Note that this review covers the first version of the iPod mini 4GB made before February 23, 2005. After February 23, 2005, there is a version 2 of the iPod mini running software version 1.3. There is a 4GB and a 6GB version of this iPod mini ver. 2 that also boasts an improved battery life up to 18 hours (I haven't tested one so I can't confirm yet)! Otherwise, the specs should be similar to the first edition of the iPod mini. Also note that the new 4GB iPod mini is now a low $199 and the 6GB version is $249 (which I've written an epinion on, click here to read). The only way to tell the difference between ver. 1 and 2 iPod minis is... the icons on the clickwheel of the iPod mini ver. 2 are color coded to the case! Note that the second edition iPod 4GB and 6GB lose the firewire cable and the AC adapter... which means you have to recharge your iPod through the USB port of your computer unless you purchase an AC adapter!
February 20, 2004... there's a line to the Apple store just to pick up the new "in" thing from Apple. I've still got to wait 2 hours till 6PM since Apple won't release the iPod mini till then. I've been reluctant to buy an iPod... always relying on one of my other MP3 players (currently a Creative Labs Jukebox 3, Creative Labs Nomad II MG, and an iRiver iMP-400 CD/MP3 player... I've gotten rid of my other MP3 units like the Nomad Zen player). I've been worried about the reported issues of the battery life... but the iPod had a certain attractiveness. An attractiveness that wasn't just in looks but also in performance and usability... plus those intangibles that rocketed the iPod to the top of almost everyone's must have MP3 player list. With the announcement of the iPod mini, I placed a pre-order an my local Apple store on day one... now in a few hours I'll have one in my hand... a nice shiny silver one!
Short Take
Cool looking, even smaller, with a good but not great battery life, excellent usability, excellent sound reproduction, and so much more... It is hard to make a real complaint about the iPod mini other than the premium price! At the time of this writing, the only real competition is the Creative Labs 4GB Muvo2 MP3 player which is $50 less than the iPod mini. The Muvo2 wins in price and is possibly slightly better in the sound clarity... well, the Muvo has a removable Lithium-ion battery too! Otherwise, the iPod has much better looks, a better screen, a better interface... just a better overall package.
Before, I liked Apple products but wouldn't put the money into buying them but now I just became an Apple lover with the iPod mini.
Pros:
1) Smaller size... slightly taller and wider than my Motorola V400 and my LG VX6000 cellular phone but half the thickness!
2) Excellent screen
3) Excellent sound output
4) 4GB of space packed in
5) Click Wheel interface is excellent
6) Ease of iTunes
7) Ability to use iPod mini as an external hard drive
8) Ability to move your music to and from iPod mini to other computer (not exactly an Apple supported feature however)
9) FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 connection!
Cons:
1) $50 more than the competition (Creative Labs 4GB Muvo2 player is only current competition)
2) Popularity makes this very hard to purchase
3) Another $50 can get you a 15GB iPod although the unit is slightly larger
4) Questionable reliability for use with exercise and other activities... a flash memory based player is likely to be more reliable.
5) Falls into the same price range for smaller 512MB to 1GB flash memory based players
6) Falls into the same price range for larger hard drive based models with 15GB to 30GB (Dell DJ 15GB and Creative Nomad Zen Xtra 30GB for example)
Price
To be honest, I bought two units... one at the Apple store for the full $249 and another through Amazon.com for $9! The Amazon price was after a $20 promotional certificate, a $20 gift certificate for a survery, and another $200 from being a Palm Champion! I am still waiting for the one from Amazon.com to be sent to me however. At the time I write this, the best deal is from Target.com which is selling the unit for $249 $5 S&H with a 10% online coupon... so a base $230 plus your state's sales tax.
You can read my epinions article
The Art of Buying... Getting your money's worth! to find some tips on buying online and trying to save money... although it is hard with the iPod mini.
If you waiting for the price to drop... I think it will be difficult especially with the demand so high. Apple reported over 100,000 pre-orders and that was 1 1/2 weeks prior to the release and only the pre-orders taken from the Apple.com store! Yikes!
