Apple iPod nano

Reviews: Multimedia

Apple iPod nano

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Mark Korff
Kurtis
Apple
May. 17, 2006

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Testing

Let me first say that aside from the software installation issues that have been mentioned previously, the iPod nano is easily the simplest and most intuitive portable media device that I've ever used. Effectively navigating through the UI with the click wheel and center button takes no learning time whatsoever. It just feels natural. The menus are laid out very intuitively, and the nano makes it simple to find the exact song you want to listen to since it will automatically categorize your music by artist, album, genre, etc. as long as your music files provide it with the necessary information. The only gripe I have about the interface is that if you're listening to music while navigating a menu or playing a mini-game, the click wheel is in use and thus you cannot make adjustments to the volume. Of course, if you have a pair of headphones with an in-line volume control, this is a non-issue.

So how does the nano sound? Well, the people that brought the lawsuit against Apple for making their devices "too loud" were correct in that even a nano can really pump out the sound. With the included earbuds I could only bear to crank the volume up to about 75% and that was even too loud for more than just a song or two. For extended listening I kept the volume only a little past 50% and that seemed to be just about right. I had to turn the volume up a bit more for the power-hungry Altec Lansing iM716 earphones (reviewed April 6, 2006) but there was still more than enough power to go beyond comfortable volume levels with those. It is also worth mentioning that with one of the recent updates to the iPod software, there is a new option in the nano's menu that allows the user to set a new "maximum volume." This new setting essentially acts as a volume governor for users that don't want to inadvertently blast their eardrums out with an overzealous adjustment of the volume control. Although the included earbud headphones are good enough to provide above average sound quality compared to most of the headphones that come bundled with portable media players, discerning listeners would probably be inclined to swap out the Apple earbuds for a solution with a little more bass and midrange clarity. I think most users would be happy with the included earbuds as long as background noise isn't a concern, since they don't provide any active or passive form of noise reduction whatsoever.

Customizing the sound of your nano is possible through a number of different pre-installed equalizer profiles. Unfortunately, there is no way to create your own settings, or alter any of the default profiles. While this will disappoint some, most users should be able to find a few profiles that suit their personal tastes since there are quite a few to choose from. The nano has a multitude of settings in addition to the equalizer which include (but are not limited to) adjusting the length of the backlight timer, the format for date and time, the default language, and toggles for which settings are available from the main menu. There did not seem to be any customization options for the way the nano displays song information during playback, but the default information that is displayed is adequate. The nano will display the track number of the current song being played out of the total number of songs in your playlist, the artist, album, song name, the amount of time played so far, as well as the time remaining. All of this information can be viewed at once on the nano's screen, and if album art is available for the current song, that will be displayed as well.

Synching the nano with your music library through iTunes is a relatively painless process. While I normally don't use iTunes to listen to music on my PC, I found it to be another intuitive Apple product for most functions and I was able to transfer nearly 2GB of music over to the nano in about 12 minutes. The iTunes software can automatically synch your PC music library with your nano each time it is connected. The only problem I ran into was with a few files that were in a protected .WMA format, and couldn't be converted by iTunes. Most of my music is encoded in the MP3 format, and since iTunes played nice with all of those files I wasn't too upset, but if a significant number of my songs had been in the unsupported .WMA format, I would've been fairly livid. Depending on the file types used in your personal music library, this could obviously be something to keep in mind when considering any of Apple's iPod products.

Managing music files on the nano through iTunes is pretty straightforward, but there are certain functions such as transferring picture files to the nano that aren't quite as intuitive. The picture transfer feature is buried in the iPod options menu, under "photos," and although iTunes allows the user to synch picture files from a number of different folders on your computer, it seems to be impossible to transfer individual photos from within folders. The iTunes program is also able to import/rip music files directly from audio CDs. Although my first attempt at ripping a CD was successful, I was a little disappointed that I wasn't presented with any options for audio quality and format before the process began. The default setting within iTunes is to rip CDs at 128kbps using Apple's proprietary AAC format, so after my initial rip, I had to search through the iTunes advanced settings and change the defaults. Once you find the right settings, iTunes provides some AAC alternatives including MP3 and WAV formats, and more options for encoding quality, going up to 320kbps for MP3s. In general, iTunes is easy to use for basic functions but some of the advanced features won't be immediately accessible and will require users to do a little menu hunting before finding the options they're looking for.

The nano's battery is charged whenever the device is connected to a computer through the USB cable. A full charge takes about 3 hours and according to Apple can last up to 14 hours. After charging for a full 3 hours I was able to get exactly 12 hours out of the battery, so the 14 hour claim isn't too far from reality.

One of the complaints many nano users have expressed to Apple has to do with the physical durability of the device. As I mentioned earlier, the nano has a very smooth and stylish surface and while this makes for a very pretty device, the downside is that smudges and fingerprints are bound to be present themselves on any nano that sees regular use. The screen is especially vulnerable to scratches so you're not going to want to just throw the nano in your pocket next to your keys without putting it in the protective sleeve (or one of the many widely available aftermarket iPod cases) first. I've been pretty anal about not using the nano without the protective sleeve, so I haven't experienced any scratching (knock on wood) but I definitely have had my fair share of fingerprints and smudges even though I'm a clean freak when it comes to washing my hands on a regular basis. Honestly I don't think anything but the worst scratches to the screen would inhibit the actual functionality of the device, but certainly every proud nano owner wants to keep their baby as clean and shiny as the day it was born, and that's is easier said than done.

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Page 1: Introduction / First Impressions
Page 2: Taking a Closer Look
Page 3: Testing
Page 4: Conclusion

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