iPod Isn't the new Nano great?

I'm happy that my 7th gen red nano has shipped!

Even so, I won't be handing my square orange 6th gen nano on to someone else. Love the square look, and the shuffle-like clip, the watch faces and the radio. It's one of my all time favorites, along with the 2nd gen nanos. Hope the 7th gen one ends up in that short list too.

batmangorden said:

Battery life was terrible on the last nano, don't know if it was cause how small the nano was, but yeah, terrible battery life. At times the battery only lasted around 4 hours. And that was lightly turning the screen on to change songs every once and a while.

Anyone gave the new nano's battery a test run?

Click to expand...

Well just got the new nano today from amazon. Charged it for about 2 hrs before using it. Cant really tell for sure if its full charge. But battery life sucks..... Got about 2 hrs so far and it looks like I have about 50% left. connect to my ClarityHD bluetooth speaker for the past 2 hrs. Apple stating 30 hrs is bs maybe for headphone, but on bluetooth connection its not great at all.......

iLounge tested it and found an impressive 9 hours and 30 minutes of Bluetooth streaming and around 35 hours of wired headphones - I'd say give it a full charge first or run it down all the way then charge it up - the battery is good in my personal testing as well.

I love the nano. The FM radio is awesome, I use it at work almost daily, I use the nano in the car instead of my iPhone.

No it's not great..nor bad. It's just different, but I prefer the 6th gen.
I can't believe after so many replies, nobody mentioned about audio quality and battery life so far.
According to the Macworld review, the audio quality is almost non-perceptable vs the last year model, something like 10-15% better so maybe not worth it. Battery life seems a bit better, but I really wanted 32GB version so much that I would have even bought it.

Sure, it may have been too small for some, but for a music player, once you get used to it, you cannot go back (at least too easy). I simply do not like the whitel..maybe if it was some black or grey it would have been better looking.

Like somebody said earlier, it feels like they changed it just for the sake of change.

Edit: perhaps I'm being a bit too harsh. If you need an iPod for the gym or something then it isn't a bad option. Otherwise it's a tad underwhelming, especially when you consider the price (a Kindle Fire costs the same amount and a 4th generation iPod Touch with loads more functionality costs only another £10-20.

Bluetooth is fine, but WiFi would have been even better for Airplay/streaming purposes. It feels like a stop-gap product between the 6th gen and whatever Apple comes up with next time.

Tsuchiya said:

Edit: perhaps I'm being a bit too harsh. If you need an iPod for the gym or something then it isn't a bad option. Otherwise it's a tad underwhelming, especially when you consider the price (a Kindle Fire costs the same amount and a 4th generation iPod Touch with loads more functionality costs only another £10-20.

Click to expand...

I think I'd feel a bit awkward (and look a bit like Flava-Flav) if i went running with kindle fire strapped to chest.....

Really the touch is a more valid comparison, the nano is a small music player primarily with usable but not great video in a pinch

sno1man said:

I think I'd feel a bit awkward (and look a bit like Flava-Flav) if i went running with kindle fire strapped to chest.....

Really the touch is a more valid comparison, the nano is a small music player primarily with usable but not great video in a pinch

Click to expand...

When you say it like that...

Sorry, I should have explained my reasoning in my post. I was considering the nano strictly from a value for money angle. As small portable music players go, it does the job (though again WiFi would've been great...), but for £129 it's a little lacking.

I brought my little sister the new nano for her birthday yesterday. She's delighted with it, but I can't help but think that there are better options in that price range. An iPod touch which is much more capable or even the Kindle fire.

For the record, I asked her today if she wanted an iPod touch instead, but she was positive that she is happy with the nano. *shrug*

Tsuchiya said:

When you say it like that...

Click to expand...

I'm glad you got the humor as it was intended.

I'm conflicted: I ordered a touch sight unseen and when it arrived it was all scuffed out of the box. I went to exchange it and neither Apple store near me had any touch's to swap so i got my money back.

In the interim, the rumors of the iPad mini started to get real. I'm thinking now about a nano for running and perhaps a mini for the stuff I would have used the touch for (apps, games, ereader)

I carry around a Kindle Fire all the time, love it. However, it's not enough space for my music. The problem with these tablets, smartphones, and iPod Touch is the app ecosystem. The apps take too much space. So while the Nano costs less and does less, it takes care of the problem of not having the space for music, podcasts, and iTunes U content - ESPECIALLY the iTunes U content as most of it takes 1GB per file!

musicpenguy said:

iLounge tested it and found an impressive 9 hours and 30 minutes of Bluetooth streaming and around 35 hours of wired headphones - I'd say give it a full charge first or run it down all the way then charge it up - the battery is good in my personal testing as well.

Click to expand...

Yeah on my 2nd day I was getting about 7-9 hrs on bluetooth. Just wondering for all you new nano owner, how do you know when the nano is at 100% charge? On the battery icon it looks the same if you just plugged it in for 10 mins vs plugged in fr 4 hours.

dazz87 said:

Just wondering for all you new nano owner, how do you know when the nano is at 100% charge? On the battery icon it looks the same if you just plugged it in for 10 mins vs plugged in fr 4 hours.

Click to expand...

It'll change from a lightning bolt to a plug on the icon.

A disappointment

I really wanted to buy the 7th gen today but the Nike+ functionality is severely crippled for me. I use a watch remote which now only works inside the app and then the powersong and feedback don't work. Also the connection was rather intermittent. I would really recommend more the 6th gen.

7th gen looks and feels sexy ... but is a real dud.

Jessica Lares said:

It'll change from a lightning bolt to a plug on the icon.

Click to expand...

thanks.

