Apple iPod nano 16GB

Posted on 9 Dec 2008 at 12:37

Manufacturer: Apple
www.apple.com/uk

Supplier: Apple
www.apple.com/uk

Price: £127 (£149 inc VAT)

Rating: 5/6

With products such as the iPod nano it isn't the price tag that first occupies your attention, it's the design and the looks. This is, quite simply, the most gorgeous MP3 player you can buy.

Apple has wisely returned to the tall, thin form factor with the latest generation, and as a result it's a lot easier to hold and control. The user interface is as excellent as ever, and the touch-sensitive control remains a very effective way of navigating through your tracks and video clips.

If you were expecting a lot of features for your money, however, you'll be disappointed. Aside from an accelerometer that flips the screen into cover flow mode automatically when you place it on its side, the nano is nowhere near as feature-packed as the Creative Zen X-Fi. Its bundled headphones are poor quality, there's no FM tuner, no voice-recording ability (unless you add Apple's upgrade headphones, which have an inline microphone) and no memory expandability either.

Typically for an Apple device, file format support is fairly limited too, with AAC, Apple Lossless, MP3 and Audible formats and no sight of WMA, OGG or FLAC. But battery life is good at 24 hours and sound quality reasonable.

In short, the nano is beautiful and very lovely to use, but for the ultimate in features or sound quality you should look elsewhere.

Creative Zen Mosaic 2GB
Sandisk Sansa Fuze 8GB
iRiver L-Player 8GB
Creative Zen X-Fi 16GB
Apple iPod Touch 32GB

Back to: MP3 Players

Author: Darien Graham-Smith, Mike Jennings & Matthew Spark