Product Reviews

The iPod has been Apple's single biggest success story of the last couple of years and has put its hardware and software in the hands of people who have never used a Mac in their life. So it was no surprise that the company used Macworld Expo to announce two additions to the range.

The most interesting of the two new iPods is the iPod mini, a smaller, lower-capacity, and cheaper version of what Apple claims to be the biggest-selling digital music player in the world. Unlike its full-size sibling, which is only available in white, the iPod mini comes in five colours; silver, gold, blue, pink, and green. The other new iPod is a replacement for the 10Gb iPod and features 15Gb of storage space, which is a 50% increase for the same £249 (inc VAT) price tag.

The iPod mini weighs in at 104g compared with 158g for the 15Gb and 20Gb models, and has dimensions of 9.1cm x 5.1cm x 1.3cm (h x w x d) compared with 10.4cm x 6.1cm x 1.6cm. The smaller dimensions means the LCD display isn't as big on the iPod mini and has a lower resolution; 138 x 100 pixels compared with 160 x 128 pixels.

Dressing it up

The iPod mini ships with the same accessories as the bottom-of-the-range iPod - that's to say that it doesn't have a dock or a remote control. Although there is a remote port next to the headphone socket, so the remote control can be bought as an optional extra, as can a mini dock. Also available as an optional extra with the mini is an armband so you can wear your iPod on your sleeve while running.

Apple

ADVERTISEMENT

states the 4Gb capacity is enough to store 1000 songs encoded at 128K in AAC format. So it's roughly the same capacity in song terms as the original 5Gb iPod, which could store around 1000 songs encoded at 128K in MP3 format.

Other specifications are the same as the full-size iPods: battery life is quoted at eight hours with a charge time of three hours to full capacity or one hour to 80% capacity. Supported file formats are AAC, MP3, Audible, AIFF and WAV, and the skip-protection buffer holds up to 25 minutes of music. Connection to your Mac is via FireWire 400, and there's full support for On-the-Go Playlists, along with all the other goodies found on the iPod range.

Apple has also introduced a new set of in-ear headphones as an optional accessory for the iPod. The new headphones are designed to cut-out more external noise, improve sound quality and bass response, and be more comfortable. They're available for £29 inc VAT.

So it's a little lighter and easier to fit in a pocket, but whether that will be enough to make the iPod mini attractive to consumers is debatable. Indeed, the relatively muted reception it received at its introduction during Apple CEO Steve Jobs's keynote speech at the Expo suggests it will take some very clever marketing to make it as successful as its larger counterparts.

While we haven't been able to test a unit yet, the specifications and price don't seem to suggest that Apple has a winner on its hands. While the 15Gb iPod offers reasonable value for money at £249 inc VAT, the 4Gb iPod mini looks expensive at £199 inc VAT. The new colours will appeal to some, but it's too expensive to be an impulse purchase and anyone who takes time to think about it will surely come to the conclusion that the 15Gb offers much better value for money. A 2Gb device for £99 inc VAT, while offering the same price per song would have put it into the hands of more people and given all those who desperately want an iPod but haven't been able to justify the price something to cheer about. Try as we might, we just can't see the appeal of the iPod mini.