Just had a look at them today, hands on at the Apple store, and they look so much nicer in real life than in all the photos etc.
All colors actually look great, even with the white front.
I wasnt planning on buying one however they are just so cool.
There have been reviews saying that the display isnt as good as the other ipods however I was impressed by the quality of the demo videos.

I think the handful of CONS that people keep pointing out are outweighed by the PROS.
I'll be getting one for sure!!

If anything, the 7th gen Nano makes a great carPod.
The 6th gen Nano makes a great gymPod.

To me, the 6th generation Nano was a nearly perfect a distillation of everything Apple has ever produced from a design and UI perspective. When I think of products that embody all that is Apple, the 6th gen Nano is up there with the aluminum Mac Mini, the unibody MacBook, the iPhone 4S and 5, and the iPad 3.

Just watched a review on YouTube where the guy reversed the colours of the buttons/icons ( changed to the negative ) by double clicking the home button. I have to say that the reversed colours look so much nicer.

Just returned mine after using it for a few days. Not to be that guy in the thread, just want to list some things I found with it to possibly help any other users out.

The battery life was quite bad. Perhaps my expectations were high coming from an iPod Classic but I was seeing around a 50% capacity loss after only a couple of hours of usage. If you use the any of the menu features (i.e. if you don't just let it play audio song after song without any interjection) then the battery life takes a huge hit over time.

Touch screen is overly sensitive in my opinion. I have never owned an Apple touchscreen product prior to this so if you are in the same boat then be cautious. The screen is small for a touchscreen to begin with, and if an eyelash falls on it you'll end up changing the song, fast-forwarding through the next, and open up the Radio application at the same time.

Although it's evident prior to purchase (as are some points above such as the small form factor of the device) the placement of the headphone port really sinks in after owning it. It's just weird to have it on the bottom, and it's quite annoying really.

It looks like a great product and for some it probably is but personally I would recommend just getting a 4th generation 16GB iPod Touch for $199 instead of the new iPod Nano. It's not worth the $149 in my opinion. Sorry if this is a harsh write-up, not trying to bash the product, just be cautious and hopefully some information can be gathered from this post in order to avoid a return like I have to now go through.

Good luck everyone.

Got one a couple weeks ago and it vastly exceeded my expectations. Screen and interface look great, it's tiny and the build quality feels as high as any other apple product I've used. I'm even impressed by the new lightning connector. I can see why some would want the clip, but I don't miss it at all.

Definitely a product that needs to be experienced in person and actually used, a lot of doubters are going to change their minds.

I love mine - it's the first player I've had that can be used without even turning the screen on - just by using the buttons on the side, playlists/folders can be browsed and selected.. or I can just use the buttons on my iems.

Of course, if I ever decide to turn the screen on it has full touchscreen controls also.

myrtlebee said:

The best iPod nano was the 5th generation. That should have been the (at least) 2-year design, not the 6th gen or this thing. It's gaudy - no new features, just bringing back video they eliminated 2 years before - and I don't even think they allow you to change the background. I really wish the iPod Touch wasn't so damn expensive - could they really not just scrap the 4th gen and have an 8 or 16 GB new iPod Touch start at $199? At first, I didn't like those either - I still don't like the colored ones, but the black and white models are growing on me. Well, except that stupid "Loop" button- that will never grow on me, it's just gimmicky.

Click to expand...

I liked being able to play video and record video on the 5th gen. Also having the speaker let you listen to voice without headphones. It is my favorite of the nanos

Screen and speed issues

On my silver iPod nano there is interlacing on the edge of the screen that look like the teeth of a comb. I have the same issue with my iPhone 5 and I'm really disappointed. Usually Apple's screens are really good and never disappointed me but this year they seem to be using another manufacturer.

Also, the iPod nano seems a bit slow. There was once where it showed the Apple logo after quitting from settings. It's like the whole device had to restart. Also, waking the device especially with the home button is really slow sometimes.

I don't like my new Nano.

I could get into the lack of apps, lack of wifi. Bad UI, lack of customization for UI.

However end of the day, I think it's just awkward. I didn't like the last generation nano at first. However I ended up really enjoying it. This has actually gotten worse the more i've used it.

This one is even worse for accidentally changing tracks, and doing all sorts of things you didn't intend. I still can't figure out while changing the volume sometimes changes tracks. It sometimes goes to random tracks. And yes shake to shuffle is off.


Plugging it into docks, now sometimes you have to manually switch it back to ear phones?

Even the touch screen can be crap. The amount of times i go to swipe the cover away and it moves across and snaps back.

The control buttons on the side are awful and tiny.

There's just something off about the whole layout and design.

I picked one up after I bumped into the display at Best Buy. I'd been wanting to try out the Earpods and needed another lightning cable for my iPad mini, but had also been considering a nano or shuffle for when I work out. I've been using my iPhone, but it's a bit heavy for the pockets of gym shorts. Plus, using it there is just an invitation to break it.

Anyhow, I did the math, figuring I'd be spending $50 on the Earpods and cable, it wasn't a dumb idea to just get it all with the nano.

I really like it. There's nothing cheap about it. Anodized aluminum case that matches the iPhone 5, iPod touch and ipad mini, glass display that should be scratch resistant and it weighs nothing.

It should be noted that it looks much bigger in pictures than it really is. The old one would've been great for a smart watch kind of thing, but I can't imagine navigating it while walking my dog. This one can be operated comfortably with one hand while my other is busy holding a leash.

Office Works - Australia - $149

For anyone in Australia looking at getting one, Office Works have them for $149. That's $20 cheaper than the RRP.
Not sure how long this will last.