As you read in my cons, the major issue with the iPod in the price. The $249 price tag is worth it if you like the entire package. However from the gigabyte (GB) to dollar ratio... the iPod is sorely at the losing end for a hard drive based player. Creative's Nomad Muvo2 has the same capacity with equivalent or slightly better sound (although it is harder to use in my opinion) for $50 less. The much larger (more than twice the weight and volume i.e. cubic inches!) Dell DJ runs $249 for 15GB. A Creative Nomad Zen Xtra 30GB (yes 30GB!) runs as low as $269 although the unit is much larger than the original iPod! People who want a unit for exercising and other active sports may want a flash based player since it has no moving parts... although the GB to dollar will be much higher than the iPod mini. The flash player will be more reliable for these type of people.
Tech Specs
Dimension: 3.6 x 2.0 x 0.5 inches
Weight: 3.6 ounces
Hard Drive size: 4GB (Note that only 3.7 GB is available for your use!)
Battery Life: rated by Apple as 8 hours
Display: 1.67 inch diagonal grayscale with LED backlight
Major Control Interface: Apple's ClickWheel
Other ports: Remote and Headphone port, dock connector
Battery: Non-removal Lithium-Ion
Warranty: 1 year limited (covers battery!)
If you need to replace the battery, Apple charges $99 for the regular iPod. I assume the same price for the iPod mini.
Connections through dock connector: FireWire 400 connector, USB 2.0 connector, AC connector, connection to dock/mini dock. Battery can be charged through FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 connectors.
Battery charge time: 3 hours to full charge. 1 hour for obtain 80% charge. Longer charge time if you use the FireWire/USB and upload/download songs.
Formats supported: MP3 (32 to 320 Kbps sample rate), AAC (16 to 320 Kbps sample rate), MP3 VBR, Audible files, AIFF (Mac format), and standard WAV files.
Buffer memory: 32 MB (25 minutes as per Apple)
Included accessories: FireWire connector, USB 2.0 connector, AC adapter, white polybelt clip, iPod white earbud headphones. iTunes software.
Packaging: Same white box as iPod regular versions. iPod mini and accessories heavily wrapped in plastic layers that you have to peel away in layers. Earbuds looks like they have been sterilized since they are in a sealed foil package... looks like an autoclave package to me!
Sound
Overall excellent especially with 20 equalizer settings. Against the Muvo2 and the Jukebox 3, I would say the sound was as good or just slightly worse. The Muvo2 has a signal-to-noise ratio of 97-98. Usually having at least a 95 ratio is excellent so the iPod mini has a signal-to-noise ratio of at least 95 but more likely 97.
Volume through the included earbuds is good although you can use higher quality earbud or other headsets for even better sound.
The iPod mini is controlled via the new ClickWheel interface. This replaces the Touch Wheel and the 4 Touch buttons. A firm press in the four cardinal directions bring up the play/pause, fast forward, reverse, and menu choices... actually, I should say that there are four "buttons" on the ClickWheel for these four functions. "Rotating" the wheel will help you highlight and selection choices/songs. The center button is most like an accept/ok/select button. These are your only controls on the iPod... and they work like a charm. For added security, there is a hold switch at the top of the unit so you can have uninterrupted playback during long trips (hold locks the ClickWheel, the ClickWheel buttons, and the Select button).
Battery Life
My first charge went a little more than 7 hours. After a 3 1/2 hour charge, I ran the player for a total of 8 1/2 hours on and off before the battery died. I am still in the middle of the third charge... 4 hours and counting right now. The battery indicator still shows that it is half full! So far, so good.
After using the unit for a week, I noted something strange about the battery drain. The iPod mini never turns off fully... which means that it is always draining the battery. For example, I fully charged my iPod at 7:30 PM. I used it for a total of 30 minutes before turning off the iPod mini (press and hold the play/pause until screen goes off). In the morning about 9 hours after I had used the unit for a total of 30 minutes, my battery indicator is at 1/3 power. I was able to get another 1 hour of battery life so far. I am assuming that this is due to one (or a combination) of problems:
1) There is a slight problem with the firmware.
2) The clock and alarm use up a significant amount of battery time
3) The iPod mini never ever turns "off"
This could make the standby time of the iPod somewhat poor... today, I have not recharged the unit yet. I have used the unit for 2 hours and it has been on standby 22 hours so far. I'll see what happens.
Now a month later... the standby time from fully charged to needing a recharge was about 3 1/2 days (did not use the player at all except to check battery power). This was holding the play/pause button until the unit turned "off" and then putting the unit in hold. On typical use, I had to recharge my unit every two days with 3-4 hours of use over the two days.
