Review: Ipod Nano MP3 Player

Tor

Tor

Norwegian Refugee
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Got my Nano in, finally. This thing is small...smaaall. I chose the black version (goes better with my ST, ;-))
Taking this thing out of the box made me think,,,this is one elegant piece of equipment. Slick, small, but yet not small enough to give me trouble operating. It came with the traditional white Ipod earbuds. Sound out of this thing is nothing short of awesome, particularly if you hook a pair of good headphones to it. There is plenty of drivepower to drive any headset, even medium size speakers. The Itunes software was included, and installs easily on the computer without fuzz.

A beautiful crisp color display greets you when you turn it on. Menu navigation is done by the Ipod click-wheel. Included in the Nano that is new is world-clock, alarm clock and sync to Outlook for contacts. You can also upload pictures to this thing, although with a small display, the pictures won't be too big to look at. I guess its the thought. Neat. Using it with a set of autocomm helmet speakers gives you as good sound as if you had a set of good headphones on your head,IMO. Note: Headset speaker placement is important to get the very best sound. Battery lasts about 14 hours average. BUT,,,,,hardwired??? What if I need to change the battery pack? I guess I'll send it in. Chargetime from fully drained is around 2 1/2 hour.
The front of the Nano is easily scratched, so if you get one, make sure you get a good cover for it. Syncing music from Itunes is relatively fast over the included USB 2 cable. No firewire ;-(. Oh well.
I found a good place for it right under the left cover velcroed on a custom shelf. If it melts, it melts. I think it'll be ok though.
I love this thing. This Ipod is my very first MP3 player, and with 4G of space, I've got songs for a fairly long trip, playing with good quality to boot. I never thought I would enjoy listening to music while riding. I do now. These toys sure have come a long way.

Pros:

Very good sound quality
Easy menu navigation.
Small, slick, sexy package
Ability to sync and store Outlook contacts (still not enough to leave my PDA at home)
Strong power amp(you can even drive speakers with it)

Cons:
Front scratch easily
No Firewire connection
No battery access if needing to change (rechargables only take so many charge cycles)
Limited accessories (for now)
No other means to charge other than over USB2 connection (out of the box). You can get a optional charger for it.
 

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Now if they offer an RF remote for it I'll consider it. I bought the mini which was perfect with an RF remote but within less than a year the two don't get along sometimes and it drains the battery. PITA and Apple will not replace the mini even after I bought another remote to see if that was the issue.

Thanks for the review. Hopefully there's a RF remote in the future for the nano.

Curt
 
crazykz said:
Now if they offer an RF remote for it I'll consider it.
Click to expand...

There are several aftermarket RF remotes that work with the Nano, like this one:http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/14/scosche-remote-puts-ipod-controls-on-your-wrist/

I love my Nano, too - one nifty thing is its ability to display the song's album art (not that you'd be looking at it while riding), but it's a real pain to import all the artwork into iTunes. Luckily, there's a free program that will do it all for you, and it works pretty well: http://www.yvg.com/itunesartimporter.shtml
 
Ok...Ok..Time to ask for guidance. What the heck is the difference between MP3 and Ipod. I love the Ipod. Was considering a 2730gps. I thought MP3 and Ipod were different animals and thus I couldnt use Itunes w/ a 2730 gps!
 
Tor

Many thanks for the report. I have been looking at these little gadgets for some time, and it is nice to read an honest report rather than the normal sales pitch.

I would like to hear other peoples views on other types such as the MP3 players compared to the Ipod before I actually commit to a purchase.

I suppose it will be a while before Garmin push out a UK version of the new 2730! XM radio is not a lot of good over here, but I like the in built MP3 player built into it, looks like I shall have to keep running the 2610 for a while, excellent unit but I like gadgets :D

Mick
 
PalmSpringST said:
Ok...Ok..Time to ask for guidance. What the heck is the difference between MP3 and Ipod. I love the Ipod. Was considering a 2730gps. I thought MP3 and Ipod were different animals and thus I couldnt use Itunes w/ a 2730 gps!
Click to expand...

iPods are just devices that play music stored in MP3 format (and a few other formats). There are other brands of MP3 players that do pretty much the same thing, but the iPod has a slick package and a few extra features that have made it very popular.

iTunes is the software you can load to manage your collection of MP3 files on your computer...it's how you transfer and organize your files, or convert your CD collection into the MP3 format.
You can download and use iTunes without having an iPod.

Whether you have an iPod or a 2730GPS or both, you keep your MP3 files on your computer, and you can move them to those or any other device that will play MP3s.

I hope that helps a little
 
Zilly said:
Whether you have an iPod or a 2730GPS or both, you keep your MP3 files on your computer, and you can move them to those or any other device that will play MP3s.
I hope that helps a little
Click to expand...


Thank you...It helps a lot!:bow1:
 
torlang said:
You are correct, Curt. The only remote for the Nano, is a wired remote, actually a radio wired remote. http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wo/StoreReentry.wo?productLearnMore=MA070G%2FA
Click to expand...

Nice. I hadn't seen that but then again I wasn't looking really hard. I did use the wired remote for the mini which was basically the same concept. However the first time it got wet it was dead.

I love the mini and really don't want to invest in another player that will be absolete in a year so I'm holding out to see which iPod is going to last longer than that.

Where did you get you case? I would like to get one for my mini that is similar.

Curt
 
For anybody that has a GPS unit that plays MP3 songs, what kind of memory does your GPS have? I know they probably have memory cards, I would guess some have removeable memory. What kind of battery life do you get when playing songs on a trip? I read where some of them only have 3-4 hours of battery life. Do you just bring spare batteries and recharge them? Or are the GPS units just plugged in to a power plug? Do you have helmet speakers plugged into the GPS units to hear and what is the best helmet/speaker set up? Any help would be appreciated, I am thinking about dropping some money on a GPS/MP3 unit and want to know what other people have. I am thinking of the Garmin Zumo 550 or 450. Any thoughts on those? Thanks.
 
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