it like a digital time capsule. It’s a piece of industrial design history that fits in the palm of your hand, reminding us of a time when "Retina" was a new word and 7.2mm felt like magic.
Actionable Steps for iPod Touch 4th Gen Owners:
- Check the Battery: If the screen looks like it’s lifting or has a "dark spot" in the middle, the battery is swelling. Stop charging it immediately. It’s a fire hazard.
- Archive Your Media: Use a tool like RetroArch or specific legacy iOS managers to back up any old photos or voice memos. Once the flash memory chips on these fail, that data is gone forever.
- Go Wired: Don't bother with Bluetooth adapters. The 4th gen uses Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, which is sluggish and low-fidelity. Use the 3.5mm headphone jack. It’s one of the few things this device does better than a modern iPhone.
- Clean the Stainless Steel: Use a bit of Mag & Aluminum Polish and a microfiber cloth. You won't get the deep scratches out, but you can bring back that 2010 "out of the box" mirror shine.