Article summary

It’s the small iPod with one very big idea: Video. Now the world’s most popular music player lets you enjoy TV shows, movies, video podcasts, and more. The larger, brighter display means amazing picture quality. In five eye-catching colours, iPod nano is stunning all around.

Overview

An anodized aluminum top and polished stainless steel back. Five eye-catching colours. A larger, brighter display with the most pixels per inch of any Apple New Apple iPod Nano display, ever. iPod nano stirs up visual effects from the outside in.

And it’ll wow you for hours. Play up to 5 hours of video or up to 24 hours of audio on a single charge (1). All that staying power and a wafer-thin, 6.5-mm profile makes iPod nano one small big attraction.

Cover Flow

If a picture says a thousand words, think of what all the album art in your collection might say. With Cover Flow on iPod nano, you can flip through your music to find the album you want to hear. Use the Click Wheel to browse music by album cover, then select an album to flip it over and see the track list.

Music

Use the Click Wheel to adjust volume, navigate songs, browse in Cover Flow, or explore the Music menu by playlist, artist, album, song, genre, composer, and more. Want to mix things up? Click Shuffle Songs. iPod nano makes your music look as good as it sounds, thanks to its bright colour display.

Movies

Buy movies from the iTunes Store and you can sync them to your iPod nano to watch anywhere, anytime. Up to 5 hours of video playback means you can watch two movies back to back.1 And for your viewing pleasure, the 320-by-240-pixel display — with a whopping 204 pixels per inch — is 65 percent brighter than before.

TV Shows

There’s always something good on iPod nano. Browse thousands of episodes of your favorite TV shows on the iTunes Store, then sync them to your iPod nano. Watch last night’s episodes this morning, or buy a whole TV series and play a pocket-size marathon.

Podcasts

The iTunes Store features thousands of free video and audio podcasts, including indie favorites and offerings from such big names as ABC News, Comedy Central, ESPN, PBS, NPR, and many more. Browse and subscribe to podcasts, then sync them to your iPod nano. You can even play video podcasts on TV using an optional Apple component or composite AV cable.

Audiobooks

The digital shelves of the iTunes Store are stocked with thousands of audiobooks — including exclusives like the entire Harry Potter series — so you can catch up on your reading wherever iPod nano takes you. iPod nano even recognizes where you left off reading and bookmarks your place.

Games

Put hours of fun at your fingertips. iPod nano comes with three games — Vortex, iQuiz, and Klondike — and you can download more from the iTunes Store. All iPod games are designed specifically for the iPod interface. And all of them look great on the 2-inch colour display.

Photos

iPod nano holds up to 7,000 photos you can sync from your Mac or PC via iTunes. Use the Click Wheel to scroll through photo thumbnails. To see a photo full screen, click the center button. You can even view your photo slideshows — complete with music and transitions — on a TV using an optional Apple component or composite AV cable.

Extras

Calendars, contacts, and a screen lock appear in the Extras menu, along with a few more handy items. Take the world clock, for example. Spin the Click Wheel to choose different clocks for cities all over the world. For workouts, use the built-in stopwatch to log your best times.

1. Testing conducted by Apple in August 2007 using preproduction hardware and software. Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced

iPod nano
Earphones
USB 2.0 cable
Dock adapter
Quick Start guide

Customer's review

Very disappointing quality

Unfortunately my experience of this iPod was not as positive as from previous reviewers. The first one only worked for 1 months and then froze, so I had to send it back to Amazon. Amazon was great in responding and quickly replacing the item! However the next iPod was even worse - only lasted for a week, and also the same problem - froze! I had to ask for a full refund. Very disappointing quality from Apple!

More style than substance, otherwise great

I bought this to replace my Creative Zen Jukebox, a chunkier but more robust mp3 player, so that's what I'm comparing it to.

In summary:

Pros:
- very small and light
- nice bright display and a good size
- cover flow (the ability to scroll through you albums by cover) is a nice touch
- the circular touch control is great for navigating very quickly through large lists
- Battery life is more than sufficient, allowing for more than 20 albums on a single charge (will be much less if you watch videos though)
- volume is sufficiently loud without being deafening

Cons:
- if your thumb is larger than a child's the controls can be awkward - when pressing the central button you'll often inadvertently touch the circular touch controls before pressing the menu button, so you'll annoyingly select the wrong item and have to go back a step.
- occasional file corruption - one of my songs cuts out before the end. This doesn't appear to be uncommon with nanos. I copied come music on a 2GB nano and it refused to play one particular song, whether ripped directly from CD or copied from a mp3 file on my PC.
- curruption with album art, some covers remain black, despite recopying, deleting and re-copying from my PC.
- the circular touch control is awkward to use when trying to scroll up or down a single item in the list because it's quite sensitive
- photo quality is not great (I suppose because it resizes them to fit)
- the supplied headphones are OK but not great, you can get a better pair for around 12 pounds (I wouldn't wear white ones anyway!)
- the default screensaver is the clock, but I can't find a way to change this to the `Now Playing' screen, I can't see why you can't cutomise this
- it has crashed twice in the space of a few days, forcing me to reset it. Not a good sign.

So it's not the most stable piece of kit, the controls can sometime be a pain but, as I expected with ipods, this is the sacrifice you make for something which packs so much in such a small space, and seems to be aimed at people who are more concerned about image than function.

Very pleased, I can't fault it

This is a really good little player. I especially like being able to use it in conjunction with my itrip, which means I can play my songs through any radio including the one in my car.

Wow - once again

I recently lost my beloved first generation iPod nano at security in a Spanish airport so I decided it was time to treat myself to the present (third) generation and once again I have been blown away.

This model holds twice the music my old one did, and is capable of supporting video, photo and podcasts. The nano also benefits from a larger screen and more battery life, in order to enjoy your digital media to the full.

If you're familiar with Apple and their iPods then this is an excellent addition to their tree.

Great

Really good. Plenty of memory for music with enough for some videos/pictures. Worth buying and is really portable. Easy to use and download onto so worth the money.