My Little iPod nano Review
I visited the local Apple Store and it was crowded with people gathering around the iPod nano display table. The store had about 10 nanos attached to power supplies and people were queued up waiting to play with one.
I checked out both the black and white ones. The black one looks real snazzy, but I found myself prefering the white one, not just for aesthetics. The display models received some rough handling and white ones didn't show scuff and scratch marks like the black ones do (not that I would scratch my iPod
).
The nano's controls were responsive, changing music tracks was lightning fast. The sound was superb, just as I expected. The screen is bright, high resolution with brilliant color. The click wheel seemed a bit skittish at first, probably because of its relatively small size. But I didn't take very long to get the feel of it. The iPod nano felt comfortable and solidly constructed, not fragile in the least.
One thing that surprised me was that there was no way to turn the nano off. With the full size iPods I'm used to, turning the sucker off is as simple as press and hold the play/pause button at the 6 o'clock position. This little trick does not work with the nano. I asked a friendly Apple sales rep if he knew how to turn it off. He immediately tried the standard procedure without luck. He then asked another sales rep who shrugged as though no one had ever asked this question before. I guess Apple needs to add this feature to the next iPod updater.
All in all I think the iPod nano is an amazing product - just the kind of toy that would fulfill many a childhood dream this Christmas, and the dreams of quite a few adults as well. Judging from the response of the customers in the Apple Store, it should be a huge hit this holiday season.
