Apple iPod Nano 5G

We were surprised to see that the Nano now includes a small external speaker. The sound is a bit tinny for listening to music, but it’s adequate for playing the soundtrack on your video clips. The one thing that never seems to change with any iPod is the thin-sounding earphones, which quickly had us reaching for our Sennheisers, as always. The only other accessories in the box are the USB cable and the universal dock adaptor.

Just want the teens want: a voice memo recorder...
The FM radio is more useful

There are a few other small additions in this model, such as a pedometer, and the VoiceOver feature that first appeared in the iPod Shuffle now works on the Nano too, reading out menu items and song titles so that you don’t have to keep looking at the screen.

The price of the 8GB model has actually gone up slightly, from £109 to £115 (£14.38 per GB), but the 16GB model has dropped from £149 to £135 (£8.44 per GB), which should ensure that this update does its bit to keep the 100m sales of previous Nano models going strong.

Apple claims the new Nano can play music for 24 hours on a single charge of the player's battery, though this falls to five hours if you're playing videos. Nothing during our testing suggested to us that these figures are off the mark. As ever, though, with no physical off-switch, power is slowly trickling out of the battery even when the Nano's not in use.

Skinny as ever, and the mic makes for a decent audio pick-up

Verdict

It’s disappointing that the camera can’t shoot stills, but the Nano’s super-slim design and slick interface means that it’ll nonetheless appeal to young folk who just want a convenient all-in-one device that will let them play music and video, and shoot video clips of their friends. Yes, there are rival devices that provide a wider range of features but these price points and the sheer techno-lust appeal of the Nano’s styling should ensure that it sells like hot cakes again this Christmas. ®

More Media Player Reviews...

Cowon D2+ DAB

Philips GoGear Opus

Sony Walkman X-Series

Samsung P3