A good music player that's easily transportable (Apple iPod nano (5G) 8 GB)

Member Name: Kevin_C

Product:	Apple iPod nano (5G) 8 GB
Date:	30/10/09 (89 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good qulaity sound, easy to use

Disadvantages: List of songs doesn't loop, battery life not as good as expected

Recently I gave into all the hype about iPod's and decided to buy one, mainly because my phone's media player had a few problems and so instead I decided to buy a dedicated mp3 player.

Since I wasn't really intending to watch videos on it, except a few film trailers but nothing bigger - I only bought the 8GB version, which I suspect is plenty of room for the music collection of the vast majority of people.

If using it without headphones, for say around the house then you will need speakers to put it into as the in-built speaker is very quiet even at full volume with no headphones.

My first impressions were very good. They fit easily into your pocket, look great and are much more robust than they were when they initially came out. Compared to my phone, there was also a noticable increase in the sound quality. What is termed the 'click-wheel' is a very innovative design and easy to use and I personally don't find it awkward at all. There is a simple switch on top of the iPod to lock the controls in, but this is very small and can be tricky to do without pulling it from your pocket.
The screen is relatively large 2.2 inches tall but I've never taken a video on it, but apparantly it has a decent resolution.

On a good note transfer from your computer is easy, you plug it into the USB port and itunes should automatically load. You can sync your enitre collection or just certain songs. It plays most media files apart from Windows Media (wma/wmv) and real media (ra, rm) but most can easily converted to mp3. The device has support for audible audio books which I find very convenient.

It is compatible with both USB 2.0 and USB 1.0 (I have used it with both), but transfer via USB 1 will be much slower. It also charges easily through the computer.

However, for a dedicated mp3 player I find there are a few things lacking, they don't affect playback but would make it easier to use.
When browing your music collection if you reach the beginning or end it doesn't automatically 'loop' back around. E.g. If you reach the last song in Z by going down furhter it will not go to the first song in A. You have to scroll back through your entire music catalogue to do that, an inconvenience to say the least.

Apart from playing music one of the main features was meant to be the in-built radio, but when I have tried to use it, it seems to play much louder than at the same volume for a standard mp3 and the sound can be heard even with the headphones plugged in, so you have to turn the volume right down in order for eveyone else not to get it as an annoying background noise. The radio features a live "pause" which works for about 15 minutes, so if you want to relisten to a particular song then you can. Also featured is i-tunes tagging where in theory it identifies a song and tags it so if you wanted to buy it you could. I tried to use this but couldn't get it to work though (I ended up searching the internet to find out what the song was). Later I found out you can only do this in the USA - so unless you're on holiday there it's not very helpful.

Other features include a pedometer (for measuring distance walked), an organiser and alarm

The battery I would suggest isn't as good as apple states on its website (24 hours). Maybe it means without adjusting the controls at all? In reality adjusting the controls either to change the volume or adjust the song seems to wear the battery out considerably and it only gives 7-8 hours of playback before the battery dies.

Overall it is a good player, but I can't help thinking that at £115 you are paying partly for the apple name and reputation of the iPod and I think there are probably mp3 players out there that are just as good but cheaper than the iPod and maybe I should have done more research into these first.

Summary: A good player but might be worth considering others

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