Why You Should Buy an Old iPod Touch

Apple released a new iPod Touch, but here’s why that’s a perfect time to buy the old iPod Touch model right now.

The new iPod Touch comes with a wealth of improvements, including the same A8 processor that’s in the iPhone 6 (although it’s a bit under-clocked in the iPod Touch), twice the memory, a better rear-facing camera, and a new 128GB storage option.

However, it there was ever a time to buy an older iPod Touch model, it’s now. The release of a new iPod Touch means that prices for the older iPod Touch will fall on the used market — perhaps not quite yet, but once used models of the new iPod Touch begin to appear, you can bet that the older iPod Touch will be even cheaper than it was before.

Read: New iPod Touch vs Old iPod Touch: 4 Things to Know

The new iPod Touch starts at $199, which is a steal for such a capable device, but if you’re looking to save some money, you can get a 5th-generation iPod Touch for even cheaper. I’ve seen them sell for as little as $120 on eBay, making it a great device to have for not a lot of money.

Here’s why you should buy an old iPod Touch if you’ve been thinking about buying Apple’s portable media player.

Cheap Toy for Kids

If you have kids, one of the best toys for them to play around with is a tablet or a smartphone of some kind. There are so many cool games that they can play, and the iPod Touch is the perfect device for that.

Especially with an old iPod Touch, you can buy a used one, slap a case on it, and then give it to your kid to play around with without having to worry about them breaking a multi-hundred dollar device.

Hopefully they don’t chuck it across the room and break it completely, but buying a used iPod Touch for cheap allows your kid to scratch it up a bit without you really worrying too much about it.

Plus, who wants to spend a few hundred dollars to buy an iPad for their child anyway? Yeah, kids love consumer electronics just like the rest of us, but they really only care about the touch screen and the games they can play, and if you can find a cheap $120 iPod Touch for your kid to have, then that’s a big win.

Care-Free Media Player

Cheap and old iPod Touches aren’t just for kids, though. Sometimes we wish we could be a bit rough and tumble with our iPhones, but this is where an old iPod Touch can come in handy.

If you listen to music a lot, especially when you’re doing things like working out or mowing the lawn, you probably have this constant worry of making sure your iPhone is protected, because the last thing you want to do is have your iPhone accidentally fall off the treadmill and go flying, or worse yet, fall out of your pocket while mowing and having the lawnmower pick it up.

Having an old, cheap iPod Touch is a better option in these situations. Of course, you never want it breaking or shattering accidentally, but if it did happen, you’d only be out a $100 or so (or however much you paid for your old iPod Touch), whereas your iPhone would be a much more costly repair, with the worst-case scenario being that you’d have to buy a completely new iPhone out of pocket, which would cost several hundreds of dollars, easily.

The New Cord Cutter

If you don’t have the money to pay for a monthly data plan, then an iPhone just won’t do. Instead, an iPod Touch can be a great alternative, and as long as you can connect to a WiFi network most of the time, you can get most of the same benefits that an iPhone offers for far less money.

I see the iPod Touch as the new cord cutter. People are cutting down on their cable bill and even getting rid of cable entirely in favor for streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. The iPod Touch is sort of like that in a way, where some consumers find it cost-effective to ditch their expensive phone bill and use an iPod Touch instead, which requires no monthly service fees.

And if you can snag an old iPod Touch for cheap, that’s a win-win, just as long as you can be on WiFi most of the time or have a prepaid burner phone as a backup.