I had trouble with my first 2 4G iPods which I've documented on this site. I had both replaced. Also (on accident) I got an extra one from Amazon. I first ordered a 40GB model from Amazon so I could get their free $50 gift card with purchase. The order wasn't supposed to ship until late September so I gave up on that, but forgot to cancel. Well, it shipped early.
For those not keeping score, I've had my hands on 5 of the new iPods. Something that struck me as funny is that there seems to be a lot of variety in the "fit" of the new iPods. I've looked closely at the click wheels on each one I've had and they all fit differently. Sometimes the click wheel is perfectly flush with the surface, sometimes it's recessed, and sometimes it's actually raised a bit from the iPod face. Even worse, sometimes one side (top, left, etc) is raised with the opposite side recessed and so forth. Most of them had a fairly tight fit so you couldn't really see a gap between the click wheel and the iPod face. The last one I received had a very visible gap around the click wheel on the left side.
The other thing is the headphone jack. Since the jack itself is actually white plastic, on some models the plastic is down inside the iPod. On others it is flush or actually raised a bit. I would imagine the raised plastic would be a good thing in regard to preventing any metal around the headphone plug from contacting the metal of the iPod. Maybe this variation has something to do with the audio defects people are experiencing.
Sorry for the long post - just the anal observations of a curious engineer.
Edit: I wanted to point out that this "fit" issue isn't a defect, just a variation. I guess this is difficult to avoid moving from the 3G to the mechanical 4G click wheel design.
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