iLove My iPod! (Apple iPod mini 6 GB)

Member Name: GuruOnAMountain

Product:	Apple iPod mini 6 GB
Date:	02/08/05 (485 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compact, fun, easy to use and holds up to 1500 songs.

Disadvantages: Expensive and not really viable if you don't have regular computer access.

It seems that almost everyone has an iPod and I'd been looking into buying myself one for quite some time but hadn't quite been able to justify spending so much on a non-essential item. However, I finally decided that the odd bit of reckless spending wont kill me and bought a 6GB iPod mini off the Apple website.

A 6GB iPod mini should be able to hold around 1,500 songs (although obviously this figure can vary a little depending on the length of the tracks), but a 4GB iPod mini is available that holds around 1000 songs. However, since the 4GB version costs £139.99 off the Apple website and its 6GB equivalent costs £169.99, I reckoned that the 6GB was the better value. If you want to further personalise your iPod, free laser engraving is included in the price if you buy it off the Apple website.

Both the 4GB and 6GB mini iPods are available in silver, blue, green and pink. Gold can occassionally be found on some websites, but is no longer available on the Apple website. The iPod Mini is the middle of the way option of the whole iPod family. It holds substantially more music than the new iPod Shuffles (the largest of which only holds about 240 songs), and although it can't compare in the storage stakes to the grand-daddy of the iPod family (the 60GB which can hold up to 15,000 songs), it is substantially cheaper, charges faster and has a slightly increased battery life. You can also stored non-music files on it and access them from another computer, but I've not been brave enough to try this yet. I opted for the blue iPod mini, typed in my details and sat back waiting for it to be delivered.

I've never been a big fan of Apple in general, but I had to hand it to them when my iPod arrived. The packaging was fantastic...you could almost put it on display in the Tate! The outer cardboard casing was blue and had iPod mini on the front in white, but when you removed this casing you were greeted with a white 'box' that opened up like a book. When you opened it up, you found the iPod nestled inside and each side of the book-shaped box contained the other accessories that came with the iPod such as a belt clip, a USB connector and the instruction manuals, even some Apple logo stickers for you to splatter somewhere. The earphones that come with it are the type that we are all accustomed to now that you insert inside your ear. These come with two sets of pads to cover them and I was surprised to discover that they actually stayed in my ear when earphones of this type just tend to plop out within the first 2 minutes of me putting them in. In fact, I even fell asleep in the car with them on (don't worry...I wasn't driving!) and even with me moving around in my sleep and the earphone wires getting tangled in the seatbelt, they stayed in for a good half hour.

The box also contained the necessary iTunes software disc which installed quickly and easily. You can import any files on your computer onto iTunes and you can convert your CDs etc. into files on iTunes, too. When you plug in your iPod, it automatically downloads all the music in the iTunes library onto it. I was surprised at how quick this whole process was. The most time-consuming part was converting my CDs into another format compatible with my iPod, but all in all the process was a lot quicker than I expected. Converting each track on my CDs took about 1 minute per track, but downloading the tracks onto the iPod only took a few minutes to download about 200 songs.

You are meant to connect the iPod to a high-speed USB port to both charge your iPod and to download tracks from iTunes onto it. I soon found out the I didn't have a high-speed USB port on my computer, but just plugged the iPod into an ordinary USB port and it ran, although it said it would be running at a reduced speed.

When fully charged your iPod is expected to have around 18 hours battery life, but it takes up to 4 hours for it to charge completely! It charges to 80% within the first 2 hours of charging, but requires the additional 2 hours to charge the final 20%. I've not used my iPod until the battery has run down completely, but I doubt that the battery would last 18 hours. I've only used it for about 4 hours maximum and the battery was almost at half way, so I would say realistically battery life might only be around 10-12 hours.

Of course, the iPod is famous for its click-wheel and this takes a little bit of getting used to. For the first 10 minutes of using it I was constantly whizzing past the track I wanted to use, trying to reverse and whizzing past it again in the opposite direction, but eventually I became accustomed to it. The controls are fairly self-explanatory: you use the click-wheel to scroll and to control the volume when a track is selected; the button in the middle of the click-wheel to select a track or function; you press down on the bottom of the click-wheel to play or pause a track and the left and right sides of the click-wheel to skip a track in either direction.

The iPod has other functions such as a clock, memo functions, a calendar and even games such as solitaire...it seems the iPod is wanting to compete with mobile phones as well as other MP3 players. Unfortunately, these other functions are fairly awkward to use due to the click-wheel, but handy nevertheless in case you are ever caught without a mobile and need to check a date.

You can create playlists on your iPod or on iTunes and then download them onto your iPod or browse tracks by artist, album, style of music etc. If you choose a track to play, the iPod will automatically play the track beneath this on the list once the track is finished so even without a playlist, you need never be without music.

The instruction book describes the sound quality as almost CD quality, and I must admit reading this made me a little dubious, but after listening to music on it I have absolutely no complaints. I didn't think the music sounded any less clearer than it did when listening to it on a CD, but I suppose I should never have worried...after all, I'm sure the iPod could never have became so popular without top notch music quality.

However, the iPod mini is not equipped with a colour screen which isn't a major problem, but is slightly annoying when I'm so used to using colour screen mobiles etc. However, so far I've got no other complaints. With almost 500 tracks on my iPod, I've still got two thirds of my memory intact, so it seems to be living up to the promise of storing 1500 tracks. The battery is enclosed, though, and it is annoying that a few years down the line I might need to replace it at extra cost to myself when I've already paid a small fortune for the iPod itself.

However, I can see how the iPod has won itself a reputation as the foremost MP3 player on the market and I still can't believe that I've got almost my whole music collection contained on something small enough to fit into the palm of my hand. It doesn't skip like portable CD players and you don't have to carry any extra discs with you like you would have to do with a minidisc player, so it really is the ideal solution if you want to listen to music while out and about or whilst working out at the gym.

However, you really do need regular access to a computer to get the most out of you iPod when it comes to updating your songs and charging it, so you should take this into consideration when buying one, but otherwise I would recommend it to anyone swithering over whether to buy one or not...it really is worth the money!

Summary: A smaller and cheaper alternative to the iPod.

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