Home > Consumer Reviews > Apple iPod nano 8GB Blue

Picked one of these up on the High St. today (Apple Store) & I am very impressed.
Had been holding off buying an addition/upgrade for my old 3gen Ipod which still works OK until Apple were able to offer me a reason to get another.
I wanted video playback but couldn't justify a new full size Ipod - so was delighted when video available on the new Nano.
Very small & compact - less than the size of a credit card but approx 3 times as thick.
Spilt screen / Cover Flow & Battery Life all very slick & impressive.
Only slight doubt is it worth an extra £30 for the 8gb - Maybe not I've encoded 3 full length films (using Clone DVD mobile) & have 300 songs & still have 4gb free - How much media do you actually need for a holiday / train journey / flight etc?
Highly Recommended!!!

I just read Mr Pickles review so thought I ought to give my alternative opinion and also point out that my suspicion is that he has not actually used the new nano's! I admit that in pictures the new nano's proportions look a little odd but when you get your hands on it it starts to make sense, the key is size of the body, at only 6.5mm thin it feels really stunning and looks great.

It is also good to note that the price of the new 8GB nano (WITH VIDEO PLAYBACK!!) is the same price as the previous nano was for 4GB!

The new video playback feature of the nano did worry me a little as the screen is only 2 inches diagonally but it turns out that the screen has exactly the same number of pixels as the iPod video's screen had so still looks really good. The battery is also able to play up to 5 hours of video which is really nice or up to 24 houers of music (which is more than I will ever need!) The final thing to mention is the new Cover Flow feature which lets you flick through your album covers to find music (not really a reason to buy the iPod but looks really cool!)

This is my fourth ipod and yet again I have updated even though I was perfectly happy with the one before!!! The new nano is great, keeps the small compact size of its predecessors but with yet more nifty little features that youll be showing to everyone who will listen. Compared to the previous nano it can now of course play videos as well as music and storing photographs which is great! You can even divide by TV, Podcast or Video/Films. Whats more the album cover show is ideal for swiftly moving between your favourite albums!

Pros:
Great new colours
Video Playback
Album Cover Flow
Larger screen than previous models

Cons:
Back is very easy to scratch - you definately need a case!

If you already own an ipod theres no need to purchase unless youve currently got less memory or you want the video playback but this device is perfect for any ipod lover!

I ordered this for my teenage daughter's as replacement for the sansaE280 which only worked for 21 days!! We have never owned an ipod before

Pros
Great small, sleek and stylish design.

Cons
Not being able to change the battery

The HORRIBLE & FRUSTRATING itunes software. I consider myself to be computer literate, but oh boy, did it take several hours to work out how to upload her music files (already stored in mp3 format on the computer) to her ipod!! OK it was late on Friday night and I was tired after a long week at work, but it was so frustrating. It took ages to find how to upload music, and not my credit card details as the registration process kept taking me to this screen, a cynical ploy on marketing Apples itunes store me thinks.

This is the reason I deducted a star, the lack of a user friendly interface, introduce a drag and drop facility and then it would be a 100% sure fire winner.

I'd give this version of the iPod a full five stars... for a few gigs more, cheaper video releases from iTunes, plus either a screen protector or a simultaneous release from an Apple-partner who makes cases!

As a novice the the world of digitised personal music I loved my iPod shuffle (G1) so much that I bought a (4gb G2) nano... and was then given an 80GB (G5) iPod with video. I found the latter disappointing. I spend a lot of time on 2+ hour train journeys and was looking forward to the ability to watch films/favourite TV shows during my travels. In the end, the promise of iPod-release movies was not brought to fruition (other than a small quantity of expensive Pixar shorts available via iTunes) and the hard-drive based format, though portable is still on the clunky side and far from pocket friendly.

With the third generation of nanos built around flash memory technology, Apple has brought video playback into a pocket-friendly format. (Yay!) The new nano is narrower, shorter and about 4x thicker than a credit card. A number of TV shows have now been made available to download via iTunes (still no films outside of the US iTunes site)... though since these are, in a number of cases, significantly more expensive than their DVD counterparts it's hard to imagine anyone favouring the downloads. At the time of writing, feature films are not yet available via the UK version of iTunes... although the Apple UK website and promotional literature do not reflect this, focusing instead on the new nano's technical abilities in terms of video playback.

After the scratching problems associated with earlier versions of the nano, it was disconcerting to receive my brand new nano without a screen protector... and I found myself unwilling to take it anywhere for the first few days of owning it, since the dimensions of the new nano are completely different to those of previous generations (of any model) so that the only currently available case/protection system appears to be the iPod sock. Since iPod socks are only designed to protect the unit from knocks when inside the sock, I'm still constrained on video playback when travelling!

Please, Apple... when releasing a new format of player, could you make sure there's an appropriate case for it to allow usage and protection, because otherwise iPods might be portable, but they ain't useable.