So Thin And Gorgeous It's Hard Not To Be Smitten With Nano

Neither words nor pictures can truly show off the nano’s beauty. It is truly a stunning and stirring example of engineering and industrial design. As Apple CEO Steve Jobs said at its introduction it is “impossibly small.” And yet, while it maintains such a svelte figure it is remarkably usable. Normally miniature products like this have serious usability issues for people with adult hands. The nano is clearly a product where both form and function were taken into consideration, and not one at the expense of the other.

It is ironic that Apple worked so hard to shed almost all the weight of the nano’s predecessor, the popular iPod mini, to make a true full featured pocket player. When you pick up a nano your pocket is the last place you want to put it. You just want to hold it. As you embrace it you will notice the familiar iPod layout. A crisp 1.5” color screen at the top, the click-wheel controller in the middle, and the standard iPod dock connector at the bottom, which is compatible with most existing dock connector accessories.
(More about that later.) If you are familiar with the iPod there is no learning curve, and if you are not, it’s so intuitive you’ll have it down in a matter of minutes.

The nano does take a few departures from the mini it replaces. Most notable is the new placement of the headphone jack at the bottom of the unit. It has an unnatural feel to it because we are all used to the headphone jack being at the top. But it something you do get use to by just putting in your pocket upside down. Certainly its not a legitimate reason to not by a nano. The reason the headphone jack is at the bottom is because the nano is so crampt inside with technology and its color screen that there physically isn’t room at the top for the jack.

The other “shocker” about the nano is that you can’t sync via Firewire/iLink/IEEE1394 as all other iPods, except the shuffle, allowed. Like the shuffle, the nano is strictly USB 2.0. You can charge via Firewire, but frankly what is the point? While lack of Firewire is a disappointment and nuisance for some, it largely doesn’t affect the average user. The nano uses flash memory where the mini used a tiny hard drive. This flash memory is fast, but not so fast that Firewire could ever be an asset to the nano. The only users that are affected by the lack of Firewire are those who have older Macs that don’t have USB 2.0. The nano will work with USB 1.1, which is on most modern Macs, but it will sync at a much slower speed.

The nano line does away with the multiple color choices the mini had. You can get the nano in traditional iPod white or the new black. From early reports the black seems to be the more popular color, and it is pretty slick and helps show up the screen even more. Once you put a case on it color really becomes irrelevant though.

As mentioned the nano has a gorgeous color screen for easy navigation and photo viewing, including album art for the current playing song. That’s right, the nano can download your pictures from your computer so you have a kind of digital photo wallet just like the larger color iPods offer. Unlike the color iPods though you cannot upload pictures from your digital camera. Neither the Apple nor Belkin camera connectors work with the nano. TV out, even with the dock is not available either. Another missing feature is the ability to use the nano as a voice recorder. As of now none of the existing voice recording accessories are compatible with the nano.

The sound from the nano is, as expected, top notch. I am positive an audiophile could spot some deficiencies but for the average person with the average human hearing abilities the nano is perfect, especially if you upgrade your headphones from the included ones (which are not that great).

One would think such a small player would also mean it is fragile. Yes and no. The guys at Arstechnica.com conducted a non-scientific stress test with their nano. They put it in their back pocket and sat on it and it still worked. They dropped it from 3 feet and it still worked. They even threw it from a car @ 50mph and, while it took some cosmetic damage it still worked. It was only after they threw it up in the air 40 feet and let it slam onto the pavement that it gave up. So unless you plan on skydiving with it onto a parking lot, the nano seems to beauty and brawn. But on the more superficial side the nano is pansy. Like all iPods the nano is incredibly scratch prone. A case or a vinyl skin is a must to have on hand even before you open the nano box. If you need to you can also modify a cell phone screen protector to fit the nano until cases become available.

OK, the nano is great. But is it right for you? My guess is probably yes. If you are comparing with the mini, yes, the nano is $50 more (4GB model vs. 4GB model). But for that extra $50 you are getting a color screen with the photo feature along with a player that is more portable. I’m also of the mind that having the coolest product out also has some value, and the nano is way cooler than the mini on so many levels. In the case of the nano its not just about need but also pure desire.

Of course the mini has been discontinued so soon it won’t even be available and the choice for a small player will be between the shuffle and the nano. I love the shuffle, and before the nano came around it was my favorite iPod (full review is available here on epinions). The 120 song 512MB version is still a great deal for a “work-out” player. If that is all you need then, sorry, the nano is overkill @ $100+ more.

On the other hand, the 240 song 1GB shuffle seems to provide little value over the 2GB nano now. For roughly $70 more the nano offers double the memory in addition to all the features I’ve noted. As someone who looks to value that is hard to overlook. And for all those who say the shuffle is more durable than the nano I refer them to the aforementioned arstechnica.com stress test. True, the screen could crack but if you are truly that clumsy you could trip on the sidewalk and smash the shuffle to bits too.

There are some who say the nano is expensive. But when has any iPod been value priced? The thing is, show me a MP3 player as stylish and easy to use as the iPod for $199 or $250. You can’t which is why the iPod remains the player to have and why the nano will be THE player to get this holiday season, and probably a few after that too.

One cautionary note: the nano seems to be a bit more scratch prone than other iPods, probably because you can fit it in tight spaces unlike previous iPods. Please protect your nano with a case, skin, or even an inexpensive PDA screen protector. Do not use your nano until at least the screen has some sort of protection. You will be very sorry (and angry) if you don't.

For those curious, here is what is included in the box:

• Either 2GB or 4GB in black or white
• USB 2.0 dock cable
• Dock adapter (for use in FUTURE accessories. It doesn’t work on any current iPod accessories
• White iPod headphones (yes, even if you get a black model you get white headphones)
• iPod CD (already outdated. Current version of iTunes is available online at iTunes.com)
• Various manuals and literature