I bought one of these 8GB ipod nanos when I was 17...so 5 years ago, and I used it for roughly 4 years before it sadly broke. I think it's a really great gadget and here is why.

The ipod nano is a really handy and practical item to own because it can be used for so many different things. I used to use it for listening to my favourite music when I was out and about, for lazy days on the beach and also when I went to the gym. I also owned a dock so I could play music in my room and for a teenager this was an invaluable asset.

I first used it on a skiing holiday and fell in love with the practicality of basically being able to carry your music collection about with you. I'm going to explain in simple terms what I liked and didn't like about using it.

- Storage -
8GB was the largest sized nano that was available at the time I purchased this, they also came in 2 and 4 GB. Nowadays you can get much larger stores of music but at the time not having to carry CDs around and a massive walkman was totally revolutionary for me. 8GB was more than enough space for me to hold every album and song I wanted, when you plug it into your itunes it gives you an idea of how much space is remaining and this was a really useful tool. You can add and remove music at will from the ipod, without having to alter what is on your itunes, just with the simple tick of a box. I never had any problems with the storage capacity on this ipod and I would say 8GB is the perfect amount for the average music collection.

- Design -
At the time this came in 5 colours - silver, black, blue, green and pink. I chose the blue which was a really lovely very bright, almost turquoise, looking blue. It had a screen and all the other design parts were white (e.g the wheel and the top and bottom of the ipod). Although I love the blue metal on the outside it did tend to scratch quite easily which was a little disappointing. Also the white of the other parts had a tendency to get dirty of have smears on it which didn't look the best. This wasn't exactly make or break for me and obviously I still enjoyed using it.

- Usage -
The ipod nano was extremely easy to use. You have a hold button at the top which needed to be clicked into place in order for the ipod to be used. Then you simply use the central button to select and wound your finger round the dial to move through different songs or albums. You could click the four points of the dial to either skip back or forwards and pause or play. I think this design is really easy to use, even for the technically challenged, and also really practical in terms of what I wanted to do with the ipod.

- Headphones -
I was given a set of apple headphones with the ipod as part of the package, these come with every apple ipod/phone you buy as standard. The headphones are predominantly white which bits of grey on them. I use these for many years and eventually they began to fall apart, but generally I think they are very durable and easy to use. I know have apple headphones with remote assistance which I much prefer but these worked well for me. The only issue I did have was with being able to keep the ear pieces in my ears. I have always struggled with headphones of this type and invested in some over the ear headphones instead. I get the impression this is my personal issue because most other people seem to cope fine with them.

- Charging -
I always found the ipod easy to charge, I generally connected it to my computer but we do also have a charger that plugs into any socket which is useful. It usually took roughly an hour to charge which is pretty reasonable and the battery life lasted quite a few uses.

- Death -
I used the ipod for 4 years on and off before it finally broke. One day it just simply wouldn't switch on and no amount of charging could help it. This was obviously disappointing but I felt as though I got a good few years use out of it so I wasn't too disappointed. Apple generally seem very helpful so I imagine if this had happened earlier I might have had some help in finding out the problem. Because four years and many new versions had come and gone I decided not to bother, but I do believe they giv great service if you do have any problems.

- Cost and Purchase -
I bought the ipod from John Lewis. I tend to always go to them for electricals for two reasons. They endeavour to match or beat the cheapest price on the market so you can guarantee that you are getting the best deal out there. They also offer a 1 year insurance policy free of charge, if it breaks within the year the you can return it and they will do their best to fix it for you. As a result I always make sure I keep receipts, though I didn't have any problems until much later.

Overall, a great little product that connects you to a whole world of music. I loved it.