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...
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Philips GoGear Opus |
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Samsung P3 |
Apple iPod Nano 5G
COMMENTS
@AC: Audiobooks
So long as you set your audiobooks as audiobooks in iTunes, the iPod will keep your place, even if you go and listen to something else in the meantime. At least it does on my old 3rd Gen iPod Nano, so I'd expect it to on the latest.
@ Andy Poulton
Looking at the video example in the review, the Nano quality seems a stepl below the standard Mino. I've owned that, and now have the Mino HD. Brilliant pieces of kit, especially the HD.
Plug the Mino into a PS3 and the playback quality is frankly amazing for such a miniscule piece of kit.
If Flip (now owned by Cisco) built a credible MP3 player into the Mino HD, it would be a very serious contender.
@J 3 - Nike+ Thing
I'm not sure if the pedometer thing is the Nike+ bit being incorporated as per the Touch, but you don't have to have Nike shoes anyway, i use this little gadget which velcros the Nike transmitter to the laces of your shoes and off you go - works perfectly.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000ID6DTG?ie=UTF8&tag=spoavetstu-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B000ID6DTG
Video Editing
The report mentions "poor" PC owners having to go to a 3rd party ap to edit video. I'm not too hot on video codecs but what about Windows Movie Maker? Free with XP and Vista (not sure about Win 7 - but then is anybody?)
It's free and it's adequate. Yes, you probably won't want to make a blockbuster using it but it'll trim, enable transitions, allow the input of stills (think PowerPoint Slides for example) and manage audio overdubs. Probably everything the man (and woman) in the street needs.
Been thinking about a Flip Mino but may reconsider based on the fact that I'd then only need to carry 1 gizmo with me rather than 2