Now several months later and with an update of the iPod mini to firmware 1.3, I am getting 3-4 hours of play time with up to 4 days standby between charges! That is just outstanding so far. This crushes the
Creative Zen Micro battery times I'm getting so far.
I am hoping that the battery problems noted on the original iPod were addressed... but I won't know that until several months from now. Note that lithium-ion batteries are good for 300-350 recharges before they have a loss of their charge capacity (i.e. the battery can only be charged to a maximum of 80-90% instead of their original 100%... well that's the easiest way to think of it.). By that reasoning, the battery for the iPod mini will be somewhat weaker after a year of daily use and recharging and significantly weaker after two years of daily use and recharging. Again, all of this information is hypothetical and people will only be able to comment on these particular battery issues a year or so from now.
Screen
Despite the overall size of the screen, it is still surprisingly easy to read and rather sharp. The song's full title is usually shown and the battery indicator is always displayed whatever you're doing!
Casing
Solid to the touch but not weighty... that the best description of the iPod mini. The iPod mini feels very durable in my hands, and it feels like a quality product! The design is very smooth and the ClickWheel is quite flush with the case... keeping the sexy feel of the unit. For added protection, there is a belt case included that serves its purpose but little else.
Software
Basically iTunes. However, iTunes is as robust as the other music programs out there. You have a selection of hundreds of thousands of songs for purchase at $0.99 a pop!This is the "only method" to download legal tunes to and from the iPod mini. Unfortunately, the iPod mini also syncs with only one copy of iTunes. There is a work around for this. In Windows, you set the iPod up as an external hard drive and show all hidden files and directories... the musics files will show up on Windows Explorer. Now you can copy them to your other computers! Note that you have to "Enable Disk Use" function on the iPod mini.
Transfer rates were quite speedy on both FireWire 400 and USB 2.0... it seemed that USB 2.0 was slightly faster, which is surprising actually. When using the iPod mini as a USB 2.0 removable hard drive, I could transfer 100MB in about 3 minutes.
As far as USB 1.1, I've had a number of lock ups during file transfers. I have been able to charge the iPod mini via the USB 1.1 port without a problem so far.
Extras
Strangely enough, the iPod mini has a few extra functions. Calendar, Contacts, Text Notes, Alarm Clock/Wake Up Call, and 4 games.
There is a good range of support for your Microsoft Outlook contact and calendar files as well as Palm Desktop Contact and calendar files. You can't modify or add dates/contacts through the iPod mini but you can transfer your files from Outlook or Palm Desktop to the iPod mini and view them there. That can help reduce the number of items you bring with you anywhere. The Alarm Clock feature is a neat little feature that will play an alarm tone or your favorite (or most deafening song) if you attach the iPod to portable speakers or a stereo system. The four games included were Music Quiz, Solitaire, Brick, and Parachute... not much to write home about in my opinion.
Parting Thoughts?
The iPod was a revolutionary device... the iPod mini is more of an evolutionary step. The overall package is excellent but people will nitpick mostly in two areas... price and the small size of the hard drive. Some will complain about the battery life as well. Regardless, the iPod mini seems like a niche product but will likely be another mega-seller for Apple. For the most part, I'm happy with the purchase... it fit the needs I wanted it for and it's stylish to boot. The iPod mini isn't the perfect product, but for many, it's dang hard to resist!
For a review of the
Apple's new second generation iPod Mini 6GB MP3 player.
For a review of the
Creative Zen Micro 5GB Player (and likely represents the 4GB and 6GB Zen Micro players as well), click here.
For a review of the
iRiver H10 5GB color screen MP3 Player with Photo display, click here.
For those of you who are wondering about the
Sony PSP's MP3 capabilities, check out my review here. It is an okay MP3 player overall... but not a first choice for primary MP3 playback.
For a review of the
Creative Nomad Muvo2 4GB MP3 player, click here.
For other
MP3 players I've reviewed, check my profile page here.
Note to buyers about Creative Labs Muvo2... I think I may have been one of the first few to preorder the 4GB Muvo a couple of months ago (when the price dropped to $199 on the unit). It seems that many of my friends who also ordered one have NOT gotten their unit yet as I write this. A few of my friends did receive a 4GB Muvo2. Orders through Buy.com and Amazon.com have not yet been fulfilled for the Muvo2. Amazon.com and Target.com have not yet fulfilled their iPod mini orders to my knowledge.
