Electronics : Apple iPod nano 2GB - Black [MA099FB/A]

Rating: - Nano Star
The ipod nano 2gb white is a stunningly bueatiful mp3 player weighing in at only 42 grams, pencil thin and holding around 500 songs. The ipod nano has a crystal clear 1.5 inch colour screen, which is ideal for viewing the photos the nano can hold or just the album artwork of the song you are currently playing. The ipod nano's memory is flash memory therefore there are no moving part's so the nano is completly skip free. The ipod nano has a 14 hour battery life from which you can get 80% capacity from with a 1 hour fast charge. The nano comes with 4 inbuilt games ideal for thise boring times on the bus. The nano is pc and mac compatible. Inside the box you get a usb lead, software, dock adaptor and the traditional apple white earbud headphones. Unfourtanatly like the ipod mini and the shuffle before it you do not get a mains charger with the ipod. Therefore when you buy the ipod the only way of charging the nano is throught the usb2 port on your computer, If you dont have usb2 on your computer or want a wall charger one of these will set you back around £19 pounds. Team the nano up with the many accsesories around such as the lanyard headphones, fm radio remote, nano tubes (protective case for nano) or of course the nano dock and you'll never look back. As usual with ipods the only thing's i can criticise with the nano is the lack of fm radio and lack of wall charger both of which can be sorted by purchasing the apple ipod fm remote and usb charger. If you can over look these things and want an mp3 player that is easy to use, has good sound quality and is stunningly attractive then the ipod nano is for you.

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Rating: - Living with the Nano
I got this just before New Year and thought i'd wait a while before I reviewed it so people knew what it was like to live with each day. Its my first mp3 player and I researched what was out there loads before I bought and i'm suprised I ended up buying a Ipod in the end. The previous problems of failing Ipods were caused by file errors from the hard drive that it used becuase it used spinning parts and a needle. The nano uses flash media player so it doesnt have any moving parts to knock or break. I havent got 14hours of battery from it but near about 6/7 becuase I listen to my music loud and its got very heavy beats (hard trance :-P) Tips for saving the battery life is turn off the backlight and the clicker the wheel makes when you get it and the battery life improves loads. Scratch wise its fine. Ipod include a case that fits the job perfectly and mine still hasnt got ONE scratch on it and I carry it round everywhere.
btw the black nano looks far better than the old looking white one.

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Rating: - Who am I kidding?
I got my iPod Nano a few weeks ago, it's my third MP3 player. It's very slick and easy to use, the clickwheel is a brilliant piece of design. The photo storage is a bit of a gimmick, but it works very smoothly and the (tiny) screen is nice and clear. Sound quality is good, the limiting factor (as always) is the headphones which are decent rather than stunning. 2Gb is enough for plenty of music, though clearly it's not going to hold your entire CD collection in one go. The iTunes software is simple to use and works OK, though the iTunes Music Store is a bit annoying.

Who am I kidding? There are plenty of good MP3 boxes out there. The point about the iPod Nano is that it's completely gorgeous to look at and to hold. It's an object of desire. If you're anything like me you'll soon be obsessed with trying to keep it pristine (a tough job since the finish is fragile...).

The iPod Nano, then: slim, stunningly good-looking, delicate, a little bit demanding. Like a supermodel, but you can get away with taking it home.

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Rating: - I Love It!
When the nano first came out, and there were complaints of trouble with the screens, I just thought I'd wait until the next model came out, but then my friend got one, and it completly converted me. I've had my nano for almost a week now, and i really love it. You don't appreciate how well made and tiny it is untill you hold it in your hands. The sound quality is exceptional, and I think the provided headphones are great (except for the horrible mug-me-now white).

The battery life is good - well enough for me. I've now been listening to it for just over an hour on half volume with hold on while regularly changing the song, and the battery is still 4/5ths full.

The beautiful colour screen is crisp and clear, and although it isn't very big, you can still see most photographs in quite a lot of detail, and they look really high quality.

The click wheel is very easy to use - a stroke of genius in the setup. As for the memory, for me 2GB is plenty big enough - I'll never need to carry around more thna 500 songs - I have 350 on there at the moment, and I feel spoilt for choice. 4GB is a bit too expensive for what it is, I think. At it's current price of £175, it is just £20 cheaper from it's big brother - the 5th generation iPod, that can play video, and has 26GB more storage - just something to bear in mind.

And the scratching - it does scratch EXTREMLY easily. I've been very careful, and had a case and a hard screen protector on since I got it out the box, though there are still a few scratches on there, so be warned.

All in all, I love it. If you're considering buying an mp3 player, I'd definatly recommend this one.

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Rating: - Good, but not perfect
This iPod is great for looks, size and sound quality. But it does have some annoying habits: it sometimes switches songs in the middle, it has no mains charger (do I really need to switch my laptop on every time I want to recharge my iPod?), and when connected to the laptop it insists it should not be disconnected (with an annoying little sign flashing) - ever! It does not let you know when charging is completed and you can disconnect from laptop. The battery doesn't last half as long as it says in the promotional, and it only holds 1.8 GB of songs, not 2 GB as its name suggests. A pity.