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ZIFFPAGE TITLEAt A Glance
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Full Review
Once again, Apple has come up with a design that turns heads. Enter the iPod nano. But this was a relatively easy one for the designers, if not the engineers: They took the full-size iPod and made it really, really slim. We measured it at just 80 cents thick—thats 3 quarters and a nickel, or 0.27 inches for you traditionalists—by 5 dimes long (3.5 inches) by 2 pennies wide (1.6 inches).
According to Apple, thats 62 percent smaller than the now-discontinued iPod mini the nano is replacing. It weighs just 1.5 ounces, and it really does fit in the smaller front pocket of your blue jeans without the slightest bulge. A few things changed—some compromises in the name of miniaturization and some actual improvements—but the end result is a spectacular product. Sure, it doesnt have an FM tuner or voice recording, but it does have an unsurpassed interface, a color screen, excellent sound quality, and an undeniable cool factor. Plus, its flash-based, so you dont have to worry about skipping or dead hard drives.
We received the black model for testing, but we were slightly disappointed to find that the included stock Apple earbuds have retained their distinctive “mug-me” white. A nice touch is that the icon that showed up on our desktop was black. T
The iPod nano doesnt support syncing via FireWire; instead, a message comes up telling you to please use the included USB cable. It still charges via FireWire, though. Upon first connection, our 4GB model had 3.7GB available for storage, with the remaining space being used for system files. It took us only 1 minute 6 seconds to transfer 512MB of MP3 files via USB 2.0.